The Tangled Garden

The emergence of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (the FAANGs) has created an unprecedented challenge to Canada's news, television and film businesses. In this book Richard Stursberg offers a brief account — often based on his insider's experience — of how Canada's cultural industries were built. And he explains that independent Canadian media and cultural industries are unlikely to survive due to the large share of ad dollars and audience attention captured by the big digital media companies. Faced with similar challenges, many governments around the world have responded by protecting and strengthening their national cultural life. Canada stands out for its passivity. Richard Stursberg identifies the path that would assure a strong continued news media, and a reasonable share of audiences for Canadian creative work. He warns that time for action is short, and many more media outlets will soon disappear, like the thirty-six newspapers shut down by the Toronto Star-Postmedia deal in 2017. Richard Stursberg's knowledge and experience across a wide range of cultural organizations in Canada make this an important and informative book on a topic of vital significance. At the same time this is an engaging account for any reader who wants to continue to enjoy Canadian stories and hear Canadian voices in the media and on our screens.

The Bart of J.E.H. MacDonald.

Grandmother's Garden is tangled with weeds, "Wildflowers, says grandma, food for the bees." A little girl visits her grandmother in summer and winter, and together they explore the wonders of Grandmother's garden. One day, Grandmother isn't there anymore, but as winter gives way to spring, the girl learns that life goes on and so does the memory of those we love.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Homecoming comes a “moody, suspenseful page-turner” (People, Best Book Pick) filled with mystery and spellbinding secrets. Living on her family’s idyllic lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, inquisitive, and precociously talented sixteen-year-old who loves to write stories. One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. He is never found, and the family is torn apart, the house abandoned. Decades later, Alice is living in London, having enjoyed a long successful career as a novelist. Miles away, Sadie Sparrow, a young detective in the London police force, is staying at her grandfather’s house in Cornwall. While out walking one day, she stumbles upon the old Edevane estate—now crumbling and covered with vines. Her curiosity is sparked, setting off a series of events that will bring her and Alice together and reveal shocking truths about a past long gone...yet more present than ever. A lush, atmospheric tale of intertwined destinies from a masterful storyteller, The Lake House is an enthralling, thoroughly satisfying read.