Provenance

"An illuminating insight...fascinating."—Amanda Grange, bestselling author of Mr. Darcy's Diary

"A journey through both a physical landscape and the geography of the human heart and mind...delightfully entertaining and often deeply moving, this book reminds us that Austen's world—and her characters—are very much alive."—Michael Thomas Ford, author of Jane Bites Back

WHERE DO BOOKS TAKE YOU?

With a suitcase full of Jane Austen novels en español, Amy Elizabeth Smith set off on a yearlong Latin American adventure: a traveling book club with Jane. In six unique, unforgettable countries, she gathered book-loving new friends— taxi drivers and teachers, poets and politicians— to read Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice.

Whether sharing rooster beer with Guatemalans, joining the crowd at a Mexican boxing match, feeding a horde of tame iguanas with Ecuadorean children, or tangling with argumentative booksellers in Argentina, Amy came to learn what Austen knew all along: that we're not always speaking the same language— even when we're speaking the same language.

But with true Austen instinct, she could recognize when, unexpectedly, she'd found her own Señor Darcy.

All Roads Lead to Austen celebrates the best of what we love about books and revels in the pleasure of sharing a good book— with good friends.

The newest Dr. Rebecca Temple book is set alternately in 1979 Toronto and 1930s Berlin. In Toronto, Rebecca follows a trail that begins when Birdie, the schizophrenic homeless woman she is trying to help, is killed. From the German fencing instructor in whose backyard Birdie lived to the Egyptian physician in town to talk up the new drug he is developing from snake venom, nobody is who they appear to be. Strangely, the two men seem to know each other, although neither will say how.

Alternating chapters follow a Jewish family, the Eisenbaums, during the Nazi rise to power and the gradual stripping away of the rights of Jews in Germany. The youngest child, Frederika, becomes a doctor against all odds. But as the Nazi grip tightens, she loses the right to practice and is finally sent to a concentration camp. Rebecca's and Frederika's stories connect in the startling conclusion.

For twenty-three years during the golden age of radio in Canada, stories for children by Mary Grannan, "Just Mary," were broadcast by CBC and beloved across the country. She retired from broadcasting in 1962 and died in 1975, but her sweet-tempered and humorous stories still have the power to entertain, while recapturing the atmosphere of another time.

Grannan published stories from Just Mary and Maggie Muggins in over thirty best-selling books, but she had other radio series that were never released in print. The "Just Mary" Reader presents for the first time a selection of her stories from two other radio drama series. Jubilee Road tells the adventures and misadventures of Johnny and Patty Little and their friend Salty Pickle. Or, as Johnny describes it: "We get into quite a few messes, but if you know us, you'll know that it's hardly ever our fault."

In Land of Supposing, Grannan retold fairy tales and legends from around the world, as well as a few legends of her own making. Previously unpublished selections from Just Mary and Maggie Muggins complete the collection.