Essex County
December 2010
The CBC's Canada Reads, a nationwide book club program in which 5 books compete (each championed by a Canadian celebrity) to be named the #1 book of the year, has officially announced the final 5. Jeff Lemire's phenomenal Essex County has made the cut, becoming not simply the first Top Shelf book, but the first graphic novel ever, to be in Canada Reads! This year, the Canada Reads program bears the theme "the essential Canadian novels of the past decade," so the honor is even more prestigious.

The celebrity champion of Essex County has also officially been announced: indie rocker Sara Quin, one-half of the award-winning band Tegan and Sara ! Along with Sara's spirited defense of the book in the Canada Reads broadcasts, we can expect plenty of attention on author Jeff Lemire, ranging from this Q&A to a variety of podcasts, interviews, and more!

The selection of Essex County for this program is a huge honor for Jeff Lemire, Top Shelf Productions, and the comics industry at large. It poses an opportunity for an entire country to discover the power of Jeff's work, and to debate its values against four other excellent books. Our deepest congratulations to Jeff and the other finalists!

Canada Reads encourages everyone to spend this winter reading all 5 books, with various programming allowing readers to get to know the finalists better, all building up to the official competition in February 2011. Happy reading, and may the best book win!

Presents Startling POEtry
December 2010
Florida Center for the Book at Broward County Library will present “Startling POEtry” by Florida poet Rick McKenzie in celebration of The Big Read: Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Wednesday, October 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the West Regional Library, 8601 W. Broward Blvd., Plantation and Wednesday, October 13 at 2 p.m. at Tamarac Library, 8701 W. Commercial Blvd. For more information about The Big Read please visit www.neabigread.org.

How Would It Feel To Live Forever?
September 2010
They froze the frog, and it lived. And they hope one day they can do the same to a human.

The fact is, they knew it would because this species of wood frog lives in the abject cold, and it has evolved to be able to endure extreme weather to such a point that if it is frozen solid, properties in its blood stream will enable its cells to stay alive even after a deep freeze.

Scientists have been studying these frogs in hopes that they can provide the answers necessary to allow doctors to freeze human organs for transplant, or even further, cryogenically freeze living people to awaken them at a later date.

The moral, philosophical, and economic questions of cryogenic stasis for humans are vast, and few are better to speculate about them than Lois McMaster Bujold, author of the novel Cryoburn (www.baen.com), which chronicles how these questions are addressed in an otherworldly futuristic society. Check out the book today!

The Stress Rescue by Diane Schofield
September 2010
Seasoned stress counselor Diane Schofield announces today the release of The Stress Rescue: Your Guide to Stressless Living, published through Xlibris. Schofield answers the global SOS from stress with her indispensable handbook.

Schofield throws out a lifeline to the stress-swamped world as she answers pertinent questions on the causes behind the stress epidemic, high-risk personality styles that attract stress, common life stressors and how to begin what she calls "stressless living." The Stress Rescue offers advice on stress management through easy stress exercises, rescue lifelines and stress prevention tips to help readers de-stress, simplify and gain control over their lives.

The Stress Rescue: Your Guide to Stressless Living is now available through www.Xlibris.com