The Canopy website explains, “Signed special editions of Life of Pi and Dear Life, printed on paper made from left over straw and post consumer recycled content (1) rather than trees have been launched in support of Canopy’s campaigns to protect the world’s forests.

Every year millions of tonnes of wheat straw and flax straw, left over after the grain harvest in Canada, could be used to make commercial-quality paper. Kick-starting commercial-scale development of straw-based papers will reduce the stress on endangered forests.”

Step Forward Paper by Canopy is made from 80% wheat straw, and 20% FSC-certified forest fibre and was named the greenest paper source in Canada along with 100% Recycled in a “life cycle study” by Offsetters, a leading carbon management solutions provider.

Alternatively, some argue that tree pulp remains the most environmentally-friendly solution and that the tree-paper industry is being unfairly targeted.

In an article written by Kathi Rowzie — a sustainability communications consultant — on the blog Two Sides, she argues: “Given that more U.S. trees are regenerated than harvested each year, the whole “tree-free paper protects forests” argument just doesn’t hold water.  Besides being made with a renewable resource, wood-based paper is the most recycled commodity in the country – more than plastics, metals and glass – according to the U.S. EPA.    In 2011, some 66.8% of U.S. paper produced was recovered for recycling.   And U.S. paper mills generate about 65% of the energy they use from renewable, carbon-neutral biomass.”

Laura M. Thompson, PhD and Director of Sustainable Development at Sappi Fine Paper North America agrees and wrote an article for the Environmental Leader in which she states: “The crux of the challenge faced by the paper industry is to develop a pulping process that can compete both economically and environmentally with wood pulping.  This is a significant challenge that has been investigated for many, many years.  Thus far, we have yet to find that magic bullet.  With wood, we have a process where the chemicals are used and then recaptured, reprocessed and reused.  Essentially a chemical recycling process within our pulp mills which creates advantages both environmentally and economically. But with non-wood fibers, because of the composition of reedy plants the chemical recovery process cannot be closed the same way.  It is possible to make pulp from these sources, but the environmental impact is greater.”

Furthermore, there are stringent guidelines in the U.S. and Canada that require tree farmers to manage their land responsibly, not to mention the demand for sustainably sourced paper that provides an important financial incentive.

Essentially, there are many arguments against using tree-based paper in publishing and in general, but it may be worth doing some research before choosing an alternative paper source.

On The Count is a 60 minute news and talk program featuring analysis, commentary, policy recommendations and action plans. The program’s objective is to provide a forum for the discussion of criminal justice, political, community economic development and prison issues not regularly heard on traditional mainstream corporate media.

On The Count is the only program on the radio that is produced and hosted entirely by formerly incarcerated men and women. The program identifies and examines local, national, and international criminal and social justice issues towards reducing the inappropriate reliance on punishment and incarceration as the primary response to social and economic inequality.

Just as this radio program opens up dialogue about the prison and criminal justice system, by helping Floris to publish Serving Time with Amanda Knox, we hope that this will shed some light on this seriously troubled system.

Check out the On The Count facebook page to stream the program.

When defining these areas of study universities tend to focus on the criminal equation, and not the victims. However, at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, they have recently launched their new MSc Victimology and Criminal Justice Masters degree this past Fall. This revolutionary Masters program is just one of a handful found throughout the world, and the only program of it’s kind in Europe. The program offers the unique opportunity to develop comprehensive expertise regarding the position of victims in society.

Durham College in Canada offers an eight month Victimology Graduate Certificate to train individuals to help victims of crimes regain normalcy in their lives, and advocate for victim rights. But none of our post-secondary schools offer the same in-depth academic study that the Tilburg program offers.

We do however give birth to many best selling authors who write about their experiences as victims of criminal acts, such as Shannon Moroney’s   Through the Glass, and dual British and Canadian national William Sampson’s Confessions of an Innocent Man: Torture and Survival in a Saudi Prison.

If you’ve never read a non-fiction book exploring the twists and turns of crime and punishment, now may be the time to check out a new genre. Seeing as this April is Keep Toronto Reading at Toronto Public Libraries, you should be able to find whatever book you are looking for very easily.

Keep Reading!

The winner receives 30,000 pounds or approximately $46,000 Canadian from an anonymous donor along with a bronze sculpture called the Bessie, created by artist Grizel Niven.

The longlist was just announced last week. The shortlist is announced in June, days before the winner is selected by a panel of five leading women, all passionate readers who are at the top in their respective professions. A new panel is chosen every year.

See the longlist below and stay tuned for the shortlist.

The Longlist:

• Kitty Aldridge, A Trick I Learned From Dead Men (Jonathan Cape)
• Kate Atkinson, Life After Life (Doubleday U.K.)
• Ros Barber, The Marlowe Papers (Sceptre/Hodder & Stoughton)
• Shani Boianjiu, The People of Forever are Not Afraid (Bond Street Books)
• Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl (Crown)
• Sheila Heti, How Should A Person Be? (Harvill Secker)
• A.M. Homes, May We Be Forgiven (Viking Canada)
• Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior (HarperCollins)
• Deborah Copaken Kogan, The Red Book (Hyperion Books)
• Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies (HarperCollins)
• Bonnie Nadzam, Lamb (Other Press)
• Emily Perkins, The Forrests (Bond Street Books)
• Michèle Roberts, Ignorance (Bloomsbury)
• Francesca Segal, The Innocents (HarperCollins)
• Maria Semple, Where’d You Go, Bernadette (Back Bay Books)
• Elif Shafak, Honour (Viking)
• Zadie Smith, NW (Hamish Hamilton)
• M.L. Stedman, The Light Between Oceans (Scribner)
• Carrie Tiffany, Mateship with Birds (Picador)
• G. Willow Wilson, Alif the Unseen (McClelland & Stewart)

Resources: Women’s Prize for Fiction and Wikipedia

The Underground Library was conceived by students Max Pilwat, Keri Tan and Ferdi Rodriguez. They wanted to take simple subway ads and make them more entertaining and interactive. The campaign would place ads in trains with book titles that would allow riders to scan the first ten pages onto their smart phone devices.

Since there is no internet connection underground, the data is simply transferred from the poster to a person’s phone using a near field communication (NFC) tag. NFC is a short-range, low power, wireless technology that uses electromagnetic fields to transfer data between two devices that are either touching or held centimeters apart.

The reader would receive only the first ten pages of any given title, the theory being that it would be just enough to get through their commute. Once the book sample was completed, the reader would be sent a reminder about where they could find the nearest library to continue reading.

Although it is just conceptual, the project has generated a lot of interest. Were it to be adopted in New York, perhaps Toronto’s TTC wouldn’t be too far behind. We would support anything that gets people reading more and keeps our Toronto Public Libraries thriving!

Resources: The CBC, www.nearfieldcommunication.org, and Vimeo

These success stories are, of course, very rare. The majority of self-published books are created with the help of large companies such as Smashwords, CreateSpace, and Author Solutions that sell publishing services to authors. Where the books often stall is in the promotional stage. The self-published author is entirely responsible for marketing and may have no clue where to begin.

Where does self-publishing leave the book industry? There is certainly less control over the content and, dare we say, quality out there. One could argue, however, that even before this seeming book revolution, there was no quality guarantee on published content. Many publishing choices, like any business, are entirely sales driven. And sales are not always driven by quality.

Many supporters of self-publishing point to the importance of the freedom of ideas and a less strict definition of literature. Further, many influential and celebrated writers were first self-published, such as Virginia Woolf, Walt Whitman and James Joyce.

Those who scoff at the trend are skeptical of the economic benefits of a large self-publishing industry with no readers. Marketing is certainly the difference between a success and a failure.

Where do you stand on self-publishing?

Read more about the controversy here in this Globe and Mail article by Russell Smith.

According to Publishers Weekly, the three boys–ages 6, 9, and 11–were on a camping trip in January with their family when they found themselves waist- and neck-deep, respectively, in mud. Nine-year-old Vasco Gonsalves remembers the incident, “The book said to lean back and lift my legs and bring them up, roll over and swim back,” he recalled. “And I got out and ran to tell my mum and the other mums and dads.” Because of his quick thinking, the other two boys were also saved.

The guide that Gonsalves referenced is Not-for-Parents: How to Be a World Explorer: Your All-Terrain Manual by Joel Levy, aimed at children ages 8-11. It offers advice on a diverse array of subjects, including, how to navigate the stars, fight a bear, start a fire, and escape quicksand. Thankfully for all involved, the last was fresh in his mind.

So the next time you find yourself in a precarious situation, consider that knowledge may be more powerful than any other tool in your arsenal. And much of the time, you can thank all that time you spent curled up with a good book. So there.

Read more from Publishers Weekly here.

Amanda Knox was famously wrongly convicted of the murder of Meredith Kercher. She served four years of the 26-year sentence before the conviction was overturned October 3, 2011.

Floris was imprisoned just three cells down from Amanda’s and writes about the treatment Amanda received as well the other women and children serving there. Treatment that she feels the world should know about.

To fund the publication of her book, and enlighten others to the experiences faced by these women and children, Iguana Books has set up this campaign for Floris. Her story is one that we feel the world should read.

By contributing to this campaign you are helping Floris to publish Serving Time with Amanda Knox. You be part of bringing to life a book which tells Floris’ story, and most importantly, will educate readers about the injustices experienced by women and children while incarcerated in this type of detention facility. We hope that this will aid in bringing about change to this seriously troubled system.

To find out more about Floris’ campaign or to make a contribution, click here.

According to some authors, the marketing firm Result Source, for example, charges thousands of dollars for its services in addition to the cost of books. Aside from the ethical issues here, these tactics usually result in a spike in sales followed by a rapid plummet. Still the coveted title of “best-seller” once acquired (even if for one week), adds a permanent allure to any new title.

Do there need to be more stringent methods to control authors who can afford to “buy” their success from doing so? Is this simply a case of clever publicity? Are best-seller lists still relevant once they have been manipulated or is it impossible to measure? It certainly does make one question where to draw the ethical line where book marketing is concerned.

From Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop by Reginald Bakeley to God’s Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis by Tom Hickman, this year’s Diagram Prize for oddest book title has some hefty competition.

The Diagram Prize was originally organized to provide entertainment at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1978. Twenty five years later and the award is still going strong. The prize was initially picked by a panel of judges, but since 2000 the winner has been chosen by a public vote on The Bookseller’s website. Controversy has followed the award as there were two years no titles were deemed odd enough for the prize. The winner for 2012 was Cooking with Poo by Saiyuud Diwong. The 2013 winner will be announced on March 22nd.

Philip Stone, the coordinator of the Diagram Prize, said: “People might think this prize is just a bit of fun, but I think it draws welcome attention to an undervalued art. Publishers and booksellers know only too well that a title can make all the difference to the sales of a book. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian has sold almost a million copies to date,
while books such as Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared perhaps all owe some of their success to their unusual monikers.”

The shortlist:
Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop by Reginald Bakeley
God’s Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis by Tom Hickman
How Tea Cosies Changed the World by Loani Prior
How to Sharpen Pencils by David Rees
Lofts of North America: Pigeon Lofts by Jerry Gagne
Was Hitler Ill? by Hans-Joachim Neumann and Henrik Eberle

References:
The Guardian
Wikipedia