Welcome to a new season of Thistledown Press.
Our lead title is Because Somebody Asked Me To, a selection of nonfiction prose from the iconic Prairie writer Guy Vanderhaeghe that will resonate with anyone interested in Canadian literature. My favourite is “An Innocent’s Excellent Adventure,” in which the author describes a teenage visit to Toronto in 1967, where he and a friend, neatly dressed in sports jackets and ties, attend a concert at the O’Keefe Centre featuring the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. Alas, they realize they have fatally misunderstood the dress code when they find themselves in a sea of tie dye, India print, and long hair, while “an amoebic light show queasily pulsed behind the bands.” It just so happens that I was at that very same concert, equally inappropriately attired in my grade 9 back-to-school dress and white knee socks! Vanderhaeghe’s wit and wisdom shines throughout this collection.
First time author Jo-Ann Wallace was a retired English prof who crafted an unflinching memoir called A Life in Pieces. The book literally is just that—a selection of short pieces that combine retrospection, analysis, wonderment, and wry humour. The subjects range from the unexpected gift of a suede miniskirt to Virginia Woolf’s deployment of the comma, and it all adds up to a courageous account of the fully examined life of one very wise and thoughtful woman.
A middle grade novel by Leanne Shirtliffe rounds out the season. The Genius Hour Project is a wise and generous and humane narrative of a school year in the life of a young girl named Frazzy as she faces the challenge of friendship and a crush, schoolwork and family life, bullying and a family mental health crisis, all while trying to find her own place in the world. It’s an absorbing and life-affirming narrative for readers of any age. I know I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I’m a grandmother!
You’d be wise to check out all three of these titles.
JoAnn McCaig
Publisher
Thistledown Press
