Every fall, independent booksellers and publishers work together to promote a range of new titles published in Canada and internationally. Books for Everybody is a hand-picked selection of books for all interests, including young readers. Here are some highlights from the catalogues that provide great last-minute ideas for gifts and stocking stuffers.

 

Molly Peacock has written a new classic, a book of magical tales inspired by the lives of the letters of the alphabet. With tales rich with wisdom and humanity, these 26 charming, incisive, sensual stories of love, yearning and self-discovery are complemented by beautiful layered, jewel-bright collages.
$27.95 cl, 160 pp. 978-0-7710-7015-0

 

From beloved Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro comes a collection of 25 short stories gathered from the last two decades. This look into the ordinary yet extraordinary lives of men, women and children in the small towns and flatlands of southwestern Ontario is a companion volume to Selected Stories (1968–1994).
$29.95 cl, 640 pp. 978-0-7710-6120-2

 

Through bloodshed, hysteria and heart-break, Ash Thompson becomes a hero, folk legend, madwoman and traitor to the American cause. A brilliant twist on the Odyssey, set during the American Civil War.
$29.00 cl, 256 pp. 978-0-316-37013-4

 

We have truly entered the renaissance of the short story: Margaret Atwood returns to the here and now with a collection of nine tales, all marked by her signature dark humour, playfulness and deadly seriousness. From “Freeze-Dried Bridegroom” to “Torching the Dusties,” this is Atwood in top form.
$29.95 cl, 288 pp. 978-0-7710-0680-7

 

Hailed as “remarkably strong, original and new” by Jack Hodgins, Matt Rader’s first short story collection braids tales of Vancouver Island’s turbulent labour history—including the Great Vancouver Island Coal Strike of 1912–14—with present-day stories of people living in the same landscape, in the indeterminate echo of history.
$21.95 pa, 256 pp. 978-0-88971-306-2

 

London, 1816. The great city swaggers with Regency abandon. Enter Will Starling, who is building a surgical practice above a gin shop with the help of the Doomsday men. Exuberant, haunting and pitch-perfect, this rip-roaring romp about love, longing, death and possible resurrection is a tale like no other.
$32.95 cl, 488 pp. 978-0-86492-647-0

Find participating bookstores in your community here or at http://www.findabookstore.ca/.