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Harvey Holds His Own (The Harvey Stories #2)
By Colleen Nelson. 2020
The West Highland Terrier that brought Harvey Comes Home to life returns with his tail wagging and his nose sharp,…
ready for a new adventure Harvey the West Highland Terrier is back with his beloved Maggie. He is also back at Brayside retirement home, where he and Maggie now volunteer along with their friend Austin. There Maggie is drawn to a new resident, Mrs. Fradette, who tells stories of learning to fix cars as a twelve-year-old during the flood of 1950. Mrs. Fradette, with her bold fashion and love of poker, doesn’t fit in among the beige-cardigan-wearing, bridge-playing ladies of Brayside, but she doesn’t seem to care. Maybe that’s why Maggie likes her so much. Since seventh grade began, Maggie hasn’t been fitting in well with her friends, either. Harvey has a problem of his own. He can smell an intruder in his yard, and he needs to find it. He is so intent on the nighttime fiend that he almost doesn’t notice how worried Austin is about his grandfather, who has been Brayside’s custodian for longer than Harvey has been alive. It seems like the retirement home is planning to give the job to a younger man, an injustice that Austin can’t let pass unchallenged. In intertwining perspectives, Colleen Nelson tells four stories of individuals standing firm for what they know is right: Josephine Fradette, insisting on her right to become a mechanic; Maggie, certain that her friends’ expectations shouldn’t define who she becomes; Austin, indignantly campaigning against ageism; and Harvey, who has found his home at last and is determined to protect it.Nevers
By Sara Cassidy. 2019
Resourceful fourteen-year-old Odette is on the move again, traveling as a stowaway on a cheese cart with her hapless mother,…
Anneline. They are in Burgundy, France, in 1799, fleeing yet another calamity caused by Anneline (who is prone to killing people accidentally). At dawn they find themselves in a town called Nevers, which is filled with eccentric characters, including a man who obsessively smells hands, another who dreams of becoming a chicken and a donkey that keeps the town awake at night, braying about his narrow life. As Odette establishes a home in an abandoned guardhouse, she makes a friend in the relaxed Nicois and finds work as a midwife's assistant. She and Nicois uncover a mystery that may lead to riches and, more important for Odette, a sense of belonging.The Good Father
By Wayne Grady. 2021
From award-winning, bestselling author Wayne Grady comes The Good Father, his first contemporary novel, which comically and tragically reckons with…
a father and daughter's estrangement, the failures brought on by hubris, the limits of perception and the price we pay for second chances.Every story has two sides, two perspectives. And when it comes to a relationship between a daughter and her father, separated first by divorce and then by both generational gaps and physical and emotional distance, those perspectives can colossally diverge. Such is the case with Harry Bowes and his only daughter, Daphne. Harry is a mild mannered journalist turned teacher turned wine merchant who is content to putter around his home in Toronto eating things straight out of the fridge that both his doctor and his second wife, Elinor, would disapprove of, and procrastinate calling his daughter even though he senses something is amiss. Meanwhile, in Vancouver, Daphne seems intent on a course of nihilism, having gone from being a loving girl to a top student to a hostile young woman who is determined to destroy her life and relationships by self-medicating with drugs and alcohol. When a catastrophic event wrenches them out of their states, one of stasis and one of chaos, Harry and Daphne are forced to examine the ways in which their self-absorption has eroded their connection and discover whether a family's bond is truly ironclad or if their damage is irreparable. Told in alternating perspectives, The Good Father delivers a deeply satisfying and layered novel of love, perception, family and domesticity. Propelled by regret, compassion, frustration and comfort, this novel gives us Wayne Grady at the height of his powers.Letters Across the Sea
By Genevieve Graham. 2021
Inspired by a little-known chapter of World War II history, a young Protestant girl and her Jewish neighbour are caught…
up in the terrible wave of hate sweeping the globe on the eve of war in this powerful love story that’s perfect for fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.If you’re reading this letter, that means I’m dead. I had obviously hoped to see you again, to explain in person, but fate had other plans. 1933 At eighteen years old, Molly Ryan dreams of becoming a journalist, but instead she spends her days working any job she can to help her family through the Depression crippling her city. The one bright spot in her life is watching baseball with her best friend, Hannah Dreyfus, and sneaking glances at Hannah’s handsome older brother, Max. But as the summer unfolds, more and more of Hitler’s hateful ideas cross the sea and “Swastika Clubs” and “No Jews Allowed” signs spring up around Toronto, a city already simmering with mass unemployment, protests, and unrest. When tensions between the Irish and Jewish communities erupt in a riot one smouldering day in August, Molly and Max are caught in the middle, with devastating consequences for both their families. 1939 Six years later, the Depression has eased and Molly is a reporter at her local paper. But a new war is on the horizon, putting everyone she cares about most in peril. As letters trickle in from overseas, Molly is forced to confront what happened all those years ago, but is it too late to make things right? From the desperate streets of Toronto to the embattled shores of Hong Kong, Letters Across the Sea is a poignant novel about the enduring power of love to cross dangerous divides even in the darkest of times—from the #1 bestselling author of The Forgotten Home ChildConstant Nobody
By Michelle Butler Hallett. 2021
For fans of Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light comes an historical espionage novel with a contemporary edge from…
Michelle Butler Hallett. The time is 1937. The place: the Basque Country, embroiled in the Spanish Civil War. Polyglot and British intelligence agent Temerity West encounters Kostya Nikto, a Soviet secret police agent. Kostya has been dispatched to assassinate a doctor as part of the suppression of a rogue communist faction. When Kostya finds his victim in the company of Temerity, she expects Kostya to execute her -- instead, he spares her. Several weeks later, Temerity is reassigned to Moscow. When she is arrested by the secret police, she once again encounters Kostya. His judgement impaired by pain, morphine, and alcohol, he extricates her from a dangerous situation and takes her to his flat. In the morning, they both awaken to the realities of what Kostya has done. Although Kostya wants to keep Temerity safe, the cost will be high. And Temerity must decide where her loyalties lie. Writing about violence with an unusual grace, Michelle Butler Hallett tells a story of complicity, love, tyranny, and identity. Constant Nobody is a thrilling novel that asks how far an individual will go to protect another — whether out of love or fear.The Spoon Stealer
By Lesley Crewe. 2020
Born into a basket of clean sheets--ruining a perfectly good load of laundry--Emmeline never quite fit in on her family's…
rural Nova Scotian farm. After suffering multiple losses in the First World War, her family became so heavy with grief, toxicity, and mental illness that Emmeline felt their weight smothering her. And so, she fled across the Atlantic and built her life in England. Now she is retired and living in a small coastal town with her best friend, Vera, an excellent conversationalist. Vera is also a small white dog, and so Emmeline is making an effort to talk to more humans. When she joins a memoir-writing course at the library, her classmates don't know what to make of her. Funny, loud, and with a riveting memoir, she charms the lot. As her past unfolds for her audience, friendships form, a bonus in a rather lonely life. She even shares with them her third-biggest secret: she has liberated hundreds of spoons over her lifetime--from the local library, Cary Grant, Winston Churchill. She is a compulsive spoon stealer. When Emmeline unexpectedly inherits the farm she grew up on, she knows she needs to leave, to see what remains of her family one last time. She arrives like a tornado in their lives, an off-kilter Mary Poppins bossing everyone around and getting quite a lot wrong. But with her generosity and hard-earned wisdom, she gets an awful lot right, too. A pinball ricocheting between people, offending and inspiring in equal measure, Emmeline, in her final years, believes that a spoonful--perhaps several spoonfuls--of kindness can set to rights the family so broken by loss and secrecy. The Spoon Stealer is a classic Crewe book: full of humour, family secrets, women's friendship, lovable animals, and immense heart.The Lost Sister
By Andrea Gunraj. 2020
?The anticipated sophomore novel from celebrated author Andrea Gunraj, The Lost Sister explores gender, race and class dynamics through the…
harrowing story of sisters Alisha and Diana. Set in Toronto while drawing from real-life experiences of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, The Lost Sister examines topics of child abuse, neglect and abduction in a story about guilt, redemption and peace.Good Mothers Don't: A Novel
By Laura Best. 2020
?It's 1960 and Elizabeth is slowly coming apart. Her reality is splintering and she wants to harm her children. Fifteen…
years later, Elizabeth is desperately trying to fill in the gaps electric shock therapy has left in her memory. She longs to find her children and explain that she never meant to leave for so long. A moving exploration of illness, memory, and how we fight for who we love.La promesse du bout du monde
By Danielle S. Marcotte, Stéphanie Bourgeois. 2021
Été 1786. Deux garçons orphelins de quinze ans sont sur un voilier parti de Southampton, en Angleterre, pour le Nord-Est…
du Pacifique. Alexis, d’origine acadienne, cherche ce qu’il reste de sa famille dispersée, et Hugh rêve d’une vie meilleure. Mais un jeune cougar affamé vient bousculer le destin des adolescents une fois qu’ils sont arrivés sur le continent nord-américain. Tandis que Hugh, blessé, est secouru par un membre de l’équipage, Alexis, perdu dans la forêt, aboutit à un village autochtone terrassé par la petite vérole. Au milieu des cadavres, seule une jeune fille est encore en vie. Alexis et elle vont s’entraider pour survivre...My Indian
By Chief Mi'Sel Joe, Sheila O'Neill. 2021
In 1822, William Epps Cormack sought the expertise of a guide who could lead him across Newfoundland in search of…
the last remaining Beothuk camps on the island. In his journals, Cormack refers to his guide only as “My Indian.” Now, almost two hundred years later, Mi’sel Joe and Sheila O’Neill reclaim the story of Sylvester Joe, the Mi’kmaq guide engaged by Cormack. In a remarkable feat of historical fiction, My Indian follows Sylvester Joe from his birth (in what is now known as Miawpukek First Nation) and early life in his community to his journey across the island with Cormack. But will Sylvester Joe lead Cormack to the Beothuk, or will he protect the Beothuk and lead his colonial explorer away? In rewriting the narrative of Cormack’s journey from the perspective of his Mi’kmaq guide, My Indian reclaims Sylvester Joe’s identity.Marilla Before Anne
By Louise Michalos. 2021
Marilla Cuthbert was fifty-two years old when the plucky red-headed Anne Shirley came to live with her and her brother,…
Matthew, at Green Gables farm on Prince Edward Island. A seemingly cold and dour spinster, her heart eventually softens to the loveable orphan girl. But for over a century readers have wondered, who was Marilla before Anne?Brighten the Corner Where You Are
By Carol Bruneau. 2020
?Maud Lewis is a folk art legend who persevered through stigma, poverty, and disability to create beautiful and lasting pieces…
of art. Brighten the Corner Where You Are brings illumination to Maud's life.Harvey Comes Home (The Harvey Stories #1)
By Colleen Nelson, Tara Anderson. 2019
Now in paperback, the award-winning story of a lost West Highland Terrier warming hearts and bringing generations together A dog’s…
world is a world of scents, of adventure. When a Harvey the West Highland Terrier wanders out of his old life guided only by his nose and his heart, lives begin to converge. Austin, a young volunteer at the Brayside retirement home, quickly finds that the audacious Harvey inspires Mr. Pickering, a bitter resident coping with memory loss, to tell stories of his childhood. Moved by the elderly man’s Dust Bowl recollections of grinding poverty and the perseverance of his friends and family, Austin begins to trade his preconceived notions for empathy. But is it enough to give him the resolve to track down Harvey’s original owner? Supported by warm graphite illustrations from acclaimed artist Tara Anderson, author Colleen Nelson immerses readers in a rich and unflinchingly human tale of struggle and hope—all inspired by one curious dog.The Son of the House
By Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia. 2021
Pulsing with vitality and intense human drama, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia’s debut is set against four decades of vibrant Nigeria and celebrates…
the resilience of women as they navigate and transform what remains a man’s world.August into Winter: A Novel
By Guy Vanderhaeghe. 2021
NATIONAL BESTSELLER The first novel in nearly a decade from the three-time Governor General's Award?winning author of The Last Crossing,…
August Into Winter is an epic story of crime and retribution, of war and its long shadow, and of the redemptive possibilities of love.You carried the past into the future on your back, its knees and arms hugging you tighter with every step.It is 1939, with the world on the brink of global war, when Constable Hotchkiss confronts the spoiled, narcissistic man-child Ernie Sickert about a rash of disturbing pranks in their small prairie town. Outraged and cornered, Ernie commits an act of unspeakable violence, setting in motion a course of events that will change forever the lives of all in his wake.With Loretta Pipe—the scrappy twelve-year-old he idealizes as the love of his life—in tow, Ernie flees town. In close pursuit is Corporal Cooper, who enlists the aid of two brothers, veterans of World War One: Jack, a sensitive, spiritual man with a potential for brutal violence; and angry, impetuous Dill, still recovering from the premature death of his wife who, while on her deathbed, developed an inexplicable obsession with the then-teenaged Ernie Sickert.When a powerful storm floods the prairie roads, wreaking havoc, Ernie and Loretta take shelter in a one-room schoolhouse where they are discovered by the newly arrived teacher, Vidalia Taggart. Vidalia has her own haunted past, one that has driven her to this stark and isolated place with only the journals of her lover Dov, recently killed in the Spanish Civil War, for company. Dill, arriving at the schoolhouse on Ernie's trail, falls hard and fast for Vidalia—but questions whether he can compete with the impossible ideal of a dead man.Guy Vanderhaeghe, writing at the height of his celebrated powers, has crafted a tale of unrelenting suspense against a backdrop of great moral searching and depth. His is a canvas of lavish, indelible detail: of character, of landscape, of history—in all their searing beauty but all their ugliness, too. Vanderhaeghe does not shrink from the corruption, cruelty, and treachery that pervade the world. Yet even in his clear-eyed depiction of evil—a depiction that frequently and delightfully turns darkly comic—he will not deny the possibility of love, of light. With August Into Winter, Guy Vanderhaeghe has given us a masterfully told, masterfully timed story for our own troubled hearts.Under Amelia's Wing: Book 2 of the Ginny Ross Series (Ginny Ross #Book 2)
By Heather Stemp. 2020
A STEM-friendly novel about a girl who just wants to learn to fly. Stubborn to a fault, Ginny Ross is…
enrolled at Purdue University to earn her pilot's license and help her friend and mentor, Amelia Earhart, recruit more young women into aviation and engineering. But when Amelia goes missing in 1937, Ginny must learn to carry on alone.Elvis, Me, and the Lemonade Stand Summer
By Leslie Gentile. 2021
Winner of the 2021 City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize It’s the summer of 1978 and most people think Elvis…
Presley has been dead for a year. But not eleven-year-old Truly Bateman – because she knows Elvis is alive and well and living in the Eagle Shores Trailer Park. Maybe no one ever thought to look for him at on the Eagle Shores First Nation on Vancouver Island. It’s a busy summer for Truly. Though her mother is less of a mother than she ought to be, and spends her time drinking and smoking and working her way through new boyfriends, Truly is determined to raise as much money for herself as she can through her lemonade stand … and to prove that her cool new neighbour is the one and only King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. And when she can’t find motherly support in her own home, she finds sanctuary with Andy El, the Salish woman who runs the trailer park.Tenderness
By Alison MacLeod. 2021
"Powerful, moving, brilliant . . . an utterly captivating read, and I came away from it with this astonished thought:…
There's nothing this writer can't do." --Elizabeth Gilbert For readers of A Gentleman in Moscow and Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, an ambitious, spellbinding historical novel about sensuality, censorship, and the novel that set off the sexual revolution. On the glittering shores of the Mediterranean in 1928, a dying author in exile races to complete his final novel. Lady Chatterley's Lover is a sexually bold love story, a searing indictment of class distinctions, and a study in sensuality. But the author, D.H. Lawrence, knows it will be censored. He publishes it privately, loses his copies to customs, and dies bereft. Booker Prize-longlisted author Alison MacLeod brilliantly recreates the novel's origins and boldly imagines its journey to freedom through the story of Jackie Kennedy, who was known to be an admirer. In MacLeod's telling, Jackie-in her last days before becoming First Lady-learns that publishers are trying to bring D.H. Lawrence's long-censored novel to American and British readers in its full form. The U.S. government has responded by targeting the postal service for distributing obscene material. Enjoying what anonymity she has left, determined to honor a novel she loves, Jackie attends the hearing incognito. But there she is quickly recognized, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover takes note of her interest and her outrage. Through the story of Lawrence's writing of Lady Chatterley's Lover, the historic obscenity trial that sought to suppress it in the United Kingdom, and the men and women who fought for its worldwide publication, Alison MacLeod captures the epic sweep of the twentieth century from war and censorship to sensuality and freedom. Exquisite, evocative, and grounded in history, Tenderness is a testament to the transformative power of fiction.Pure Colour
By Sheila Heti. 2022
One of The Globe and Mail’s “Canadian Books We’re Most Excited About in 2022”One of CBC Books’ “Works of Canadian…
Fiction to Watch for in Spring 2022”One of Esquire’s “The Best Books of 2022 Will Provoke, Persuade and Perturb You”One of Entertainment Weekly’s “Must-Read Books to Heat Up February”One of BuzzFeed News’ “Books to Get Excited About This Year”One of Publishers Weekly’s Book Club Picks for February 2022One of The New Statesman’s “What to Read in 2022: Fiction”One of The A.V. Club’s “Most Anticipated Books of 2022”One of Vulture’s “Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2022”One of Yahoo’s “Most Anticipated Books of 2022” A new novel about art, love, death and time from the author of Motherhood and How Should A Person Be? Here we are, just living in the first draft of creation, which was made by some great artist, who is now getting ready to tear it apart. In this first draft, a woman named Mira leaves home for school. There, she meets Annie, whose tremendous power opens Mira’s chest like a portal—to what, she doesn’t know. When Mira is older, her beloved father dies, and she enters the strange and dizzying dimension that true loss opens up. Pure Colour tells the story of a life, from beginning to end. It is a galaxy of a novel: explosive, celestially bright, huge, and streaked with beauty. It is a contemporary bible, an atlas of feeling, and a shape-shifting epic. Sheila Heti is a philosopher of modern experience, and she has reimagined what a book can hold.Daughters of the Deer
By Danielle Daniel. 2022
NATIONAL BESTSELLER In this haunting and groundbreaking historical novel, Danielle Daniel imagines the lives of women in the Algonquin territories…
of the 1600s, a story inspired by her family’s ancestral link to a young girl who was murdered by French settlers.1657. Marie, a gifted healer of the Deer Clan, does not want to marry the green-eyed soldier from France who has asked for her hand. But her people are threatened by disease and starvation and need help against the Iroquois and their English allies if they are to survive. When her chief begs her to accept the white man’s proposal, she cannot refuse him, and sheds her deerskin tunic for a borrowed blue wedding dress to become Pierre’s bride. 1675. Jeanne, Marie’s oldest child, is seventeen, neither white nor Algonquin, caught between worlds. Caught by her own desires, too. Her heart belongs to a girl named Josephine, but soon her father will have to find her a husband or be forced to pay a hefty fine to the French crown. Among her mother’s people, Jeanne would have been considered blessed, her two-spirited nature a sign of special wisdom. To the settlers of New France, and even to her own father, Jeanne is unnatural, sinful—a woman to be shunned, beaten, and much worse. With the poignant, unforgettable story of Marie and Jeanne, Danielle Daniel reaches back through the centuries to touch the very origin of the long history of violence against Indigenous women and the deliberate, equally violent disruption of First Nations cultures.