Former volleyball star recalls struggles for gay rights during 1980s

In 1981, tennis star Martina Navratilova made international headlines off the court for coming out as a lesbian. Around the same time, a less prominent Canadian athlete named Betty Baxter was beginning a public battle for equality.

Baxter was well-known in the queer community, having played on the national Canadian women’s volleyball team at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. She caused a media frenzy a few years later when she became the first female and youngest ever coach of the same team.

Less well-known was that after only 18 months as coach she was fired, behind closed doors, as rumours swirled that she was a lesbian. Baxter had not come out publicly; she lost her job for not denying she was a lesbian.

She was told by a human rights lawyer that she had no recourse. This was common practice before sexual orientation was enshrined in the Human Rights Act in 1996; contemporary readers may have a difficult time imagining how brave it was to come out publicly in the ‘80s.

Brian Stewart memoir among books shortlisted for Shaughnessy Cohen Prize

TORONTO - Broadcast journalist Brian Stewart's memoir is one of five books in the running for this year's Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

The Writers' Trust of Canada released its short list on Wednesday, with jurors saying "On the Ground: My Life as a Foreign Correspondent" features Stewart's "extraordinary perspective on our times and on Canada’s place in the world."

Other books up for the award include Don Gillmor's "On Oil," which explores the petroleum industry's role in the fabric of Canada; and "Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community" by Maggie Helwig, which jurors call a "necessary, on-the-ground view of Canada’s homelessness crisis."

Rounding out the short list are "On Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy" by Ira Wells, which the jury praises for "pairing the ridiculous with the brilliant;" and "Women Who Woke up the Law: Inside the Cases that Changed Women's Rights in Canada" by Karin Wells, which demonstrates how recent the move toward women's equality in Canada is.

Toast St. Paddy with TV, books that celebrate the Emerald Isle

In time for St. Patrick's Day, take any of these five suggestions to get a dose of Irish spirit.

Ken Follett’s next epic heads to Victorian Britain, where strict morals meet secret passions

NEW YORK (AP) — Ken Follett's next historical epic is a story of forbidden romance set during a time of official propriety, the Victorian age.

Follett's “The Deep and Secret Things” will be published Sept. 21, 2027, Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK announced Wednesday. His novel follows the life of a noblewoman from South Wales, Helena Bowen, and her attraction to a charming, but disreputable acquaintance, Johnnie.

“I love stories set in the Victorian era because of the shocking contrasts,” Follett said in a statement. “Britain was richer than any country had ever been, but the London slums were places of grim poverty. Moral rules were strict, but rich men had mistresses and destitute women turned, in desperation, to prostitution. Dresses were gorgeous and parties were lavish, but the children of the poor started work at the age of seven.”

The 76-year-old Follett is one of the world's most popular authors, with sales nearing 200 million copies, according to his publishers. His novels, which have spanned from the Dark Ages to modern times, include “The Pillars of the Earth,” “Eye of the Needle” and “World Without End.”

Pollan’s search for self, musings on consciousness a dense, delightful trip

Have you ever thought about what’s it like to be you? How is it that you can see, think, feel and experience everything from the taste of coffee to the pain of grief, or the redness of a rose? If your head is already swimming then buckle up, as journalist and Harvard professor Michael Pollan takes us on a journey into consciousness in his new book, A World Appears.

On the night table: Margaret Sweatman

Margaret Sweatman

Author, Night Birds

I just read Madeleine Thien’s novel The Book of Records. Holy mackerel, that is a masterpiece. It’s so good. When she does delve into this kind of realism with characters interacting, or the war, it’s engaging. And then she goes into this other realm… it’s incredible.

Another recommended book is Jeremy Thomas Gilmer’s This Rare Earth: Building the Dams, Mines and Megaprojects that Run our World, a beautiful book of non-fiction. It’s about a man working in mines; his job is to make sure the dams aren’t going to collapse. It’s a fantastic book by Vehicule Press. I had to order it from them; you might not find in the bookstore, but I would recommend it.

Amanda Leduc, Katie Kitamura among 15 authors longlisted for Carol Shields Prize

TORONTO - Books by Amanda Leduc, Megha Majumdar and Katie Kitamura are among the 15 titles longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.

The US$150,000 award is the world's largest literary purse for English-language books by women and non-binary writers, and it's open to American and Canadian authors.

Hamilton-based Leduc made the list for her novel "Wild Life," while Majumdar is longlisted for "A Guardian and a Thief" and Kitamura's book "Audition" is in the running.

Also on the long list are "The Edge of Water" by Olufunke Grace Bankole, "Sea, Poison" by Caren Beilin and "milktooth" by Jaime Burnet of Halifax.

Trotsky’s killer devoted to Stalin, communism

Leon Trotsky was a leading light of the Russian Revolution (1917) and subsequent civil war.

His rival within Russian communism was Josef Stalin; the two leaders had a visceral dislike for one another. When Stalin consolidated his power, Trotsky was obliged to flee, eventually settling in Mexico.

But Trotsky could not find safety anywhere; Stalin was bent on killing him. A Soviet agent succeeded in this grim task, assassinating Trotsky with an ice axe in 1940.

British journalist and popular historian Josh Ireland details the events leading up to Trotsky’s violent death in his absorbing account.

Exploration of latter-era Dylan attempts to unpack songwriter’s enduring genius

Anyone who has paid serious attention to Bob Dylan in the past couple decades knows that the bard of Minnesota is a force of nature unrivaled by few artists of the 20th and now 21st century.

Yet the casual music fan likely thinks he hasn’t penned a memorable song in 40 or 50 years.

At the 2016 ceremony in Stockholm for his Nobel Prize in Literature, the Bobster’s stand-in, Patti Smith, performed A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, which dates from 1962.

The mission of this exhaustive and often exhausting work of mainstream scholarship is to debunk this popular misconception.

Pioneering scientist Suzuki reflects on his life’s work

It is hard to believe that Vancouver’s David Suzuki, an internationally renowned geneticist and environmental activist best-known in Canada for his popular television series The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, turns 90 years old on March 24.

Co-authored with Ian Hanington, David Suzuki: Lessons from a Lifetime is part autobiography and part celebratory tribute to Suzuki’s long and accomplished life. Both informative and entertaining, it is absolutely brimming with photographs, letters and tributes from friends, family and colleagues.

At times, Suzuki’s contributions are intimate glimpses into his personal life, beginning from when he was a young boy in an internment camp for Japanese-Canadians “housed in rotting buildings with glassless windows.”

In other later sections Suzuki shares his thoughts and reflections on science and the environment and where we are today.

Lukas prizes honor books on homelessness, the US Census and ancient India

NEW YORK (AP) — Books on homelessness, the U.S. Census and ancient India are among this year's winners of prizes handed out by the J. Anthony Lukas Project, named for the late author and investigative journalist.

The winners were announced Tuesday by the project's administrators, the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Jeff Hobbs' “Seeking Shelter: A Working Mother, Her Children, and a Story of Homelessness in America” won the Lukas Book Prize, a $10,000 honor given for exemplifying “literary grace, commitment to serious research and social concern.” The Mark Lynton Prize for history, a $10,000 award for combining “literary grace, commitment to serious research and social concern,” was given to William Dalrymple's “The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World.”

The Lukas Work-in-Progress Awards, for which each winner receives $25,000, went to danah boyd, for “Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the U.S. Census” and Karim Zidan for “In the Shadow of the Cage.”

Pleasure of library’s fantasy portal marred by politics

Twenty-six year old Bostonian Alix Watson is facing multiple hardships: having grown up in the foster system, she is now a member of the working poor with less than $40 in her bank account. Her only solace is fantasy novels, the reading rooms of the Boston Public Library (where she works part-time) and the friendship of Beau, a fashion designer.

But when Alix loses one of her jobs and has her identity stolen, and goes to the library in desperation to see if her supervisor can arrange extra work hours for her, Alix instead stumbles through a door and is transported to a fantastic dimension known as the Astral Library, where “Patrons” can escape the real world and live forever in their favourite books.

Most readers will be familiar with “portal fantasies” — the trope of characters travelling through portals to magical realms or pre-existing fictional worlds. Examples include the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis and the 2008 British television miniseries Lost in Austen, in which a 21st-century woman travels through a portal in her London apartment to swap places with Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Part of the pleasure of The Astral Library is that author Kate Quinn and her heroine are keenly aware of the conventions of the portal trope, with Alix assessing her predicament from the perspective of an avid fantasy reader, wondering (for example) if she’s adequately fulfilling the expectations of a “Chosen One” character.

David Suzuki is turning 90. Environmentalists may have ‘lost, big time,’ but he still has hope

David Suzuki admits defeat — at least in some respects.

The geneticist-turned-environmentalist, who is days away from his 90th birthday, reflected on his legacy as he prepared to release his latest book, "Lessons from a Lifetime," which compiles photos and stories from his life, as well as testimonials written by those he inspired.

"To me, the important legacy that I want to tell my grandchildren is, look, I tried. I love you. I did the best I could for you. And I tried," he said on a video call last month.

"The measure of a person is not whether they succeeded — because we've lost, environmentalists have lost, big time — but that we tried."

Len Deighton, author of bestselling spy thrillers, dead at 97

LONDON (AP) — Len Deighton, a prolific writer whose tough, stylish spy thrillers featured on bestseller lists for decades, has died. He was 97.

Deighton’s literary agent, Tim Bates, said he died Sunday. No cause of death was given.

Deighton’s first novel, “The IPCRESS File,” helped set the tone of cool and gritty 1960s thrillers and was made into a film starring Michael Caine that helped launch both author and actor to long and stellar careers.

“Len was a Titan,” Bates said Tuesday. "He was not only one of the greatest spy and thriller writers of the 20th century but also one of our greatest writers in any genre.”