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Showing 21 - 40 of 54 items
Akin: a novel /
By Emma Donoghue. 2019
Noah Selvaggio is a retired chemistry professor and widower living on the Upper West Side, but born in the South…
of France. He is days away from his first visit back to Nice since he was a child, bringing with him a handful of puzzling photos he's discovered from his mother's wartime years. But he receives a call from social services: Noah is the closest available relative of an eleven-year-old great-nephew he's never met, who urgently needs someone to look after him. Out of a feeling of obligation, Noah agrees to take Michael along on his trip. Much has changed in this famously charming seaside mecca, still haunted by memories of the Nazi occupation. The unlikely duo, suffering from jet lag and culture shock, bicker about everything from steak fries to screen time. But Noah gradually comes to appreciate the boy's truculent wit, and Michael's ease with tech and sharp eye help Noah unearth troubling details about their family's past. Both come to grasp the risks people in all eras have run for their loved ones, and find they are more akin than they knew. Bestseller. 2019.Albatross: a novel /
By Terry Fallis. 2019
Adam Coryell is your average high-school student--well, except for that obsession with fountain pens--when his life changes forever. Based on…
a study by a quirky Swedish professor that claims that every human being, regardless of athletic inclination, has a body that is suited to excel in at least one sport, it turns out that Adam is good--very good, in fact--at golf. Even though he'd never even picked up a golf club. Almost instantly, and with his coach, hard-nosed Bobbie Davenport by his side, Adam and his new-found talent skyrocket to a prodigy-level stardom that includes tournament titles, sponsorship deals, throngs of fans following his every move, and fodder for tabloids. But here's the catch: Adam doesn't really like golf. And as the life he once knew slips away--including the love of his life, the dream of being a writer, and everyday normalcy--he can't help but wonder if all this success and fame is worth it, or if it's enough for him. Bestseller. 2019.This little light /
By Lori Lansens. 2019
Taking place over 48 hours in the year 2023, this is the story of Rory Ann Miller, on the run…
with her best friend because they are accused of bombing their posh Californian high school during an American Virtue Ball. There's a bounty on their heads, and a social media storm of trolls flying around them, not to mention a posse of law enforcement, attack helicopters and drones trying to track them down. Rory's mom, a social activist and lawyer, has been arrested and implicated in her daughter's "crimes" whereas her dad (who betrayed his wife and daughter in a nasty divorce) is cooperating with the authorities. The story exists in a universe of gated communities, born-again Christians, Probationary Citizens (once known as "Dreamers"), re-criminalized abortion and birth control, teenage virginity oaths and something called the Red Market, which is either a Conservative bogey-man created to further polarize the "base" or a criminal network making money from selling unwanted babies to whomever wants them and fetal tissue to cosmetics and drug companies. Rory is cynical and scared, furious and scathing, betrayed and looking for something or someone to trust. What she has to say about the dads and bosses and politicians lining up to keep women in their place, and about the ways women collaborate in their own undermining, is fierce, and funny, and sad, and true. 2019.Translated from the gibberish: seven stories and one half truth /
By Anosh Irani. 2019
In these stories we meet: a swimming instructor determined to reenact John Cheever's iconic short story "The Swimmer" in the…
pools of Mumbai; a famous chef who, overcome by a devastating childhood memory, melts down during an appearance on a New York talk show; a gangster's wife who is convinced she's found the reincarnation of a lost loved one in a penguin from the Mumbai zoo; an illegal immigrant in North Vancouver who is drawn into a pick-up cricket game that may decide his fate. These are just some of the extraordinary characters that animate this wildly imaginative collection of tales about people caught between two worlds: India and Canada. 2019.Night of power /: A Novel
By Anar Ali. 2019
As the heir to a successful business empire in Uganda, Mansoor Visram had everything a man could want: money, power,…
influence, a beautiful wife, and a baby son. But when Idi Amin's regime begins its crackdown on its South Asian population, Mansoor and his family are forced to flee, leaving behind everything. As refugees, they arrive in Canada, settling in Calgary, but the strain of what the family has been through begins to show. Years later, Mansoor's son, Ashif, is a rising star in a multinational firm. He has spent years distancing himself from his overbearing father but finds himself continuously drawn back to the family he left behind. Now, his father claims he has a plan for a dry cleaning franchise that will raise the Visrams back into their old position of prominence. But after so many failed attempts to succeed, one more pipe dream may be too many for the family to bear. 2019.A Delhi obsession /: A Novel
By M. G. Vassanji. 2019
Munir Khan, a recent widower from Toronto, on a whim decides to visit Delhi, his ancestral city. Born in Kenya,…
he has lost all family connections, and has never visited India before. While he's sitting in the bar of the club where he is staying, an attractive woman takes a chair at his table to await her husband. A sparring match ensues. The two are from different worlds: Munir is a westernized agnostic of Muslim origin, ignorant about India; Mohini, a modern Hindu woman and daughter of "Partition" refugees, whose family bears resentment towards Muslims. She's religiously traditional, but also a liberal and provocative newspaper columnist--and utterly witty and charming. Against her better judgement, Mohini agrees to show Munir around Delhi. As they explore the thriving markets and historical buildings of Delhi, an inexplicable attraction begins. What follows is a passionate love affair--uncontrollable yet impossible. This is a period of rising Hindu nationalism in modern India that at times manifests itself in vigilante violence. Constantly lurking at Munir's club is the menacing presence of a group of arch conservatives, self-styled protectors of Hindu women and cows. To them Munir Khan is simply a Muslim "love-jihadi" who has led the pride of Hindu womanhood, Mohini Singh, astray. Munir and Mohini must contend with the cost of their passion. 2019.Skateboard Sibby /
By Clare O'Connor. 2019
Eleven-year-old super skateboarder Sibby Henry liked her life just fine until her father quit his job and forced her family…
to move from Charlottetown to Halifax. Now she's living with her Nan and Pops, starting at a new school and missing her super best friend Vera. On top of all that, Sibby is without the one thing that helps her feel confident and grounded: her skateboard. Within minutes of arriving at her new school, Sibby knows she will have a hard time following Vera's two rules for making new friends. First rule, stay chill. Second, ignore trouble. It's hard to be chill when you see a brand new super dope skate park but you no longer have a skateboard. And, when a kid named Freddie starts to push Sibby's friend around, Sibby knows she's found the kind of trouble that can't be ignored. Grades 5-8. 2019.The case of Windy Lake / (Mighty Muskrats mystery #1)
By Michael Hutchinson. 2019
Sam, Otter, Atim, and Chickadee are four inseparable cousins growing up on the Windy Lake First Nation. Nicknamed the Mighty…
Muskrats for their habit of laughing, fighting, and exploring together, the cousins find that each new adventure adds to their reputation. When a visiting archaeologist goes missing, the cousins decide to solve the mystery of his disappearance. In the midst of community conflict, family concerns, and environmental protests, the four get busy following every lead. From their base of operations in a fort made out of an old school bus, the Mighty Muskrats won't let anything stop them from solving their case! Grades 4-7. 2019.The five friends are members of their school's swim team and are training for an upcoming meet. Along the way,…
they learn about: the benefits of physical fitness, setting goals, teamwork, safety, coping skills, respect for others, nutrition as fuel for their bodies, how the body and mind work together, and much more! The book concludes with fun ideas for how kids can get their bodies moving, an index and a glossary of terms. Grades 2-4. 2018.Heat wave: a Paradise Café mystery / (A Paradise Café mystery #1)
By Maureen Jennings. 2019
July 1936 and Toronto is under a record-breaking heat wave. Charlotte Frayne is the junior associate in a two-person private…
investigation firm, owned by T. Gilmore. Two events set the book's plot in motion: an anti-Semitic hate letter is delivered to Gilmore, who up to now has not acknowledged his religion, and Hilliard Taylor, a veteran of the First World War requests the firm's assistance in uncovering what he believes is systematic embezzlement of the Paradise Café, which he owns and operates with three other men, all of whom were prisoners of war. The two events, although seemingly completely unrelated, come together in this story. 2019.Proof I was here /
By Becky Blake. 2019
Hailing from Toronto, where she has an assault charge waiting, Niki is outside of Canada for the first time. The…
pickpockets, squatters and graffiti artists she meets challenge her to reassess her ideas about luck and art. With the help of a passionate Catalan separatist who dreams of building a new country from the ground up, Niki realizes that starting her life over from scratch could be an opportunity - if she can just find a way to clear her name." 2019.Late breaking
By K. D. Miller. 2018
A collection of linked short stories inspired by the paintings of Alex Colville. Each character appears in at least two…
of the stories, in a greater or lesser role. The most common link is a ghost who directly or indirectly "haunts" the book throughout. There is more than a hint of the uncanny in some of the stories, and a strong whiff of the gothic. At its lightest, this book is dark, reflecting the edgy, distrubing quality found in much of Alex Colville's work. The common theme is the vulnerability of the elder heart. Many of the characters are aged sixty and up. Inwardly, however, they are ageless--yearning for each other sexually and emotionally, falling in and out of love, forming new ties or rediscovering old ones. Not all characters are human - a dog, a horse, and an octopus play small but pivotal roles. Death is a constant, taking both peaceful and violent forms. Its presence renders the characters' lives and relationships all the more poignant for being ephemeral. 2018.A story about cancer (with a happy ending) /
By India Desjardins. 2017
A teenage girl heads towards the hospital waiting room where the doctors are going to tell her how much time…
she's got to live. As she walks, she thinks about her journey up to this point ... the terrible decor in the hospital, wearing a headscarf, the horrible treatments, but also being with her friends, family, and her new boyfriend Victor. This is a story about cancer with a happy ending. It's about life, love, and especially, hope. Grades 6-9. ©2017.The owl and the two rabbits /
By Nadia Sammurtok. 2019
When two rabbit sisters ignore their parents' warnings and decide to play outside on the open tundra, a hungry owl…
soon spots them and decides they will make a delicious meal. As a chase ensues, the sisters must act quickly, using the owl's own greed against him in order to get away. A traditional Inuit story. Grades K-3. 2019.Coconut dreams /
By Derek Mascarenhas. 2019
Explores the lives of the Pinto family through seventeen linked short stories. Starting with a ghost story set in Goa,…
India in the 1950s, the collection shifts to the unique perspectives of two adolescents, Aiden and Ally Pinto. Both first generation Canadians, these siblings tackle their adventures in a predominantly white suburb with innocence, intelligence and a timid foot in two distinct cultures. Derek Mascarenhas takes a fresh look at the world of the new immigrant and the South Asian experience in Canada. In these stories, a daughter questions her father's love at an Ikea grand opening; an aunt remembers a safari-gone-wrong in Kenya; an uncle's unrequited love is confronted at a Goan Association picnic; a boy tests his faith amidst a school-yard brawl; and a childhood love letter is exchanged during the building of a backyard deck. 2019.Camp average / (Camp Average Ser. #1)
By Craig Battle. 2019
The actual name of the place is Camp Avalon, but the kids call it Camp Average, because they never win…
at any sport. And that's the way they like it. But this summer, Winston, the new camp director, doesn't like losing, and he's not about to start! Led by the main protagonist, Mack, and his best friend Andre, the boys in Cabin 10 have a different plan. They're going to lose like they've never lost before, at every sport, but especially at the baseball tournament with the three nearby powerhouse camps. That way, they'll get their summer back! Grades 3-6. 2019.Use your imagination! /
By Kris Bertin. 2019
A woman becomes obsessed with a story about her family from 1890--when a naked, mute girl stumbled onto their property--and…
whether or not it really happened. A self-help guru and his chief strategist take their most affluent and unstable clients on a harrowing nature hike that destroys their company. A young convict in a prison creative writing class chronicles the rise and fall of his cellblock's resident peacemaker. A rural neighbourhood becomes obsessed by the coming of a strange and powerful new homeowner who is in the middle of reinventing herself. The stories of Use Your Imagination! are about stories, about the way we define and give shape to ourselves through all kinds of narratives, true or not. In six long stories, Kris Bertin examines the complex labyrinth of lies, delusions, compromise, and fabrication that makes up our personal history and mythology. 2019.Your life is mine: a novel /
By Nathan Ripley. 2019
Blanche Potter never expected to face her past again-but she can't escape it. In 1996, Chuck Varner went on a…
shooting spree in Stilford, California, then shot himself. To his wife, Crissy, and six-year-old daughter, Blanche, Chuck was more than a crazed killer: he was a true leader, a man whose belief in chaos could affect changes needed in the world. For years, they work to honour his memory. But after Crissy tells all in a true-crime writer's book and carries on Chuck's violent gospel through her own actions, teenager Blanche finally snaps out of the cult of Chuck and flees. Now a filmmaker, Blanche has distanced herself in every way she can from her parents. But when she learns her mother has been murdered, she returns to her childhood home and soon discovers that there's more to the death than police are willing to reveal. The detective handling the case knew her mother before she died, and so did a journalist who's nosing around the investigation. Blanche begins to suspect that these men-and others who may be following her every move-are new disciples in the cult that Chuck Varner started. Then another killing occurs. 2019.Nikki Tesla and the ferret-proof death ray / (Elements of genius #1)
By Jess Keating. 2019
Nikki Tesla is a genius, so mostly she finds school boring, and amuses herself by inventing things, like her mysterious…
missing father; trouble is most of her inventions have serious, lethal potential (like the death ray, which just blew a hole in her floor); so she and her ferret are hustled off to the special Genius Academy with classmates who are equally exceptional, although she still worries about fitting in--but when her death ray disappears she has something bigger to worry about: who took it and what are they planning to do? Grades 3-6. 2019.Every little piece of me /
By Amy Jones. 2019
Ava Hart is the most reluctant cast member of a reality TV show based on her big city family's (mostly…
staged) efforts to run a B&B in small-town Nova Scotia. Every family has its problems, but Ava has grown up seeing her family's every up and down broadcast on national television, after the show becomes an unexpected success for reasons that will take a heavy toll on the Harts. Mags Kovach is the charismatic lead singer of a struggling Halifax rock band hoping to be the Next Big Thing. For years she's managed to contain her demons and navigate the uglier aspects of being a woman in the music world, but after a devastating loss, she turns her anger on the only person she can: herself. As their private tragedies continue to set social media and tabloid headlines on fire, their every move subjected to an endless stream of public commentary, it will be their unexpected friendship that will save them. They will push back against the roles they've been forced to play, and take back control of something they thought they'd lost forever--the right to their own stories. 2019.