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Spring preview 2014: non-fiction, part 2

Food

In Whitehorse food writer Michele Genest‘s second book on the cuisine of the North, the author includes such unusual recipes as birch-syrup pannacotta with rhubarb compote and solstice-cured lake trout gravad lax. Boreal Feast (Harbour, $28.95 pa., April) draws on the author’s travels through Sweden, Norway, and Finland, offering a collection of Northern recipes from home and away. “¢ The Compassionate Hunter’s Guidebook (New Society Publishers, $19.95 pa., May) by Miles Olson offers practical skills for respectfully harvesting, processing, preparing, and preserving wild meat.

Bal Arneson, host of the James Beard Award”“nominated cooking show Spice Goddess, will release her third cookbook in January. Bal’s Spice Kitchen (Whitecap Books, $29.95 pa., Jan.) includes favourite recipes with new spice combinations. “¢ In Lobster: 40 Delicious Recipes for Canada’s East Coast Delicacy (Formac Publishing, $16.95 cl., May) authors Elaine Elliot and Virginia Lee offer what may be the most quintessentially Canadian preparation of the sumptuous crustacean: lobster poutine.

Two spring books explore the connections between Italian-­Canadian food and the urban experience. Vince Agro‘s In Grace’s Kitchen (Wolsak & Wynn, $20 pa., May) is a collection of family recipes, archival photos, and recollections of harvesting wild plants, snails, and pigeons as part of Hamilton’s Italian immigrant community during the 1940s. “¢ Buon Appetito Toronto! (Mansfield Press, $30 pa., April), co-authored by Tony Aspler, Rosanna Caira, and the Italian Chamber of Commerce of Ontario, is a culinary history that outlines how Italian food culture evolved in the city.

History

University of Saskatchewan assistant professor Kathryn ­Magee Labelle‘s Dispersed but not Destroyed (UBC Press, $32.95 pa., Jan.) picks up where Joseph Boyden’s acclaimed novel The Orenda leaves off, depicting the Wendat diaspora in the latter half of the 17th century.

For nearly two decades, the polar bears of Churchill, Manitoba, were routinely chased down and shot by the military, as if the predators were mere vermin. In Arctic Icons (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, $32.95 pa., June), author Ed Struzik shows how, beginning in the 1970s, residents decided to pursue a more peaceful arrangement, making the small town a hub for research about the Northern bears. “¢ Newfoundland historian Shannon Ryan offers a collection of interviews with Newfoundland and Labrador sealers in The Last of the Ice Hunters: Oral Traditions from the Newfoundland Seal Hunt (Flanker Press, $19.95 pa., Feb.) “¢ Canoe Crossing: Understanding the Craft That Helped Shape British Columbia (Heritage House Publishing, $19.95 pa., May), by Sanford Osler, tells of the important role canoes have played throughout history and in modern life.

Montreal’s Baraka Books is set to release two books on historical figures. Storming the Oldboys’ Citadel ($24.95 pa., May), by Carla Blank and Tania Martin, tells of the lives and work of Mother Joseph de Sacré-Coeur and Louise Blanchard Bethune, who were among the first practicing female architects in North America. “¢ Ludger Müller­Wille‘s The Franz Boas Enigma ($19.95 pa., March) is about the man considered to be the founder of modern anthropology in North America. “¢ Royal Society of Canada fellow John S. Saul examines South African apartheid, the recent Marikana massacre, and the country’s ongoing “rebellion of the poor” in A Flawed Freedom: Rethinking Southern African Liberation (Between the Lines, $24.95 pa., April).

Social science

There’s no question that motherhood is a more multifarious experience than the myth of cooing babies and smiling parents would have us believe. The essays in The M-Word (Goose Lane, $22.95 pa., April), selected by 49th Shelf editor Kerry Clare, reflect the voices of women who have made a conscious decision not to have children, or have had too many children, or not enough. With essays from Saleema Nawaz, Alison Pick, Nancy Jo Cullen, Carrie Snyder, Priscila Uppal, and others, the anthology reflects motherhood “from the other side of the picket fence.” “¢ A Family by Any Other Name: Exploring Queer Relationships (TouchWood Editions, $19.95 pa., April), edited by journalist Bruce Gillespie, is an anthology offering a wide range of perspectives on the evolving definition of the modern family.

Ivan E. Coyote and Rae Spoon are both accomplished artists on different fronts: Coyote is the author of eight books, and Spoon is a Polaris Prize”“nominated musician who has released seven solo albums. But in other arenas, the trans artists admit to being “failures.” A collection of essays, lyrics, and black-and-white photos, Gender Failures (Arsenal Pulp Press, $15.95 pa., April) chronicles their journeys from failed attempts at fitting into the gender binary to deciding to opt out altogether. “¢ Trans Activism in Canada: A Reader ($69.95 pa.) is being dubbed the “first publication devoted to discussions about the various forms of trans resistance efforts throughout Canada.” The anthology, due out from Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc. in April, is edited by Dan Irving and Rupert Raj.

Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Esi Edugyan‘s latest book is derived from her 2013 Henry Kreisel Memorial Lecture on the concept of “home” ““ how it changes, and how we in turn are changed by it. Dreaming of Elsewhere ($10.95 pa.) is due out from the University of Alberta Press in March.

Sports

Grantland columnist Jonah Keri chronicles the topsy-turvy history of the Montreal Expos, the baseball franchise that moved to Washington a decade ago, in Up, Up and Away: The Kid, the Hawk, Rock, Vladi, Pedro, le Grand Orange, Youppi!, the Crazy Business of Baseball, and the Ill-fated but Unforgettable Montreal Expos (Random House Canada $35 cl., March).

Q&Q‘s spring preview covers books published between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2014. “¢ All information (titles, prices, publication dates, etc.) was supplied by publishers and may have been tentative at Q&Q‘s press time. “¢ Titles that have been listed in previous previews do not appear here.

This feature appeared in the January/February 2o14 issue of Q&Q.

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January 18th, 2014

4:52 pm

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