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116 Third Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario
613-233-2589
octopus@octopusbooks.ca
251 Bank Street, Ottawa, Ontario 613-688-0752
251 Bank Street, Ottawa, Ontario 613-688-0752
Staff Pick
In this collection of adventure rebus stories, Chirp snorkels for treasure, explores a jungle, flies to...
Category: Unusual Histories
$19.95
Mnemonic
October 21, 2011 |
247 pages
Warm, imaginative, and thoroughly original, this memoir intertwines the mysteries of trees with the defining moments in the life of novelist and essayist Theresa Kishkan. For Kishkan, trees are memory markers of life, and in this book she explores the presence of trees in nature, in culture and in... More Info
$22.00
Tibet
June 25, 2013 |
352 pages
A timely and illuminating history of Tibet, from the seventh century to what it means to be Tibetan today
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$16.95
Ghost Pine
Invisible Pub |
April 15, 2010 |
225 pages
Ghost Pine: All Stories True offers thirteen years worth of sparkling true stories from the life of author Jeff Miller, compiling the best of his long-running zine. From his youth in suburban Ottawa in the late 1990s, to travels across Canada and North America and his current home in Montreal,... More Info
$29.99
Brilliant Blunders
Simon & Schuster |
May 14, 2013 |
352 pages
Drawing on the lives of five renowned scientists, Mario Livio shows how even these geniuses made major mistakes and how their errors were an essential part of the process of achieving scientific breakthroughs. We all make mistakes. Nobody is perfect. And that includes five of the greatest... More Info
$40.00
Return from the Natives
Yale University Press |
May 7, 2013 |
384 pages
DIV Celebrated anthropologist Margaret Mead, who studied sex in Samoa and child-rearing in New Guinea in the 1920s and '30s, was determined to show that anthropology could tackle the psychology of the most complex, modern societies in ways useful for waging the Second World War.
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$50.00
Power to the People
April 15, 2013 |
240 pages
Though we think of the 1960s and the early '70s as a time of radical social, cultural, and political upheaval, we tend to picture the action as happening on campuses and in the streets. Yet the rise of the underground newspaper was equally daring and original. Thanks to advances in cheap offset... More Info
$29.95
Teardown
June 17, 2013 |
312 pages
After living in San Francisco for 15 years, journalist Gordon Young found himself yearning for his Rust Belt hometown: Flint, Michigan, the birthplace of General Motors and "star" of the Michael Moore documentary Roger & Me. Hoping to rediscover and help a place that once boasted one of the... More Info
$17.00
Lizz Free Or Die
Riverhead Trade (Paperbacks) |
May 7, 2013 |
336 pages
Winstead, co-creator of "The Daily Show" and one of today's most hilarious comedians and insightful social critics, pens a brilliant account of how she discovered her comedic voice and how humor became her most powerful weapon in confronting life's challenges.
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$18.95
Looking for Transwonderland
February 1, 2013 |
320 pages
Noo Saro-Wiwa was brought up in England, but every summer she was dragged back to Nigeria - a country she viewed as an annoying parallel universe where she had to relinquish all her creature comforts. Then her father, activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, was murdered there, and she didn't return for 10 years.... More Info
Gentry
HarperPress |
November 29, 2012 |
320 pages
Adam Nicolson tells the story of England through the history of fourteen gentry families – from the 15th century to the present day. This sparkling work of history reads like a real-life Downton Abbey, as the loves, hatreds and many times of grief of his chosen cast illuminate the grand events of... More Info
$6.95
This Is Portland
Microcosm Pub |
May 1, 2013 |
64 pages
A firsthand look at one of the world's most livable cities, this fun take on the guidebook genre explores the atmosphere of Portland, Oregon, versus detailing its landmarks and restaurants. It both explains and embraces how beautiful and ridiculous Portland life can be, and includes essays on... More Info
$29.95
The Spark
Random House Canada |
April 2, 2013 |
288 pages
The extraordinary memoir of a mother's love, commitment and nurturing, which allowed her son, originally diagnosed with severe autism, to flourish into a universally recognized genius--and how any parent can help their child find their spark. Today, at 13, Jacob is a paid researcher in quantum... More Info
$26.50
Can Onions Cure Ear-Ache?
February 15, 2013 |
208 pages
What common condition was once treated with cow dung? How might oyster shells relieve heartburn? Can eels really cure deafness? Is the secret to stopping a stubborn case of hiccups a simple ingredient found in most pantries? If you were struck by illness or injury in the late eighteenth century,... More Info
How to Fake a Moon Landing
Abrams ComicArts |
April 2, 2013 |
176 pages
"Is hydro-fracking really safe? Is climate change real? Did the moon landing really happen? How about evolution: fact or fiction? Author-illustrator Darryl Cunningham looks at these and other hot-button science topics and presents a fact-based, visual assessment of current thinking and research on... More Info
$21.95
Mapping Manhattan
April 2, 2013 |
120 pages
Armed with hundreds of blank maps she had painstakingly printed by hand, Becky Cooper walked Manhattan from end to end. Along her journey she met police officers, homeless people, fashion models, and senior citizens who had lived in Manhattan all their lives. She asked the strangers to “map their... More Info
The Church of Scientology
February 24, 2013 |
280 pages
Scientology is one of the wealthiest and most powerful new religions to emerge in the past century. To its detractors, L. Ron Hubbard's space-age mysticism is a moneymaking scam and sinister brainwashing cult. But to its adherents, it is humanity's brightest hope. Few religious movements have been... More Info
$29.95
Among Murderers
Univ of California Press |
March 18, 2013 |
256 pages
The author follows three convicted murderers after they are released from prison into the outside world.
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$43.00
The Tibetan History Reader
January 13, 2013 |
752 pages
Answering a critical need for an accurate, in-depth history of Tibet, this single-volume resource reproduces essential, hard-to-find essays from the past fifty years of Tibetan studies. Covering the social, cultural, and political development of Tibet from the seventh century to the modern period,... More Info
$43.95
Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace
March 18, 2013 |
272 pages
Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace explores the social and political activism of American Jewish women from approximately 1890 to the beginnings of World War II. Written in an engaging style, the book demonstrates that no history of the birth control, suffrage, or peace movements in the United... More Info
$21.95
Marijuanamerica
Abrams Image |
April 2, 2013 |
272 pages
Alfred Ryan Nerz is a Yale-educated author, journalist, and TV producer. He’s also a longtime marijuana enthusiast who has made it his mission to better understand America’s long-standing love-hate relationship with our favorite (sometimes) illegal drug. His cross-country investigation started... More Info
Legalizing Prostitution
December 21, 2012 |
296 pages
“One of the more intelligent, measured, and comprehensive looks at alternatives to criminalizing the [prostitution] trade.” –Salon “Weitzer provides an erudite overview of sex work and detailed case studies of three cities with red-light districts: Antwerp, Belgium; Frankfurt, Germany; and... More Info
$12.00
My Arab Spring My C
Createspace Independent Pub |
October 8, 2012 |
174 pages
A book by Arab Canadians about Arab Canadians written for Arab Canadians, as well as Canadians at large, describing the current situation of immigration into Canada, and speculating on how the Arab Spring might influence the place and role of future generations of Arab Canadians in Canadian... More Info
$29.95
Napalm
Belknap Press |
April 1, 2013 |
290 pages
Napalm, incendiary gel that sticks to skin and burns to the bone, came into the world on Valentine's Day 1942 at a secret Harvard war research laboratory. On March 9, 1945, it created an inferno that killed over 87,500 people in Tokyo—more than died in the atomic explosions at Hiroshima or... More Info
$16.00
Escape from Camp 14
Penguin Group USA |
March 26, 2013 |
224 pages
The heartwrenching New York Times bestseller about the only known person born inside a North Korean prison camp to have escaped North Korea's political prison camps have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. No one born and raised... More Info
The Modern Book of the Dead
Atria Books |
March 19, 2013 |
304 pages
What happens to us after we die? It remains perhaps the single most important question we can ask, one that still inspires thousands to turn to the Tibetan and Egyptian Books of the Dead for hope and comfort. But we can no longer rely solely on ancient wisdom for truly useful answers about our own... More Info
$12.95
Maps to the Other Side
Microcosm Pub |
March 30, 2013 |
160 pages
Part mad manifesto, part revolutionary love letter, and part freight train adventure story, this personal tale is a twist on the classic punk rock travel narrative that searches for authenticity and connection in the lives of strangers and the solidarity and limitations of underground community.
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$14.95
10 Plants That Shook the World
January 22, 2013 |
132 pages
Dig up the amazing stories of the plants that have transformed our lives. Plants might start out as leafy things growing in the earth, but they can come into our lives in unexpected ways. And believe it or not, some have even played an exciting role in our world's history.
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Doomed to Repeat
William Morrow Paperbacks |
March 12, 2013 |
320 pages
“Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” And so we have. Time and again, mankind has faced down problems, but have often failed to take the hard-earned knowledge into the next battle. Doomed to Repeat is a collection of essays, edited by Bill Fawcett, that illuminates some of the... More Info
$17.00
India Becoming
Riverhead Books (Hardcover) |
March 5, 2013 |
320 pages
"A portrait of incredible change and economic development, of social and national transformation told through individual lives. The son of an Indian father and an American mother, Akash Kapur spent his formative years in India and his early adulthood in the United States. In 2003, he returned to... More Info
$18.99
Moving the Mountain
Free Press |
March 5, 2013 |
240 pages
Now in paperback, an open and honest clarion call inviting readers to a deeper understanding of the role of moderate Muslims in America and in the world. Many know Imam Feisal as the man behind the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque,” an interfaith community center he is trying to build near the... More Info
$39.95
Little White Houses
U of Minnesota Press |
February 19, 2013 |
392 pages
"A rare exploration of the racial and class politics of architecture, Little White Houses examines how postwar media representations associated the ordinary single-family house with middle-class whites to the exclusion of others, creating a powerful and invidious cultural iconography that continues... More Info
$17.00
Booze for Free
Plume |
February 26, 2013 |
352 pages
Your bar tab doesn't have to break the bank. Learn how to grow, forage, and brew your way to good spirits! A single cocktail can cost you $15 in a bar or restaurant. But home brewer and self-sufficiency expert Andy Hamilton can show you how easy and economical it can be to make simple hop brews,... More Info
$37.95
Noble Savages
Simon & Schuster |
February 19, 2013 |
544 pages
The most controversial and famous anthropologist of our time describes his seminal lifelong research among the YanomamÖ Indians of the Amazon basin and how his startling observations provoked admiration among many fellow anthropologists and outrage among others. Napoleon Chagnon began his research... More Info
$29.95
Wind Wizard
November 25, 2012 |
288 pages
With Wind Wizard, Siobhan Roberts brings us the story of Alan Davenport (1932-2009), the father of modern wind engineering, who investigated how wind navigates the obstacle course of the earth's natural and built environments--and how, when not properly heeded, wind causes buildings and bridges to... More Info
$13.65
Two Lives
September 16, 2008 |
229 pages
"How had the pair of elderly Jewish lesbians survived the Nazis?” Janet Malcolm asks at the beginning of this extraordinary work of literary biography and investigative journalism. The pair, of course, is Gertrude Stein, the modernist master “whose charm was as conspicuous as her fatness” and... More Info
Guest of Honor
Atria Books |
February 5, 2013 |
320 pages
In this revealing social history, one remarkable White House dinner becomes a lens through which to examine race, politics, and the lives and legacies of two of America’s most iconic figures. In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to have dinner at the executive... More Info
$29.95
Stories from Jonestown
February 1, 2013 |
312 pages
Survivors of the 1978 Jonestown massacre discuss what drew them to the People's Temple cult and the lasting effects of that fateful November day on their lives.
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$19.95
The Red Indians
Arbeiter Ring Publishing |
April 1, 2008 |
158 pages
In the manner of Eduardo Galeano's famous trilogy Memories of Fire, the book uncovers a critical, living history of conflict. The book, The Red Indians, with its polyvalent title that points to the many issues covered in the text, introduces readers to the history of colonial oppression in Canada,... More Info
$21.95
Game Over
The New Press |
January 29, 2013 |
240 pages
"Sportscaster Howard Cosell dubbed it "rule number one of the jockocracy": sports and politics just don't mix. But in Game Over, celebrated alt-sportswriter Dave Zirin proves once and for all that politics has breached the modern sports arena with a vengeance.
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Hiking Trails of Ottawa, the National Capital Region, and Beyond
May 28, 2010 |
292 pages
Collected here, for the first time, are the best hiking routes in the National Capital Region, including Gatineau Park, Ottawa's Greenbelt, brand new trails at Manitou Mountain, and Eastern Ontario's most outstanding provincial parks (Frontenac, Charleston, and Murphy's Point), as well as gems... More Info
$28.99
Chanel Bonfire
Gallery Books |
January 8, 2013 |
304 pages
WITH CLEAR-EYED GRACE, REFRESHING HONESTY, AND FLASHING WIT, WENDY LAWLESS TELLS THE TRUE STORY OF HER UNHINGED UPBRINGING— A DISJOINTED FAIRY TALE OF A CHILDHOOD IN CHAOS By the time Wendy Lawless turned seventeen, she’d known for quite some time that she didn’t have a normal mother. But... More Info
The Magic of Reality
Free Press |
September 11, 2012 |
272 pages
Richard Dawkins, bestselling author and the world’s most celebrated evolutionary biologist, has spent his career elucidating the many wonders of science. Here, he takes a broader approach and uses his unrivaled explanatory powers to illuminate the ways in which the world really works. Filled with... More Info
All Standing
Free Press |
January 8, 2013 |
256 pages
All Standing The Remarkable Story of the Jeanie Johnston, the Legendary Irish Famine Ship recounts the journeys of this famous ship, her heroic crew, and the immigrants who were ferried between Ireland and North America. Spurred by a complex web of motivations—shame, familial obligation, and... More Info
$27.50
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Random House Digital, Inc. |
February 7, 2012 |
256 pages
A first book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist profiles everyday life in the settlement of Annawadi as experienced by a Muslim teen, an ambitious rural mother of a prospective female college student and a young scrap metal thief, in an account that illuminates how their efforts to build better... More Info
Why We Write
Plume |
January 29, 2013 |
256 pages
A group of popular, successful authors offer encouragement and guidance to aspiring writers by explaining why and how they work at writing, including Jennifer Egan, Sue Grafton, Ricky Moody, Susan Orlean and Jodi Picoult. Original. 30,000 first printing.
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$18.95
The Heroin Chronicles
Akashic Books |
January 1, 2013 |
240 pages
Eric Bogosian, Lydia Lunch, and others join Stahl in mining the hazards of this deadly narcotic via original short fiction.
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$33.95
Metals, Culture and Capitalism
Cambridge University Press |
November 15, 2012 |
366 pages
Metals, Culture and Capitalism is an ambitious, broad-ranging account of the search for metals in Europe and the Near East from the Bronze Age to the Industrial Revolution and the relationship between this and economic activity, socio-political structures and the development of capitalism.... More Info
$25.50
Cataract
Counterpoint |
December 11, 2012 |
80 pages
?Behind my right eye hangs a burlap cloth; behind my left eye there's a mirror. . . Before the burlap the visible remains indifferent; before the mirror it begins to play.” What happens when an art critic loses some of his sight to cataracts? What wonders are glimpsed once vision is restored? In... More Info
$44.00
Spectacular Wineries of Ontario
Panache Partners Llc |
January 1, 2013 |
324 pages
Presenting the majesty and wonder of Canadian wine country, this book is filled with large color images and detailed commentary on more than 60 fabulous wineries and vineyards. Profiling the province's verdant appellations of Lake Erie North Shore, Niagara Peninsula, Pelee Island, and Prince Edward... More Info
Soccernomics
Nation Books |
May 1, 2012 |
448 pages
Draws on analogies from a range of disciplines to examine why soccer teams win or lose World Cup competitions, offering insight into the playing styles of leading national teams as well as factors that influence how the game is played.
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Octopus Books
116 Third AvenueOttawa, Ontario, Canada
K1S 2K1
613-233-2589
Under One Roof
251 Bank Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K2P 1X3
613-688-0752