Off the Page
A blog on Canadian writing, reading, and everything in between
Awesome August Giveaway
We hope you've had some wonderful summer escapes by now – we all deserve some magic this season! Today, we're highligh …
Let's Get Out of This Town: Literary Travel
Journey through place and time with this collection of new and forthcoming travel books, spotlighting some of the best t …
Ann Eriksson Launches BIRD'S EYE VIEW
"Anyone, young or old, who wants to learn more about the birds that live in their neighbourhood or on the other side of …
The Chat with John Elizabeth Stintzi
Writer John Elizabeth Stinzi has the distinction of publishing two fabulous debuts a week apart this past spring. On The …
Notes from a Children's Librarian: Bird Books
A flock of tales to get young readers into birding.
Most Anticipated: Our 2020 Fall Nonfiction Preview
We're looking forward to books about history, true crime, memoir, nature, music, dance, food, and so much more. There's …
Exploring Sister Bonds
One of our most anticipated debuts of the season, Bryn Turnbull's The Woman Before Wallis, tells the true story of the A …
Marianne Boucher's TALKING TO STRANGERS
Launching the graphic memoir Talking to Strangers: A Memoir of My Escape from a Cult.
The Chat with Cicely Belle Blain
This week on the Chat, we’re in conversation with Cicely Belle Blain, author of the forthcoming poetry collection Burn …
Results for keyword: “birds”
Launchpad: Murmurations, by Annick MacAskill
This spring we've made it our mission (even more than usual) to celebrate new releases in the wake of cancelled launch parties, book festivals, and reading series. With 49th Shelf Launchpad, we're holding virtual launch parties here on our platform complete with witty banter and great insight to give you a taste of the books on offer. You can request these books from your local library, get them as e-books or audio books, order them from your local indie bookseller if they're delivering, buy them direct from the publisher or from online retailers.
Today we're launching Murmurations, by Annick MacAskill, whose previous book was nominated for the League of Canadian Poets’ Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and shortlisted for the J. M. Abraham Poetry Award (Atlantic Book Awards).
*****
The Elevator Pitch. Tell us about your book in a sentence.
Murmurations is a book of love poems, heavy on the bird imagery.
Describe your ideal reader.
Any reader is my ideal reader! But to play fair: anyone who’s wondered what lovers and birds have to do with each other, or w …
Continue reading >
Notes from a Children's Librarian: Bird Books
Our Children's Librarian columnist, Julie Booker, brings us a new view from the stacks every month.
*****
Once when I was young, on a family hike through the ravine, I spotted a man in the bushes with his arms out, a flurry of grey and white, black-capped birds fluttering round him. He put his finger to his lips as we approached. We stopped dead in our tracks, watching the chickadees swoop from nearby branches to peck at seed in the crown of his hat and upturned palms.
I remembered this magical moment when I read That Chickadee Feeling, by Frank Glew, illustrated by the Marna Twins. It begins with a kid who’s really, really bored, so their mom invites them on an outing with some seed and advice to be patient. When a bird lands on the child’s hand, the kid experiences “that chickadee feeling.” It’s the same feeling that comes from riding a bike for the first time, or winning a race (or encountering the Chickadee man in the forest). This tale challenges the reader to find a way out of boredom, with birding as a definite option.
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Continue reading >
Put a Bird On It
There are times that we at the Canadian Bookshelf miss the non-bookish zeitgeist boat, and so it was only quite recently that we discovered the very funny "Put a Bird on It" sketch from the television series Portlandia. The sketch is clearly onto something, however, and it's not just handbags and lampshades that have been receiving the Put a Bird Treatment lately. Many recent Canadian books have been similarly bedecked, including the usual suspects (avian guides), but also poetry books, memoirs and novels. Bird books, it turns out, aren't so rare after all, but we think they're kind of lovely.
Check out the Complete Canadian Bookshelf Put a Bird on It Books List, with some of our favourite birdish picks featured below:
The Bedside Book of Birds by Graeme Gibson
The Crow's Vow by Susan Briscoe
One Bird's Choice by Iain Reid
…
Continue reading >
Launchpad: Murmurations, by Annick MacAskill
This spring we've made it our mission (even more than usual) to celebrate new releases in the wake of cancelled launch parties, book festivals, and reading series. With 49th Shelf Launchpad, we're holding virtual launch parties here on our platform complete with witty banter and great insight to give you a taste of the books on offer. You can request these books from your local library, get them as e-books or audio books, order them from your local indie bookseller if they're delivering, buy them direct from the publisher or from online retailers.
Today we're launching Murmurations, by Annick MacAskill, whose previous book was nominated for the League of Canadian Poets’ Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and shortlisted for the J. M. Abraham Poetry Award (Atlantic Book Awards).
*****
The Elevator Pitch. Tell us about your book in a sentence.
Murmurations is a book of love poems, heavy on the bird imagery.
Describe your ideal reader.
Any reader is my ideal reader! But to play fair: anyone who’s wondered what lovers and birds have to do with each other, or w …
Notes from a Children's Librarian: Bird Books
Our Children's Librarian columnist, Julie Booker, brings us a new view from the stacks every month.
*****
Once when I was young, on a family hike through the ravine, I spotted a man in the bushes with his arms out, a flurry of grey and white, black-capped birds fluttering round him. He put his finger to his lips as we approached. We stopped dead in our tracks, watching the chickadees swoop from nearby branches to peck at seed in the crown of his hat and upturned palms.
I remembered this magical moment when I read That Chickadee Feeling, by Frank Glew, illustrated by the Marna Twins. It begins with a kid who’s really, really bored, so their mom invites them on an outing with some seed and advice to be patient. When a bird lands on the child’s hand, the kid experiences “that chickadee feeling.” It’s the same feeling that comes from riding a bike for the first time, or winning a race (or encountering the Chickadee man in the forest). This tale challenges the reader to find a way out of boredom, with birding as a definite option.
*
Put a Bird On It
There are times that we at the Canadian Bookshelf miss the non-bookish zeitgeist boat, and so it was only quite recently that we discovered the very funny "Put a Bird on It" sketch from the television series Portlandia. The sketch is clearly onto something, however, and it's not just handbags and lampshades that have been receiving the Put a Bird Treatment lately. Many recent Canadian books have been similarly bedecked, including the usual suspects (avian guides), but also poetry books, memoirs and novels. Bird books, it turns out, aren't so rare after all, but we think they're kind of lovely.
Check out the Complete Canadian Bookshelf Put a Bird on It Books List, with some of our favourite birdish picks featured below:
The Bedside Book of Birds by Graeme Gibson
The Crow's Vow by Susan Briscoe
One Bird's Choice by Iain Reid
…
