Well Read with Holly McNally
Holly McNally is co-owner of the McNally Robinson Booksellers empire and five-time winner of the Canadian Bookseller of the Year award. The recent launch of McNally’s Polo Park store and next year’s launch in Toronto have surely kept her more than busy. A natural go-to for a great book, she shares with us some of her past, present and potential favourites.

The Secret River by Kate Grenville
Pulling an all-time favourite out of a hat is a ticklish challenge. I have been delighted by too many extraordinary books. In the last while, however, The Secret River by Australian novelist Kate Grenville has left a lasting impression with me. A true tour de force, it is Kate Grenville’s quest to explore through fiction the journey of her real 19th century ancestor, an English convict sent to Australia on a prison boat. We experience the birthing pains of a new Australia and witness in true colonial fashion the theft of land and livelihood of the Aboriginal people. Grenville is a stellar writer.

Through the Children’s Gate: A Home in New York by Adam Gopnik
Currently I am reading Through the Children’s Gate: A Home In New York by essayist and New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik. I adored his previous collection of essays From Paris to the Moon where he records the time he and his family spent living in Paris from 1995 until 2000.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Next I hope to find an advance copy of The Gargoyle by Winnipegger Andrew Davidson, who has scored a very lucrative publishing deal with Doubleday for
this first novel to be published in August.