Princeton Architectural Press has published two fantastic books for designers:

DIY--Design It Yourself, edited by Ellen Lupton, is perfect for people who own their own business and want to do their own design. The book is a practical primer with all the tools needed to create individualized projects from conception to production.

How to Be a Graphic Designer, without Losing Your Soul, by Adrian Shaughnessy, is the book for new designers. Written by a designer for designers, this combination of practical advice with philosophical guidance will help young professionals embark on their careers. 

Below is the January 30 press release from canada.com and Lonely Planet (distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books).

canada.com Partners with Lonely Planet to Provide New Travel Content Tool
Detailed information on over 157 destinations worldwide

(OAKLAND, CA – January 30, 2006) CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. and operator of canada.com announced today that it has entered into a partnership with Lonely Planet, the world’s premier independent travel publisher.  The partnership will provide canada.com with detailed information on over 157 destinations around the world while offering Lonely Planet access to canada.com’s extensive reach across the country.

“canada.com’s almost three million unique visitors monthly provides a perfect online audience for Lonely Planet’s award-winning guidebooks as we grow our brand in the Canadian marketplace,” said Blake Hutchison, Business Development Manager for Lonely Planet. "Our WorldGuide content, which is the cornerstone of our own website, provides succinct, punchy and inspirational information which will resonate well with Canadians who we believe represent the quintessential Lonely Planet traveler,” said Hutchison.

The new section is featured under canada.com travel and contains a map of the world that users can click on to find information about their upcoming destinations or to do research on potential destinations. Canada’s most recognizable web address, combined with Lonely Planet travel content further expands its value as Canada’s leading online destination for news, entertainment, and lifestyle information.

“This partnership with Lonely Planet is another example of our commitment to provide the most compelling and reliable content possible to our audience,” said Arturo Duran, President, CanWest Interactive. “Lonely Planet is a market leader in providing independent, unbiased travel information, and the accuracy and depth of its content is a perfect fit for canada.com’s users to help them at the pre-travel stages as well as the booking stage.”

About canada.com

canada.com is owned by CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc., which is 74% indirectly owned by CanWest Global Communications Corp, (CanWest) (NYSE: CWG; TSX: CGS.SV and CGS.NV, http://www.canwestglobal.com) and 24% indirectly owned by the CanWest MediaWorks Income Fund (http://www.canwest.com/incomefund). CanWest, an international media company, is Canada’s largest media company. In addition to owning the Global Television Network, CanWest is Canada’s largest publisher of daily newspapers, and also owns, operates and/or holds substantial interests in conventional television, out-of-home advertising, specialty cable channels, Web sites and radio networks in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

About Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is the world’s leading independent global travel information provider and publisher headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, with regional offices in the US and UK. Founded in 1973 by husband and wife team Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the company publishes over 600 titles in English and sells more than 6.5 million books a year in 118 countries. Lonely Planet has an award-winning website and online digital image library. Each year, more than 200 authors from over 20 countries research the world over and provide expert information. Lonely Planet’s Business Services Unit is dedicated to leveraging this travel expertise to create travel content for new distribution channels and business clients. Visit http://www.lonelyplanet.biz.
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Media contacts:

Cindy Cohen
Lonely Planet
510-893-8556 ext. 221

Katherine Raso
CanWest MediaWorks
416 442-2177

Toronto Public Library celebrates the written word with Keep Toronto Reading this February.

During a press launch on Jan. 27, Mayor David Miller officially declared February as Keep Toronto Reading Month. The Library’s unprecedented month-long program of free special events highlighting the age old love of the written word.

“In February, we shine the spotlight on Toronto Public Library’s commitment to reading and literary culture,” says Mayor David Miller. “We celebrate the important role that the Library plays in the community. We toast the citizens and the staff who make our Library the largest and busiest public library system in North America.”

Keep Toronto Reading showcases nearly 100 writers, storytellers, illustrators, and media personalities, including Joseph Boyden, Wayson
Choy, Camilla Gibb, Kenneth Oppel, and Seth.

For more information about Keep Toronto Reading, including up-to-date program information and exclusive author interviews, visit www.keeptorontoreading.ca

-Graphically Speaking-
Three graphic novel masters discuss T.O.’s comics scene
Tues. Feb. 7
7-8 pm
North York Central Library (Auditorium)

Sit down with Seth (Wimbledon Green), Chester Brown (Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography) and Matthew Blackett (m@b), three critically acclaimed Canadian graphic novelists, as they discuss how Toronto’s graphic novel scene has evolved to where it is at today. They will chat candidly about how the city has influenced, and in some cases, popped up, in their works. They also discuss graphic novels as a storytelling medium. Peter Birkemoe, from Canada’s premier comic book store, The Beguiling, moderates. A Q+A follows the discussion.

American Idol is gripping the nation yet again. But what does the recording industry really look like?

Jen Trynin knows.

It was 1994--post-Liz Phair, mid-Courtney Love, just shy of Alanis Morissette. After seven years of slogging it out in the Boston music scene, Jen Trynin took a hard look at herself and gave “making it” one last shot. It worked.

Suddenly Trynin became the object of one of the most heated bidding wars of the year. Major labels lobbed millions of dollars at her. Lawyers, managers and booking agents clamoured for her attention. Billboard put her on the cover. Everyone knew she was the Next Big Thing. But then she wasn’t.

Everything I’m Cracked Up to Be is a gritty insider’s look at the recording industry.

In other starlet news, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Press Plunges into Hollywood. The latest bathroom reader concentrates on the trials, tribulations and trivia of Tinseltown. The mysteries, mayhem and majesty of the movies and their makers share the screen (or page) with the quotes, puzzles, quizzes and bits of lore that readers have come to expect from Uncle John’s.

“Hooray for Hollywood”

It’s the year 4704, and time to welcome the Year of the Dog!

Chinese New Year is celebrated in cities around the world. This year celebrations occur during the week before and after January 29.

Two major centres, Vancouver and Toronto, have widely publicized parades and events that are appropriate for kids.

Visit the Travel With Kids website for details or see below:

Vancouver, BC
Vancouver has a large Chinese community, and the Spring Parade is held annually in Chinatown on the first Sunday of the Lunar New Year, with entertainment and lion dance. Call the Vancouver Touristinfo Centre, 604-683-2000, or check HelloBC. Nearby are activities at the beautiful (admission-by-donation) classical Gardens: music, fortune telling, craft demonstrations, etc.

Toronto Lunar New Year
Toronto celebrates “The Largest Lunar New Year Festival in Canada”, January 27 to January 29, 2006, at Exhibition Place, with market fair, arts and crafts bazaar, Asian food court,  Lunar New Year cooking stage, flower market, lanterns exhibit,  games; and entertainment such as lion dance, opera, magic shows.

If you’d rather stay in, check out Ed Young’s visual poem about China, Beyond the Great Mountains.

Ed Young is a Caldecott Award winner and his lyrical masterpiece is a wonderful introduction for children to the grace, depth and majesty of the Orient. Each page features gorgeous paper-collage illustrations, highlighted with Chinese characters that are explained at the back.

Interested in the Chinese zodiac?

The legend of the Chinese zodiac is told in David Bouchard’s picture book, The Great Race. Bouchard’s text is accompanied by the paintings of Chinese-Canadian artist Zhong-Yang Huang. The images and text set in motion the timeless contest that pits creatures such as the ox, rat, horse and dragon against one another to see who will reach the Jade City first. But as the story unfolds, it becomes poignantly clear that there are more important things than being the fastest or the craftiest.

“Remember, it is not who won that matters. It is the order in which they placed that is most important. Listen carefully so that you come to understand why each animal placed where it did.” —excerpt

Tomorrow is Family Literacy Day
Jan. 27

For event listings across Canada visit the ABC Canada website.

Today is the birthday of Scotland’s national poet, Robbie Burns.  Robbie Burns Day is typically celebrated with a special pudding called Haggis, which has been cooked inside a sheep’s stomach. If Haggis doesn’t sound tasty to you, perhaps the spirit of Scotland shimmering in a glass is the way to celebrate. (Scotland and its Whiskies by Michael Jackson)

Scotch is the world’s most widely enjoyed spirit. The substance is barley, grown and malted in places like the Black Isle. This staff of life is transformed from the mundane to the magical by the mountain water, the blossoming heather, the burning peat and the westerly winds. According to legend, the whisky of Scotland was brought from Northern Ireland to the Scottish island of Iona--but it is now being rediscovered in the single-malt bars around the world.

Go beyond the scotch bar and into the hills with Trailblazer’s Scottish Highlands: The Hillwalking Guide or Lonely Planet’s Scotland guidebook.

Or just settle into an armchair with George Rosie’s Curious Scotland: Tales from a Hidden History. Find out what became of the sons of Robert Burns? How did Scotland influence the KKK? Why was a Hebredian island deliberately infested with anthrax? The answers reveal the complexity of Scotland’s long, strange story.

So what are you going to do on Robbie Burns Day?

Have a scotch, try some Haggis, read Robbie Burns and call it a day.
But remember, the histories of nations are never as simple as their legends suggest.

Lonely Planet Bluelist
618 Things To Do And Places To Go. 06-07.

Looking for a travel destination or something to do in 2006? Check out the Lonely Planet Bluelist for “Things” such as Most History per Square Mile, Best Places to See Wildlife, Most Awesome Treks, Best Road Trips, Most Gruelling Events and Dodgiest Scams.

Looking for “Places”, Bluelist has got the best places to go in the Americas, Asia, Australasia & Pacific, Europe, Middle East & North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Don’t see your favourite list in Bluelist? Create your own and enter the contest to be a Lonely Planet writer.
See contest details (ends Feb. 28).

Indigo’s Junior Advisors board has picked Sue Limb’s novel Girl (nearly) 16: Absolute Torture as one of this year’s picks.

For the full list visit Indigo.ca

Sue Limb (Gloucestershire, U.K.) is the author of screen plays, radio programs and fiction for adults and children. Her children’s books include China Lee and Come Back Grandma, which was shortlisted for the Smarties Prize.

Girl (nearly) 16 is for those teens who know that life can be absolute torture. For main character Jess, her life has just hit the skids. Her mom has arranged a trip to see Jess’ dad. Great concept, bad timing, for Jess has just got together with Fred and in an incredibly romantic way he has scraped together the money to get them each a ticket to a hot music festival. Now Jess will be on a road trip with her mom and her grandmother instead. And worse, her best friend Flora is going to the same music festival as Fred.

Sue Limb’s writing captures the funny, difficult, prickly, and lovely parts of being (nearly) 16.

The series includes:
Girl, 15, Charming But Insane
Girl (nearly) 16: Absolute Torture
Girl 16: Pants On Fire (coming May 2006)

The Vancouver Public Library is holding a Family Literacy Week event on Wednesday, January 25:
Raising the Critically Thinking Child—The School Library as Catalyst

The Family Literacy Week event features a panel of experts discussing critical thinking, the importance of the school library program, and the role of parents in raising an aware child.

Panel members include:
Joel Bakan—Professor, Faculty of Law at UBC, and author of The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power
Patricia Finlay—District Teacher-Librarian, Burnaby
Roland Case—Professor of Curriculum and Social Studies at SFU, and Executive Director, The Criticial Thinking Consortium

For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603 or via email:

The event is sponsored by Literacy BC and BC Coalition for School Libraries

Wednesday January 25
7:30 pm
Vancouver Public Library
Central Library, 350 West Georgia Street
Free Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level

Drawn.ca reports that Joe Sacco, the comics-journalist, known for his graphic novels, Palestine and The Fixer, has filed another eight-page comic from the front lines of Iraq.

You can download the PDF from the Guardian.

Joe Sacco has a new book coming in June 2006 on Bosnia: War’s End

Nasrin Alavi, author of We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs was on CBC Dispatches on January 12.

Nasrin joins CBC host Rick MacInnes-Rae from London to talk about her book and the nature of blogging in Iran.

Audio files are available from the CBC Dispatches website, www.cbc.ca/dispatches/

Or you can click on the CBC links below to listen to the program in RealAudio:

Listen to Blog Entry

Listen to Rick’s conversation with Nasrin Alavi

Jim Pritchard and co-author Sharon Lindenburger are celebrating the launch of their book The Warrior Mind (AMACOM) tonight at 7 pm. Location details below.

Jonathon Bancroft-Snell Interiors
258 Dundas
London, ON
Toll free 1-866-229-5244
7pm

Refreshments will be served.

Author Jim Pritchard is also a speaker and teacher of psychological and physical self-defence and conflict resolution. He holds black belts in several martial arts and is also a Special Forces veteran. Sharon Lindenburger is an author, journalist and scriptwriter.

The Warrior Mind shows that martial arts is a form of mental discipline that enables the warrior to face any challenge, including those of the modern world. Jim Pritchard, who is a disciple of legendary Ninjitsu and Taijitsu masters, reveals how to adopt this mindset with or without practising the physical components of the martial arts. Using anecdotes, examples and stories, he shows how six mental principles will help readers maintain focus and balance--no matter what the obstacle.

Matthew Bogdanos, author of Thieves of Baghdad will be lecturing at the ROM in April.

Crimes Against Culture
Thursday, April 20, 7-9 pm
 
What do terrorism, drugs, big money and violent crime have in common? Answer: The illegal business of stolen cultural property--paintings, sculptures, documents and archaeological artifacts. Art theft is not a victimless crime. Entire nations suffer when the evidence of their histories and identities are sold to the highest bidder. Book signing after lecture.
 
Offered in association with Raincoast Books.
 
Lecturers: Col. Matthew Bogdanos, New York City prosecutor, Marine colonel, head of international investigation into looting of Iraq Museum, author of Thieves of Baghdad.
Bonnie Czegledi, barrister and solicitor, international art and cultural heritage law, and director, Institute of Arts and Cultural Heritage.

Visit the ROM website for tickets and details:
$22 (online $20)
ROM members $18 (online $16)

Michelle Berry gave Dede Crane’s novel Sympathy an excellent review in this Saturday’s Globe and Mail.

Some quotes:

“Sympathy is a beautifully crafted book ... Crane moves around the characters and setting and situation with such finesse and confidence, ties everything up so nicely, that at times it feels as if you are reading a ballet.”

“Crane juggles a lot of personalities and does it with great control.”

“Dede Crane has written a complex and powerful novel. I was sorry when the curtain came down at the end.”

Dede Crane’s novel Sympathy is about Kerry Taylor, a former ballet dancer who slips into a catatonic state when a car accident claims the lives of her husband and son. Kerry ends up in the Rosewood Clinic in Washington, D.C., where the enigmatic Dr. Michael Myatt has launched a controversial new therapy. A supporting cast of five colourful lost souls adds humour to the story of Kerry’s gradual return to consciousness.

Dede Crane’s fiction has been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Award and published in numerous literary journals. She is a former professional ballet dancer who has studied Buddhist psychology at Naropa Institute in Colorado and psychokinetics at the Body-Mind Institute in Amherst, Massachusetts. She lives B.C.