LitFest 2012 - October 17-28
Summer Reading List - Five Fantastic Nonfiction books - and a splash of fiction
As Alberta finally turns the corner towards summer, LitFest is pleased to recommend its own summer reading list - all works suitable for bus, cottage and the long summer drive. Humour, hot topics and a dash of mystery – we offer a terrific recipe for summer fare that will all then be featured at LitFest in October.
Book groups and schools using all or part of the reading list will be eligible for discounts and a chance to meet the authors in October. All listed authors will be appearing at LitFest.
Tell us what you think!
To make the most of your summer reading list, send us a capsule review. In September, we'll post them online. LitFest will pick our favourite reviews of each of the books, and those winning entries will receive a signed copy of that book, and a pair of tickets to a LitFest event featuring that author.
The six books on the LitFest reading list are:
The Cure for Everything! Untangling the Twisted Messages About Health, Fitness and Happiness. Timothy Caulfield. (Penguin, 2011). Edmonton health-law expert Timothy Caulfield exposes the special interests that twist good science about heath and fitness in order to sell us services an products that mostly don’t work. Caulfield walks the talk, signing up for circuit training with a Hollywood expert on ab; assembles a Food Advisory Team (FAT) and explores both pharmaceutical and homeopathic remedies.
Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution; Jennifer Cockrall-King. (Prometheus Books, 2012). With this incisive study of the urban farming movement, Edmonton food writer Cockrall-King identifies weak links in the complex global food chains. In case studies of urban farmers and beekeepers from across Europe and North America, she reports on the growth of grassroots food production in many forms, tackling a serious subject with wit and optimism.
Almost There: The Family Vacation, Then and Now; Curtis Gillespie (Thomas Allen, 2012). The family vacation, with all its funny, sad, relaxing, frustrating and exhilarating moments, shapes us, and helps us create an understanding of who we are and of those we travel with. In his humourous new book, award-winning author Curtis Gillespie explores the meaning of our family vacations, the memories created by them, and how we use these memories to define our family relationships.
The Grads are Playing Tonight; M. Ann Hall. (University of Alberta Press, 2012). Between 1915 and 1940, the amazing Edmonton Grads dominated women’s basketball in Canada, and all over the world. Coached by J. Percy Page, they played over 400 official games, losing only 20; they travelled more than 125,000 miles across Canada, the US and Europe, and they defended their world title at exhibition games held in conjunction with the Olympics in Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin. This meticulously researched history has enthralled fans of sport history and women in sport.
The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection;Alexander McCall Smith (Random House, 2012). In the latest endearing instalment of the bestselling No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, our resourceful heroine, Precious Ramtswe has her hands full. She is called in to tackle a disciplinary problem at a local school. This is a rare foray into fiction for Edmonton’s Nonfiction Festival – all rules have exceptions, even our own – and we are thrilled to be welcoming Alexander McCall Smith to Edmonton during a rare North American tour in October.
The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives are Altering the World Around Us. Nora Young (McClelland & Stewart, 2012).
All books on our summer reading list are available from Audreys Books, Greenwoods Bookshoppe, the University of Alberta Bookstores, and online. Get full details on the books and our review-writing contest here.