Blog

Fierce Reads Takes TO!

by Melissa
Events + YA Fiction / October 02, 2015

Get excited! The Fall Fierce Reads Tour is stopping in Toronto, and it’s sure to be a fun-filled afternoon with four fabulously fierce authors.

Josephine Angelini, Leigh Bardugo, Emma Mills and Leila Sales will be at Indigo Yonge & Eglinton on Saturday, October 17^th at 3:00 PM.  These four ladies will chat about their books, share stories and answer audience questions before signing their upcoming novels. And if you thought this event couldn’t get any better, I’m happy to tell you that Ariel Bissett—founder of BookTubeAThon and an overall fantastic YouTuber—will be hosting.

Unfortunately, I will be stuck here in Vancouver and will not be able to fangirl with the rest of you lucky Toronto dwellers, so if you are able to attend the event, we would love it if you could keep us in the loop by using the hashtag #FierceReadsTakesTO on social media. I will be living vicariously through you!

Just in case you are unfamiliar with these authors (FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF IMMEDIATELY), you can click the links below to learn more about these wonderful books and their writers.

Firewalker by Josephine Angelini (Worldwalker, #2)

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

First & Then by Emma Mills

Tonight the Streets are Ours by Leila Sales

If you can’t make it to Toronto for this event (I empathize completely…), make sure you stay tuned to our Twitter and Facebook pages next week as the #FierceReadsTakesTO Blog Tour commences! 10 of our lovely bloggers will be posting reviews, as well as Q&As with these authors, starting on Monday. You won’t want to miss this!

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Pete MacDougall takes on VP Role at Raincoast

by Alisha
News / August 11, 2015

Raincoast Books announced today that Peter MacDougall is being promoted to Vice President of Sales while Chelsea Newcombe becomes National Accounts Manager. Newcombe will report to MacDougall, as will Sandy Cooper, Director of Field Sales.

MacDougall will lead the sales team in developing new sales opportunities while continuing to work directly with key buyers. He will also work with Paddy Laidley, EVP of Sales & Marketing, to play a more active role with Raincoast’s publishers, working with them to identify areas of potential growth. Newcombe’s new role as National Accounts Manager recognizes her fine work with key accounts. 

“In his ten years as National Accounts Manager, and then as Director of National Accounts, Pete has built excellent relationships both within Raincoast and outside the company and has consistently shown grace under fire during times of great change. These things will serve him well in his new position”, said Laidley. “These changes make a strong team that much stronger, positioning us to better take advantage of the growth opportunities that we continue to see in the industry, while serving our existing customers and clients well. We’re in it for the long haul.”

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This Summer’s Best Beach Reads

by Alisha
Fiction + Mysteries and Thrillers + Gift & Stationery + Kids + Picture Books + YA Fiction / July 29, 2015

Those Girls  Chevy Stevens St. Martin's Press Available Now   Chevy Stevens is back with this year’s must-have summer thriller—a powerful, emotional story of survival and revenge (now a Globe and Mail bestseller!).   “This is Stevens’s best book to   date.”—The Globe and Mail

The Santangelos Jackie Collins St. Martin’s Press Available Now   No summer reading list is complete without Jackie Collins. In The Santangelos, she delivers an epic family saga, filled with love, lust, revenge and passion.   Read an excerpt here.

 

  

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk Kelli Estes Sourcebooks Available Now   Set in the Pacific Northwest and inspired by true events, Kelli Estes’s brilliant and atmospheric debut serves as a poignant tale of two women determined to do the right thing, and the power of our own stories.

Does This Beach Make Me Look Fat? Lisa Scottoline  and Francesca Serritella St. Martin’s Press Available Now   This breezy, laugh-out-loud beach read by mother-daughter team Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella “takes the…cake for best title of the summer.”—USA Today

 

  

Everybody Rise Stephanie Clifford St. Martin’s Press Coming Aug 18   Stephanie Clifford's "superb" debut is “a 21st century version of a grand 19th century novel—smart, moving tale of class, ambition, and identity" (Malcolm Gladwell).   Look for it on the People, TIME, Entertainment Weekly, and Good Housekeeping summer reading lists.

The Nature of the Beast  Louise Penny Minotaur Coming Aug 25   Celebrate 10 years of Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series with her newest installment, The Nature of the Beast.   “Splendid . . . Penny's books mix some   classic elements of the police         procedural with a deep-delving   psychology, as well as a sorrowful   sense of the precarious nature of   human goodness, and the   persistence of its opposite.”—The   New York Times on The Long Way   Home

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Steve McDonald guest blogs over at Chronicle Books

by Danielle
Architecture + Art & Photography + Guest Blogger + Travel / July 28, 2015

Original blog post can be found here

Fantastic Cities July 17, 2015 

Steve McDonald is an artist and lifelong traveler who has lived in cities and countries all over the world. His large-format, photo-based, detailed drawings of cities are collected in the new adult coloring book Fantastic Cities, coming this August.

I’ve always loved drawing buildings. When I was young, I even had aspirations of becoming an architect, but ended up as an illustrator instead. When creating a piece of art, the most appealing part for me has always been the line work. Even when I’m working on a painting, the part I enjoy most is always the initial drawing. I really love lines, and I think that shows in the finished work.

I have my daughters to thank for how Fantastic Cities came together as a coloring book. After creating artwork focusing on individual and small groups of buildings, I started to veer toward larger groups and then aerial views of cities. My daughters saw this work and told me that they thought it would be fun to color in the lines themselves (whereas I might normally keep going past the line-work stage to color it myself).

I realized that it might be a perfect vehicle to share my work more widely, with people who might not otherwise see my paintings, for instance. I also really like that people everywhere could become a part of the creative process. That’s very exciting and fun, and I’m looking forward to seeing how people might choose to color the images in.

In my city drawings I always try to accentuate the characteristics that make a city unique. For example, the organized chaos of a favela in Brazil, the towering majesty of a skyscraper in New York, or the historic façades of Parisian row houses. I try to capture something that illustrates something unique about that place.

I love to draw on-site with pencils or ink and I always try to take a lot of photographs. (For sites I haven’t visited, I’ve been fortunate to work from the material of many noted photographers.) I take these back with me to my studio, and it’s there that I really create the compositions using a range of analog and digital means, including ink on paper, stylus work on a tablet, and wall projection. The size of the original work really depends on the composition and detail of the image. Sometimes they are quite large. 24 inches square is the smallest I work while sometimes they are as big as 6 feet square ! Even if I’m drawing with the tablet I like to do the drawings bigger than I need to. This allows me to really get into some of the detail required on some of them.

I know that lots of people find coloring to be meditative and relaxing. What do I do when I want to unwind? I draw! I also love nature and travelling. By that, I mean living in nature and travelling to cities. I’ve been a lifelong traveler ever since my family moved to the Middle East in 1979. I’ve lived in Saudi Arabia, Italy, India and Indonesia, visited dozens of countries, and spent the better part of twenty years travelling and painting my native Canada coast to coast by bus, car, helicopter, canoe, by ship and on foot. My wife and kids and I just spent two years in Bali, where my daughter and I learned how to surf, and we really enjoy it.

Among my favorite illustrations for the book are the Rocinha Favela in Rio (there’s an organized craziness to it that is immensely appealing to me), the Amsterdam street corner, because I love drawing that city, and the super-dense San Francisco drawing from above, which was kind of nuts and definitely the biggest challenge in the book. I can’t wait to see how they get colored in.

Can’t wait until August to start coloring? Download and print a page from Fantastic Cities.

 

 

 

Steve McDonald

Steve McDonald is a Canadian artist who has lived and travelled in cities around the world and now lives in Ontario. This is his first book.

 

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Canada Day Must-Haves

by Alisha
Fiction + Food & Drink + History + Kids / June 26, 2015

Canada Day Must-Haves

What better way to celebrate Canada's birthday than with some homegrown books? Check out this list of some of our faves, eh!

 

For the historian: War Plan Red

 

For the creative kid: Canada Doodles

 

For the trivia star: Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Weird Canada

 

For the BBQ-loving foodie: Grilling with House of Q

 

For the lit lover: Anne of Green Gables

 

For the softie: Winnie

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Last minute Father’s Day book ideas

by Danielle
Board Books + Food & Drink + Humour + Parenting / June 18, 2015

It's not too late!

Here's some great titles we think would be a great fit for your dad, or husband, or some great guy you know with children! All available at your local bookshop. List is a bit long but hey, what can we say? We have lots of books to offer!

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Book Scavenger: A Littlest Bookshelf Review

by Alisha
Kids / May 26, 2015

Brad Richardson of the Littlest Bookshelf reviews Book Scavenger and finds himself mentally racing through the streets of ‘Frisco, caught up in a wild mysterious adventure involving hidden books, treasure hunting and life-altering friendships.

Book Scavenger, written by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, is a contemporary mystery reminiscent of the Boxcar Children and Encyclopedia Brown adventures. Much like those classic stories, Book Scavenger focuses on the adventures of an independent young protagonist as they race to uncover a dastardly plot. It’s up to the young sleuth to crack the case with the help of their friends. Filled with puzzles, the story engages the reader with clues that deepen the mystery and heighten the danger. Twelve-year-old Emily is tired of moving around the county to fulfill her parents’ nomadic lifestyle. Because of their goal to live in all fifty states she never makes any real friends. Instead, Emily spends her time hunting and hiding books as part of the Book Scavenger game, a community created by the enigmatic Garrison Griswold. Before long, Emily and her new friend James find themselves in a world of ciphers, clues and treasure hunting as they race to finish the latest game by Griswold.

Published by Henry Holt and Company, Book Scavenger is an amazing story for book lovers and cipher crackers of all ages. From Edgar Allan Poe to Robert Louis Stevenson, the number of literary references in the story is both staggering and wonderful. Bertman does an excellent job of blending well-known works of literature with codes and ciphers to bring the mystery in the novel to life. She creates a world that, while fantastical, mirrors our own. The majority of the landmarks that Emily visits in San Francisco (‘Frisco) are real, as is the animosity that existed between Rufus Griswold and Edgar Allan Poe. Bertman captures her readers’ imagination by keeping the story grounded.

The characters in Book Scavenger are well-developed and fully realized. They react according to their established personalities and grow throughout the adventure. This growth begins with Emily but also happens in her parents and brother. Even supporting characters like James’ grandmother feel real because of the small details that Bertman includes. Most importantly, the characters aren’t perfect. There are moments where Emily behaves like a twelve-year-old girl. She has moments of selfishness and ignorance because of her age. Her brother, parents, and teacher all have flaws and feel more real because of them. However, Emily and James’ determination and cleverness steals the story as they race from one clue to the next. Emily and James don’t always get along but their friendship feels real and earned. The antagonists are under-developed when compared to the protagonists but in a way that is reminiscent of the villains in classic children’s mystery stories such as Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. The only real foil to the protagonist is their ability to solve the mystery.

Bertman explores a few different themes in her novel, such as; the importance of friendship and family, the impact of community, and the endless pursuit of an individual’s passion. Each of these themes play an important part in Emily’s adventure as she discovers the difference a friend can make in the pursuit of knowledge. I also love how Emily, unable to connect with a traditional community, finds happiness in an online community. It’s an important message, especially considering how small the world has become.

While I read this story I felt like I was in the streets of ‘Frisco. The city came to life as I raced down alleys and explored bookstores to reach the next clue. And that’s the best compliment I can give to an author establishing a story’s setting. For Bertman to so completely recreate the city without any visual aids is an impressive feat. I’ve never visited ‘Frisco but after reading Book Scavenger I think I could successfully navigate its steep hills expertly. The city feels like another character because of how it’s history influences the direction of Griswold’s game.

A well-written mystery should make me want to read it again. Now that I’ve followed the protagonist through their adventure and understand the whodunit and what the clues mean, I should want to start at the beginning with this special knowledge. Book Scavenger succeeds in this goal. I read this book twice, the first time in one sitting. This story reminds me of the classic children’s mysteries series I used to read when I was younger. Only with more inspired literary references.

I loved this book. The characters were well-realized and flawed. The setting immersed me in the adventure and instantly made me feel at home. The entire idea behind Book Scavenger as a game is wonderful (check out the book’s brilliant marketing website here). The illustrations have a hand-drawn charm to them that fits in with Bertman’s narrative style. This is a mystery that deserves to be explored by children of all ages. Don’t miss your chance to begin your adventure on June 2.

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Grilling season has begun!

by Danielle
Food & Drink / May 21, 2015

Happy Spring! What a perfect time to start up the ol'bbq!

We have so many great grilling books this season! So here are a few to help get your creative juices flowing.

In his latest lip-smackin' cookbook, Dr. BBQ shows how to dress up meat, vegetables, and fruits with 120 brand-new recipes for tantalizing marinades, mouthwatering injections, savory brines, flavorful rubs, delectable glazes, and full recipes for what to make with them.

 

 

A taste of the good life! This bite-size collection showcases 20 special recipes, all with photographs, that will inspire food lovers to take the party outside. Selected from some of Chronicle Books' best-loved cookbooks, here are easy-peasy drinks (alcoholic and nonalcoholic), quick appetizers, simple salads and sides, and great-for-the-grill main dishes.

 

BBQ Brian Misko shares the secrets of successful grilling in this collection of his best recipes from the backyard and the competition BBQ circuit. Here's a recipe below for you to try out. Enjoy!!

 

We're also doing a BBQ giveaway! Please head on over to our Facebook page and let us know what you like to BBQ for a chance to not only win a set of all of these books (incl. a signed copy of Grilling With House of Q), but also some yummy sauces and a some house rub courtesy of House of Q as well! Happy grilling!! ~ Dani

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Raincoast Signs Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade Publishing for 2016

by Dan
News / April 27, 2015

Raincoast Books announced today that it will take over Canadian distribution of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade Publishing titles, effective January 1, 2016. Raincoast will handle sales, marketing and logistics for HMH trade titles to all Canadian customers.

Paddy Laidley, Executive Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at Raincoast said:

“HMH's industry reputation is renowned and its titles and authors recognized for their quality and appeal. We've been impressed by their offerings for many years, but also by the caliber of their people and the alignment of our shared values. Raincoast is delighted that our teams will now be working together to grow the HMH business in Canada.”

Laurie Brown, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at HMH said: “We are excited by the potential to reach even more readers in partnering with Raincoast. We have been especially admiring of Raincoast's marketing outreach to the children's and young readers' markets and believe HMH and Raincoast will be a perfect fit.”

HMH’s Canadian customers will experience no immediate changes. Through to the end of 2015, customers can continue to order books from the current distributor — Thomas Allen. Instructions regarding transition details, including returns and ISBN prefixes, will be communicated to customers later this year, prior to the transition date of Jan 1, 2016.

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New Releases: April 2015

by Dan
Fiction + Food & Drink + Graphica + Humour / April 06, 2015

Giants, witches and supermutants, a roadmap to get you on the right path, more F in Exams, baking with less sugar, and lots of other great reads in this month's highlights from Raincoast Books! 

FICTION

LITERARY

The Thunder of Giants 

Joel Fishbane
ISBN 9781250050847 | $29.99 cl

Mixing the eccentricity of the circus world and the heart of a love story, The Thunder of Giants is a warm and engaging debut about two exceptional women—both almost 8-feet tall.

Andorra Kelsey—7'11 and just over 320 pounds—is on her way to Hollywood to become a star. Hoping to escape both poverty and the ghost of her dead husband, she accepts an offer from the wily Rutherford Simone to star in a movie about the life of Anna Swan, the Nova Scotia giantess who toured the world in the 19th century.
 

Available April 14

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MYSTERY

Slated for Death 

A Penny Brannigan Mystery

Elizabeth J. Duncan

ISBN 9781250055217 | $29.99 cl

The latest book in the award-winning Penny Brannigan series delivers another cunning mystery played out in a charming small Welsh tow.n

When the body of well-liked and respectable Glenda Roberts is discovered at the bottom of a former slate mine, now a busy tourist attraction, pandemonium erupts in the North Wales town of Llanelen. Penny Brannigan finds herself drawn into the investigation when jars of her house-brand hand cream are found among counterfeit inventory Glenda and her sister were selling.

Available April 14

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SCIENCE FICTION

The Affinities 

Robert Charles Wilson

ISBN 9780765332622 | $29.99 hardcover

From the author of the Hugo-winning Spin, a compelling science fiction novel about the next ways that social media will be changing everything.

In our rapidly-changing world of social media, ordinary people are more and more able to sort themselves into social groups based on finer and finer criteria. In the near future of Robert Charles Wilson's The Affinities, this process is supercharged by new analytic technologies—genetic, brain-mapping, behavioral. To join one of the twenty-two Affinities is to change one's life.

"An intriguing and seriously innovative attempt to grapple with some of the issues raised by the 21st century’s obsession with social media."—Kirkus  Reviews (starred review)

"Wilson’s trademark well-developed characters and understated but compelling prose are very much in evidence in this quietly believable tale of the near future."—Publishers Weekly

Available April 21

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HISTORICAL

The Silver Witch

Paula Brackston

ISBN 9781250028792 | $29.99 cl

From The New York Times bestselling author Paula Brackston comes an enchanting tale of love and magic that weaves a modern day heroine together with the ancient Celtic past.

A year after her husband's sudden death, ceramic artist Tilda Fordwells finally moves into the secluded Welsh cottage that was to be their new home. She hopes that the tranquil surroundings will help ease her grief, and lessen her disturbing visions of Mat's death. Instead, the lake in the valley below her cottage seems to spark something dormant in her—a sensitivity, and a power of some sort. Animals are drawn to her, electricity shorts out when she's near, and strangest of all, she sees a new vision; a boatful of ancient people approaching her across the water.

Available April 21

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GRAPHIC NOVELS

SuperMutant Magic Academy 

Jillian Tamaki

ISBN 9781770461987 | $22.95 pb

The New York Times and New Yorker illustrator Jillian Tamaki is best known for co-creating the award-winning young adult graphic novels Skim and This One Summer—moody and atmospheric bestsellers. SuperMutant Magic Academy, which she has been serializing online for the past four years, paints a teenaged world filled with just as much ennui and uncertainty, but also with a sharp dose of humor and irreverence. Tamaki deftly plays superhero and high-school Hollywood tropes against what adolescence is really like: The SuperMutant Magic Academy is a prep school for mutants and witches, but their paranormal abilities take a backseat to everyday teen concerns.

"The humor is sometimes slapstick, but more often it offers ultra-dry observations on modern disengagement. Tamaki is playful and loose with her art, unafraid to be experimental as she draws us into a world where true feelings are the greatest danger."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Available April 28

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NONFICTION

CAREERS

Roadmap

The Get-It-Together Guide for Figuring Out What to Do with Your Life

Roadtrip Nation

ISBN 9781452128450 | $27.95 pb

This welcome antidote to the fusty, no-longer-relevant career guide answers an old question—So, what are you going to do with your life?"—in a ground-breaking way. From the team behind the inspirational TV series and campus and online resource, it is presented in a motivational format that gets young people excited to think deeply about how they want to enter and thrive in the workforce by detailing how to take Roadtrip Nation's interest-based approach and apply it to one's life. 

 

Available April 7

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HUMOUR

F in Exams: Pop Quiz

All New Awesomely Wrong Test Answers

Richard Benson

ISBN 9781452144030 | $13.95 pb

Will some students ever learn from their mistakes? We hope not! This all-new collection of hilarious, totally wrong, real test answers serves a fresh batch of A+ wit misapplied to F- quiz scores. A little studying would reveal that the most powerful light source known to man isn't "lightsabers," nor do we salt the roads when it snows "to make them taste better." But where's the fun in that? From the same wellspring of failure as the million-selling F in Exams series, this special pop quiz collection will amuse and entertain anyone preparing to face down a test paper as well as those just glad to be far away from a classroom."

Available April 7

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People of Walmart: State of Emergency

Scott Simon

ISBN 9781492604396 | $16.99 pb

Take Cover! People of Walmart has issued an official state of emergency! Fortunately for you, all the survival gear you need is conveniently located at your favourite local super-centre, where these crazy, cringe-worthy shoppers are letting their freak flags fly high than ever.

Available April 15

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FOOD & DRINK

Baking with Less Sugar 

Recipes for Desserts Using Natural Sweeteners and Little-to-No White Sugar

Joanne Chang

ISBN 9781452133003 | $35.95 cl

Trust Joanne Chang—beloved author of the bestselling Flour and a Harvard math major to boot—to come up with this winning formula: Minus the sugar equals plus the flavour. The 60-plus recipes here are an eye-opener for anyone who loves to bake and wants to cut back on the sugar. 

Available Now

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Grill Eats & Drinks

Recipes for Good Times

Chronicle Books

ISBN 9781452141176 | $19.95 cl

A taste of the good life! This bite-size collection showcases 20 special recipes, all with photographs, that will inspire food lovers to take the party outside. Selected from some of Chronicle Books' best-loved cookbooks, here are easy-peasy drinks (alcoholic and nonalcoholic), quick appetizers, simple salads and sides, and great-for-the-grill main dishes. 

 

Available April 14

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Flavorize

Great Marinades, Injections, Brines, Rubs, and Glazes

Ray "DR. BBQ" Lampe

ISBN 9781452125305 | $31.95 cl

In his latest lip-smackin' cookbook, Dr. BBQ shows how to dress up meat, vegetables, and fruits with 120 brand-new recipes for tantalizing marinades, mouthwatering injections, savoury brines, flavourful rubs, delectable glazes, and full recipes for what to make with them.

Available April 21

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DESIGN

Icons of Women's Style 

Josh Sims

ISBN 9781780672717 | $40.95 pb

Behind nearly every item in the feminine wardrobe there is a first of its kind that has spawned countless others. While the definitive example—often created by a single—has achieved icon status, its various reinterpretations, season after season, have become fashion staples.

Icons of Women's Style examines, item by item, the most influential and legendary garments and accessories—their provenance and history, the stories of their design, the celebrities who made them famous, and the various ways they have shaped how women dress today.

Available April 28

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