Cottage Life is lucky to count many of Canada’s top writers among our contributors. Add their books to your TBR (to-be-read) pile, and revisit their incredible (often award-winning) work from the magazine.
Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World
By Clive Thompson
From acclaimed tech writer Clive Thompson comes a brilliant anthropological reckoning with the most powerful tribe in the world today, computer programmers, in a book that interrogates who they are, how they think, what qualifies as greatness in their world, and what should give us pause.
—Penguin Random House
Clive Thompson confesses his cottage sins: Pride
This is how Canadian writer Clive Thompson goes wild at the cottage
The Spectacular
By Zoe Whittall
It’s taboo to regret motherhood. But what would happen if you did? Shifting perspectives and time periods, The Spectacular is a multi-generational story exploring sexuality, gender and the weight of reproductive freedoms, from the author of The Best Kind of People.—HarperCollins Canada
Nerve: A Personal Journey Through the Science of Fear
By Eva Holland
In 2015, Eva Holland was forced to confront her greatest fear when her mother had a stroke and suddenly passed away. After the shock and grief subsided, Holland began to examine the extent to which her many fears had limited her, and wondered whether or not it was possible to move past them.—Penguin Canada
The Barren Grounds
By David A. Robertson
Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They each feel disconnected, from their culture and each other, and struggle to fit in at school and at their new home—until they find a secret place, walled off in an unfinished attic bedroom.—Puffin Canada
The difference between cultural appreciation and appropriation
The Day the World Stops Shopping
By J.B. MacKinnon
Consuming less is our best strategy for saving the planet—but can we do it? In this thoughtful and surprisingly optimistic book, journalist J. B. MacKinnon investigates how we may achieve a world without shopping.—Vintage Canada
Love letters to the cottage: On the pleasures of not changing a thing
Son of Elsewhere
By Elamin Abdelmahmoud
From one of the most beloved media personalities of his generation comes a one-of-a-kind reflection on Blackness, faith, language, pop culture, and the challenges and rewards of finding your way in the world.
Professional wrestling super fandom, Ontario’s endlessly unfurling 401 highway, late nights at the convenience store listening to heavy metal—for writer and podcast host Elamin Abdelmahmoud, these are the building blocks of a life. Son of Elsewhere charts that life in wise, funny, and moving reflections on the many threads that weave together into an identity.—McClelland & Stewart
Baseball Life Advice: Loving the Game That Saved Me
By Stacey May Fowles
For Stacey May Fowles, the game of baseball is one of “long pauses punctuated by tiny miracles.” In this entertaining and thoughtful book, Fowles gives us a refreshingly candid and personal perspective on subjects ranging from bat flips to bandwagoners, from the romance of spring training to the politics of booing, from the necessity of taking a hard look at players’ injuries and mental health issues to finding solace at the ballpark.
—McClelland & Stewart
How a hundred-year-old baseball game became the heart of Bruce Beach
Praying to the West: How Muslims Shaped the Americas
By Omar Mouallem
In Praying to the West, Mouallem explores the unknown history of Islam across the Americas, traveling to thirteen unique mosques in search of an answer to how this religion has survived and thrived so far from the place of its origin. From California to Quebec, and from Brazil to Canada’s icy north, he meets the members of fascinating communities, all of whom provide different perspectives on what it means to be Muslim. Along this journey he comes to understand that Islam has played a fascinating role in how the Americas were shaped—from industrialization to the changing winds of politics. And he also discovers that there may be a place for Islam in his own life, particularly as a father, even if he will never be a true believer.
—Simon & Schuster
The Ice Chips and the Magical Rink
By Roy MacGregor and Kerry MacGregor
Lucas Finnigan eats, sleeps and breathes hockey. With his friends Edge, Swift and Crunch, Lucas plays on his hometown’s rink, dreaming of the day when he knows he’ll make the NHL. But lately money has been tight at home, and, after a major growth spurt, Lucas is forced to wear hand-me-down gear that doesn’t quite fit right. Now he’s not sure he’ll ever make it to the Hall of Fame like his hockey heroes.
And that’s not the only problem. With the community arena’s chiller on the fritz, and replacement parts too tough to come by, it looks like Lucas and his friends may be doomed to a season on a plastic rink—or worse, no hockey at all!
But with a magical discovery, and some help from one of hockey’s greatest players (who was a kid once, too!), their final skate might turn into their first great adventure…—HarperCollins
Moon of the Crusted Snow
By Waubgeshig Rice
With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow.
The community leadership loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision.—ECW Press
The End of Craving: Recovering the Lost Wisdom of Eating Well
By Mark Schatzker
For the last fifty years, we have been fighting a losing war on food. We have cut fat, reduced carbs, eliminated sugar, and attempted every conceivable diet only to find that eighty-eight million American adults are prediabetic, more than a hundred million have high blood pressure, and nearly half now qualify as obese. The harder we try to control what we eat, the unhealthier we become. Why?
Mark Schatzker has spent his career traveling the world in search of the answer. Now, in The End of Craving, he poses the profound question: What if the key to nutrition and good health lies not in resisting the primal urge to eat but in understanding its purpose?—Simon & Schuster
The Residence
By Andrew Pyper
In this terrifying ghost story based on true events, the President’s late son haunts the White House, threatening all who live in it—and the divided America beyond its walls. From the bestselling author of The Homecoming.—Simon & Schuster
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