Monday, May 21, 2012

For All the Tea in China


  • Happy Victoria Day!
    I love our quixotic, very Canadian holiday. Did you know Canada is the only country in the world to celebrate Victoria Day? Strange but true.
    Below two Victorianish book picks for the St. Albert Gazette Good reading! column.

    For All the Tea in China by Sarah Rose
    A ripping tale of Victorian adventure, all the more incredible because it’s true. In 1848, the British East India Company sent Scottish botanist Robert Fortune deep inside China to steal the secrets to tea horticulture. A thrilling account of Fortune’s remarkable journeys into China – a daring act of corporate espionage.

    The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin
    An appealing novel of changing times in the late Victorian era, sure to appeal to fans of Downton Abbey. In 1893, Cora Cash, America's richest heiress, heads to Europe with her mother to marry into aristocracy. Soon enough, engaged to the Duke of Wareham, Cora discovers that money can’t buy everything.
     
    The painting of Victoria above was Victoria's secret: a special painting by Franz Winterhalter of Vic at age 24 done for her husband Albert. known as the "secret picture", Albert kept the painting in his private chambers and it only became known to the public in 2002.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Edmonton Bestsellers - May 13, 2012

Local Bestsellers, as compiled by Greenwoods Books and published in the Edmonton Journal on May 13, 2012. * = Canadian author ** = Alberta author *** = Edmonton author.

  1. 419 - Will Ferguson **
  2. Coppermine - Keith Ross Leckie *
  3. The Prague Cemetery - Umberto Eco
  4. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
  5. Half-Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan **
  6. Why Men Lie - Linden MacIntyre *
  7. The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach
  8. The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt *
  9. 50 Shades of Grey - E.L. James
  10. Killing Winter - Wayne Arthurson ***
Non-Fiction 
  1. The Cure for Everything - Timothy Caulfield ***
  2. Foodshed - dee Hobsbawn-Smith **
  3. Baba's Kitchen Remedies - Michael Mucz ***
  4. Food & the City - Jennifer Cockrall-King ***
  5. What We Talk About When We Talk About the War - Noah Richler *
  6. F in Exams - Richard Benson
  7. The Healing Code - Alexander Loyd
  8. Straphanger - Tara Grescoe *
  9. The Table Comes First - Adam Gopnik *
  10. Imagine - Jonah Lehrer
Both #1 writers have been the St. Albert Public Library's guests, Will Ferguson for STARfest in October 2011, Timothy Caulfield just a few days ago for a talk. Edmontonian Wayne Arthurson was also the Library's guest in 2011, Michael Mucz just yesterday.