Taste Canada Award finalist

A modern take on Dutch cuisine that highlights the ways that simple meals bring joy and comfort.

In the same way that British, Scandinavian, and German food have undergone a renaissance in recent years, Dutch cuisine is going to be the next big thing, according to writer and blogger Emily Wight. Her new cookbook reimagines traditional Dutch cooking, which has always been known for its thriftiness and practicality, with an emphasis on the ways that simple meals bring joy and comfort to the people who share them.

Influenced by its colonial history, with bold flavours from places like Indonesia and the West Indies, and by its proximity to its European neighbours, Dutch cooking is surprisingly diverse, and is noted for its celebration of the ritual of the meal as much as the meal itself. From gezellig to borrels, and gado gado to uitsmijter, Dutch Feast delivers unconventional (but familiar) and economical (but indulgent) recipes, and gives you a new excuse to invite everyone over for cold gin and a generous rijsttafel, an elaborate meal featuring a little dish of something for everyone.

Touching on Dutch history and the back stories of traditional ingredients (from licorice to herring to beer), Emily adds charm and sophistication to a cuisine that is wholesome, accessible, and stubbornly delicious.

120 recipes; full-colour throughout.

Emily Wight came to love Dutch cuisine when she married into a Dutch family. She is a writer, blogger, and recipe developer whose work has appeared in numerous magazines, anthologies, and websites. Her first cookbook was Well Fed, Flat Broke: Recipes for Modest Budgets and Messy Kitchens published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2015. She lives in Vancouver.

From the author of Blue Is the Warmest Color: a beautiful, bittersweet graphic novel on the complexities of love.

Jul Maroh's first book, Blue Is the Warmest Color, was a graphic novel phenomenon; it was a New York Times bestseller, and the controversial film adaptation by French director Abdellatif Kechiche won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. Maroh's latest book, Body Music, marks her return to the kind of soft, warm palette and impressionistic sensibility that made their debut book so sensational.

Set in the languid, European-like neighbourhoods of Montreal, Body Music is a beautiful and moving meditation on love and desire as expressed in many different forms--between women, between men, between women and men and gender non-conformists alike, all varying in age and race. In twenty-one separate vignettes, Maroh explores the drama inherent in relationships at different stages: the electricity of initial attraction, the elation of falling in love, the trauma of breaking up, the sweet comfort of a long-standing romance.

Anyone who's ever been in a relationship will see themselves in these intimate stories tinged with raw emotion. Body Music is an exhilarating and passionate graphic novel about what it means to fall in love, and what it means to be alive.

Jul Maroh is the author of the graphic novel Blue Is the Warmest Color, the New York Times bestseller that was made into an acclaimed and controversial film that won the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or in 2013. They are also author of the graphic novels Skandalon and Body Music. They live in Angouleme, France.

David Homel is a writer, journalist, filmmaker, and translator, and the author of nine novels. He has translated many French-language books into English and is a two-time recipient of the Governor General's Literary Award for Translation. He lives in Montreal.

A sequel to the acclaimed Such a Lovely Little War: growing up Vietnamese in swinging London as the Vietnam war intensifies.

Marcelino Truong's first book about the early years of the Vietnam war, the graphic memoir Such a Lovely Little War (2016), received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews and was named "one the season's best graphic novels" by the New York Times. In this sequel, young Marco and his family move from Saigon to London in order to escape the war following the assassination of South Vietnamese President Diem, for whom Marcelino's diplomat father was a personal interpreter.

In London, his father struggles to build a new life for his children and his wife, whose bipolar spells are becoming increasingly violent. But for Marco and his siblings, swinging London is an exciting place to be: a new world of hedonists and hippies. At the same time, the news from their grandparents in Vietnam grows ever grimmer as the war intensifies and American involvement becomes increasingly muddied. Young Marco finds himself conflicted between embracing the peace-loving anti-war demonstrators and the strong, nostalgic bond he feels toward a wounded Vietnam, whose conflict is not as simple as the demonstrators make it out to be.

With its audacious imagery and heart-rending text, Saigon Calling is a bold graphic memoir that strikes a remarkable balance between the intimate chronicle of a family undone by mental illness and the large-scale tragedy of a country undone by war.

Marcelino Truong is an illustrator and painter, and the author of the graphic memoir Such a Lovely Little War and its sequel Saigon Calling. Born the son of a Vietnamese diplomat in 1957 in the Philippines, he and his family moved to America (where his father worked for the embassy) and then to Vietnam at the outset of the war. He attended the French Lycee in London, then moved to Paris where he earned degrees in law at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, and English literature at the Sorbonne. He lives in St-Malo, France.

David Homel is a writer, journalist, filmmaker, and translator, and the author of nine novels. He has translated many French-language books into English and is a two-time recipient of the Governor General's Literary Award for Translation. He lives in Montreal.

A wickedly funny book in which the author recasts historical events and personalities from her own feminist perspective.

What I Think Happened, the debut book by comedian Evany Rosen, is really two books: a savvy, no-holds-barred romp through the history of the western world, and the personal story of a self-described "failed academic" who recasts historiography from a feminist perspective--albeit an underqualified and overconfident one.

In these wide-ranging comic essays, Evany explores numerous historical events and personalities that have had a personal impact on her as she attempts to understand why they've been the object of such fascination, from her unnatural obsession with Napoleon, to her misguided understanding of the Royal Family, to her intrigue over America's dumpiest presidents. Evany's approach to history is to make it personal, which any good historian will tell you is exactly what not to do; but in doing so, and with whimsy and irreverence, she rescues history from the dusty confines of "intellectually aggressive" men and makes it fun again.

What I Think Happened is the first book to be published under a new imprint called Robin's Egg Books that will feature some of the freshest, smartest, and above all funniest writing around on a variety of culturally relevant subjects. Robin's Egg Books are curated and edited by comedian, playwright, and author Charles Demers.

Evany Rosen is a writer, standup comedian, and founding member of the acclaimed Canadian sketch comedy troupe Picnicface (Comedy Network). She has appeared at numerous comedy festivals as well as in films and on television, and has worked as a voiceover actor in animated series such as Mysticons (Nickelodeon), Hotel Transylvania (Disney), and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Cartoon Network). Her first book, What I Think Happened: An Underresearched History of the Western World, is the inaugural title published under Arsenal Pulp Press's new humour imprint Robin's Egg Books. She lives in Toronto.

Finalist, Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction

A Globe 100 Best Book of the Year

When Carys Cragg was eleven, her father, a respected doctor, was brutally murdered in his own home by an intruder. Twenty years later, and despite the reservations of her family and friends, she decides to contact his murderer in prison, and the two correspond for a period of two years. She learns of his horrific childhood, and the reasons he lied about the murder; in turn, he learns about the man he killed. She mines his letters for clues about the past before agreeing to meet him in person, when she learns startling new information about the crime.

With gripping suspense and raw honesty, Dead Reckoning follows one woman's determination to confront the man who murdered her father, revealing her need for understanding and the murderer's reluctance to tell--an uneasy negotiation between two people from different worlds both undone by tragedy. This is a powerful and emotional memoir about how reconciling with the past doesn't necessarily provide comfort, but it can reveal the truth.

Carys Cragg is an instructor in Child, Family & Community Studies at Douglas College. Her personal essays and reviews have appeared in such venues as The Globe & Mail and The Tyee. She is a graduate of the Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University. Her debut book Dead Reckoning: How I Came to Meet the Man Who Murdered My Father was shortlisted for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize at the BC Book Prizes in 2018. She lives in Vancouver.

Winner, George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature
Finalist, Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize (BC Book Prizes)
Finalist, Vancouver Book Award

North America is in the grips of a drug epidemic. While deaths across the continent soar, Travis Lupick's Fighting for Space explains the concept of harm reduction as a crucial component of a city's response to the drug crisis.

It tells the story of a grassroots group of addicts in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside who waged a political street fight for two decades to transform how the city treats its most marginalized citizens. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, this group of residents from Canada's poorest neighbourhood organized themselves in response to a growing number of overdose deaths and demanded that addicts be given the same rights as any other citizen; against all odds, they eventually won.

But just as their battle came to an end, fentanyl arrived and opioid deaths across North America reached an all-time high. It's prompted many to rethink the war on drugs. Public opinion has slowly begun to turn against prohibition, and policy-makers are finally beginning to look at addiction as a health issue as opposed to one for the criminal justice system.

The previous epidemic in Vancouver sparked government action. Twenty years later, as the same pattern plays out in other cities, there is much that advocates for reform can learn from Vancouver's experience. Fighting for Space tells that story, with the same passionate fervor as the activists whose tireless work gave dignity to addicts and saved countless lives.

Travis Lupick is an award-winning journalist based in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He has more than a decade's experience working as a staff reporter for the Georgia Straight newspaper and has also written about drug addiction, harm reduction, and mental health for the Toronto Star, the Walrus, and Al Jazeera English, among other outlets. For his reporting on Canada's opioid crisis, Lupick received the Canadian Association of Journalists' Don McGillivray Award for best overall investigative report of 2016 and two 2017 Jack Webster awards for excellence in B.C. journalism. He has also worked as a journalist in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Malawi, Nepal, Bhutan, Peru, and Honduras. You can follow him on Twitter: @tlupick.

A new edition of the colourful history of Vancouver's Penthouse Nightclub, which celebrates its seventieth anniversary in 2017.

The after-hours watering hole for the famous and infamous, the Penthouse was opened in 1947 by brothers Joe, Ross, Mickey, and Jimmy Filippone and soon became the place to see and be seen in Vancouver in the 1950s and '60s. Acts like Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, and Duke Ellington regularly performed on the Penthouse stage, and audiences often included visiting stars such as Frank Sinatra, Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper, and many others.

In the 1970s, the Penthouse became infamous for its exotic dancers. Its colourful, lurid history now encompassed vice squads, politicians, judges, and con men, culminating in the murder of Joe Philliponi, known as the "Godfather of Seymour Street," in 1983. However, through decades of evolving social mores and changing cultural styles in a city constantly trying to reinvent itself, the Penthouse somehow survived, a testament to its history and the fortitude of the Filippone family that still owns it.

This second edition includes a new chapter on how the original book revived interest in the club and its storied past, and what the future holds in store. There are also newly unearthed historical photographs, and even some traditional Italian recipes from the Filippone matriarch.

Rife with nostalgia and just a hint of scandal, Liquor, Lust, and the Law reveals a glamorous and slightly naughty view of historic Vancouver after dark.

Aaron Chapman is a writer, historian, and musician with a special interest in Vancouver's entertainment history. He is the author of Vancouver after Dark: The Wild History of a City's Nightlife, winner of the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award (BC Book Prizes) in 2020; The Last Gang in Town, the story of Vancouver's Clark Park Gang; Liquor, Lust, and the Law, the story of Vancouver's Penthouse Nightclub, now available in a second edition; Vancouver Vice: Crime and Spectacle in the City's West End; and Live at the Commodore, a history of the Commodore Ballroom that won the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award (BC Book Prizes) in 2015 (a new edition appears in 2023). In 2020 he was elected as a member of the Royal Historical Society. He lives in Vancouver.

A magical gender variant child brings transformation and change to the world around them thanks to their mother's enduring love.

In the magical time between night and day, when both the sun and the moon are in the sky, a child is born in a little blue house on a hill. And Miu Lan is not just any child, but one who can change into any shape they can imagine. The only problem is they can't decide what to be: a boy or a girl? A bird or a fish? A flower or a shooting star? At school, though, they must endure inquisitive looks and difficult questions from the other children, and have trouble finding friends who will accept them for who they are. But they find comfort in the loving arms of their mother, who always offers them the same loving refrain: "whatever you dream of / i believe you can be / from the stars in the sky to the fish in the sea."

In this captivating, beautifully imagined picture book about gender, identity, and the acceptance of the differences between us, Miu Lan faces many questions about who they are and who they may be. But one thing's for sure: no matter who this child becomes, their mother will love them just the same.

Ages 3 to 8.

Kai Cheng Thom is a writer, performance artist, and community healer in Toronto. She is the author of the novel Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir Metonymy Press), the essay collection I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes at the End of the World (an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book), the poetry collection a place called No Homeland (an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book in 2018), and the children's picture books From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea, illustrated by Kai Yun Ching and Wai-Yant Li, and For Laika, the Dog Who Learned the Names of the Stars, illustrated by Kai Yun Ching. Kai Cheng won the Writers' Trust of Canada's Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers in 2017.

Kai Yun Ching is a community-based organizer, educator, and illustrator. They are the co-illustrator of the children's picture book From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea, and they edited and published Children's Stories, a collection of tales written by children, with the publishing collective Quilted Creatures in 2016.

Wai-Yant Li is a Montreal-based artist who works mainly in making otherworldly ceramics and illustration. For the last thirteen years, they have been presenting and selling their work at craft fairs, galleries, and museums in Canada.

A magic-realist novel set in seventh-century China featuring ghosts, martial arts, and the transformative oracle bone.

Life in seventh-century China teems with magic, fox spirits, and demons; there is a fervent belief that the extraordinary resides within the lives of both commoners and royalty. During the years when the empress Wu Zhao gains ascendancy in the Tang court, her evil-minded lover Xie becomes obsessed with finding and possessing the oracle bone, a magical object that will bestow immortal powers on him. Standing in his way is Qilan, an eccentric Daoist nun who rescues an orphaned girl named Ling from being sold into slavery; Qilan takes her under her wing, promising to train her so she may avenge her parents' murders. In another part of the city, a young monk named Harelip questions his faith and his attraction to other men as he helps the elder monk Xuanzang to complete his translation of the Heart Sutra, the sacred Buddhist scripture. Meanwhile, as the mysteries and powers of the missing oracle bone are revealed, it remains to be seen whether Qilan will be able to stop Xie from gaining possession of the magical bone, and at what cost.

This extraordinary magic-realist novel by Singapore-born author Lydia Kwa employs and subverts traditional tropes of Chinese mythology to tell a tale of greed, faith, and female empowerment with a wickedly modern sensibility.

Lydia Kwa is the author of the novels Oracle Bone,This Place Called Absence (shortlisted for the Books in Canada First Novel Award), The Walking Boy (shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize), and Pulse, as well as two books of poetry, The Colours of Heroines and sinuous. A new updated edition of The Walking Boy was published in 2019. She lives and works in Vancouver as a writer and psychologist.

An offbeat story collection about strange, imperfect people doing strange, imperfect things.

These funny and strange stories are populated by weirdos and misfits trying out new ways of being in the world; sometimes they succeed and sometimes they fail, and sometimes they end up in a slapstick sex scene that culminates with broken furniture. Disarming and bittersweet, Don't Tell Me What to Do isn't scared to tell the truth about those of us who are emotional, who care too much about things that might seem ridiculous, and who are beautifully, perfectly flawed.

Dina Del Bucchia is the author of the story collection Don't Tell Me What to Do as well as three collections of poetry: Coping with Emotions and Otters (Talonbooks, 2013), Blind Items (Insomiac Press, 2014), and Rom Com (Talonbooks 2015), the latter written with her Can't Lit podcast co-host Daniel Zomparelli. She is an editor of Poetry Is Dead magazine and the Artistic Director of the Real Vancouver Writers' Series. Dina created and curates "Dress Like a Book" (on tumblr and Instagram) to unite two of her great loves: literature and fashion.