Birding with Yeats (non-fiction) Lynn Thomsona delicate, sensitive and gentle reflection on the unique bond between a motherand son who discover a mutual love of birdwatching

Cataract City (fiction) Craig Davidsonchildhood friends become reluctant adversaries on opposite sides of the law inthe seedy underside of Niagara Falls

Caught (fiction) Lisa MooreDavid Stanley escapes from prison only to embark upon one of the mostambitious pot-smuggling adventures ever attempted and win back the womanhe loves

The Crooked Maid (fiction) * Dan Vyletatwo strangers meet on a train while returning to Vienna, where life post-war isfinally resuming but with many wartime mysteries still remaining

Emancipation Day (fiction) Wayne Gradywhen musician 'Jack' Lewis finally takes his Newfoundland bride back to hishometown of Windsor, he can no longer hide what he's denied for so long – heis 'coloured'

Going Home Again (fiction) * Dennis BockCharlie reunites with his brother Nate and their youthful rivalry seems forgottenbut a chance encounter with his first love, Holly, unravels Charlie's past andcomplicates his future

Hellgoing (stories) Lynn CoadyGiller Prize winning collection of short stories ranging wildly in style and contentthat captures with wit and humour our many foibles

How Should a Person Be? (fiction) Sheila Hetian artist struggling with her creativity after a failed marriage, Sheila gathersinspiration from her friends; highly autobiographical, one critic called this‘HBO's show Girls in book form'

Hungry Ghosts (fiction) Shyam SelvaduraiShivan Rassiah struggles with the ghosts of his past as he prepares to travel to SriLanka to bring his elderly grandmother back to his home in Toronto

The Juggler's Children (non-fiction) Carolyn AbrahamMs. Graham, a typical multi-ethnic Canadian, uses genetic testing to try andtrace her ancestry; some surprises await

The Massey Murder (non-fiction) Charlotte Grayexamines the 1915 murder of 'Bert' Massey from the very wealthy Canadianfamily and the subsequent trial of Carrie Davis, the domestic servant whoquickly confessed to the crime

Minister Without Portfolio (fiction) Michael Winterreturning home from Afghanistan tormented by guilt over a friend's death, HenryHayward resolves to take care of the people and places around him

Mount Pleasant (fiction) Don GillmorHarry Salter has been blithely amassing debt in expectation of a substantialinheritance but his-father's fortune seems to have disappeared; a hilariousparable for our times

Nocturne (non-fiction) Helen HumphreysThis is what happened after you died' begins this moving memoir of the author'sexperience of her musician brother's sudden death; a luminous ode to thesibling bond

The Orenda (fiction) * Joseph BoydenBoyden uses the complex relationships between three narrators – an Iroquoisgirl, a Huron warrior and a Jesuit missionary – to explore the ramifications ofcontact between cultures in 1600s Canada

The Silent Wife (fiction) * A. S. A. Harrisonhypnotic psychological thriller about a marriage breakdown heading irrevocablytoward violence told in the alternating voices of the couple

The Son of a Certain Woman (fiction) Wayne Johnstondetermined to bring young Percy Joyce into the Church, Brother McHugh setsout to uncover the dark secrets of the relationships within the Joyce family

A Tale for the Time Being (fiction) * Ruth Ozekiwhen a Hello Kitty lunchbox containing a Japanese diary washes up on her GulfIsland beach, Ruth quickly finds herself drawn into the mystery of the youngwriter's fate

The Troop (fiction) Nick Cutterhorror is waiting for Tim Riggs' scout troop during their annual camping trip inthe Canadian wilderness in this edge-of-your-seat story

The World (fiction) Bill Gastonweaving together five heartbreaking stories set in contemporary Canada, TheWorld transforms the cruelties of life into something not only beautiful but heart-warming

JUST A GOOD CANADIAN READ

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Americanah (fiction) * Chimamamda Adichiea love story examines issues of race, class and gender from many unusual angleswhen Ifemelu leaves Nigeria and her lover Obinze to study in America

And the Mountains Echoed (fiction) * Khaled HosseiniHosseini weaves a complex pattern of interlinked lives in a multi-generational sagaof two Afghan siblings separated by hardship and tragedy

Behind the Beautiful Forevers (non-fiction) * Katherine Boobased on three years of research, this is the story of families struggling toward abetter life in Annawadi, a makeshift slum near the Mumbai airport; 'a powerfulindictment of economic inequality’

Brain on Fire (non-fiction) Susannah Cahalanthis account of a struggle with a rare and terrifying autoimmune disorder is amemoir, brain science primer and medical mystery all wrapped into one

The Circle (fiction) * Dave Eggerswhen ambitious Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world's mostpowerful internet company, she feels it's a dream come true but it gradually turns tonightmare

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (non-fiction) * Michael PollanPollan believes cooking is a defining activity of humans and explores it using themetaphor of alchemical transformation: fire (grilling), water (in a pot), air (yeast) andearth (fermentation)

The Dinner (fiction) * Herman Kochwhat starts as two couples meeting for dinner at a fashionable restaurant inAmsterdam insidiously turns into a very dark psychological thriller

The Dog Stars (fiction) * Peter HellerHig and Bangley, along with Hig's dog, seem to be the lone survivors of a flupandemic when Hig hears a random radio transmission and is determined to followits trail

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (non-fiction) * Mary RoachAmerica's funniest science writer takes us on a roller coaster tour of the humandigestive system

HhHH (fiction) Laurent Bineta postmodern exploration of the limits of historical fiction as well as anunputdownable pageturner, tells the dramatic story of the assassination ofHhHHNazi Reinhard Heydrich by two Czech Resistance fighters

The Inconvenient Indian (non-fiction) Thomas Kinga critical and personal meditation about what it means to be 'Indian' in NorthAmerica, burnished with anger but tempered by King's hallmark humour

Mary Coin (fiction) Marisa SilverSilver fictionalizes Dorothea Lange's famous Depression photo, creating a raw andemotional tale that leaves the reader questioning whether photographs illuminateor blur the truth

On Sal Mal Lane (fiction) Ru Freemanportrays through the eyes of its children the heartbreaking ways in which a onceharmonious Sri Lankan community turns on each other with the outbreak of civilwar

The People's Platform (non-fiction) Astra Tayloran engaging and wide-ranging look at the politics and business of the Internetrevolution and a call to action on how to make it truly open and democratic

The Sleepwalkers (non-fiction) Christopher Clarka comprehensive and highly readable account of how and why Europe stumbledinto WWI as we reach the 100th anniversary of its outbreak

The Theoretical Minimum (non-fiction) Leonard Susskinda physicist and a 'citizen' scientist offer a beginner's course in classical physics,complete with associated math and lucid explanations

The Violinist's Thumb (non-fiction) Sam KeanKean explores the often strange wonders of the magical building block of life,DNA, in a lively collection of anecdotal essays

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (fiction) * Karen Joy Fowlera family attempts the experiment of raising a chimp as one of their own; it goesterribly wrong even though, perhaps because, they did indeed become a family

We Need New Names (fiction) * NoViolet Bulawayo10 year-old Darling narrates her journey from Zimbabwe, racked by poverty andcivil war but containing friends and family, to a new life in America with an auntshe hardly knows

The Woman Upstairs (fiction) * Claire Messudthis intense story of obsession and artistic fulfillment portrays the thrill – and thedevastating cost – of living one's dreams when Nora's quiet life is turned upsidedown by the glamorous Sahid family

WHEN YOU WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT

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Almost English (fiction) Charlotte Mendelsonabandoned by her Hungarian husband, Laura and her daughter, Marina, have beenliving in a cramped London apartment with his elderly mother and aunts; desperate toget away from them all, Marina leaves for a posh boarding school

Cadillac Cathedral (fiction) Jack Hodginsa group of friends in a small town, led by the retired Arva Saarikoski, drive to Victoriain his refurbished hearse to bring back the body of one of their own

Crazy Rich Asians (fiction) * Kevin Kwangossip, backbiting and scheming ensue when the heir to one of the most massivefortunes in Asia brings his unaware ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend home toSingapore

Dance, Gladys, Dance (fiction) Cassie Stocks27 year-old Frieda, giving up on a career in art, is looking through the Winnipeg 'helpwanted' ads when she comes across an ad for an antique phonograph, for sale because'Gladys doesn't dance anymore'

The First Rule of Ten (mystery) Gay HendricksTenzing Norbu, ex-Buddhist monk and now ex-LA cop, has just embarked on a newcareer as a PI when a casual visitor turns up dead the next morning

The Guts (fiction) * Roddy DoyleJimmy Rabitte, of 'The Commitments' fame, is still in Dublin, approaching fifty, with hisown business, a loving wife and four kids; only Roddy Doyle could make a laugh-out-loud story of how Jimmy reacts to a diagnosis of colon cancer

The Humans (fiction) Matt Haigan alien from an advanced civilization has been sent to Earth to take over the personaof a Cambridge mathematician who has made a discovery that could alter the future ofhumankind

If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother (non-fiction) Julia Sweeneycomedian and writer Julia Sweeney chronicles her adventures in internationaladoption, novice single parenting and disastrous dating in a collection of riotouslycandid essays

The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules (fiction) C. Ingelman-Sundbergconditions in Martha's care home have gone drastically downhill so she and her groupof friends decide to 'break out' and take up a life of crime, hoping to end in a cushyprison cell

The Lost Husband (fiction) Katherine CenterLibby and her two children are invited by Aunt Jean to come live on her goat farm; justin time – since the sudden death of her husband, Libby has been forced to stay withher hypercritical mother and has had enough

May We Be Forgiven (fiction) A. M. HomesHarold's life implodes when he betrays the brother he's spent a lifetime envying; adarkly funny look at redemption in modern suburbia

No One Could Have Guessed the Weather (fiction) Anne-Marie Caseythe global financial crisis has forced Lucy and Richard to move to NYC with theirchildren, leaving behind their high-flying London life; Lucy must reassess things onmany levels but does it in the company of a new group of friends

The Opposite of Maybe (fiction) Maddie Dawsonforty-somethings Rosie and Jonathan have been together for 15 years but whenJonathan wants to move to San Diego for his dream job, Rosie is reluctant to leave theailing grandmother who raised her

Ostrich (fiction) * Matt Greenefollow the clues along with Alex as he slowly uncovers the truth behind his parent'sstrange actions with the help of his friend Chloe; this funny and engaging narratorreveals not only the truth of his world but of life in general

A Place at the Table (fiction) Susan Rebecca White

the lives of three desparate characters are strangely tied together by New York's CaféAndres and its southern cooking – chef Alice Stone, young gay Bobby Banks andwealthy divorcee Amelia Brighton

The Red Book (fiction) Deborah Koganfour women return to Harvard for their 20th reunion – how will their real storiescompare to their entries in the 'Red Book', the alumni 'catch-up' publication?

The Rosie Project (fiction) * Graeme SimsionDon Tillman, a brilliant but socially challenged genetics professor, designs the WifeProject to find his perfect partner but gets sidetracked; Rosie, who definitely doesn't fithis parameters, wants Don's help for her project: finding her biological father

Someday, Someday, Maybe (fiction) * Lauren GrahamFranny Banks has just six months left of the three-year deadline she set for herself toestablish an acting career in New York City; the upcoming showcase for her acting classlooks like her last chance

The Universe Versus Alex Woods (fiction) Gavin Extenceaged seventeen, Alex is stopped at Dover customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urnfull of ashes on the front seat and an entire nation in an uproar; a tale of an unlikelyfriendship and an improbable journey

The World's Strongest Librarian (non-fiction) * Joshua Hanagarnean eccentric strongman teaches Josh how to 'throttle' his Tourette Syndrome intosubmission as he attempts to overcome his disability, find love and create a life worthliving

Burnaby Public Librarywww.bpl.bc.ca

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Among the Islands (non-fiction) Tim Flannerya rollicking true adventure about an Australian zoologist who goes on the trailof undiscovered mammal species in the tropical islands of the South Pacific

Burial Rites (fiction) * Hannah Kentinspired by a true story, this book tells of the final days of a young womanaccused of murder in Iceland in 1829 and sent to a remote farm to awaitexecution

Country Girl (non-fiction) Edna O'BrienIrish writer Edna O'Brien's memoirs reveal a brave, beautiful and sometimeshelpless woman on her journey from repression to creative freedom

Falling in Honey (non-fiction) Jennifer Barclaya bumpy but inspiring journey into Mediterranean sunshine with the authorwho acts out her dream of moving to a tiny Greek island

Ghana Must Go (fiction) Taiye Selasia stunning debut novel about a fragmented African-American family, full ofsecrets, estrangements and shifting alliances

The Homesman (fiction) Glendon Swarthouta homesteading woman and a shady claim jumper must take four mentallyunstable women back home to the east after a harsh winter in 1850sNebraska

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (fiction) * Mohsin Hamidfollows the journey of a nameless impoverished rural boy who climbs to thetop of the Asian business boom but is haunted by the pretty girl he has knownhis whole life

In Falling Snow (fiction) Mary-Rose MacCollAustralian-born Iris Crane travels to France during WWI to find her 15 yearold brother who has run away to enlist in this compelling story of love and war

The Innocents (fiction) Francesca Segalcontemporary retelling of Edith Wharton's set in suburbanAge of Innocencemiddle-class Jewish London

Into the Silence (non-fiction) * Wade Davisa vivid re-creation of heroic British climber George Mallory's epic attempts toscale Mount Everest in the early 1920s set in the context of war andimperialism

Istanbul Passage (fiction) Joseph KanonLeon Bauer, an American businessman, is caught between various dualities inthis fast-moving espionage thriller set in Turkey in the wake of World War II

Life After Life (fiction) * Kate AtkinsonUrsula Todd is born in the midst of a blizzard in 1910, not once but manytimes, traveling alternate paths during the course of her life until she lives thelife she was meant to live

The Light in the Ruins (fiction) * Chris Bohjalianin war-ravaged Tuscany, the Rosatis' collaboration with the Germans resurfacesten years later when the surviving members of the family are targeted by aserial killer

The Lost Girls (non-fiction) Jennifer Baggettthree friends make a pact to quit their high pressure New York City media jobsand leave behind everything familiar to embark on a year-long backpackingadventure around the world

My Berlin Kitchen (non-fiction) Luisa Weissdeliciously chronicles how the author finally took the plunge and returned toher childhood home in search of happiness – only to find love waiting whereshe least expected it

NW (fiction) * Zadie Smithset in northwest London, this brilliant tragicomic novel follows four locals asthey try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the council estate of theirchildhood

On the Map (non-fiction) Simon Garfieldthe fascinating history of cartography from Eratosthenes to Google Maps withplenty of illustrations and prints to signpost the route

Red Joan (fiction) Jennie RooneyJoan Stanley is an 85 year-old grandmother who is quietly living out her life inan English suburb when a knock on her door threatens to reveal her past as aSoviet spy

Transatlantic (fiction) * Colum McCannfour generations of women weave together a series of narratives spanning 150years and two continents; 'an outstanding act of literary bravura’

Visit Sunny Chernobyl (non-fiction) Andrew Blackwella lively tour through the most gruesomely polluted places on Earth by a wittyjournalist who ponders a consumer society's conflicted approach toenvironmental woes

Burnaby Public Librarywww.bpl.bc.ca

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The Bees (fiction) * Laline PaulFlora, a lowly worker bee, rebels against the totalitarian state in this imaginativedystopian fantasy set in a beehive threatened by environmental disaster

Benediction (fiction) Kent Harufas Dad Lewis lies on his deathbed in Holt, Colorado, the compassion, sufferingand humanity of this fictional town's inhabitants are gradually revealed

The Burgess Boys (fiction) * Elizabeth Stouttwo brothers return to their Maine hometown where the long-buried tensions thathave shaped their relationship surface in ways that will change them forever

The Cutting Season (fiction) * Attica Lockethe murder of a migrant worker leads the manager of a Louisiana plantation-turned-tourist attraction to investigate a centuries old mystery and her own past

A Delicate Truth (fiction) * John Le CarreToby Bell, a British Foreign Service officer, must choose between his conscienceand his duty in exposing a British/American counter-terrorist operation in Gibraltar

A Deniable Death (fiction) Gerald Seymouragents Badger and Foxy, from their 'hide' in Iraq's swamps, gather information on amaster bomb-maker to facilitate his assassination by MI-6

Dissident Gardens (fiction) * Jonathan Lethema multigenerational saga set in the New York of revolutionaries and activitists, fromthe 1930s communists to the current Occupy movement

Eight Girls Taking Pictures (fiction) Whitney Ottofamous 20th century female photographers trace the progression of feminism andexplore their goals while balancing the demands of family and creativity

The Faraway Nearby (non-fiction) Rebecca Solnitthis blend of essay and memoir examines the territory of storytelling: how weescape through stories, why we tell them and the role empathy plays in them

The Fault in Our Stars (fiction) John Green16 year-old Hazel, a cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until aboy at a support group prompts her to reexamine her perspective on love, lossand life

The Flamethrowers (fiction) Rachel Kushnerit is 1975 and Reno has come to New York intent on turning her fascination withmotorcycles and speed into art

Instructions for a Heatwave (fiction) * Maggie O'Farrellthe inexplicable disappearance of the family patriarch forces three adult siblings toreturn to London to help their mother and to eventually confront family secrets andlies

The Interestings (fiction) * Meg Wolitzerfollows the lives of six teenage friends from a New York summer arts camp throughmiddle age, revealing their dreams, frustrations and finally their fates

Last Friends (fiction) Jane Gardamthis final book in the 'Old Filth' trilogy focuses on Terry Veneering, Filth's longtimerival in work and love; like all Gardam's work, it explores how childhoodexperiences affect adult actions

Me Before You (fiction) * Jojo Moyesa young woman learns about love, generosity and herself while caring for anembittered quadriplegic in this heartbreaking and thought-provoking story

The Missing File (fiction) D. A. Mishaniwhen a teenage schoolboy disappears and a schoolteacher creates a bafflingcomplication, Israeli police detective Avi Avraham becomes embroiled in evenmore psychological speculation than usual

The Orchardist (fiction) * Amanda Coplinset in the untamed Pacific Northwest, a makeshift family's dramatic lives are shapedby violence, love and an indelible connection to the land

The Tenth of December (stories) George Saundersunsettling and original, these stories cut to the core of contemporary experience,taking on the big questions

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage (non-fiction) Ann Patchetta series of autobiographical essays written with grace, truth and humour, touchingon the people, places and ideas which have interested this wonderful writer

Visitation Street (fiction) Ivy Pochodaa late night adventure on the bay takes a tragic turn and 15 year-old Val, washedashore semi-conscious, is left to deal with the aftermath in her Brooklyncommunity

JUST A GOOD READ

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