To read the Globe's review of the books listed here, click on the title.
WHY YOUR WORLD IS ABOUT TO BECOME A WHOLE LOT SMALLER: Oil and the End of Globalization
By Jeff Rubin, Random House Canada, 265 pages, $$29.95
The former CIBC World Markets guru presents a compelling argument that our entire global economy has been propped up by seemingly endless supplies of cheap oil. But take heed: The day of cheap oil is over. We are drilling through thousands of metres of sea water and bedrock to get at the stuff, and boiling it out of the frozen, mucky sand of northern Alberta. A great read, required for anyone with a long-term interest in Canadian energy, transportation, manufacturing or agriculture. Todd Hirsch
FREE: The Future of a Radical Price
By Chris Anderson, Hyperion, $34.99, 274 pages
Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine and author of the bestselling The Long Tail, ruminates in this much-discussed work on the free economy and where it’s taking us. Anderson’s pithy, breezy reports on how companies are succeeding or failing in their efforts to adapt to “free” make this book a pleasure to read. More important, his central idea – that free is the price we have to pay to do business – is one we can’t afford to ignore. Hal Niedzviecki
THE PRICE OF A BARGAIN: The Quest for Cheap and the Death of Globalization
By Gordon Laird, McClelland & Stewart, 347 pages, $32.99
Gordon Laird tells the story of bargain retailing from the first mall to no-frills box stores and the dollar stores popping up everywhere, and the massive scale of shipping today, with investment in global transport and logistics approaching 14 per cent of the world economy. A revolution of falling expectations was forestalled in what appeared to be a continuing rise in consumer buying power as people flocked to Wal-Mart stores. Laird lays bare the cost of those bargains in compelling detail. Heather Menzies
THE LOST CITY OF Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
By David Grann, Doubleday, 339 pages, $32
In 1925, at a time when much of the physical world’s “veil of enchantment” had already been lifted by the burgeoning science of cartography, famed English explorer Percy Fawcett set off into one of the planet’s last uncharted regions, the Amazon rain forest of western Brazil. And disappeared. In his own quest for the solution of the mystery, New Yorker writer David Grann follows in Fawcett’s footsteps and produces an old-fashioned epic quest narrative of the first order. Andrew Westoll
BEYOND BELFAST: A 560-Mile Walk Across Northern Ireland on Sore Feet
By Will Ferguson, Viking Canada, 396 pages, $32
Walking the Ulster Way, Will Ferguson experiences blisters, scabies, brushes with death and breathtaking scenery. The narrative crackles into life when he recounts conversations along the way: the rhythms of speech, the quick-witted and slightly surreal sense of humour. It’s also punctuated with historical and political musings, triggered by the places he visits and the encounters he has, all written with a fine sense of historical irony. David A. Wilson
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