Still Life with June is Salty Ink's Book of the Month for April

The fine folks at Salty Ink, a website that shines a spotlight on Atlantic fiction, has chosen Darren Greer's hilarious, profound, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting novel Still Life With June as its April Book of the Month.

This is a snippet of what they have to say about it:

Still Life with June was, by page 9 or 10, clearly going to be of the best books I’d read all year. Before I’d finished it, it had become a plain favourite book of mine. It’s all there: great writing, a distinctive style, an engaging story told in a calculated way.

And that's just the beginning. Click here to read the rest of the review/tribute.

Review: Still Life With June

Here's a great review from A Certain Bent Appeal for one of our favourite Cormorant Books:

http://www.acertainbentappeal.com/2009/10/still-life-with-june-bitter-writers-may.html

In all seriousness, check out the preview for the book. You won't regret it.

5 Books to take Pride in

Cormorant is proud to support Canadian LGBT literature, and even prouder to have published fantastic books by queer authors. Here's a list of some of our favourite LGBT-themed titles:

1) Still Life With June by Darren Greer - Funny, scathing, poignant, pretty much perfect.

2) Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall - Catcher in the Rye for a more inclusive era. A must-read.

3) Other Men's Sons by Michael Rowe - A collection of powerful essays by a wonderful writer, journalist, and HuffPo blogger.

4) Death in Key West by Jeffrey Round - Fun, fascinating, and fulfilling. What more do you want from a murder-mystery? Now with 150% more opera.

5) And Beauty Answers by Elspeth Cameron - A profile of two of Toronto's most influential, colourful, and underappreciated artists from the first half of the 20th century.

Photos from Mabel's Fables and The Word On The Street '08

Mabel's Fables

On Friday September 26, Charles Pachter (author of the hit Canadian alphabet book M Is For Moose) did a reading and signing at Mabel's Fables in Toronto. The event came on the heels of Charles's fantastic interview on 96.3 Classical FM on Thursday morning, and drew a great audience of the young, the old, and the undecided. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us!

F is for flag.

Left to right: Eleanor LeFave (owner of Mabel's Fables), Charles Pachter, moose

Even Mabel the cat loves our book.

The Word On The Street

The 2008 edition of The Word On The Street Book & Magazine Festival (Toronto) took place on a sunny Sunday afternoon. As I stated many times to the people visiting our booth, it was "perfect weather to not be standing under a tent in".

A great day was had by all. We managed to give away every single one of our catalogues, and - best of fall - of all the boxes of books we brought to sell, we returned to the office with only one and a half left unsold.

In my opinion, however, the most important thing about WOTS was that it gave us as publishers a chance to just sit down (or stand up) and talk about books with our readers. Numbers are plenty useful but it's only through this face-to-face communication that we can get a sense of what people love about books and reading - information that's vital in helping us maintain perspective.

A big thank you to the organizers of WOTS, the many helpful volunteers, and most of all to you folks out there who bought our books or even just stayed and chatted for a while.

Many thanks also to the Cormorant authors who took part in the festivities and dropped by our booth to say hello (including but not limited to): Sally Gibson, Charles Pachter, Hélène Dorion, Neil Bissoondath, Elspeth Cameron, Michael Rowe, Joseph Boyden, Zoe Whittall, Darren Greer

And now photos!

I attribute our success to the scrumtrelescence of this sign.

Sally Gibson, author of Inside Toronto, in discussion with Toronto mayor David Miller.

The intrepid Charles Pachter signing copies of M is for Moose at our booth.

Elspeth Cameron, author of And Beauty Answers.

Neil Bissoondath, author of The Soul of All Great Designs, speaking truth to power.

Hélène Dorion, author of Days of Sand.

Coming soon: A Q&A with Kathlyn Bradshaw, author of The Frankenstein Murders (one of the hits of the festival!)