Seventh Avenue welcomes Dr. Carin Bondar, a biologist, writer, presenter and a true science geek.  She specialises in animal population ecology, with an extended focus on their sexual behaviours. She’s also the author of two books; WILD SEX (THE NATURE OF SEX, Orion), 2016, and WILD MOMS, due out in April 2018.

   

Dr. Bondar’s award winning shows along with her unique style and candour allow us fans to feel exceptionally tame in our own perversions when compared to the shocking behaviour of animals in the natural world. You can currently see her on Discovery Channel’s Outrageous Acts of Science and Stephen Hawking’s Brave New World.  Her independent web series Wild Sex has amassed over 50 million views and she presented on this topic at TED Global 2013 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

She’s also a psychotherapist, jungle explorer, glass artist, former ballerina, TED speaker and mother of 4.  Despite being fabulous, Dr. Carin is forgetful and sometimes disorganized.  She loves to cook – and although dinner may reach the table later than usual, it’s almost always delicious.

 

 

The Mirror Method: How to build productive teams by ending workplace dysfunction, by Marli Rusen describes her straightforward and practical six-step framework to help leaders gain an accurate reflection of their current workplace dynamics and address any dysfunction uncovered by their review.

Marli Rusen brings years of extensive experience as a labour, employment and human rights lawyer to her current work as a third-party educator and problem-solver.  Marli has effectively transformed her legal knowledge and understanding of workplace dynamics into proactive, practical and timely “tools” to assist parties with the informal and formal resolution of their complex workplace challenges and issues.

Now a Globe and Mail and Canadian bestseller, Without One Word Spoken is Ellen Schwartz’s second volume of life lessons from her son Jacob, who was born with a rare neurodegenerative disease. Jacob can’t speak, move, or look after himself in any way.  And yet, for eighteen years he has been able to bring joy, teach courage, and profoundly touch the hearts of all those around him.

Without One Word Spoken isn’t just the compelling story of a child’s miraculous life. It’s also a mother’s how-to of survival and joy. – Craig Offman, The Globe and Mail Newspaper

@18lifelessons on Facebook
www.projectgiveback.com
www.jacobsladder.ca

When you’re the only veterinarian in an area that’s 130 miles long and has a coast on either side, you never know what each new day might bring. A cow giving birth, a colicky horse, an aggressive lynx, caribou in need of pastures new, a polar bear in a bingo hall, a six-hundred-pound boar who won’t like what you’ve been asked to do to him… The only constants for Andrew Peacock are his faithful dog and his passion for his work.

When Andrew Peacock made the move from Ontario to Newfoundland, he thought he was kicking off his career as a newly qualified veterinarian with a brief adventure in a novel location. Turns out he was wrong about the duration —he  is still in Newfoundland three decades later.  But it has certainly been an adventure. A whole series of adventures.

In his immense new practice – half the Avalon Peninsula – Andrew was the only vet for miles around, visiting patients (and their owners) on farms, in homes and zoos, and in the wild.

A day’s work could include anything from performing a Caesarian section on a cow in a blizzard, to pursuing a moose on the loose, to freeing a humpback whale from a trap designed for cod. And, on the human side, anything from trying to impress a surprisingly large audience of farmers with your first boar castration, to taking care of the distressed owners of a stricken cat, to discouraging farm hands from helping themselves to hypodermic needles.

All this against the background of a domestic scene in which Andrew’s wife Ingrid–also freshly qualified, as a “human doctor”–shares the adventure of making a new life, fitting in to a well-established community, and in due course of starting a family.

Andrew Peacock is a born vet, devoted to the care of animals, and in constant wonder as an observer of their lives.  Luckily for the rest of us, he is a born storyteller, too. Creatures of the Rock is a funny, thrilling, unflinching but ultimately heartwarming collection of tales about the connections between people and animals, and people with each other.

Doubleday Canada

A candid, practical, and inspiring guide to creating a richer and more meaningful life.

The world’s great philosophers and spiritual leaders teach us that happiness depends on how we look at life. In Higher, Charles Hanna explores why and how we can create the best possible outlook. By finding our Higher Perspective, Higher Power, and Higher Purpose, he demonstrates how we can challenge our demons and become our best selves. His experience of physical, emotional, and spiritual recovery and his applications will resonate powerfully with all readers.

As a young man, Hanna emigrated from Egypt to Canada where he got an education and followed his dreams. From one perspective, his life was perfect—his family grew, his businesses flourished; yet, his doubt and addiction quietly destroyed him. It was not until Hanna finally hit bottom that he discovered the tools to achieve true personal freedom and happiness—a Higher life. Through his firsthand experience and his understanding of human nature, neuroscience, and life management, Hanna provides readers with practical and practicable techniques and ideas so that everyone can apply the Higher way to their daily routines and to their dreams.

Hanna’s engaging voice, fascinating realizations, and depth of understanding make Higher a valuable book for anyone, religious or otherwise, who wants to find greater meaning, beauty, and success in their lives.

Reviews

“A great starting point for anyone who wants to make significant change in their life. Hanna guides us past the thoughts that hold us back from becoming our best, happiest, and most-fulfilled selves.” –Rose Caiola, founder of Rewire Me

“Perceptive, practical and inspiring, Higher is a guide to a better, more connected, and vibrant way of being.” —David Feder, counsellor and therapist

Higher: Awaken to a More Fulfilling Life
By Charles Hanna
978-1-927958-71-1
$21.00
5.5″ x 8.5″, paperback
Figure 1 Publishers, Canada
March 2016

The Ultimate Guide to Preventing and Treating MMA Injuries

By Dr. Jonathan Gelber

ECW Press, Canada, May 2016

A charming 300-mile romp through farm, field and English history, with two crazy Canadians as our guides.

There are 140,000 miles of footpaths and public rights of way in Britain, many dating back to medieval times—nowhere else in the world can you walk in literally any direction over private land. At fifty-four, John Cherrington, a less-than-active solicitor from BC’s Fraser Valley, wanted a challenge; his companion Karl, 20 years older, wanted to prove he was still tough enough to complete a long-distance walk. So the pair set to walk the historic MacMillan Way, a 300-mile-romp that took them from the fenlands by the North Sea, on through the enchanting, honey-coloured Cotswolds, into Somerset with its legendary Castle Camelot, finally to emerge at Chesil Beach on the English Channel.

With nothing but backpacks and walking sticks, John and Karl stride into the verdant countryside, alive with hawthorn and honeysuckle blooming down green lanes, the singing and swooping of swallows, larks and wood pigeons coursing through the fields and woods. They cannot walk two miles without stumbling into some cultural or historical artifact, landmark or memorial. Alas, blisters, bulls, and English rain are also part of the joie de vivre of long-distance walking.

The journey awaits. Join John and Karl a they pass through the portal to that other dimension and set out to prove the old adagesolvitur ambulando–you can sort it out by walking.

Reviews

“Cherrington roves as lovingly with language as he does over the countryside. You won’t want to miss a step of his journey!” –Rick Antonson, author of Full Moon Over Noah’s Ark: An Odyssey to Mount Ararat and Beyond

“Studded with entertaining literary references, John Cherrington’sWalking to Camelot is an ode to villages and the footpaths connecting them. It is universal in its appeal to the philosopher-rambler while remaining true to eccentricities that could only be English: the bestiary in the hedgerows, the rustics, the food, and curious traditions such as the ‘right to walk’ through properties both public and private.” – Michael Kluckner – author of Toshiko andVanishing British Columbia

Walking to Camelot: A Pilgrimage through the Heart of Rural England
By John Cherrington
Figure 1 Publishing (Canada)
978-1-927958-62-9
$22.95
5.5″ x 8.5″, paperback
272 pages
March 2016

Translation rights available through Seventh Avenue Literary.

To say that Rick Antonson is driven is something of an understatement. He published three books, circumnavigated the globe researching them and laying the groundwork for book #4, wrote a play, – all the while as the CEO of Tourism Vancouver.  He retired from that job in the summer of 2014 and God knows what he has in the planning stages now that he has free time!

I first met him in 1985 when he was an executive at local Vancouver publisher Douglas & McIntyre. He was leaving publishing while I was entering the business but it was hard not to admire his  controlled energy and curiosity about all things.

He subsequently moved over to the tourism industry and we reunited in 2006 when he presented his journey to Timbuktu manuscript to us for consideration.The rest is, as they say, history. We sold To Timbuktu for a Haircut first to a Canadian house (Dundurn) and an American house (Skyhorse)and then book #2 ,Route 66 Still Kicks ,was published.
Book #3, Full Moon Over Noah’s Ark, An Odyssey to Mount Ararat in New York will be released by Skyhorse in April 2016. The book takes readers along with Antonson through the shadows and broad landscapes of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Armenia, shedding light on a troubled but fascinating area of the world. Rick is busy researching his next travel destination and that could be literally anywhere in the world!

Rick is also co-author of other books with his brother Brian and writer Mary Trainor. The most successful is Slumach’s Gold: The Making of a Legend (Heritage House) which has sold over 10,000 copies.

Book Reviews

To Timbuktu for a Haircut: A Journey Through West Africa

“Anyone interested in travelling to Africa should put Antonson’s book on the list, right after malaria tablets.”
– The National Post

“As with all great travel memoirs, Antonson’s journey is about self-discovery and arrival at the final destination; that is, it is part personal odyssey and part social history.”
– Chicago Tribune

“Chapters are nicely embroidered with local tones and textures, a regional history of West Africa, the Tuareg people and accounts of early European exploration.”
– The Globe and Mail

“To Timbuktu for a Haircut is a great read – a little bit of Bill Bryson, a little bit of Michael Palin, and quite a lot of Bob Hope on the road to Timbuktu. Once started, you simply don’t want to come to the end.”
– Professor Geoffrey Lipman UNWTO Assistant Secretary-General

“Great characters, great stories, and truly great adventures. Not to mention … a great read.”
– Peter Greenberg, Travel Editor, CBS News

 

Route 66 Still Kicks: Driving America’s Main Street

“One of the best books of the bunch.”
– The New York Times (2012 round-up of holiday travel books)

“His tale is a middle-age Woodstock in motion, an encounter with an America that isn’t as lost as we think … And in the end Antonson proves that Route 66 indeed still kicks — as does America.”
Keith Bellows, Editor-in-Chief, National Geographic Traveler

“A must for Route 66 aficionados.”
– Chicago Tribune

“The most impressive account of a road trip I have ever read.”
– Paul Taylor, Publisher, Route 66 magazine

“I have traveled Route 66 more times than a long-haul trucker and this book is going to become one of the classics of the road … solid proof that Route 66 still kicks.”
– Route 66 Pulse

“It was by far the best book I have read about the Road in many, many years. An excellent read … Highly recommended.”
– Bob Moore co-author of The Complete Guidebook to Route 66 and The Complete Atlas to Route 66

“Antonson’s most impressive feat in Route 66 Still Kicks is how he incorporates history into the narrative. Even those familiar with the stories of Will Rogers, Cyrus Avery, Mickey Mantle or Al Capone will find them rendered by Antonson in a fresh way. Highly recommended.”
– Route 66 News

“This is America’s favourite highway talking, and Antonson is a superb enabler, so sit back and relax as Route 66 gives up its legendary stories.”
– Peter Greenberg, travel editor, CBS Evening News