Welcome
Welcome to Braille Books Acquired. This quarterly newsletter contains a list of Braille books recently acquired by the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA). Previous issues are available at celalibrary.ca/braille-books-acquired.
In this issue:
- Announcements
- Uncontracted braille / fiction for children and young adults
- Uncontracted braille / fiction for adults
- Uncontracted braille / non-fiction for adults
- Fiction printbraille
- Non-fiction printbraille
- Fiction for children and young adults
- Non-fiction for children and young adults
- Fiction for adults
- Non-fiction for adults
Announcements
Letter from our Executive Director
As a braille reader, your opinion matters to us! We are inviting you to participate in our survey to gather feedback about CELA’s braille collection and services. Information gathered through this survey will help us learn more about our users’ current needs and preferences and will be used to improve our braille services.
The survey is open to any CELA user aged 18 and older who is a past, current or potential future user of CELA’s braille services. We also welcome feedback from parents or guardians, educators or other professionals who access CELA braille services on behalf of someone else.
What CELA braille services are covered in the survey?
We are curious about all aspects of our users’ experiences with CELA braille services including:
- the depth and breadth of our collection;
- the braille formats we offer such as embossed hard copy braille, printbraille, and electronic braille;
- our various forms of support for braille users such as our Contact Centre, webinars, newsletters, and resources from our website.
How will the information collected be used?
All information collected through the survey will be anonymous and will not be linked to your account in any way. CELA will use the information gathered to determine how we can improve our braille services in the future. Your anonymous responses may be analyzed for a written summary of the findings that will be made available on our website and through our newsletter.
The survey will be open until November 27, 2023 at 11:59 pm ET. We estimate it will take approximately 20 minutes to complete the survey but there is no time limit, so you are welcome to take as much time as you need. You may stop the survey at any time prior to completion and your answers will not be recorded.
An email with a link to the online survey will be sent to CELA users who have read CELA braille material in any braille format in the last year. We will also be reaching out to some who don’t have email access by phone. If you would like to participate but completing the survey online is inaccessible to you, you can call us at 1-437-291-7607 to complete the survey over the phone with us. Please leave a voicemail and we will call you back within 2-3 business days.
We appreciate you taking the time to respond to our survey. Your input is important and will help shape CELA braille services in the future. If you have any questions about the survey, please email us at: braille@celalibrary.ca.
Thank you.
Laurie Davidson, Executive Director
Holly Pickering, Project Coordinator
Holiday hours
CELA and our Contact Centre will be closed on Monday, December 25 and Tuesday December 26, 2023 for Christmas and Boxing Day, and on January 1, 2024 for New Year’s Day. We will have regular hours on December 27- 29 and will return to our regular hours on Tuesday, January 2, 2024.
A note about dates
Although the majority of these books have been published within the last 5 years, there may be some books listed here which are older, but which were only recently added to our collection. To make this clearer for you, we include the date of the print version of each book at the end of its annotation.
Uncontracted braille / fiction for children and young adults
Animal stories
5438760 Finding Winnie: the true story of the world's most famous bear by Lindsay Mattick. 1 volume.
A young boy's bedtime story reveals how his great-great-grandfather, veterinarian Captain Harry Colebourn, rescued and learned to love a bear cub during World War I. The bear later became the inspiration for A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh. For grades K-3. 2015.
Friendship stories
5462768 Frog and toad are friends by Arnold Lobel. 1 volume.
Five stories about the adventures of two best friends. Frog and Toad are always there for each other, whether they are telling stories, finding lost buttons, or swimming in the river. Uncontracted braille. For grades K-3 and older readers. 1970.
Religion
5613265 Treasury of Bible stories: A Mosaic of Prophets, Kings, Families, and Foes by Donna Jo Napoli, National Geographic Kids, Priyanka Lamichhane. 5 volumes.
The timeless tales from the early books of the Bible have captivated generations. In this lush storybook, the fresh voice of lyrical storyteller Donna Jo Napoli and the lavish artwork of Christina Balit bring classic stories to life for a young, modern audience. Noah's Ark, Moses, David and Goliath, the ten plagues, Daniel and the lions' den, Jonah and the giant fish, and many more of the Bible's most powerful stories--27 in all--are compellingly retold in this beautifully illustrated treasury. Readers will be fascinated by the ancient people and events they encounter, surprised by some of the lesser-known accounts revealed, and inspired by the lessons these tales impart. Stories cover important ground beyond religion, such as culture, history, and geography, and they touch on issues that remain relevant today-- faith, loyalty, kindness, violence, generosity, greed, jealousy, and more. These accessible, readable stories give kids a rich picture of biblical times, which encourages them to think about our role in the world and to learn more. For grades 3-7. 2019.
Short stories
5462733 Look both ways: a tale told in ten blocks by Jason Reynolds. 4 volumes.
A collection of ten short stories that all take place in the same day about kids walking home from school. For grades 5-8. 2019.
Uncontracted braille / fiction for adults
General Fiction
5462709 Animal farm: a fairy story by George Orwell. 4 volumes.
Classic political satire targets Soviet Communism. The animals on a farm overthrow their master and live a utopian life until the intelligent pigs take over, and one establishes himself as dictator. Preface by Russell Baker, introduction by C.M. Woodhouse, and foreword by Ann Patchett. 1946.
Historical fiction
5462728 American meteor (American novels series) by Norman Lock. 6 volumes.
Brooklyn-born teenager Stephen Moran travels the United States in the 1860s and 1870s. He loses an eye in the waning days of the Civil War, travels--and steals--on Lincoln's funeral train, witnesses the joining of the first transcontinental railroad, the Battle of Little Bighorn, and more. Violence and some strong language. 2015.
Serious and literary fiction
5466984 Dandelion Daughter by Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay, Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch. 5 volumes.
A runaway bestseller in Québec, where it has captured the hearts of readers and pushed trans-identity into the mainstream conversation. Dandelion Daughter is an intimate, courageous portrait of what it's like to grow up having been assigned the wrong sex at birth. Set against the windswept countryside of the remote Charlevoix region some five hours north of Montreal, Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay's autobiographical novel immortalizes her early years as an alienated boy trapped in a world of small-town values and her parents' dissolving marriage, through complex adolescent years of self-discovery and first loves, to the harrowing episodes that fuel the growing realization that she must transition and give birth to her new self if she is to continue living at all. One of the first novels of its kind to appear in Québec, this inspiring story has already connected with a wide readership, and has been adopted by many schools to help expand worldviews and curriculums. 2023.
Westerns
5462753 The high graders by Louis L'Amour. 6 volumes.
Gunslinger Mike Shevlin is hired by pretty Laine Tennison to keep the miners from stealing gold ore from her claim and to challenge the cattlemen who swear to close the dig because the range waters are being poisoned. 1989.
Uncontracted braille / non-fiction for adults
Sports and games
5462708 Heroes of the game: true baseball stories by Terry Egan. 3 volumes.
This companion to The Good Guys of Baseball (BR 12879) highlights nineteen players who exemplify sportsmanship and the love of the game. Includes major leaguer Roberto Clemente, who died on a mercy mission, and Jim Eisenreich, who has Tourette's syndrome. 1992.
5462748 The good guys of baseball: sixteen true sports stories by Terry Egan. 3 volumes.
Seventeen biographies describing men in baseball who exemplify some of the best traits an athlete can possess on or off the field: loyalty, decency, determination, and the willingness to work hard. Included are Don Wardlow, a blind sportscaster, and one-handed pitcher Jim Abbott. 1997.
Fiction printbraille
Adventure stories
5581239 The Song That Called Them Home by David A. Robertson, Maya McKibbin. 1 volume.
From the award-winning author of On the Trapline comes a cinematic fantasy-adventure story inspired by Indigenous legends. One summer day, Lauren and her little brother, James, go on a trip to the land with their Moshom (grandfather). After they've arrived, the children decide to fish for dinner while Moshom naps. They are in their canoe in the middle of the lake when the water around them begins to swirl and crash. They are thrown overboard and when Lauren surfaces she sees her brother being pulled away by the Memekwesewak creatures who live in and around water and like to interfere with humans. Lauren must follow the Memekwesewak through a portal and along a watery path to find and bring back James. But when she finally comes upon her brother, she too feels the lure of the Memekwesewakâ’s song. Something even stronger must pull them back home. For grades P-3. 2023.
Animal stories
5491585 Akpa's Journey by Kagan McLeod, Mia Pelletier. 1 volume.
Akpa, a thick-billed murre, emerges from his egg, high on an Arctic cliff and learns that he must embark on a long migration before he is able to fly. For grades 1-3. 2022.
5581237 Biindigen! Amik Says Welcome by Nancy Cooper, Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley. 1 volume.
Busy beavers have a family reunion in this story that celebrates Indigenous perspectives. For grades P-2. 2023.
Multi-cultural fiction
5581238 Egyptian Lullaby by Hatem Aly, Zeena M. Pliska. 1 volume.
A rich, beautifully layered ode to the great city of Cairo, Egypt, its people, and culture. Every night, my Ametti Fatma sings the sounds of Egypt to me as I fall asleep. This is the Nile, that flows through the city. Swish, swoosh, swish. This is the boat, that glides on the Nile, that flows through the city. Swish, swoosh, swish. Each night, a young girl's Auntie Fatma puts her to bed, singing a lullaby filled with rich imagery of her home in Egypt. As Auntie Fatma sings, we are given a glimpse of modern Cairo, from boats making their way down the Nile to gentle calls to prayer from the mosques to young children joyfully playing soccer in the streets. Join Zeena Pliska and Hatem Aly on a vibrant journey to Cairo in this gorgeous, layered song. For grades P-3. 2023.
Non-fiction printbraille
Adventure and exploration
5581231 A Star Explodes: The Story of Supernova 1054 by James Gladstone, Yaara Eshet. 1 volume.
An exploding star in the year 1054 creates fascinating remnants still seen today. For grades P-3. 2023.
Animals and wildlife
5581235 Runs with the Stars by Heather M. O'Connor, Darcy Whitecrow, Lenny Lishchenko. 1 volume.
A young child learns from their grandfather about the Ojibwe Horses, what it means to be the animal’s caretakers, and the importance of protecting this endangered species. For grades 1-3. 2022.
Biography
5491584 No Horses in the House!: The Audacious Life of Artist Rosa Bonheur by Mireille Messier, Anna Bron. 1 volume.
A delightful picture book based on the true story of Rosa Bonheur, the nineteenth-century French artist who defied gender expectations and changed the art world with her realistic animal paintings. For grades 1-3. 2023.
Fiction for children and young adults
Adventure stories
5613718 The Golden Swift (Silver Arrow #02) by Lev Grossman. 4 volumes.
Kate and Tom are now full-fledged conductors of the steam-powered, animal-saving Great Secret Intercontinental Railway, but when Kate takes the Silver Arrow out on an unsanctioned mission to find Uncle Herbert she discovers a mysterious train called the Golden Swift with an agenda of its own. For grades 3-6. 2022.
Animal stories
5613586 Dog diaries: dinosaur disaster (Dog Diaries #06) by James Patterson, Richard Watson, Steven Butler. 2 volumes.
Junior leads his pack of dog friends on a sneaky mission into a museum to steal dinosaur bones for Lola's midnight birthday feast. For grades 2-6. 2022.
Disabilities fiction
5348789 The words in my hands by Asphyxia. 7 volumes.
Organicore, a company that produces perfectly balanced synthetic meals, replaces wild food. But sixteen-year-old Piper McBride, who is deaf, begins to wonder if natural food is as dangerous as Organicore's propaganda says. Schneider Family Book Award. Some violence, some strong language, and some descriptions of sex. For senior high and older readers. 2020.
Family stories
5613624 Fancy pants (Jo Jo Makoons #02) by Dawn Quigley, Tara Audibert. 1 volume.
First grader Jo Jo Makoons knows how to do a lot of things, like how to play jump rope, how to hide her peas in her milk, and how to be helpful in her classroom. But there's one thing Jo Jo doesn't know how to do: be fancy. She has a lot to learn before her Aunt Annie's wedding! Favorite purple unicorn notebook in hand, Jo Jo starts exploring her Ojibwe community to find ways to be fancy. For grades 1-4. 2022.
Fantasy
5613684 Maya and the return of the godlings (Maya and the rising dark #02) by Rena Barron. 5 volumes.
Maya and the godlings must return to the sinister world of The Dark to retrieve the one thing keeping the veil between the worlds from crumbling: her father's soul. For grades 3-6. 2021.
Friendship stories
5613641 Starfish by Lisa Fipps. 5 volumes.
A novel in verse. Bullied and shamed her whole life for being fat, Ellie finally gains the confidence to stand up for herself with the help of some wonderful new allies. For grades 5-8. 2021.
General fiction
5613617 Home is not a country by Safia Elhillo. 3 volumes.
A novel in verse. When the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima grapples with the phantom of a life not chosen. Some violence and some strong language. For senior high and older readers. 2021.
Historical fiction
5613494 How to find what you're not looking for by Veera Hiranandani. 6 volumes.
Eleven-year-old Ariel Goldberg must find her own voice and define her own beliefs after her big sister elopes with a young man from India, following the Supreme Court decision that strikes down laws banning interracial marriage. Sydney Taylor Book Award. For grades 3-6. 2021.
5613497 Last night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo. 9 volumes.
1954. McCarthyism and the Red Scare are genuine threats to Lily's family; her father is already at risk of deportation despite his valid citizenship. Lily, who is Chinese American, could lose everything just for dating anyone white--let alone another girl--but she could lose herself if she isn't true to her feelings. Descriptions of sex and some strong language. Stonewall Book Award. For senior high and older readers. 2021.
5613370 The city beautiful by Aden Polydoros. 9 volumes.
Chicago, 1893. Alter's family fled the oppression they faced in their native Romania. When his best friend, Yakov, becomes the latest victim in a long line of murdered Jewish boys, Alter enters a dangerous world searching for a killer. Strong language, some violence, and some descriptions of sex. Sydney Taylor Book Award. For senior high and older readers. 2021.
Indigenous peoples fiction
5613542 Healer of the water monster by Brian Young. 7 volumes.
When Nathan visits his grandma, Nali, at her mobile summer home on the Navajo reservation, he knows he's in for a pretty uneventful summer. But things change after he meets a water monster that needs his help. For grades 5-8. 2021.
LGBTQ+ fiction
5613583 Too bright to see by Kyle Lukoff. 4 volumes.
In the summer before middle school, eleven-year-old Bug must contend with best friend Moira suddenly caring about clothes, makeup, and boys; a ghostly haunting; and the truth about Bug's gender identity. Stonewall Award. For grades 4-7. 2021.
Mysteries and crime stories
5613643 Firekeeper's daughter by Angeline Boulley. 12 volumes.
Daunis, who is part Ojibwe, defers attending the University of Michigan to care for her mother. When Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, she reluctantly agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source of a new drug. Strong language and some violence. Printz Award. For senior high and older readers. 2021.
5613661 The secret detective (Ali Cross #03) by James Patterson. 4 volumes.
Ali Cross has always looked up to his father, the famous detective Alex Cross. And after helping to solve two big cases, Ali knows he has what it takes to follow in his father's footsteps. Eager to keep solving crimes, Ali and his friends hack into police calls and go to crime scenes to watch the detectives at work--and try to crack the cases themselves. But when Ali witnesses something horrible, he has to grapple with tough questions about what it means to be a detective, and a detective's son. Will Ali find a way to follow in his father's footsteps or will he be the one in danger's path?
Short stories
5613490 The cursed carnival and other calamities: new stories about mythic heroes by Rick Riordan. 10 volumes.
A collection of ten stories that remix myths for modern readers. The authors include Carlos Hernandez, Roshani Chokshi, J. C. Cervantes, Yoon Ha Lee, Kwame Mbalia, Rebecca Roanhorse, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Sarwat Chadda, Graci Kim, and Rick Riordan. For grades 4-7. 2021.
Non-fiction for children and young adults
Environment
5613479 Save the people!: halting human extinction by Stacy McAnulty, Nicole Miles. 6 volumes.
A book for middle-school-aged children about previous extinctions and possible threats to humans, from volcanoes, to asteroids, to pollution and disease. For grades 6-12. 2022.
Food and drink
5334876 The official Harry Potter baking book: 40+ Recipes Inspired by the Films (Harry Potter) by Joanna Farrow. 4 volumes.
Forty-three tasty recipes inspired by the world of Harry Potter, including Nicolas Flamel's Parcels, Deathly Hallows Bread, Quidditch Pitch Focaccia, Whomping Willow Cheese Straw, Honeydukes Haul Cake, Wizard's Chess Squares, Mandrake Bread, Hogwarts Treacle Tart, Wand Breadsticks, and more. For grades 4-7 and older readers. 2021.
5613600 Spooky snacks and treats: frightfully fun Halloween recipes for kids by Zac Williams. 1 volume.
40 creepy, icky, sweet, or sticky kid-friendly recipes for Halloween parties and events. Make your Halloween party a scream with these frightfully fun snacks, munchies, sweets, and drinks. Zac Williams serves up the best treats in the neighborhood, sure to elicit squeals of delight from your young guests and goblins. With 40 recipes to choose from, you and your child can stir up a cauldron of Wolfsbane Elixir, scare up a platter of Vampire Bites, Coffin Crunchers, and Dusty Old Bones, or wrap up some Mummy Pups and Spare-Parts Salad that will keep trick-or-treaters of all ages feeling ghoulish and full. For grades 1-6. 2022.
General Non-fiction
5348236 2022 book of world records by Scholastic, Cynthia O'Brien. 5 volumes.
Collection of amazing world records in pop culture, sports, science, and other categories. For grades 3-6 and older readers. For grades 2-5. 2021.
5352036 Absurd words: a kids' fun and hilarious vocabulary builder for future word nerds by Tara Lazar. 6 volumes.
A dictionary-thesaurus hybrid puts more than 750 high-level, wondrous, and wacky words in fun, engaging, and hilarious context. For grades 4-7. 2022.
5134995 Naked: Not Your Average Sex Encyclopedia by Charles Simard, Myriam Daguzan Bernier. 5 volumes.
This nonfiction encyclopedia introduces teens to practical information about sexuality from A to Z. It explains 155 body-related terms and is illustrated throughout. For grades 7-12. 2022.
History
5613311 Places of protest by Jen Breach. 1 volume.
Readers travel to places where people have used their power to demand change. By exploring locations in the U.S. and around the world, readers will use the page to stand in locations where people have put their lives and bodies on the line for a cause. For grades 5-10. 2022.
Science and technology
5143418 Summertime sleepers: animals that estivate by Melissa Stewart. 2 volumes.
An award-winning author highlights animals that estivate--a prolonged sleep during hot or dry periods. Stewart explains why estivating animals become dormant--whether it's because warm weather threatens food supply or to avoid increased body temperatures. For grades K-3. 2021.
Biography
5613696 Unequal: a story of America by Marc Favreau, Michael Eric Dyson. 7 volumes.
Interconnected stories present a picture of racial inequality in America, showing systemic discrimination in all areas of society and showing the unbroken line of Black resistance to this inequality. For grades 7-12. 2022.
Psychology
5613741 Rising troublemaker: a fear-fighter manual for teens by Luvvie Ajayi Jones. 5 volumes.
In this young readers edition of her New York Times bestseller Professional Troublemaker, Luvvie Ajayi Jones uses her honesty and humor to inspire teens to be their bravest, boldest, truest selves, in order to create a world they would be proud to live in. For grades 7-12. 2022.
Fiction for adults
Animal stories
5613419 The best is yet to come: A Novel by Debbie Macomber. 6 volumes.
A new beginning in charming Oceanside, Washington, is exactly what Hope Godwin needs after the death of her twin brother. There are plenty of distractions, like her cozy cottage with the slightly nosy landlords next door, and a brewing drama among her students at the local high school. Even having settled quickly into the community, Hope still feels something is still missing. That is, until her landlords convince her to volunteer at their animal shelter. There she meets Shadow, a rescue dog that everyone has given up on. But true to her name, Hope believes he's worth saving. Like Shadow, shelter volunteer Cade Lincoln Jr. is suffering with injuries most can't see. A wounded ex-marine, Cade identifies with Shadow, assuming they are both beyond help. Hope senses that what they each need is someone to believe in them, and she has a lot of love to give. As she gains Shadow's trust, Hope notices Cade begins to open up as well. Finding the courage to be vulnerable again, Cade and Hope take steps toward a relationship, and Hope finally begins to feel at peace in her new home. 2022.
Bestsellers (Fiction)
5613582 Shadows reel: a Joe Pickett novel (Joe Pickett novel #22) by C. J. Box. 6 volumes.
The same day that game warden Joe Pickett is called out for a moose-poaching incident, his wife Marybeth opens an unmarked package at the library and finds a photo album belonging to a famous Nazi official. When a neighbor is murdered, Joe and Marybeth realize they are in danger--and so are their girls. Violence and strong language. 2022.
Christian fiction
5613743 Small things like these by Claire Keegan. 2 volumes.
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man, faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church. 2021.
Family stories
5613702 Nightcrawling: A Novel by Leila Mottley. 7 volumes.
Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison. But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent--which has more than doubled--and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department. 2022.
Fantasy
5613498 Black water sister by Zen Cho. 9 volumes.
After moving back to Malaysia, Jess begins hearing voices, including that of her dead grandmother, Ah Ma. A spirit medium in life and the avatar of a deity called the Black Water Sister, Ah Ma wishes to settle a score against a gang boss and demands Jess's help. 2021.
5613318 Daughter of the moon goddess: a novel (Celestial kingdom duology #01) by Sue Lynn Tan. 11 volumes.
Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the feared Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin's magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind. Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the emperor's son, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the prince. To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies. But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream-striking a dangerous bargain in which she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos. |Daughter of the Moon Goddess| begins an enchanting duology which weaves ancient Chinese mythology into a sweeping adventure of immortals and magic, of loss and sacrifice-where love vies with honor, dreams are fraught with betrayal, and hope emerges triumphant. 2022.
General fiction
5613289 Black cake: a novel by Charmaine Wilkerson. 7 volumes.
In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett's death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves. Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor's true history, and fulfill her final request to "share the black cake when the time is right"? Will their mother's revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever? 2022.
5613261 Lucy by the sea: a novel (Amgash #04) by Elizabeth Strout. 5 volumes.
As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and on-again, off-again friend, William. For the next several months, it's just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody, swirling sea. Rich with empathy and emotion, Lucy by the Sea vividly captures the fear and struggles that come with isolation, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we're apart-the pain of a beloved daughter's suffering, the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one, the promise of a new friendship, and the comfort of an old, enduring love. 2022.
Historical fiction
5613519 The slow march of light by Heather B. Moore. 9 volumes.
In the summer of 1961, a wall of barbed wire goes up quickly in the dead of night, officially dividing Berlin. Aware of the many whose families have been divided, Luisa joins a secret spy network, risking her life to help East Germans escape across the Berlin Wall and into the West. 2021.
5352242 The storyteller of Casablanca by Fiona Valpy. 7 volumes.
Morocco, 1941. Twelve-year-old Josie and her family fled Nazi-occupied France for Casablanca, where they awaited safe passage to America. Seventy years later, Zoe is a wife and mother living as an expat in an unfamiliar place. But when she discovers Josie's diary from the 1940s beneath the floorboards of her daughter's bedroom, Zoe enters the inner world of young Josie. 2021.
Indigenous peoples fiction
5365741 A Grandmother Begins the Story: A Novel by Michelle Porter. 6 volumes.
National Bestseller. Five generations of Métis women argue, dance, struggle, laugh, love, and tell the stories that will sing their family, and perhaps the land itself, into healing in this brilliantly original debut novel.Carter is a young mother, recently separated. She is curious, angry, and on a quest to find out what the heritage she only learned of in her teens truly means.Allie is trying to make up for the lost years with her first born, and to protect Carter from the hurt she herself suffered from her own mother.Lucie wants the granddaughter she's never met to help her join her ancestors in the Afterlife.Geneviève is determined to conquer her demons before the fire inside burns her up, with the help of the sister she lost but has never been without.And Mamé, in the Afterlife, knows that all their stories began with her; she must find a way to loose herself from the last threads that keep her tethered to the living, just as they must find their own paths forward.This extraordinary novel, told by a chorus of vividly realized, funny, wise, confused, struggling characters—including descendants of the bison that once freely roamed the land—heralds the arrival of a stunning new voice in literary fiction. 2023.
5456516 The Berry Pickers: A Novel by Amanda Peters. 6 volumes.
A four-year-old girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that remains unsolved for nearly fifty years July 1962. A Mi'kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family's youngest child, is seen sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of a field before mysteriously vanishing. Her six-year-old brother, Joe, who was the last person to see Ruthie, is devastated by his sister's disappearance, and her loss ripples through his life for years to come. In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as an only child in an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, while her mother is frustratingly overprotective of Norma, who is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem to be too real to be her imagination. As she grows older, Norma senses there is something her parents aren't telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she pursues her family's secret for decades. A stunning debut novel, The Berry Pickers is a riveting story about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time. 2023.
LGBTQ+ fiction
5613376 Light from uncommon stars by Ryka Aoki. 10 volumes.
Shizuka has made a deal with the devil to deliver the souls of violin prodigies, and when she meets a talented young transgender runaway, she knows she's found her final candidate. But when Shizuka meets retired starship captain Lan Tran, her plans are soon derailed. 2021.
Mysteries and crime stories
5613477 Something to hide: a Lynley novel (Inspector Lynley #21) by Elizabeth George. 16 volumes.
Acting Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley is assigned to the case of a detective who has died after being in a coma. It is only after her death that the murderous act precipitating it is discovered. He must tread carefully due to her work on a special task force. 2022.
Romance
5613545 The sign for home: a novel by Blair Fell. 10 volumes.
Arlo Dilly is DeafBlind, a Jehovah's Witness, and under the strict guardianship of his controlling uncle. His chances of finding someone to love seem slim to none. And yet, it happened once before: many years ago, at a boarding school for the Deaf, Arlo met the love of his life. 2022.
Science fiction
5613478 Project Hail Mary: a novel by Andy Weir. 13 volumes.
Ryland Grace awakens on a spaceship far from Earth with no memory and two dead crewmates. As he begins to remember the details of his impossible mission to try to save humanity from an extinction-level threat, he encounters an unexpected ally. Some strong language. 2021.
5267355 The Book of Rain by Thomas Wharton. 8 volumes.
A groundbreaking, deeply affecting work of environmental literary suspense for fans of Cloud Atlas, The Overstory, and Station Eleven.The northern mining town of River Meadows is one of three hotspots in the world producing ghost ore, a new source of energy worth twenty-eight times its weight in gold. It's also linked with slippages of time and space that gradually render the area uninhabitable. After the town is evacuated, the whole region is cordoned off, the new no-go zone wryly nicknamed "the Park."Three intertwined stories flow from the disaster of River Meadows. Alex Hewitt and his sister, Amery, were among the first to be shipped out of the contaminated town. Now an accomplished game designer, Alex has moved on, but his sister has not, making increasingly dangerous break-ins to save animals trapped in the toxic wasteland. When at last she fails to return from a trip inside the fence, Alex flies to River Meadows to search for her, enlisting her friend, Michio Amano, a mathematician who needs to transcend the known laws of physics if he and Alex are to succeed. 2023.
Serious and literary fiction
5613262 Every summer after by Carley Fortune. 7 volumes.
Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right. They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart. Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry's Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek--the man she never thought she'd have to live without. For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family's restaurant and curling up together with books--medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her--Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart. When Percy returns to the lake for Sam's mother's funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she's spent punishing herself for them, they'll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past. 2022.
5309639 Snow Road Station: A Novel by Elizabeth Hay. 4 volumes.
From the Giller Prize-winning author comes a novel, witty and wise, about thwarted ambition, unrealized dreams, the enduring bonds of female friendship, and love’s capacity to surprise us at any age.In the winter of 2008, as snow falls without interruption, an actor in a Beckett play blanks on her lines. Fleeing the theatre, she beats a retreat into her past and arrives at Snow Road Station, a barely discernible dot on the map of Ontario.The actor is Lulu Blake, in her sixties now, a sexy, seemingly unfooled woman well-versed in taking risks. Out of work, humiliated, she enters the last act of her life wondering what she can make of her diminished self. In Snow Road Station she decides she is through with drama, but drama, it turns out, isn’t through with her. She thinks she wants peace. It turns out she wants more.Looming in the background is that autumn’s global financial meltdown, while in the foreground family and friends animate a round of weddings, sap harvests, love affairs, and personal turmoil. At the centre of it all is the lifelong friendship between Lulu and Nan. As the two women contemplate growing old, they surrender certain hard-held dreams and confront the limits of the choices they’ve made and the messy feelings that kept them apart for decades. 2023.
Short stories
5613199 Cat brushing: and other stories by Jane Campbell. 3 volumes
Cat Brushing, the provocative debut by Jane Campbell, vigorously explores the sensual worlds of thirteen older women, unearthing their passions, libidinal appetites, integrity, and sense of self as they fight against prevalent misconceptions and stereotypes of the aging. Written in spikey, incisive prose, this alluring cast of characters overcomes the notion that elder women's behavior must be in some way monitored and controlled. Susan falls in love with her beautiful young caregiver Miffy, and embarks on an intense emotional relationship within the confines of her nursing home. Linda seeks out her former lover, Malik, despite having left him years ago to return to her settled marriage to Bill. Daisy, who, by a curious stroke of fate, finds herself at the funeral of her former boyfriend, Tim, relives their early life together, his betrayal of her and the anguish of that time. Martha, mourning her small dog whom she believes has been killed by the home care staff, works out how to manage a robot designed to record her behavior, and get her revenge. And the narrator of the title story, "Cat Brushing," communes with her elegant, soft Siamese, reflecting on the sexual pleasures of her past. The timeless wisdom and dark wit of debut writer Jane Campbell inspires and challenges, shocks and comforts as she examines the inner lives of women who fight to lead the rest of their lives on their own terms. 2022.
5613182 Total: stories by Rebecca Miller.
From Dublin to Martha's Vineyard, from the anxious comforts of motherhood to a technologically infected near future that mirrors today with dark prescience, each of the seven stories in Total is a world of its own, painted with vivid strokes, whose people and questions stay with the reader long after the story has ended. Joad, one of the first characters we meet, finds onionskin pages crammed in a locked desk drawer while refurbishing a Hudson Valley farmhouse; the terrifying words on the fragile paper haunt Joad and her husband, the woman who wrote them looming over the couple like a malevolent spirit. Her words embody the power of the act of creation and the insidious, untamable force of language once it has left one's pen. 2022.
Spy stories
5613740 Untraceable by Antonina Bouis, Serge Ä Lebedev.
The terrifying, lengthening list of Russia's use of lethal poisons against its critics has inspired acclaimed author Sergei Lebedev's latest novel. With uncanny timing, he examines how and why Russia and the Soviet Union have developed horrendous neurotoxins. At its center is a ruthless chemist named Professor Kalitin, obsessed with developing an absolutely deadly, undetectable and untraceable poison for which there is no antidote. But Kalitin becomes consumed by guilt over countless deaths from his Faustian pact to create the ultimate venom. When the Soviet Union collapses, the chemist defects and is given a new identity in Western Europe. After another Russian is murdered with Kalitin's poison, his cover is blown and he's drawn into an investigation of the death by Western agents. Two special forces killers are sent to silence him¿using his own undetectable poison. In this fast-paced, genre-bending tale, Lebedev weaves suspenseful pages of stunningly beautiful prose exploring the historical trajectories of evil. From Nazi labs, Stalinist plots and the Chechen Wars, to present-day Russia, Lebedev probes the ethical responsibilities of scientists supplying modern tyrants and autocrats with ever newer instruments of retribution, destruction and control. 2021.
Non-fiction for adults
Business and economics
5165228 Above the Fold: A Personal History of the Toronto Star by John Honderich.
A remarkable memoir and journalistic history of the Toronto Star, the newspaper that has shaped and continues to shape the issues most important to Canadians.Don't let them ruin the newspaper. . . These were the dying words of Beland Honderich to his son, John. The newspaper was the Toronto Star, founded in 1892 by Joseph E. (Holy Joe) Atkinson and, to this day, one of the world’s leading and most respected socially liberal broadsheets. For the second half of its legendary—and sometimes controversial—history, both John and his father, as successive editors, publishers, and family owners, made it into the newspaper we know today. The Star has been, at different times, home base to the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Morley Callaghan, Pierre Berton, June Callwood, Peter C. Newman, Gary Lautens, Robert Fulford, Richard Gwyn, Christie Blatchford, Michele Landsberg, Chantal Hébert, Joey Slinger, and many more. It also brandishes a corporate history unlike any other. 2022.
5613412 Dirty work: essential jobs and the hidden toll of inequality in America by Eyal Press.
Journalist analyzes the impact on mental health of working what he calls ethically troubling jobs in the twenty-first century. Press profiles people who pilot drones that carry out assassinations, undocumented immigrants who man "kill floors" in slaughterhouses, and guards in violent prisons. Studies the added burden of Covid-19. Violence and strong language. 2021.
Canadian non-fiction
5165217 Big Men Fear Me by Mark Bourrie.
The remarkable true story of the rise and fall of one of North America's most influential media moguls. When George McCullagh bought The Globe and The Mail and Empire and merged them into the Globe and Mail, the charismatic 31-year-old high school dropout had already made millions on the stock market. It was just the beginning of the meteoric rise of a man widely expected to one day be prime minister of Canada. But the charismatic McCullagh had a dark side. Dogged by the bipolar disorder that destroyed his political ambitions and eventually killed him, he was all but written out of history. It was a loss so significant that journalist Robert Fulford has called McCullagh’s biography "one of the great unwritten books in Canadian history"—until now. In Big Men Fear Me, award-winning historian Mark Bourrie tells the remarkable story of McCullagh’s inspirational rise and devastating fall, and with it sheds new light on the resurgence of populist politics, challenges to collective action, and attacks on the free press that characterize our own tumultuous era. 2022.
5431192 Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada by Michelle Good.
A bold, provocative collection of essays exploring the historical and contemporary Indigenous experience in Canada. With authority and insight, Truth Telling examines a wide range of Indigenous issues framed by Michelle Good's personal experience and knowledge. From racism, broken treaties, and cultural pillaging, to the value of Indigenous lives and the importance of Indigenous literature, this collection reveals facts about Indigenous life in Canada that are both devastating and enlightening. 2023.
Disabilities
5134996 The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.
In The Future Is Disabled, Leah Laksmi Piepzna-Samarasinha asks some provocative questions: What if, in the near future, the majority of people will be disabled - and what if that's not a bad thing? And what if disability justice and disabled wisdom are crucial to creating a future in which it's possible to survive fascism, climate change, and pandemics and to bring about liberation? Building on the work of their game-changing book Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Piepzna-Samarasinha writes about disability justice at the end of the world, documenting the many ways disabled people kept and are keeping each other - and the rest of the world - alive during Trump, fascism and the COVID-19 pandemic. Other subjects include crip interdependence, care and mutual aid in real life, disabled community building, and disabled art practice as survival and joy. Written over the course of two years of disabled isolation during the pandemic, this is a book of love letters to other disabled QTBIPOC (and those concerned about disability justice, the care crisis, and surviving the apocalypse); honour songs for kin who are gone; recipes for survival; questions and real talk about care, organizing, disabled families, and kin networks and communities; and wild brown disabled femme joy in the face of death. With passion and power, The Future Is Disabled remembers our dead and insists on our future. 2022.
Food and drink
5613577 Enchanted kitchen: connect to spirit with recipes & rituals through the year by Gail Bussi.
Part guidebook, part recipe book, and part inspirational journey, Enchanted Kitchen is about the stories, magic, food, and traditions specific to each month and the nourishment for the body, heart, and soul that begins in our kitchens. 2022.
5355010 Flavors of the sun: the Sahadi's guide to understanding, buying, and using Middle Eastern ingredients by Christine Sahadi Whelan, Kristin Teig.
Sumac. Urfa pepper. Halvah. Pomegranate molasses. Preserved lemons. The seasonings, staples, and spice blends used throughout the Middle East offer deliciously simple ways to transform food--once you know how to use them. In Flavors of the Sun, the people behind the iconic Brooklyn market Sahadi's showcase the versatility of these ingredients in over 120 everyday dishes, including starters, salads, soups, family-friendly meals, and desserts. With sections devoted to recipes boasting Bright, Savory, Spiced, Nutty, and Sweet accents, it offers inspiration, techniques, and intensely flavorful ways to use everything from Aleppo pepper to za'atar with confidence. This cookbook dives deep into core ingredients and provides intimate insights into flavorful spice blends like dukkah, berbere, ras el hanout, shawarma spices, and more. Each ingredient profile includes an informative buying guide so you can build your pantry like a pro. 2021.
5613298 Ghetto Gastro Black Power kitchen by Jon Gray , Pierre Serrao, Lester Walker, Osayi Endolyn.
Knowledge Is Power Part cookbook. Part manifesto. Created with big Bronx energy, Black Power Kitchen combines 75 mostly plant-based, layered-with-flavor recipes with immersive storytelling, diverse voices, and striking images and photographs that celebrate Black food and Black culture, and inspire larger conversations about race, history, food inequality, and how eating well can be a pathway to personal freedom and self-empowerment. Ghetto Gastro Presents Black Power Kitchen is the first book from the Bronx-based culinary collective, and it does for the cookbook what Ghetto Gastro has been doing for the food world in general-disrupt, expand, reinvent, and stamp it with their unique point of view. Ghetto Gastro sits at the intersection of food, music, fashion, visual arts, and social activism. They've partnered with Nike and Beats by Dre, designed cookware sold through Williams-Sonoma and Target, and won a Future of Gastronomy award from the World's 50 Best. Now they bring their multidisciplinary approach to a cookbook, with nourishing recipes that are layered with waves of crunch, heat, flavor, and umami. They are born of the authors' cultural heritage and travels-from riffs on family dishes like Strong Back Stew and memories of Uptown with Red Velvet Cake to neighborhood icons like Triboro Tres Leches and Chopped Stease (their take on the classic bodega chopped cheese) to recipes redolent of the African diaspora like Banana Leaf Fish and King Jaffe Jollof. All made with a sense of swag. 2022.
Literature
5613436 There are places in the world where rules are less important than kindness: and other thoughts on physics, philosophy and the world by Carlo Rovelli.
A delightful intellectual feast from the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and The Order of Time One of the world's most prominent physicists and fearless free spirit, Carlo Rovelli is also a masterful storyteller. His bestselling books have introduced millions of readers to the wonders of modern physics and his singular perspective on the cosmos. This new collection of essays reveals a curious intellect always on the move. Rovelli invites us on an accessible and enlightening voyage through science, literature, philosophy, and politics. Written with his usual clarity and wit, this journey ranges widely across time and space: from Newton's alchemy to Einstein's mistakes, from Nabokov's lepidopterology to Dante's cosmology, from mind-altering psychedelic substances to the meaning of atheism, from the future of physics to the power of uncertainty. Charming, pithy, and elegant, this book is the perfect gateway to the universe of one of the most influential minds of our age. 2022.
Personal finance and investing
5350565 Rich girl, broke girl: save better, invest smarter, and earn financial freedom by Kelley Keehn.
Guide to personal finance directed at women and focused on cultivating the mindset and practices of women who enjoy financial success. Topics include the costs of expensive lifestyles, gaining control of your money flow, resetting your mindset around money, self-employment, eliminating debt, and managing your spending habits. 2021.
Poetry
5613201 The Best American Poetry 2022 (Best American Poetry Series) by David Lehman, Matthew Zapruder.
Since 1988, The Best American Poetry series has been "one of the mainstays of the poetry publication world" (Academy of American Poets). Each volume presents a selection of the year's most brilliant, striking, and innovative poems, with comments from the poets themselves lending insight into their work. For The Best American Poetry 2022 guest editor Matthew Zapruder, whose own poems are "for everyone, everywhere...democratic in [their] insights and feelings" (NPR), has selected the seventy-five new poems that represent American poetry today at its most dynamic. Chosen from print and online magazines, from the popular to the little-known, the selection is sure to capture the attention of both Best American Poetry loyalists and newcomers to the series. The series and guest editors contribute valuable introductory essays that illuminate the current state of American poetry. 2022.
Social issues
5613332 On critical race theory: why it matters & why you should care by Victor Ray.
From renowned scholar Dr. Victor Ray, On Critical Race Theory explains the centrality of race in American history and politics, and how the often mischaracterized intellectual movement became a political necessity. Ray draws upon the radical thinking of giants such as Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to clearly trace the foundations of critical race theory in the Black intellectual traditions of emancipation and the civil rights movement. From these foundations, Ray explores the many facets of our society that critical race theory interrogates, from deeply embedded structural racism to the historical connection between whiteness and property, ownership, and more. In succinct, thoughtful essays, Ray presents, analyzes, and breaks down the scholarship and concepts that constitute this often misconstrued term. He explores how the conversation on critical race theory has expanded into the contemporary popular conscience, showing why critical race theory matters and why we should all care. 2022.
5613309 Strength in numbers: how polls work and why we need them by G Elliott Morris.
Public opinion polling is the ultimate democratic process; it gives every person an equal voice in letting elected leaders know what they need and want. But in the eyes of the public, polls today are tarnished. Recent election forecasts have routinely missed the mark and media coverage of polls has focused solely on their ability to predict winners and losers. Polls deserve better. In Strength in Numbers, data journalist G. Elliott Morris argues that the larger purpose of political polls is to improve democracy, not just predict elections. Whether used by interest groups, the press, or politicians, polling serves as a pipeline from the governed to the government, giving citizens influence they would otherwise lack. No one who believes in democracy can afford to give up on polls; they should commit, instead, to understanding them better. In a vibrant history of polling, Morris takes readers from the first semblance of data-gathering in the ancient world through to the development of modern-day scientific polling. He explains how the internet and "big data" have solved many challenges in polling-and created others. He covers the rise of polling aggregation and methods of election forecasting, reveals how data can be distorted and misrepresented, and demystifies the real uncertainty of polling. Candidly acknowledging where polls have gone wrong in the past, Morris charts a path for the industry's future where it can truly work for the people. Persuasively argued and deeply researched, Strength in Numbers is an essential guide to understanding and embracing one of the most important and overlooked democratic institutions in the United States. 2022.
5165235 True Reconciliation: How to Be a Force for Change by Jody Wilson-Raybould.
From the #1 bestselling author of 'Indian' in the Cabinet, a groundbreaking and accessible roadmap to advancing true reconciliation across Canada. There is one question Canadians have asked Jody Wilson-Raybould more than any other: What can I do to help advance reconciliation? This has been true from her time as a leader of British Columbia’s First Nations, as a Member of Parliament, as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, within the business communities she interacts, and when having conversations with people around their kitchen tables. Whether speaking as individuals, communities, organizations, or governments, people want to take concrete and tangible action that will make real change. They just need to know how to get started, or to take the next step. For Wilson-Raybould, what individuals and organizations need to do to advance true reconciliation is self-evident, accessible, and achievable. True Reconciliation is broken down into three core practices—Learn, Understand, and Act—that can be applied by individuals, communities, organizations, and governments. They are based on the historical and contemporary experience of Indigenous peoples in their relentless efforts to effect transformative change and decolonization; and deep understanding and expertise about what has been effective in the past, what we are doing right, and wrong, today, and what our collective future requires. 2022.
Sports and games
5613541 True: the four seasons of Jackie Robinson by Kostya Kennedy.
A biography of baseball great Robinson (1919-1972), focusing on four transformative years in Robinson's athletic and public life: 1946, his first year playing in the essentially all-white minor leagues for the Montreal Royals; 1949, when he won the Most Valuable Player Award as a Brooklyn Dodger; 1956, his final season in major league baseball; and 1972, the year of his untimely death. Some strong language. 2022.