In Montreal, B & B has acquired a different meaning as Books & Breakfast – the now annual celebration of new writing by mainly Montreal authors.

This fall there are four opportunities to meet some of our top literary and journalistic talents, starting Oct. 19 at 9:30am at Le Centre Sheraton, 1201 René Lévesque Blvd. W. at Stanley St.

While enjoying a rich breakfast, you can listen to excerpts read by authors, learn about the background that contributed to their works, question them in an informal setting, and, of course, buy their books. Tickets cost $32 plus taxes or $115 for the series. Writer/broadcaster Anne Lagacé Dowson hosts three sessions while cartoonist Terry Mosher (Aislin) hosts one.

Sunday, Oct. 19

• Terry Mosher (Aislin), the brilliant and prolific Gazette cartoonist, presents his latest volume, The Wrecking Ball.

• Claire Holden Rothman presents My October, her Governor-General’s Award-shortlisted novel about a young man from a mixed marriage who discovers personal links to the October crisis of 1970.

• Journalist/psychologist Susan Pinker reads from The Village Effect, arguing how face-to-face contact is much more meaningful and rewarding than virtual links.

Sunday, Nov. 2

• Johanna Skibsrud, winner of the 2010 Giller Prize, discusses Quartet for the End of Time, her latest novel inspired by and structured around Olivier Messiaen’s Second World War chamber music. The novel connects four lives to one act of betrayal.

• Bill Brownstein, The Gazette’s veteran entertainment columnist, has ghost written You’re Not Dead Until You’re Forgotten, the story of how Verdun’s John Dunning became Canada’s pre-eminent B-movie producer.

• Kathleen Winter, whose 2010 novel Annabel was shortlisted for three major Canadian awards, reads from The Freedom in American Songs, her collection of short stories.

Sunday, Nov. 9

• Singer/songwriter Bruce Coburn presents Rumours of Glory, the memoir by the Ottawa folkie and his emergence as one of our greatest musical talents.

• Master storyteller Roch Carrier reads from Montcalm & Wolfe, his dual biography of the soldiers whose 1759 battle shaped Canada.

• Jean-Claude Germain, the writer, director, actor and historian, presents his autobiography Of Jesuits and Bohemians: Tales of My Early Youth.

Sunday, Nov. 16

• Kim Thuy, winner of the 2010 Governor General’s Award for Fiction, reads from Man, translated from the French by Sheila Fischman, about a Vietnamese woman who marries a Montreal restaurateur, relives her past and builds a new life around food.

• Daniel J. Levitin, McGill neuroscientist, musician and best-selling author, presents The Organized Mind, arguing that the human brain was not designed to function in an information overload environment.

• Chantal Hébert, the acclaimed and perceptive journalist/political analyst, discusses The Morning After, written with analyst Jean Lapierre, examining what might have been had the Yes side won the 1995 sovereignty referendum.

Tickets can be purchased at Paragraphe Bookstore at 2220 McGill College or with a credit card at 514-845-5811. Also available at the Westmount Public Library

A Words After Dark event is scheduled for Sunday, October 26, 2 pm, in collaboration with the Westmount Public Library. The guest author is CBC’s Ann-Marie MacDonald, reading from her novel Adult Onset, a drama about motherhood, the dark undercurrents that break and hold families together, and the power of love. Tickets $5; students/seniors $3. Victoria Hall, 4626 Sherbrooke in Westmount.