Service Alert
Postal delivery
CELA has restarted production and distribution of embossed braille, printbraille and reloading of Envoy Connect devices. There may be delays in receiving your materials due to rotating strikes by Canada Post workers.
Title search results
Showing 1 - 3 of 3 items
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
General fiction, Friendship stories, Family stories
Human-narrated audio
A witty, warm and brilliantly told debut that is at once a love story, a story of female friendship and…
motherhood, and an irresistible mystery surrounding an extraordinary British family.Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she’ll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father’s—now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox—lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox’s centuries-old estate with his enveloping, intriguing family, Pen begins to unravel her parents’ secret and to fall in love for the first time... Her best friend, Alice, an aspiring actor, is starring in a university production and making the most of the feminine power she wields—until a tryst with her tutor threatens to spin out of control.As Pen experiences the sharp shock of adulthood, she uncovers the truth about her own family and comes to rely on herself for the first time in her life. A rich and rewarding novel of campus life, of sexual awakening, and ultimately, of the many ways women can become mothers in this world, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus asks to what extent we need to look back in order to move forward.
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Multi-cultural fiction, Sports fiction, Serious and literary fiction
Human-narrated audio
From Giller Prize and O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa comes a revelatory novel about loneliness, love, labour, and class.…
An intimate and sharply written book following a nail salon owner as she toils away for the privileged clients who don't even know her true name.Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer's day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound depth. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complicated power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange. As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities—as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances—will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning. Told over a single day, with razor-sharp precision and wit, Pick a Colour confirms Souvankham Thammavongsa's place as literature's premier chronicler of the immigrant experience, in its myriad, complex, and slyly subversive forms.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Multi-cultural fiction, Serious and literary fiction, Sports fiction
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
*Longlisted for the 2025 Giller Prize*From Giller Prize and O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa comes a revelatory novel about…
loneliness, love, labour, and class. An intimate and sharply written book following a nail salon owner as she toils away for the privileged clients who don't even know her true name. "One of the greatest novels I have ever read." RITA BULLWINKEL"A knockout: every punch lands." ELEANOR CATTONNing is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer's day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound depth. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complicated power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange. As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities—as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances—will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning. Told over a single day, with razor-sharp precision and wit, Pick a Colour confirms Souvankham Thammavongsa's place as literature's premier chronicler of the immigrant experience, in its myriad, complex, and slyly subversive forms.