Words Jackie LaPlante
Photos Tanner’s Books
Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away
David Gelles
Formidable outdoorsman and wildly successful businessman Yvon Chouinard was always uncomfortable with his wealth. His love of climbing inspired the founding of the extremely successful “Patagonia,” yet Chouinard lives an ascetic life, endeavouring to offer better ways to balance successful business and social responsibility. New York Times correspondent David Gelles’ compelling account details the rise of Patagonia, its efforts to positively influence global business practices, and the complex decision to give away the company.
The Wedding People
Alison Espach
New in paperback, The Wedding People is a darkly funny and insightful novel. Exhausted and depressed, having lost her marriage and her professorship, the lead character checks into a luxurious beachside hotel, intent on ending it all in plush comfort. However, when she is mistaken for a wedding guest and befriends the bride, she is pulled out of her darkness, finding acceptance and renewal in the company of people who would previously have been unlikely friends.
Ransom
Daniel Silva
The latest installment in the Gabriel Allon series returns the reader to Silva’s favoured milieu of the notably wealthy and their involvement in international espionage. When a British socialite is kidnapped, former Israeli operative, master spy and sometime art restorer Gabriel Allon is enlisted to solve a simple case. Soon Allon’s masterful investigative skills uncover a Russian plot against the U.K. With complex characters and intricately woven plot lines, Silva delivers another thrilling geopolitical adventure.
Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old
Mary Beard
Mary Beard begins by asking “what is the point of classics?”. There is an ongoing fascination with antiquity because, she believes, its effect on civilization continues today: from the philosophy that influences current politics to the everyday – the Gregorian calendar – to tales of misogyny and war, antiquity remains relevant. Talking Classics, an approachable if not entirely easy book, asks that we revere classics less, embracing them simply with wonder for the insights their ordinariness provides.
Etna
Paul Yoon
A little heart-wrenching, as many animal stories are, Etna is written from a dog’s point of view. Trained as a military canine, Etna eventually leaves his troop to search for his family. As he travels, the reader is privy to him “conversing” with animals and caring for his humans, believing wholeheartedly that he will succeed in his quest. Paul Yoon’s playful writing creates a memorable canine character who is a model of perseverance and hope.
Exit Party
Emily St. John Mandel
Comox-born St. John Mandel’s speculative fiction novel revisits some of her favoured themes of a world in chaos and life beyond earth. Spanning 100 years, from 1960 onward, in a politically chaotic America, a house party becomes the nexus of unusual occurrences: doppelgangers appear and parallel worlds become apparent. A thrilling storyline moves from arms dealing to life on the moon, as characters find ways to cope in an unbalanced world while striving to uphold their values.
Trash! A Garbageman’s Story
Simon Paré-Poupart
A garbageman with degrees in sociology and international business is an unusual find. Becoming a Montréal garbage collector as a teen, Paré-Poupart made it his career. His account is an exposé of the hard work of garbage disposal, but it is also a fond description of male camaraderie and unapologetic masculinity. Accounts of unreasonable customers, asides on humanity’s unending ability to create waste and references to classical French literature make for a surprising and interesting read.
