In Film Studies, 15-year-old Cass is so cool she’s cold. That’s what people think. But she struggles to decide what role to play in life — an act that swallows her whole. It’s her director father, long absent, who leaves her struggling for an identity. The one thing she knows for sure is that she’s fed up with her mother’s ever-changing boyfriends. Then along comes a school film project and things get strange. But so what if the boy she likes films her twirling around half naked? Her father makes porn, doesn’t he?

No one at school knew that fifteen-year-old Aggie and her mother were hoarders until the Idiot Boys. That made her even more a target of bullies than she was before. At home, aka The Dump, her loneliness and despair are further punctuated by her mother's alcoholism, neglect, and paranoia. But Aggie is a warrior and she devises a plan to fight back —–a plan that enlists a few of the other misfits at school. The plan isn't an easy one, though, and when she is beaten by a group of girls, she finds strength and encouragement from some unlikely sources. Will it be enough to turn her life around? And will she somehow be able to save her mother, who continues a downward spiral of neglect?

A heartrending novel about one man's search for meaning in a difficult life A child ridiculed for his weight, a son overshadowed by a favored brother, a husband who falls short of his wife's ambitions, an old man with a broken heart… As Orbits's life passes, he doggedly pursues a simple dream — a little place in the country where a family might thrive — while wondering if he can ever shake free of the tragedies that seem to define him.  Fatboy Fall Down is the lush and heartbreaking musings of a man trying to understand his place in the world. Though shot through with sadness, Fatboy Fall Down is also full of surprising moments of wry humor, and Rabindranath Maharaj's deft touch underscores the resilience of the human spirit.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.

Some of us are more equal than others... Meet Stanley Huang: father, husband, ex-husband, man of unpredictable tastes and temper, aficionado of all-inclusive vacations and bargain luxury goods, newly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. For years, Stanley has claimed that he's worth a small fortune. But the time is now coming when the details of his estate will finally be revealed, and Stanley's family is nervous. For his son Fred, the inheritance Stanley has long alluded to would soothe the pain caused by years of professional disappointment. By now, the Harvard Business School graduate had expected to be a financial tech god - not a minor investor at a middling corporate firm, where he isn't even allowed to fly business class. Stanley's daughter, Kate, is a middle manager with one of Silicon Valley's most prestigious tech companies. She manages the capricious demands of her world-famous boss and the needs of her two young children all while supporting her would-be entrepreneur husband (just until his startup gets off the ground, which will surely be soon). But lately, Kate has been sensing something amiss; just because you say you have it all, it doesn't mean that you actually do. Stanley's second wife, Mary Zhu, twenty-eight years his junior, has devoted herself to making her husband comfortable in every way-rubbing his feet, cooking his favorite dishes, massaging his ego. But lately, her commitment has waned; caring for a dying old man is far more difficult than she expected. Linda Liang, Stanley's first wife, knows her ex better than anyone. She worked hard for decades to ensure their financial security, and is determined to see her children get their due. Single for nearly a decade, she might finally be ready for some romantic companionship. But where does a seventy-two year old Chinese woman in California go to find an appropriate boyfriend' As Stanley's death approaches, the Huangs are faced with unexpected challenges that upend them and eventually lead them to discover what they most value. A compelling tale of cultural expectations, career ambitions and our relationships with the people who know us best, Family Trust skewers the ambition and desires that drive Silicon Valley and draws a sharply loving portrait of modern American family life.

USA TODAY bestselling author Sarah Morgan returns with a life-affirming exploration of love, loss, and how families come in all shapes and sizes ... New York florist Flora Donovan is living the dream, but her bubbly optimism hides a secret. She's lonely. Orphaned as a child, she's never felt like she's belonged anywhere ... until she meets Jack Parker. He's the first man to ever really see her, and it's life changing. Teenager Izzy Parker is holding it together by her fingertips. Since her mother passed away a year ago, looking after her dad and little sister is the only thing that makes Izzy feel safe. Discovering her father has a new girlfriend is her worst nightmare--she is not in the market for a replacement mom. Then her father invites Flora on their summer vacation ... Flora's heart aches for Izzy, but she badly wants her relationship with Jack to work. As the summer unfolds, Flora must push her own boundaries to discover parts of herself she never knew existed--and to find the family she's always wanted.

The riches to rags to riches again story of a film star and her family and their coming to terms with a homosexual son and tragedy.

The perfect book for the holidays: Cinderella set amid the wine-making estates of modern-day Napa Valley, complete with an evil Parisian stepmother. Deeply in love, Christophe and Joy Lammenais built Chateau Lammenais into a small but renowned Napa Valley winery and an idyllic home where they raised their beloved daughter, Camille, who takes on increasing responsibilities for the estate they all treasure. But after Joy's early death from breast cancer just after Camille's graduation from Stanford, a lonely Christophe soon falls prey to the machinations of a sophisticate from his native France-who moves, with her two reprobate sons, to consolidate her power over Camille and the property when Christophe is killed in a plane crash. With a French "fairy godmother" on the scene, however, the son of a neighboring vintner to assist, and a grand Harvest Ball on the horizon, lovely Camille may make some potent magic of her own.

The youngest of six daughters raised by a widowed mother, Meena is a young Indo-Canadian woman struggling to find her place in the world. She knows that the freedom experienced by others is beyond her reach, but unlike her older sisters, Meena refuses to accept a life dictated by tradition. Against her mother's wishes, she falls for a young man named Liam who asks her to run away with him. She must then make a painful choice - one that will lead to stunning and irrevocable consequences. BC Book Prize winner. Includes sex, violence and strong language.

Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet ...

So begins the story in this exquisite debut novel about a Chinese American family living in a small town in 1970s Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue—in Marilyn's case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James' case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party.

When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. James, consumed by guilt, sets out on a reckless path that may destroy his marriage. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to find a responsible party, no matter what the cost. Lydia's older brother, Nathan, is certain the neighborhood bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it's the youngest of the family, Hannah, who observes far more than anyone realizes—and who may be the only one who knows the truth about what happened.

A profoundly moving story of family, history, and the meaning of home, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, exploring the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family and uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.