Exporting Democracy The Risks and Rewards of Pursuing a Good Idea, by Bob Rae, Emblem, 275 pages, $21
Bob Rae combines scholarship and a wealth of first-hand observation to explore the concept of democracy and the Western compulsion to spread it around the world.
The Nesting Season Cuckoos, Cuckolds, and the Invention of Monogamy, by Bernd Heinrich, Belknap/Harvard University Press, 337 pages, $17.95 U.S.
U.S. biologist Bernd Heinrich examines the many varieties of bird mating, nesting and parenting behaviour, and how it all illuminates human evolution.
A Red Herring Without Mustard By Alan Bradley, Anchor Canada, 393 pages, $19.95
Eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce, attending the fair in the village of Bishop's Lacey, has her fortune told by a Gypsy woman, then later that night finds the fortune-teller bludgeoned nearly to death.
The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks By Stuart McLean, Penguin Canada, 392 pages, $20
CBC host Stuart McLean has travelled from one end of Canada to another, and uses those journeys to inform this quirky, eclectic and wide-ranging collection of essays.