The holiday season is here, and there's no better time to cozy up with a good book (or ten!). Open Book's Holiday Book Guide will direct you to some of the most engaging books on store shelves this season. Our Guide will be regularly updated throughout December, featuring a fresh theme with each listing. Today's theme: A TASTE FOR CULTURE.
A Taste for Culture:
Kids find out about the magic of science and the science of magic in Magic Up Your Sleeve: Amazing Illusions, Tricks, and Science Facts You'll Never Believe (Maple Tree Press) by much-loved children's author Helaine Becker. Claudia Dávila brings the facts to life with her colourful illustrations.
Sweet-and-sour pork with a side of onion rings, anyone? In Eating Chinese: Culture on the Menu in Small Town Canada (University of Toronto Press), Lily Cho explores the continuing cultural significance of the Chinese restaurants that are ubiquitous in small-town Canada as a result of the Chinese diaspora.
If Baba's holopchi or Nonna's gnocchi are a staple in your family's traditional holiday meal, you'll love learning how the Canadian diet evolved through incorporating local ingredients and tips from First Nations cooking into recipes from the old countries in Dorothy Duncan's Feasting and Fasting (Dundurn).
Volume One of The Munk Debates (House of Anansi Press), edited by Rudyard Griffiths, collects the stimulating and important debates between Niall Ferguson and Richard Holbrooke, Mia Farrow and Rick Hillier, Hernando de Soto and Stephen Lewis — and other great thinkers and leaders. This edition includes an introduction by Peter Munk, who co-founded the Munk debate series with his wife, Melanie, in 2008.
Forty years young, Where to Eat in Canada 10/11 (Oberon Press) by Anne Hardy is the best-selling independent guide to restaurants across the country. Covering over 500 restaurants in more than 200 cities, Where to Eat will lead you to the right watering hole when you're tired of turkey.
Who says the arts are just for elites at fancy galas? In Random Acts of Culture: Reclaiming Acts of Community in the 21st Century (Between the Lines), Clarke Mackey argues for the importance — and prevalence — of what he calls vernacular culture, which encompasses everything from social gathering to gardening to impromptu jam sessions.
Local Motion: The Art of Civic Engagement in Toronto (Coach House Books), edited by Dave Meslin, Christina Palassio and Alana Wilcox, is an exploration of the cultural hummings at work in Canada's largest city. Getting into the heart of the city includes discussions about zoning controversies, the vision of a "creative city," budgeting and guerrilla activism.
Award-winning author Jan Thornhill takes kids on a gastronomical tour — answering questions like why we eat, how food is produced and why our food choices matter along the way — in Who Wants Pizza? The Kids' Guide to the History, Science and Culture of Food (Maple Tree Press). You'll never look at a slice of pizza the same way again!
Buy these books at your local independent bookstore or online at Chapters/Indigo or Amazon.
Don't miss previous editions of the Holiday Book Guide! Check out the great line up for:
CITY LIVING
THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
STAGE, SCREEN & SONG
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