The Dusty Bookcase in the Toronto Star

Not my pool, sadly, but that belonging to a friend and old work colleague. Today's Saturday Star features a piece by Nick Patch on the forthcoming Dusty Bookcase book. Although the article itself isn't available online – not to non-subscribers – my picks of five books worthy of attention is open to all:

Rare Reading List: Four Essential Obscure Canadian Reads

(And One Non-Essential)

Because I've received requests for links to my writing on the titles mentioned in the list and article:

The Last Canadian - William C. Heine

Toronto Doctor - Sol Allen

Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk - Maria Monk

The Plouffe Family - Roger Lemelin

A Stranger and Afraid - Marika Robert

The Midnight Queen - May Agnes Fleming

Orphan Street - André Langevin

Michael's Crag - Grant Allen

Bilingual Today, French Tomorrow - J.V. Andrew

The publication date for The Dusty Bookcase is 15 August. It is available for pre-order at Amazon, Chapters/Indigo, and McNally Robinson.

Where Is Jenny Now?

Did she forget to pack pyjamas? Who wears shoes to bed? These questions and others are answered in my new review of Frances Shelley Wees' 1958 mystery, just posted at at the Canadian Notes & Queries website. You can read it here:

To Serve and To Serve and Protect

Regular readers may remember my praise for Wees' The Keys of My Prison, a mystery I liked so much that I worked to get it back into print as part of the Véhicule Press Ricochet Books series. Will history repeat itself? I somehow doubt it.

Related posts:

A Rival for Margaret Millar?

Romance and the Psychopath's Daughter

The Return of Frances Shelley Wees

CBC Books' French Problem

The time has come to ask why CBC Books demonstrates so little regard for this country's French language writing. Published yesterday, its 150-title "Great Canadian Reading List" features just six books in translation from French into English. That's one fewer than the number written by women named Margaret.

Coincidentally, CBC Books' abysmal "100 Novels that make you feel proud to be Canadian" from three years ago also featured six. The number in its 2015 "100 young adult books that make you proud to be Canadian" list was one.

I'm not the first to note that the maple leaf featured in its photo is Japanese, though I do believe I am the first to point out that the pages are blank.

Related posts:

Why You Shouldn't Feel Bad about the 100 Novels That Make You Proud to Be Canadian List (and Why the CBC Should)

CBC's Awful List, Radio-Canada's Disheartening List
and Perhaps the Best Book List I've Ever Seen

Canada's 100 Best Books? 102? 110?

Cover and Illustrations by Seth!

With just about a month until The Dusty Bookcase begins arriving in stores, it seems a good time to reveal the final cover design. I have Seth to thank for this and the interior illustrations.

I can also reveal that the book will be 368 pages – 64 more than first announced. More books, more dust!

The Dusty Bookcase is available for pre-order at Amazon, Chapters/Indigo, and McNally Robinson.