Literary

InsideKenneth J. HarveyRandom HouseIt occurs to me that this list is slightly harsh for a holiday book roundup but life ain’t all Lindt balls and turkey dinners. It’s tragic too. Myrden is released from jail, 14 years into his sentence, after DNA evidence proves his innocence. Armed with a million dollar settlement, Myrden returns to […]

A Great Feast of LightJohn DoylePeople who think television is a waste of time have probably never read John Doyle’s excellent column on the subject in The Globe and Mail. I feel a little sorry for those people, because they’ll probably also never read his memoir of growing up in Ireland at the dawning of […]

Map of GlassJane UrquhartLaced with fanciful images, like a hotel entirely and literally lost to the sands of time, a glass ballroom floor, three-dimensional maps made of fabric and bits of nature, and a dead man encased in ice floating down a river, Map of Glass is certainly Jane Urquhart’s finest book, and there’s a […]

The Weather MakersTim FlanneryHarper CollinsNothing puts a downer on holiday festivities like a good ol’ climate crisis. But as Tim Flannery points out in what’s probably the best-written and accessible book on the subject, the earth is in terrible danger. Over 13,000,000,000 tonnes of carbon are released into the atmosphere annually. That’s us, folks. With […]

Miss ElvaStephens Gerard MaloneStephens Gerard Malone wrote this novel years ago, couldn’t find a publisher for it and tucked it away in a cedar chest in the basement. It finally saw the light of day this year, and a good thing, too. It’s an unsentimental story based loosely on the life of Maud Lewis, that […]

Absolute DC: The New FrontierDarwyn CookeDCToronto-born, Nova Scotia-residing Darwyn Cooke’s limited series is given the deluxe treatment in a huge DC Absolute edition. It’s a look back at an era of DC heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Lantern—with only the slightest of nods to the gods of continuity, and tells the story of a moment […]

Race Against TimeStephen LewisIt’s not good in the way a novel is good, in that it takes you away from your real life. Race Against Time does that, but it takes you to a place you’d probably rather not go; a place you’re lucky you don’t have to visit, let alone inhabit. Still, it’s a […]

Absolute Sandman, Vol. 1Neil GaimanDC/VertigoThe much-adored Neil Gaiman-penned series has never been out of print and is still available in a variety of smaller, less fetching collections, but they just won’t impress like this Absolute edition. The first of a four-volume series of oversized reprints each in a slip-cased hardcover, this “box set” holds the […]

Ice HavenDaniel ClowesPantheonAn experiment in format, Daniel Clowes’ (Ghost World, Eightball) Ice Haven is a collection of short strips done in the styles of familiar comic strips from the 20th century. Each one tells a story about the inhabitants of the town of Ice Haven. Framed by the story of a child’s kidnapping, the larger […]

The Secret Mulroney TapesPeter C. NewmanWhatever you might think of Peter C. Newman’s journalistic methods (or understanding of friendship, for that matter), his juicy expose of the man Canadians love to hate (in Mulroney’s own words, even better) is solid entertainment. Relive the arrogance of the Mulroney years at a safe distance, and get worked […]

Astonishing X-Men Volume 1 HCJoss WhedonMarvelIf Buffy creator Joss Whedon had found the time to write and direct X-Men 3, it may have been a better movie. Instead, he wrote a new X-title (the first 12 issues collected in this handsome, hardcover edition), whose first story arc—a mutant “cure” is engineered— inspired the recent cinematic […]