David Drummond - Designer

The Crow's Vow

Susan Briscoe

Following the story of a marriage come undone, this moving book-length sequence is broken down into four seasons, distilling the details of the failed relationship through physical processes of nature, such as the buzzing life of wildflowers and birds that the speaker—a wife and mother—studies daily for clues on happiness. Intricately constructed and brimming with resourceful linguistic play, ... read more

Theory's Empire: An Anthology of Dissent

Not too long ago, literary theorists were writing about the death of the novel and the death of the author; today many are talking about the death of Theory. Theory, as the many theoretical ism's (among them postcolonialism, postmodernism, and New Historicism) are now known, once seemed so exciting but has become ossified and insular. This iconoclastic collection is an excellent companion to c... read more

Seven Days in the Art World

Sarah Thornton

"An indelible portrait of a peculiar society." ―VogueSarah Thornton's vivid ethnography―an international hit, now available in twenty translations―reveals the inner workings of the sophisticated subcultures that make up the contemporary art world. In a series of day-in-the-life narratives set in New York, Los Angeles, London, Basel, Venice, and Tokyo, Seven Days in the Art World explores the d... read more

Hack Attack: The Inside Story of How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch

Nick Davies

At first, it seemed like a small story. The royal editor of the News of the World was caught listening to the voicemail messages of staff at Buckingham Palace. He and a private investigator were jailed, and the case was closed. But Nick Davies, special correspondent for The Guardian, knew that it didn't add up. He began to investigate, and ended up exposing a world of crime and cover-up, of fe... read more

Sedaris

Kevin Kopelson

“When you're laughing aloud at David Sedaris’s every sentence, it’s easy to miss the more serious side of what he’s up to. Fortunately, Kevin Kopelson has come along to guide readers through the work of the best and most subversive social satirist in America.” —Stephen McCauley, author of The Object of My Affection "Charting a course from Marcel Proust to Tony Danza, Kevin artfully captures th... read more

Missing Link: The Evolution of Metaphor and the Metaphor of Evolution

Jeffery Donaldson

We look for missing links in the sciences and humanities, but the essential missing link - metaphor - is always in front of us. In Missing Link, Jeffery Donaldson unites literary criticism and evolutionary and cognitive science to show how metaphor has been with us since the beginning of time as a seed in the nature of things. With examples from centuries of poets, critics, philosophers, and s... read more

Chicle: The Chewing Gum of the Americas, From the Ancient Maya to William Wrigley

Jennifer P. Mathews

Although Juicy Fruit® gum was introduced to North Americans in 1893, Native Americans in Mesoamerica were chewing gum thousands of years earlier. And although in the last decade “biographies” have been devoted to salt, spices, chocolate, coffee, and other staples of modern life, until now there has never been a full history of chewing gum. Chicle is a history in four acts, all of them focused ... read more

The Hoarders: Material Deviance in Modern American Culture

Scott Herring

The verb “declutter” has not yet made it into the Oxford English Dictionary, but its ever-increasing usage suggests that it’s only a matter of time. Articles containing tips and tricks on how to get organized cover magazine pages and pop up in TV programs and commercials, while clutter professionals and specialists referred to as “clutterologists” are just a phone call away. Everywhere the sen... read more

Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance

Matthew Kneale

A well-intentioned English family unwittingly becomes complicit in state violence while traveling through China. A ploddingly respectable London lawyer chances upon a stash of cocaine and realizes it offers the wealth and status he's always hungered for. A salesman in Africa gets caught up in a riot, and a Palestinian suicide bomber has a moment of self-doubt. Kneale transports readers across ... read more

Dr. Delicious: Memoirs of a Life in CanLit

Robert Lecker

With sharp humor and fascinating insight, this memoir of the Canadian publishing industry travels from the boom years of the 1970s to the changing world of books today. Readers are invited along for the ride as Lecker's turn in academia gives way to pop culture publishing, running a journal, and facing the real business challenges of selling books.

Clothes (The Art of Living)

John Harvey

Clothes protect our vulnerable skin and they keep us warm or cool. They help us show that we are young or old, rich or poor, at work or play, and whether we may be good to know. But though they are basic, much as food and shelter are - and also may be beautiful - they have long had a bad press in serious, moral and philosophical writing. The main reason for this is that they are external to us... read more

The Dame: An Alan Grofield Novel

Richard Stark

Donald E. Westlake is one of the greats of crime fiction. Under the pseudonym Richard Stark, he wrote twenty-four fast-paced, hardboiled novels featuring Parker, a shrewd career criminal with a talent for heists. Using the same nom de plume, Westlake also completed a separate series in the Parker universe, starring Alan Grofield, an occasional colleague of Parker. While he shares events and ch... read more

Dog Ear

Johnstone Jim

Like the “page turned down to make another / page,” Dog Ear explores the marks we leave on a world whose social and political markers are constantly shifting. In his fourth book of poems—and most powerful work to date—Jim Johnstone establishes himself as an exquisite observer of decay, both physical and spiritual. This is a universe where man resembles “the final / generation of a species bran... read more

If Darwin Prayed: Prayers for Evolutionary Mystics

Bruce G. Sanguin

These prayers spark the spiritual imagination back to life and reorient us to a mystical unity with the universe, Spirit, and all of creation. Emerging out of the conversation between the science of evolution and spirituality, these prayers continually surprise with their earthy wisdom and a profound celebration of life. They awaken in us a sacred impulse to evolve in and toward the heart of t... read more

Foucault: His Thought, His Character

Paul Veyne

Michel Foucault and Paul Veyne: the philosopher and the historian. Two major figures in the world of ideas, resisting all attempts at categorization. Two timeless thinkers who have long walked and fought together. In this short book Paul Veyne offers a fresh portrait of his friend and relaunches the debate about his ideas and legacy. ‘Foucault is not who you think he is’, writes Veyne; he stoo... read more

The Manly Modern: Masculinity in Postwar Canada (Sexuality Studies)

Christopher Dummitt

How did one act like a modern man in postwar Canada? With a great deal of difficulty. During the Great Depression and Second World War, many men were first out of work and then away from their families. After the war came attempts to re-establish the traditional gender hierarchy by emphasizing men's modernity, allegedly superior rationality, and ability to handle risk, but the strategy had con... read more

Race Riots: Comedy and Ethnicity in Modern British Fiction

Michael L. Ross

From Black Mischief to The Buddha of Suburbia, twentieth-century British fiction is rife with racial humour. Challenging the common reluctance to take such comedy seriously, Michael Ross shows how humour directed at ethnic others exposes deep-seated national attitudes. Race Riots explores the development and implications of racial comedy in British literature from the early twentieth century t... read more

Capture the Flag: The Stars and Stripes in American History

Arnaldo Testi

You see it everywhere: on bumper stickers, tee shirts, lapel pins, in shop windows, and in front of nearly every school or government building. Yet while the American flag is ubiquitous, as a symbol it is both heavily freighted and misunderstood.Now an acclaimed European professor of American history brings a fresh perspective to the American flag, exploring its political, social, and cultural... read more