In honour of National Inventors’ Day, we wanted to highlight the titles that brought new tools and new ideas to the forefront, whether it be instructions for a knick-knack or an exploration of a worldwide philosophical and scientific shift.


In 50 Things to Make with a Broken Hockey Stick, Peter Manchester transforms the agony of fractured sticks into the thrill of creation. Instructions and explicit cartoons show woodworkers of all abilities how to fashion items for outdoors, items for indoors, and items without any purpose at all. No basement artiste will ever throw away a broken hockey stick again. The finished projects will delight friends and win the respect of detractors, even those in the maker's own household.

In his breakaway bestseller 50 Things to Make with a Broken Hockey Stick, Peter Manchester transformed the agony of defeated sticks into the thrill of a new creation, with a slap of good humour that kept readers chuckling all the way through the book. Now, with Fabulous Fabrications from Busted Hockey Gear, the hockey stick handyman has turned his creative talents to the rest of the equipment left to fester in the basement — helmets, pads, gloves, skates, and even cast-off hockey uniforms.

William Shakespeare lived at a remarkable time. New ideas were transforming European thought as the medieval gave way to the modern. Astronomers like Copernicus and Galileo, philosophers like Montaigne, and even playwrights such as Shakespeare, who observed human nature just as intently as the astronomers studied the night sky, were hinting at the brave new world to come.

A synthesis of science, history, and literature, The Science of Shakespeare introduces readers to a colourful cast of Renaissance scientists and thinkers, exploring how together they changed the world forever.