Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution, Judy Rebick. Penguin, 2005. $35.00
Ten Thousand Roses is a fascinating account of the real stories of Canadian feminists and the history of feminist activism in Canada since the 1960s. Judy Rebick has collected stories told by feminists from across Canada that chronicle four decades of the struggles, defeats, triumphs, activism, and protests that define the women's movement. With stories from Dionne Brand, Doris Anderson, Flora MacDonald and others, Ten Thousand Roses is an insightful look at feminist activism in Canada and an important contribution to Canadian women's history.

Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism, Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005. $21.00.
From the authors of the highly acclaimed Manifesta, comes an activism handbook that answers the perennial question: What can I do? Whatever your concern – be it the war in Iraq, sweatshop labour, or human rights violations at home and abroad – Baumgardner and Richards encourage us to move beyond the usual solutions of writing cheques, volunteering, and writing letters, and teach us how to make a personal difference through action and activism. They have a number of guidelines and suggestions and they use their own experiences, and the stories of others, as examples and inspiration. Taking the feminist notion of “the personal is political” to heart, Grassroots shows us how we can make a difference using the tools that are right in front of us.

Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya, Jamaica Kincaid. National Geographic, 2005. $31.00
Part travel memoir, part gardening book, Among Flowers chronicles Jamaica Kincaid's journey to Nepal to gather rare seeds for planting at home. With three botanists as her companions, Kincaid sets out on a trek through some of the world's most breathtaking landscapes. She describes the natural world and her surroundings in beautiful prose, summoning the colours, smells and sights with intricate detail. Her journey is not without its dangers, however, as Kincaid describes the perils of meeting a herd of yaks on a mountain path and the terror of being confronted by Maoist guerillas. At the heart of Among Flowers is a meditation on the beauty of nature, the adventures of travel, and what it means to experience a culture so different from your own.

A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan, Nelofer Pazira. Random House of Canada, 2005. $34.95
A moving and remarkable story that chronicles the tragedies that have plagued Nelofer Pazira’s nation for the last thirty years. A Bed of Red Flowers begins in the mid-seventies when Pazira is 5 years old and her father, a doctor, has been imprisoned when Communists take power. The following year Russia invades Afghanistan making it a police state and creating a climate of violence and fear. Pazira is forced to grow up fast and joins the resistance when she is a teenager – her only solace is her friendship with Dyana, with whom she shares a love of poetry and hope for a better life. Eventually, Pazira’s family escapes to Pakistan and finally settles in Canada where Pazira becomes a journalist and award-winning filmmaker. She continues to write to Dyana but when the correspondence abruptly stops, Pazira fears for Dyana’s life and returns to Afghanistan, now under Taliban control, to search for her friend. A Bed of Red Flowers is an unforgettable story about family and friendship and the hardships and sacrifices that so many have faced through Afghanistan’s long years of war.

Truth & Beauty, Ann Patchett. HarperCollins, 2005. $19.95
If you didn't read Truth & Beauty when it was in hardcover, make sure to pick it up in paperback – it is a must-read, a book that is hard to put down and even harder to forget. Truth & Beauty explores the world of women's friendships – Ann Patchett met Lucy Grealy in college and they became friends when they both enrolled in a workshop to pursue their passion for writing. Patchett takes us on a breathtaking journey of a friendship – through the beginning years as they struggle to define themselves as women and as writers, through the joy and pain of loves found and lost, the heartbreak of devastating illness, and the uncertainty of choosing a literary career. At the centre of it all is the intimacy and love share by two women – a deep friendship that would see them through anything and enable them to live life to the fullest, safe in the knowledge that, above all else, they had each other. Truth & Beauty is a loving testament to the bonds between women and the intimacies of female friendship.