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Sadri Returns to Bali
By Elisabeth Waldmeier, Susan Tuttle Laube. 2002
The Galungan festival in Bali marks the victory of dharma (order) over adharma(disorder). It is celebrated by the Balinese Hindus,…
who believe that duringthese ten days of prayers, offerings, and feasting, their revered ancestors return to their former homes to be welcomed and entertained. Using this entrancing setting, Swiss illustrator and painter Elisabeth Waldmeier relates the exhilarating festival of the fun-loving Balinesc people through the eyes of a former child dancer, Sadri, who descends to his previous home to participate in the annual rapturous village celebrations. A delightful story accompanying enchanting and detailed illustrations, this book will captivate both children and adults alike.In the Field
By Claire Tacon. 2011
Ellie Lucan's about as far as she can get from the screwed-up teenager she used to be. She's got a…
doctorate, her husband's a prominent academic, and their children are excelling at a Montessori.When she loses her teaching job, however, she packs up her sons to spend the summer in her hometown. She finds her mother suffering from dementia and the house in squalor, and she is forced to confront small town prejudice towards her biracial sons.As Ellie is drawn back into the community, the strain on her marriage intensifies and she is forced to decide where her loyalties lie.Clare Tacon has an MFA in writing from the University of British Columbia and is a past editor of Prism Magazine. In the Field is her first novel.An Aesthetic Underground
By John Metcalf. 2014
"John Metcalf has written some of the very best stories ever published in this country."--Alice MunroThe Argus-eyed editor; the magisterial…
prose stylist; the waggish, inflammatory cultural critic; the mentor and iconoclast. John Metcalf is a literary legend whose memoir maps the underground he labored tirelessly to establish.The Fat Boy and the Money Bomb
By William C. Sailor. 2013
This is the story of a young whistleblower, Stanley Hall, who ends up changing "business as usual" at a nuclear…
weapons laboratory. His story, prior to being in the bomb business, includes periods of euphoria and recklessness followed by extreme grief and remorse. In his darkest hours he becomes concerned with greater moral good. At the Fairfield National Laboratory, he can either "play nice" or risk his career by reporting the fraud and abuse that is in front of him. His dilemma is further complicated by the close personal relationships that he has with some of the people he works with, whom he considers to be his friends.And They Danced by the Light of the Moon
By Heather O’neill. 2012
"There are some people who know when they are in love, and there are some people who don't. Jules was…
the type of person who know when he was in love. Manon was the type of person who did not." Heather O'Neill revisits her award-winning novel Lullabies for Little Criminals with a trip back in time to Val des Loups, the town Jules was born in, and where he met Baby's mother, Manon. This story first appeared in the July/August 2012 issue of The Walrus magazine. Lullabies for Little Criminals was the winner of CBC Canada Reads 2007, the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction 2007, and shortlisted for multiple prizes, including the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Governer General's Award.I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth
By Margaret Atwood. 2012
'"Time isn't the same in dreams," says Charis, who likes reading about what's going on in her head when she…
isn't awake, though sometimes, thinks Roz, it's hard to tell the difference. "In dreams, nobody's dead, really. That's what the man who...he says, in dreams the time is always Now."' Long ago, when they were all a lot younger, Zenia stole a man from each of them. Then she died. Now she's come back. Or has she? There's a lot more than one kind of ghost. Margaret Atwood revisits her classic characters from The Robber Bride. This story first appeared in the July/August 2012 issue of The Walrus magazine.Caroline's Halloween Spell (Sweet Valley Kids #33)
By Molly Mia Stewart, Francine Pascal. 1992
Elizabeth Wakefield is scared! Halloween is only a few days away, and Elizabeth suspects that Caroline Pearce may be a…
witch -- a bad witch. When Caroline catches Elizabeth spying on her, Elizabeth really starts to worry. Is Caroline truly a witch? And if she is, is she going to cast a nasty Halloween spell on Elizabeth?The Postman's Fiancée
By Denis Thériault. 2017
Twenty-two-year-old Tania has moved to Montreal to study, fine-tune her French and fall in love. Finding work as a waitress…
in an unpretentious down-town restaurant, she meets Bilodo, a shy postman who spends his days perfecting his calligraphy and writing haiku. The two hit it off. But then one stormy day their lives take a dramatic turn, and as their destinies become entwined Tania and Bilodo are led into a world where nothing is as it seems. A charming standalone work that reunites readers with the touching and much-loved characters first found in The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman, The Postman&’s Fiancée is an enchanting, poignant and bittersweet love story that will move readers, young and old alike.Compare worldwide religious regulations involving gay sex and masculinity! Men, Homosexuality, and the Gods: An Exploration into the Religious Significance…
of Male Homosexuality in World Perspective is an eye-opening look at the traditions of particular religions and their edicts concerning gay sex. This book examines the origins of holy directives involving homosexualitywhether forbidden, tolerated, or mandatoryand establishes a link between theology, sex roles, and the sensitive issue of masculinity. This text draws a parallel between homosexuality and the idea of religion, suggesting that gay rights can be understood as a freedom of religion issue. While most readers are familiar with the traditional Islamic, Christian, and Hebrew prohibitions against sex between two males, this book also reveals other historic religions from around the world that neither opposed nor looked down on homosexuality. Men, Homosexuality, and the Gods argues that masculinity is the universal theme that formed historical interpretationwarriors and men of high status could not be sexually receptive or feminine and still be called men. This intriguing text shows how the modern homophile movements are in effect redefining masculinity to obliterate the stigma of being a sexually receptive man. Men, Homosexuality, and the Gods examines the significance of homosexuality in such religions as: the Sambians of New Guinea the Taoists of Ancient China Plato and the later Stoics Islamic Sufism Native American culture Hebrew Scriptures early Christianity Buddhism Men, Homosexuality, and the Gods is an enlightening book that honors homosexual claims to moral integrity and appreciates religion and religious figures without rancor. Easy-to-read and free of technical language, this volume is for anyone who has an academic, professional, or personal interest in theology and homosexuality. The author is available for speaking engagements and can be contacted at Ronldlong@aol.comI'm Just a Teenage Punchbag: POIGNANT AND FUNNY: A NOVEL FOR A GENERATION OF WOMEN
By Jackie Clune. 2020
'Obligatory reading for all parents of teenagers!' NIGELLA LAWSON'Bloody marvellous. Horribly familiar, funny, touching, sad, brutally honest...clutch this book to…
your stained T-shirt and never let it go.' JO BRAND'Terrific. A remarkable blend of hilarity and heartbreak with a really satisfying plot. Being childless never felt so good.' GRAHAM NORTON'Warm and witty... The competitive mothering, the hell that is other people's children, the fights and accusations of Homeland inquisition all rang deliciously true... a most entertaining read.' KATHY LETTE'Very poignant... A moving read as well as a funny one.' JANE GARVEY 'Honest, hilarious and painful' WOMAN & HOMEWarning!! This novel may lead you to make rash and life-changing decisions!**Probably don't read if you fear you may be ripe for liberation. Or if you sometimes wee when you laugh...First there was Having It All, then there was Bridget Jones' s Diary and I Don't Know How She Does It. Now there is Teenage Punchbag.I'm Just A Teenage Punchbag is a laugh-out-loud, sob-on-the bus journey through the so-called life of a middle-aged woman.Ciara is mother to three ungrateful, entitled teenagers, is married to steady Martin, a man with hairy udders, and is grieving for her mum who now lives in the wardrobe in a cardboard box from the crematorium. She finds solace in her anonymous blog, and in the daily chats she has with her mum's ashes (often the best conversations she has all day.)Despite the menopause, the invisibility of middle age and the daily self-esteem bashings, courtesy of her kids, Ciara manages to navigate the stormy waters of grief and family life - until her mask slips and she is cast out from the family bosom. She embarks on a mission to fulfil her mum's dying wishes to have her remains sprinkled from the top of the Empire State Building, finding company, distraction and - ultimately - herself in the process.If motherhood is a job - who says you can't resign?Empire of Wild: A Novel
By Cherie Dimaline. 2019
A #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLEROne of the most anticipated books of the summer for Time, Harper's Bazaar, Bustle and Publishers Weekly'Deftly…
written, gripping and informative. Empire of Wild is a rip-roaring read!' Margaret Atwood'Empire of Wild is doing everything I love in a contemporary novel and more. It is tough, funny, beautiful, honest and propulsive' Tommy Orange, author of There There 'Dimaline turns an old story into something newly haunting and resonant' New York Times'Close, tight, stark, beautiful - rich where richness is warranted, but spare where want and sorrow have sharpened every word. Dimaline has crafted something both current and timeless' NPR'Revelatory... Gritty and engaging, this story of a woman and her missing husband is one of candor, wit and tradition'Ms. Magazine Broken-hearted Joan has been searching for her husband, Victor, for almost a year - ever since he went missing on the night they had their first serious argument. One hung-over morning in a Walmart parking lot in a little town near Georgian Bay, she is drawn to a revival tent where the local Métis have been flocking to hear a charismatic preacher. By the time she staggers into the tent the service is over, but as she is about to leave, she hears an unmistakable voice.She turns, and there is Victor. Only he insists he is not Victor, but the Reverend Eugene Wolff, on a mission to bring his people to Jesus.With only two allies - her Johnny-Cash-loving, 12-year-old nephew Zeus, and Ajean, a foul-mouthed euchre shark with deep knowledge of the old Métis ways - Joan sets out to remind the Reverend Wolff of who he really is. If he really is Victor, his life and the life of everyone she loves, depends upon her success.Inspired by traditional Métis legends, Cherie Dimaline has created a propulsive, stunning and sensuous novel.The Cresswell Plot
By Eliza Wass. 2016
The woods were insane in the dark, terrifying and magical at the same time. But best of all were the…
stars, which trumpeted their light into the misty dark. Castella Cresswell and her five siblings???Hannan, Casper, Mortimer, Delvive, and Jerusalem??? know what it's like to be different. For years, their world has been confined to their ramshackle family home deep in the woods of upstate New York. They abide by the strict rule of God, whose messages come directly from their father. Slowly, Castley and her siblings start to test the boundaries of the laws that bind them. But, at school, they're still the freaks they've always been to the outside world. Marked by their plain clothing. Unexplained bruising. Utter isolation from their classmates. That is, until Castley is forced to partner with the totally irritating, totally normal George Gray, who offers her a glimpse of a life filled with freedom and choice. Castley's world rapidly expands beyond the woods she knows so well and the beliefs she once thought were the only truths. There is a future waiting for her if she can escape her father's grasp, but Castley refuses to leave her siblings behind. Just as she begins to form a plan, her father makes a chilling announcement: the Cresswells will soon return to their home in heaven. With time running out on all of their lives, Castley must expose the depth of her father's lies. The forest has buried the truth in darkness for far too long. Castley might be their last hope for salvation.Beauty and Sadness
By Andre Alexis. 2010
It Is an Honest Ghost
By John Goldbach. 2016
From Kenya to Quebec, these wry and unconventional stories explore the different ways we're haunted ... Teenagers philosophize on the…
nature of ontology while fearing there's a ghost in the old mill they're stuck in; a man encounters an old friend in the unlikeliest of places; nineteenth-century inventor Sigismund Mohr is vividly brought back from obscurity; and two journalists travel to Kenya for a conference, where one of them has a paranoid breakdown. It Is an Honest Ghost is a funny and often eerie collection that explores what lies beyond mortality -- if anything, that is. 'A thrilling collection: hot-headed, existential, crystalline. Goldbach's novella Hic et Ubique illuminates the nightmare of being a man in this world -- the twisted, spiritual conversion of buddy into warrior. This book is cadenced and visionary.'-- Tamara Faith Berger 'Searching and restless, a new Goldbach story is a thing to celebrate. A whole collection of them? A Mardi Gras of mischievous goodness. This fiction slays hearts in the most wondrous of ways.'-- Jeff ParkerLook-Alikes Christmas
By Joan Steiner. 2003
A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories
By Leonard Cohen. 2022
NATIONAL BESTSELLERAn unprecedented glimpse into the formation of the legendary talent of Leonard Cohen.Before the celebrated late-career world tours, before…
the Grammy awards, before the chart-topping albums, before &“Hallelujah&” and &“So Long, Marianne&” and &“Famous Blue Raincoat,&” the young Leonard Cohen wrote poetry and fiction and yearned for literary stardom. In A Ballet of Lepers, readers will discover that the magic that animated Cohen&’s unforgettable body of work was present from the very beginning.Written between 1956 in Montreal, just as Cohen was publishing his first poetry collection, and 1961, when he&’d settled on Greece&’s Hydra island, the pieces in this collection offer startling insight into Cohen&’s imagination and creative process, and explore themes that would permeate his later work, from shame and unworthiness to sexual desire to longing, whether for love, family, freedom, or transcendence.The titular novel, A Ballet of Lepers—one he later remarked was &“probably a better novel&” than his celebrated book The Favourite Game—is a haunting examination of these elements, while the fifteen stories, as well as the playscript, probe the inner demons of his characters, many of whom could function as stand-ins for the author himself.Meditative, surprising, playful, and provocative, A Ballet of Lepers is vivid in its detail, unsparing in its gaze, and reveals the great artist and visceral genius like never before.Sanctuary Line
By Jane Urquhart. 2010
Solitary, nostalgic Liz Crane returns to her family's now-deserted farmhouse to study the migratory habits of the Monarch butterfly. A…
rich family history - all the anecdotes and blarney of successful Irish immigrants - is now tainted with sadness. Her cousin Amanda, a gifted military strategist, has been killed in Afghanistan, a loss foreshadowed by the earlier disappearance of her charismatic father. Reflecting on the fragility and transcience of human life and relations - mirrored in the Monarchs' restless flight - Liz finds that love is there to be found where you least expect it.Sanctuary Line
By Jane Urquhart. 2010
Solitary, nostalgic Liz Crane returns to her family's now-deserted farmhouse to study the migratory habits of the Monarch butterfly. A…
rich family history - all the anecdotes and blarney of successful Irish immigrants - is now tainted with sadness. Her cousin Amanda, a gifted military strategist, has been killed in Afghanistan, a loss foreshadowed by the earlier disappearance of her charismatic father. Reflecting on the fragility and transcience of human life and relations - mirrored in the Monarchs' restless flight - Liz finds that love is there to be found where you least expect it.The Wrong World: Selected Stories and Essays of Bertram Brooker (Canadian Literature Collection)
By Bertram Brooker, Gregory Betts. 2009
Bertram Brooker won the country's first Governor General's Award for literature in 1936 for his novel Think of the Earth,…
and his explosive, experimental paintings hang in every major gallery in the country. He was Canada's first multidisciplinary avantgardist, successfully experimenting in literature, visual arts, film, and theatre. Brooker brought all of his experimental ambitions to his short fiction and prose. The Wrong World presents a rich sampling of his prose work, much of it previously unpublished, which adds new insight into his aesthetic ambitions. Working during an incredible period of transition in Canadian society, Brooker's stories document Canada's evolution from a provincial colony into a modern, urban country. His essays participated in that evolution by advocating a passionate awakening of the arts, the end of prudish sentiment and censorship, and a radical rethinking of the nature of war. They capture the limitations and hypocrisies of the Canadian social contract and argue for a more just and spiritual society. His stories humanize his social vision by dramatizing the psychological and emotional cost of Canada's transition into a modern civilization. In turn devastating, penetrating and poignant, Brooker's prose works offer a sharply focussed window into the turbulent interwar years in Canada.From the Canadian Short Story Library, twelve stories from Desmond Pacey, a major figure in Canadian Literature and criticism. The…
twelve stories are typical of Pacey's story-telling technique and what emerges from them is a distinctive, even powerful optimism, charity, tolerance and deep understanding of human nature. The sombre side of life is honestly portrayed and juxtaposed against the importance of love as a unifying force. These stories, presented in a simple straightforward manner, reveal man as he is: fragile, vulnerable, capable of crude, selfish and irrational behaviour, subject to defeat and despair; but also, heroic, enlightened, capable of strength, wisdom, hope and joy.