The Weekend Effect: The Life-Changing Benefits of Taking Time Off and Challenging the Cult of Overwork

Encroaching work demands—coupled with domestic chores, overbooked schedules, and the incessant pinging of our devices—have taken a toll on what used to be our free time: the weekend. With no space to tune out and recharge, every aspect of our lives is suffering: our health is deteriorating, our social networks (the face-to-face kind) are dissolving, and our productivity is down. The notion of working less and living more, once considered an American virtue, has given way to the belief that you must be “on” 24/7.
Award-winning journalist Katrina Onstad, pushes back against this all-work, no-fun ethos. Tired of suffering from Sunday night letdown, she digs into the history, positive psychology, and cultural anthropology of the great missing weekend and how we can revive it. 
Onstad follows the trail of people, companies, and countries who are vigilantly protecting their time off for joy, adventure, and most important, purpose. Filled with personal and professional inspiration, The Weekend Effect is a thoughtful, well-researched argument to take back those precious 48 hours, and ultimately, to save ourselves.

Business & Money

Onstad, Katrina

Business Culture

HarperOne

iLit Truth Perceived: Perspectives Through Canadian Nonfiction

Reference

Stinson, Kathy

Goldberg, Susan

Rochon, Lisa

Gill, Rupinder

Nenshi, Naheed

Thomas, Anne

McMullan, Erin

Thiyagarajah, Nayani

Swinn, Nathan

Rahman, Nilufer

Bickis, Ian

Peerla, David

Chambers, Bruce

Ravina, Vincenzo

Dougherty, Ilona

Ellis, Gord

Romanow, James

Cuervo, Ivy

Navrady, Aaron

Madwar, Samia

Haves, Dan

Keilholz, Doerthe

Words, Language & Grammar

McGraw-Hill/Ryerson

'A powerful argument, and practical advice, on the importance of reclaiming your leisure time to live a happier and more fulfilling life' - Gretchen Rubin, New York Times bestselling author of Better Than Before and The Happiness Project 
Encroaching work demands - coupled with domestic chores, overbooked schedules, and the incessant pinging of our devices - have taken a toll on what used to be our free time: the weekend. With no space to tune out and recharge, every aspect of our lives is suffering: our health is deteriorating, our social networks (the face-to-face kind) are dissolving and our productivity is down. The notion of working less and living more has given way to the belief that you must be 'on' 24/7. 
Tired of suffering from Sunday-night let down, award-winning journalist Katrina Onstad pushes back against this all-work-no-fun ethos. Onstad follows the trail of people, companies and countries vigilantly protecting their time off for joy, adventure and meaning, and digs into the history, positive psychology and cultural anthropology of the great missing weekend. 
The Weekend Effect reveals that taking back those precious forty-eight hours is the key to increasing joy, creativity, productivity and success. It will be your persuasive, practical and much-needed guide to reclaiming your time off and, ultimately, saving yourself.

The Weekend Effect: The Life-Changing Benefits of Taking Two Days Off

Parenting & Relationships

Piatkus Books

A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year, and longlisted for the Giller Prize, Katrina Onstad's second novel is an emotionally riveting exploration of what happens in the marriage of an urban professional couple when they suddenly and unexpectedly become the parents of a toddler. "Tenderly observed and elegantly drawn," (Vincent Lam) the vivid, utterly believable characters in this perceptive and poignant novel experience the challenges and joys of modern love in all its many permutations. After a car accident leaves their friend Marcus dead and his wife Sarah in a coma, Ana and James are shocked to discover that they are the legal guardians of a 2½-year-old. Finn's crash-landing in their lives throws into high relief deeply rooted, and sometimes long-hidden, truths about themselves, both individually and as a couple. Ultimately, they must face a question that remains virtually taboo in contemporary life: Can everyone be a parent?

Everybody Has Everything

Literature & Fiction

Emblem Editions

What happens when the tidy, prosperous life of an urban couple is turned inside out by a tragedy with unexpected consequences? After a car crash leaves their friend Marcus dead and his wife Sarah in a coma, Ana and James are shocked to discover that they have become the legal guardians of a 2½-year-old, Finn. Finn's crash-landing in their lives throws into high relief deeply rooted, and sometimes long-hidden, truths about themselves, both individually and as a couple. Several chaotic, poignant, and life-changing weeks as a most unusual family give rise to an often unasked question: Can everyone be a parent?

A well-lived weekend is the gateway to a well-lived life. The Weekend Effect shows us how by saving the weekend we can save ourselves.
The weekend—the once-sacred forty-eight hours of leisure—has been lost to overbooked schedules, pinging devices and encroaching work demands. Many of us are working more hours than we did a decade ago, and worse, we allow those hours to slide over seven days a week, giving us no respite to tune out and recharge.
We don’t need the research to tell us that this is hurting us. Our health is deteriorating, our social networks (the face-to-face kind) are weak and our productivity is down. It wasn’t long ago that working less and living more was considered a virtue. So what happened? 
In The Weekend Effect, journalist Katrina Onstad, herself suffering from Sunday-night letdown, digs into the history, the positive psychology and the cultural anthropology of the great missing weekend. She pushes back against the all-work, no-fun ethos and follows the trail of people, companies and countries who are vigilantly protecting their weekends for joy, for adventure and, most important, for meaning. Readers of The Happiness Project, All Joy and No Fun and Thrive will find personal and business inspiration in Onstad’s well-researched argument to re-frame our weekends.

Self-Help

Happiness

HarperCollins, Publishers

A NOW Magazine Best Book of the Year In a family, is anything forgivable?&nbsp; A penetrating new novel from the bestselling, Scotiabank Giller Prize-longlisted author of Everybody Has Everything The Kaplan family has just won 10 million dollars in the lottery. But haven't they always been lucky? Gwen thought so. She's carefully curated a perfect suburban existence with a loving husband and two children. For over a decade, she's been a stay-at-home mom, devoted to giving her kids the quiet, protected adolescence she didn't have. But the surprise windfall suddenly upends the family, allowing them all to dream a little bigger and catapulting them back to the city that Gwen fled years ago. As the Kaplans navigate the notoriety that the lottery brings and try to adjust to their new lives in the upper class--Seth launches a dubious start-up, Maddie falls headfirst in love at her elite prep school--a tightly held secret is unlocked. Along with the truth come long-buried memories from Gwen's troubled youth, forcing her to confront her painful past and threatening to unravel the incredibly tight bond between her and Maddie. Her meticulously constructed identity as the good wife and mother begins to crack. And when their changed circumstances place her family under threat, Gwen must wake up from her domestic slumber. For readers of Meg Wolitzer, Liane Moriarty and Zoe Whittall, Katrina Onstad's new novel explores whether our most intimate relationships can survive our most unforgivable actions. Stay Where I Can See You is a penetrating story about the pendulum swing of fortune, the ferocity of mother-daughter devotion and the stories we tell--and withhold--because of love.

Stay Where I Can See You: A Novel

Genre Fiction

HarperAvenue

After years of unsuccessful attempts at conceiving a child, Ana and James become parents overnight, when a terrible accident makes them guardians to 2 ¿ year-old Finn. Suddenly, two people who were struggling to come to terms with childlessness are thrust into the opposite situation-responsible for a small toddler whose mother's survival is in question. Finn's crash-landing in their tidy, urban lives throws into high relief some troubling truths about their deepest selves, both separately and as a couple. Several chaotic, poignant, and life-changing weeks as a most unusual family give rise to an often unasked question: Can everyone be a parent?

Literary

Grand Central Publishing

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