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Kim Thúy’s Ru is nothing short of exquisite – a beautiful and lyrically written book that quietly takes your breath away.

Born at the moment of the Tet offensive into South Vietnam, a girl begins her life in “the shadow of skies shot through with rockets and missiles”.

At the time of her birth her mother still dreamed that her new daughter might be a scientist, a politician, or a musician, but those dreams were quickly and terrifyingly quashed.

Thúy takes us gently along on her unforgettable journey from a palatial residence in Saigon to a crowded, muddy refugee camp and finally to a new life in Quebec. We follow the girl’s story as she adapts to a foreign land, feels the embrace of a new community and revels in the chance to be part of the American dream.

As an adult, she builds her family anew, never forgetting all that has passed, her reservoir of adaptiveness called upon again as she learns to shape her love around her younger son’s autism. Moving seamlessly from past to present, from history to memory and back again, Ru is a book that celebrates life in all its wonder, its moments of beauty and sensuality, brutality and sorrow, comfort and comedy.

Winner of the Governor General’s Award, Ru is at once a lullaby for Vietnam and a love letter to a new homeland.

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“Original voices knock you out. And, that is exactly how I felt reading Cheryl Strayed’s new memoir Wild.

At its core, the story of a deep and reverential love between mother and daughter, Wild is a searingly honest account of what it means to lose someone and yourself and then make yourself whole again.

Strayed loses her mother to a totally unexpected illness. Shocked and devastated by the loss, her life spirals downward as she seeks out increasingly dangerous pursuits to dull her pain.

Sensing her own collapse, and the imperative to change course, Strayed sets out on what can only be described as an awe inspiring journey.

Over the course of three gruelling months, she hikes The Pacific Crest Trail with nothing but a backpack and her sheer determination to put one foot in front of the other. She faces down pain, hunger, thirst, injury, black bears and rattlesnakes – but she also discovers new levels of joy, accomplishment, courage and extraordinary friendship.

Throughout, Strayed moves us seamlessly between present and past – giving us not only never to be forgotten images of her trek but also a moving account of her relationship with her quite remarkable mother.

This book, which in fact brims with optimism, is a tour de force … the Mother’s Day book of this year.”

“I cannot recall a book that has so genuinely brought me to tears in the early chapters and yet by book’s end, left me both amazed and comforted by one person’s ability to ‘come out the other end’ of what nature and life serves up. I loved it.”
– An Indigo Mom

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Rules of Civility is without doubt one of the most sparkling and delicious novels I have read in a long time. Set in New York just after the jazz age and on the eve of World War II, Rules of Civility seems to pick up where The Great Gatsby left us. And it has all the wit, energy and great storytelling that characterizes Fitzgerald’s work.

On a crisp New Year’s eve, Katey Kontent and her boarding house roommate Eve are sitting in a bar, without dates, considering their future, when the very handsome Theodore “Tinker” Grey takes the table next to them and starts chatting them up. He has all the ease and assuredness that comes with being a member of the “in crowd”. The three leave together to celebrate the night and so begins a complex set of relationships. The story takes Katey into haute New York society and from her secretarial pool job to the highest echelons of the publishing industry. We get a very up close look into the social mores of the day through the eyes of a young woman who is smart, independent and way ahead of her time. She has no intention of being anyone’s “baby”.

Rules of Civility has all the necessary ingredients – ambition, love affairs, betrayal, crossed loyalties and some twists and turns that make you want the story to go on forever. And it is almost impossible to read without imagining who would play each part in what will inevitably be a movie.

You will love this book!

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Ann Patchett has dazzled readers with her award-winning books, including The Magician's Assistant and the New York Times bestselling Bel Canto. Now she raises the bar with State of Wonder, a provocative and ambitious novel set deep in the Amazon jungle.

Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist with a Minnesota pharmaceutical company, is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have all but disappeared in the Amazon while working on what is destined to be an extremely valuable new drug, the development of which has already cost the company a fortune. Nothing about Marina's assignment is easy: not only does no one know where Dr. Swenson is, but the last person who was sent to find her, Marina's research partner Anders Eckman, died before he could complete his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding her former mentor as well as answers to several troubling questions about her friend's death, the state of her company's future, and her own past.

Once found, Dr. Swenson, now in her seventies, is as ruthless and uncompromising as she ever was back in the days of Grand Rounds at Johns Hopkins. With a combination of science and subterfuge, she dominates her research team and the natives she is studying with the force of an imperial ruler. But while she is as threatening as anything the jungle has to offer, the greatest sacrifices to be made are the ones Dr. Swenson asks of herself, and will ultimately ask of Marina, who finds she may still be unable to live up to her teacher's expectations.

In a narrative replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes, and a neighboring tribe of cannibals, State of Wonder is a world unto itself, where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss. It is a tale that leads the reader into the very heart of darkness, and then shows us what lies on the other side.

(From jacket copy)

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On January 2008, Howard Schultz returned to his role as CEO of Starbucks after an eight-year hiatus. He returned because he believed the Company he loved had lost its way. After years of astounding growth and profitability, Starbucks was losing its edge. Customers knew it, employees knew it, and shareholders felt it.

Onward is the story of how one passionate and deeply committed entrepreneur/leader reignited the spirit of excellence within his people, and transformed Starbucks for the 21st century. It is also the most powerful business book I have ever read.

Schultz shares the intimate details of what made him decide to return, how and why he took the painful steps of letting key people go, how he took inspiration from others both inside and outside the company, how he dealt with the inevitable disappointments that are always part of trying new things, and how the values and beliefs that had first led him to success again served as his compass. This story is not one of self promotion, but one of an immeasurable challenge in reenergizing arguably the most famous logo in the world, and how the founder made everyone believe in Starbucks again.

Whether you are a leader, an entrepreneur, someone with dreams to be either, or someone who just loves a great human interest story....you will love Onward. Pick up the book, grab a cup of Starbucks, and get ready to be inspired.

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Inspired by a sisterhood of good family cooks, In My Mother's Kitchen is a collection of great home cooking remembered, preserved and renewed, but from a contemporary, busy working-mom's perspective. Our moms may have had a bit more time to spend in the kitchen, but Trish knows how to give us that same great food faster, without compromising flavour.

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The Paris Wife is a delicious story … one that transports you
to a moment in time when the stars collided, at least for a
precious few.

From the inside jacket cover…

“In 1920 Chicago, Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight
year old who has all but given up on love and happiness until
she meets the youthful returning war hero Ernest Hemmingway
and is captivated by his good looks, intensity, and passionate
desire to write.

After a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair decamp to
Paris. Soon they are the golden couple at the heart of a lively
and volatile group of expats that include Gertrude Stein, Ezra
Pound, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Sara and Gerald Murphy.

We are drawn into their life – their intimate moments and the social whirlwind post World War 1 when everyone wanted to live each day as if it were the last. But hard drinking, fast-living Jazz-age Paris is at odds with the traditional notions of family and monogamy.

As Ernest galvanizes his creative ambition, Hadley who can’t help but feel something of an outsider, struggles with jealousy and self doubt. Eventually the pair confront a deception that could prove the undoing of one of the great romances in literary history.

A heart wrenching tale of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant for knowing that, at the end of his life, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.”

This novelized biography will captivate you and make you want to reach out all over again for the closest copies of The Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms or A Moveable Feast.

Find a quiet corner and enjoy every page!

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At a crossroads in her life, Lucy Jarrett returns home from Japan, only to find herself haunted by her father's unresolved death a decade ago. Old longings stirred up by Keegan Fall, a local glass artist who was once her passionate first love, lead her into the unexpected. Late one night, as she paces the hallways of her family's rambling lakeside house, she discovers, locked in a window seat, a collection of objects that first appear to be useless curiosities, but soon reveal a deeper and more complex family past. As Lucy discovers and explores the traces of her lineage00from an heirloom tapestry and dusty political tracts to a web of allusions depicted in stained-glass windows throughout upstate New York-the family story she has always known is shattered, Lucy's quest for the truth reconfigures her family's history, links her to a unique slice of the suffragette movement, and yields dramatic insights that embolden her to live freely.
With surprises at every turn, brimming with vibrant detail, "The Lake of Dreams" is an arresting saga in which every element emerges as a carefully place piece of the puzzle that's sure to enthrall the millions of readers who loved "The Memory Keeper's Daughter."

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We are often nostalgic for the time when the world moved a little more slowly and family dinner was a daily event. But the reality often is a catch-as-catch can dinner, sometimes eaten standing, and often with different members of the family eating at different times. Enter Laurie David’s “The Family Dinner”, a luscious book which is at once a cookbook and a research-based call-out to the importance -- and joy -- of sitting down to dinner as a family. David, who produced the Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”, combines a treasure trove of recipes with latest findings that confirms another important truth -- taking the time to sit down with your children truly does impact their well-being.

Tucked into this cornucopia of great eats and great ideas are fun things to do at the table, great conversation starters, and words of wisdom on food and family from the likes of Alice Waters, Mario Batali, Nora Ephron, Maya Angelou and Mark Bittman. I loved everything about this book -- how easy, approachable and delicious the recipes look, the way it underscores an old idea in a very new way, and it being the perfect gift for a son or daughter this holiday -- a book which is way more than just a book.

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If anyone in your family has ever been affected by depression or bipolarity… If you grew up in the days when Pierre Elliott Trudeau dazzled a country and a young hippie named Margaret Sinclair… Or, if you get inspired reading about someone who has faced almost insurmountable life challenges only to triumph in the end, you will richly enjoy reading Margaret Trudeau’s biography, Changing My Mind.

Born in 1948, into a politically engaged, energetic, middle-income family, Margaret’s early years were pretty typical. Other than her early signs of having an independent spirit and being somewhat susceptible to moodiness, there was little to suggest the layered life that lay ahead. But anything and everything typical ended when, at 20, Margaret Trudeau was swept off her feet by the most eligible bachelor in Canada, The Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau. From that moment forward, Margaret’s life could hardly have been imagined by even the most inventive of fiction writers.

In this very warm, personal and honest memoir, written with the kind of wisdom that can only be gained through a long life, Margaret shares with us how she experienced living at 24 Sussex Drive with the enigmatic Trudeau. We witness the isolation she experienced when out of the spotlight, the incredible post-partum depression that followed the euphoria of giving birth, and the challenges of living with a man who, though loving, was also intensely paternalistic, often dismissive and financially ungenerous. The story tracks the break-up of their marriage and the roller coaster of Margaret’s life with and without her children, post her marriage to Trudeau.

At its heart, this is a story of someone who lived with the ravages of undiagnosed bipolar disorder, suffered incredible indignities, fractured many relationships, but was eventually lucky enough to find herself in the hands of a physician who could truly help her make sense of her illness and herself.

With the benefit of perspective, having invested hugely in getting control of her life, and having survived the trauma of losing her beloved son Michel, Margaret emerges as a passionate and dedicated mother, grandmother and humanitarian. This story will affirm your belief in the resilience of the human spirit.