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Canadian fiction

  • Author:
    Boswell, Joan, Pike, Sue
    Summary:

    This newest anthology of short crime fiction from the Ladies’ Killing Circle takes a spirited look at baby boomers as they go from young, hairy and hip to old, bald and bad. The children of the sixties are are up to no good in another wicked anthology from this prolific collective of writers. The editors, themselves celebrated short crime fiction writers, have assembled such luminaries of crime fiction as Barbara Fradkin, H. Mel Malton, Vicki Cameron and Melanie Fogel, as well as Arthur Ellis Award winners Barbara Fradkin, Mary Jane Maffini and Sue Pike.

  • Author:
    Richards, Linda L.
    Summary:

    Vancouver Post gossip columnist Nicole Charles is only slightly put out when she discovers she’s been downsized. She figures she’s lucky to still have a job. It just means she needs to get a desk so she can work out of her apartment. But the desk she buys at auction proves to have more history than she’d anticipated, and the cache she finds in a secret compartment in that desk has links to a money-laundering ring, and an old school-mate. Will this be the story that lands Nicole a job on the news desk? Even while she struggles to solve the case, she wonders if she’ll ever get the recognition she figures she deserves.When Blood Lies is the second novel in a series of mysteries featuring rookie reporter Nicole Charles.

  • Author:
    Andrews, Jan
    Summary:

    Follows the foolish, yet wise, Ti-Jean through three adventures as he outwits a greedy princess, a tiny scoundrel, and a very clever girl, in a collection of stories based on French-Canadian folk literature.

  • Author:
    Richmond, Sandra, Brooks, Martha
    Summary:

    Sally and Brian are in love. But at the end of a wonderful ski weekend together, a car accident leaves Sally fully paralyzed for life. This powerful, honest book tells of Sally's struggle immediately following the accident as she goes through rehabilitation. Her anger, her flirtation with drugs, and a dangerously angry fellow patient, and her slow, hesitant journey to finding a way to live with her new reality make this one of the strongest portraits of a life-transforming disability ever published for young adults. Yet the story and the author's life offer hope. Far too many young people continue to become paraplegic and quadriplegic in car accidents, diving accidents and other risk-taking behavior. This book lays no blame and makes no promises. But it shows that a way forward can be found.

  • Author:
    Pettit, Mary
    Summary:

    Home child Mary Janeway runs away from her farm placement, grows into adulthood, and ultimately comes to terms with life in Hamilton, Ontario. Sixteen-year-old Mary Janeway, a home child, is desperate to escape from her rural home child placement and flees to London, Ontario, to find a domestic position. When conditions become unbearable, she moves on, vowing never to relinquish her freedom again.After she arrives in Hamilton as a young bride, she quickly adapts to the urban conveniences and the marvels of new inventions that include electric sewing machines, sulphur matches, street stoplights, a one-horsepower Brunswick refrigerator, the advent of the zipper, and the beginning of radio. But even the latest technology can’t stop the ravages of disease and other family tragedies.Mary lives through two world wars, the Spanish Influenza, and the Great Depression. In spite of many hardships, she remains a strong, resilient woman well into her senior years and makes many contributions to Hamilton, the city she calls home.

  • Author:
    Wennick, Elizabeth
    Summary:

    Jenna Cooper was only a few days old when her father was murdered and her family was shattered. Now fifteen, she daydreams of a picture-perfect sitcom family as she struggles with the gritty realities of her life. When Jenna finds out that Travis Bingham, the man who shot her father, has been released from prison, she becomes obsessed with tracking him down and confronting him. But her search reveals that there may be more to her father's murder than she has been led to believe, and will her relationships with her family and friends survive her obsession?

  • Author:
    Walsh, Ann
    Summary:

    Sixteen-year-old Darrah is in trouble. She lost her temper and, as a result, Mrs. Johnson, was hurt. Now her parents want her to go to something called a "Restorative Justice" circle that the RCMP suggested. Darrah has to face her parents, Mrs. Johnson, a policewoman, and a "facilitator" who all sit in a circle and decide on Darrah's "sanctions." Sanctions aren't punishments, the facilitator tells her. At first Darrah doesn't believe this—helping Mrs. Johnson two afternoons a week feels like punishment. But then Darrah realizes that she likes helping the older woman, especially when Mrs. Johnson teaches Darrah how to cook and bake (her recipes are included in the book). It turns out, however, that Mrs. Johnson is hiding a secret. . .

  • Author:
    Wishinsky, Frieda, Moore, Sean L.
    Summary:

    In Where Are You, Bear?, Sophie and her best friend Bear discovered Canada from A to Z. Now, they’re off to explore New York City through nearly twenty pairs of opposites!  Sophie can’t wait to see New York, while Bear would much rather they just stay home. Sophie loves speeding around in a taxi cab, but Bear wishes the driver would slow down. Up and down, stop and go, tall and short, and many more opposite pairs are illustrated using iconic New York experiences, buildings, and landmarks. Then, when Sophie spies a window full of new bears in a toy store, Bear begins to worry he is too plain and old to compete with all the city has to offer. He’s proven right temporarily when Sophie forgets him in the toy store, but a helpful young boy and his mother find Bear and return him to Sophie at her hotel. The reunion is a happy one, and Sophie and Bear realize they love each other — no matter where they are! 

  • Author:
    Johnston, Aviaq
    Summary:

    Nalvana feels like all of her friends have some type of superpower. She has friends with super speed (who always beat her in races), friends with super strength (who can dangle from the monkey bars for hours), and friends who are better than she is at a million other things. Nalvana thinks she must be the only kid in town without a superpower. But then her mom shows Nalvana that she is unique and special--and that her superpower was right in front of her all along.

  • Author:
    Bowen, Gail
    Summary:

    From the 'Queen of Canadian crime fiction' (Winnipeg Free Press) comes the 16th instalment of the much-loved Joanne Kilbourn series.The latest novel in the Joanne Kilbourn Shreve series opens in the month of May, a time of beginnings when all things seem possible. Joanne's husband, Zack, recently elected mayor of Regina, is optimistic that he can garner the public support necessary to make Regina a city that works — not just for the few, but for the many. Their oldest son Peter is marrying Maisie Crawford, a woman as clever and forthright as she is lovely. Their lakeside wedding is a dream come true, but when a former lover of a member of the bridal party shows up, the dream becomes a nightmare. Before the bride's bouquet has wilted, there's an act of sickening cruelty; soon afterwards, there's a murder.Devastated, Joanne and Zack search for answers. As it becomes increasingly unclear whether political agendas, shattered romance, or a secret buried deep in the past have motivated the crimes, the loyalties of the Shreve family are tested. A gripping mystery with a social conscience, this is a novel of high stakes and innocence lost. Bespeak Audio Editions brings Canadian voices to the world with audiobook editions of some of the country's greatest works of literature, performed by Canadian actors.

  • Author:
    Wilson, Adam
    Summary:

    Bankers prowl Brooklyn bars on the eve of the stock market crash. A debate over Young Elvis versus Vegas Elvis turns existential. Detoxing junkies use a live lobster to spice up their love life. Students on summer break struggle to escape the orbit of a seemingly utopic communal house.

    And in the title story, selected for The Best American Short Stories, two film school buddies working on a doomed project are left sizing up their own talent, hoping to come out on top—but fearing they won't.

    In What's Important Is Feeling, Adam Wilson follows the through-line of contemporary coming-of-age from the ravings of teenage lust to the staggering loneliness of proto-adulthood. He navigates the tough terrain of American life with a delicate balance of comedy and compassion, lyricism and unsparing straightforwardness. Wilson's characters wander through a purgatory of yearning, hope, and grief. No one emerges unscathed.

  • Author:
    Davies, Robertson
    Summary:

    From the well-hidden family secret of his childhood to his mysterious encounters with a small-town embalmer, an expert art restorer, a Bavarian countess, and various masters of espionage, the events in Francis' life were not always what they seemed.

  • Author:
    Polak, Monique
    Summary:

    A pampered child used to having her own way, Anneke Van Raalte lives outside Amsterdam, where her father is a cartoonist for the Amsterdam newspaper. Though Anneke's family is Jewish, her religion means little to her. Anneke's life changes in 1942 when the Nazis invade Holland, and she and her family are deported to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. Not only are conditions in the camp appalling, but the camp is the site of an elaborate hoax: the Nazis are determined to convince the world that Theresienstadt is an idyllic place and that European Jews are thriving under the Nazi regime. Because he is an artist, Anneke's father is compelled to help in the propaganda campaign, and Anneke finds herself torn between her loyalty to her family and her sense of what is right. What World is Left was inspired by the experiences of the author's mother, who was imprisoned in Theresienstadt during World War II.

  • Author:
    Parker, Fawn
    Summary:

    2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize Longlist - For readers of My Dark Vanessa, a mesmerizing, disturbing, and thoroughly compelling novel about one woman's role in preserving—or destroying—her famous father's legacy. In front of me are hundreds of pages of work. Already I feel it leaving me. He will obliterate what is there, replace it, deny I ever wrote a word. But, he cannot take the words I write on my own. Hillary Greene's father, once a celebrated author and public figure, is now losing his memory and, with it, his ability to write. As her father's primary caretaker, each day begins with two eggs, boiled and Charlie Rose or some other host on the iPad screen. Her father compulsively watches himself in old interviews, memorizing his own speech, trying to hang on to who he was. An aspiring author herself, Hillary impulsively agrees to ghost-write his final work—a memoir spanning his career—and release it in his name. Diving deep into her father's past, and in turn her own, a horrifying truth begins to piece itself together. With full control over her father's memoir, Hillary is faced with a stark choice: reveal her father as a monster or preserve his legacy as a respected literary figure. But she wonders what writing the truth will do to her and if it will damage her own prospects for a career. Whichever option she chooses, Hillary has to deal with the significant pain writing the memoir has re-surfaced—specifically, how the truth about her father adds to her grief over the death of her enigmatic sister, Pauline. For the first time in her life, Hillary holds the power. Set in the wake of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements, What We Both Know is a visceral, intimate, and complex novel about confronting the personal and professional consequences—and potentially devastating fallout—of revealing the truth about a famous man.

  • Author:
    Brand, Dionne
    Summary:

    The story of a young six-year-old boy, Quy, separated from his family as they are fleeing Vietnam to begin a new life in Canada. Twenty years later his mother still lives in hope of finding him. Meanwhile Quy, now a dangerous criminal, is finding his way to Canada and to a gripping unexpected encounter with his lost family.

  • Author:
    Hughes, Alison
    Summary:

    In this picture book, the ripple effect of one child's small action shows how we can all make a big environmental difference. This edition combines both written and spoken words.

  • Author:
    Hood, David
    Summary:

    On an October night in 1899 the body of a city councilman is found under a Halifax wharf. Detective Inspector Culligan Baxter embarks on an investigation that takes him along a path of connections and corruption, linking some of the city's most prominent businessmen. With pointed observations on human behaviour and on the changing character of the city, Detective Baxter conducts a sardonic inquiry into morality, justice, and the space in between.

  • Author:
    Hood, David
    Summary:

    On an October night in 1899 the body of a well-regarded city councilman is found floating under a Halifax wharf. Detective Inspector Culligan Baxter embarks on an investigation that leads from the waterfront, through the city's streets, and out into the surrounding countryside. Aided by the young but surprisingly astute Kenny Squire and an odd assortment of barkeeps, petty thieves, and prostitutes, Baxter's sleuthing takes him into the station's back files and along a path of connections and corruption, linking some of the city's most prominent businessmen. From the well-to-do parlours to the seedy taverns to the public spaces that still dominate the city's downtown today, author David Hood has created a vivid portrait of late-Victorian Halifax. With pointed observations on human behaviour and on the changing character of his hometown, Detective Baxter conducts a sardonic inquiry into morality, justice, and the space in between.

  • Author:
    Rivers, Karen
    Summary:

    Dex Pratt’s life has been turned upside down. His parents have divorced and his mother has remarried. When his father attempts suicide and fails, Dex returns to their small town to care for him. But he’s not prepared for how much everything has changed. Gone are the nice house, new cars, fancy bikes and other toys. Now he and his wheelchair-bound dad live in a rotting rented house at the back of a cornfield. And, worse, his father has given up defending marijuana growers in his law practice and has become one himself. Unable to cope, Dex begins smoking himself into a state of surrealism. He begins to lose touch with what is real and what he is imagining. And then there are the aliens…and the girl-of-his-dreams…and the crop circle…

  • Author:
    Hofmann, Karen
    Summary:

    Karen Hofmann’s empathetic and cathartic novel, What is Going to Happen Next, pieces together the lives of five members of the Lund family following their enforced dispersal after the death of the father and the hospitalization of the mother in the remote West Coast community of Butterfly Lake. It explores their self-doubts and aspirations in the ways they cope with their separation and reunion through their work and personal relationships, and reveals the ways in which their past is filtered through memory and desire. It also skillfully exposes a Vancouver class system from the perspectives of diverse socio-economic conditions and lifestyles. What is Going to Happen Next is character-driven and well-wrought, with a tenderness that propels the reader forward alongside the Lunds who are learning to fuse together as a chosen family.

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