We like beer in Canada. We really, really like it. And it's not just a fly-by-night, sordid little affair. We're in it for the long term. We spend something like $8 billion a year on beer. From barley growers to label designers, more than 170,000 Canadians owe their full-time jobs directly or indirectly to beer.

First published in 2001 to national acclaim, Notes on a Beermat is Nicholas Pashley's ode to the amber nectar of the gods, a witty meditation on beer and everything that goes with it-from socializing to the solitary pleasures of a beer and a book, to the qualities necessary in a good pub. Notes on a Beermat, the only Canadian book of its kind, explains how to drink beer and why it is absolutely necessary.

In Cheers!, the follow up to Notes on a Beermat, Pashley explores beer in Canada, covering many salient points, including: Frère Ambroise, Who Started It All (Unless He Didn't); Us Against Them: Canadians and Our Neighbours to the South; When Canadians Knew Squat: The Stubby in Our Lives; and much, much more!