The Rebellion Mysteries
Turncoat, Solemn Vows, and Vital Secret
By Don Gutteridge, Touchstone, 963 pages, $19.99

The perfect summer vacation read? Maybe. This omnibus edition of Don Gutteridge’s three historical mysteries adds up to nearly 1,000 pages of good Canadian fun. The three novels star British soldier Marc Edwards, whose duties come to include spying, undercover detective work and plain old murder-mystery solving.

The Cat’s Table
By Michael Ondaatje, Vintage Canada, 265 pages, $22

It’s the early 1950s, and 11-year-old Michael is put aboard a ship bound from Ceylon to England. His voyage, and the discoveries he makes about himself and life in general, are the work of a superb novelist at the top of his game. Funny, insightful and moving.

Savages
By Don Winslow, Simon & Schuster, 302 pages, $17

The movie tie-in edition of Don Winslow’s excellent thriller, in which three laid-back young Californians, just trying to get rich by raising and selling pot, become violently involved with a Mexican drug cartel.

Ablutions
By Patrick deWitt, Anansi, 164 pages, $16.95

This is not modelled on deWitt’s darkly hilarious, Giller– and Booker-nominated, Governor-General’s Award-winning The Sisters Brothers. No, the central character of Ablutions is a Hollywood bartender who is making notes for a planned novel. But his life becomes more complicated when his wife leaves him, and he finally realizes he must escape – or die.

Remembering Postmodernism
Trends in Canadian Art, 1970-1990
By Mark A Cheetham Oxford University Press, 155 pages, $27.95

A must read for anyone interested in contemporary Canadian art. Mark Cheetham, a professor of art history at the University of Toronto, argues that memory is the essential theme of Canadian art, and examines the work of the country’s best and most famous modern artists.