Dixon’s Bookstore (Water St. between Simcoe St. and Hunter St.):
Christine DePizan’s The Book Of The City Of Ladies is in the classic lit section for ($5.95) and is a really interesting read in proto-feminism as imagined by a late medieval Venetian author.
In the Canlit section look for Writing The Circle ($5.95), a really fantastic looking collection of Western Canadian Native Women’s short fiction.
Thea’s (Water St. between Simcoe St. and Hunter St.):
For ($4) you can pick up a Sergio Ramirez collection entitled simply Stories. In addition to being an internationally acclaimed writer, Ramirez also served as Vice President of Nicaragua under the Daniel Ortega administration between 1985 and 1990.
Set in Bratislava in what was formerly known as Czechoslovakia during the dying days of communist rule, Martin Simecka’s literary debut The Year Of The Frog is available for ($8).
Scholar’s (Water St. between Simcoe St. and Hunter St.):
In the Philosophy section look for iconic Canadian social and communication theorist, Marshall McLuhan’s The Gutenberg Galaxy for ($7.95). In this seminal work, McLuhan introduces important concepts like ‘media ecologies’ as well as the ‘global village’ as he tracks the development of human consciousness in its interactions with the history of media technologies.
Find the Asian PEN anthology ($18/hardcover) for an excellent collection of short fiction and poetry from authors all across East, SouthEast and South Asia.
Books and Things (Water St. between Simcoe St. and Hunter St.):
Sitting in the window is Canadian activist and journalist, Naomi Klein’s book of essays, Fences And Windows, about the struggles against globalization across the world.
Go to the Canlit section and find the wide variety of Michael Ondaatje’s works including short story collection Running In The Family, Divisadero, the latest The Cat’s Table and almost his entire corpus on one shelf.
Mark Jokinen’s (George St. between King and Sherbrooke):
David Foster Wallace’s Brief Interviews With Hideous Men (highly recommended by shameless DFW lover and editor Pat Reddick) is in the literature section for ($10) as is an interesting looking An Anthology Of Erotic Prose edited by Derek Parker and being sold for ($15).
Famed ‘beat-generation’ novelist and poet, Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums can be had for only ($12) and will probably not last on shelves for very long.
Knotaknew (George St. at the corner of Sherbrooke St.):
Legendary comedian Steve Martin successfully turned his hand to fiction with Shopgirl– in the Lit section for ($7.95).
Also, Haruki Marukami has made an international claim for himself as a magical realist of the highest order. Marukami’s works have been so popular in his native Japan that his most recent work was sold in vending machines in subway stations. His 2001 novel, Sputnik Sweetheart is sitting in the Lit section for ($9.50).