New Books
Such a long journey
Mistry, Rohinton, 1952-
1991
The apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Richler, Mordecai, 1931-2001
1995
The dazzling tale of a clever young rogue who makes good (or at least makes money), The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz established Mordecai Richler as one of the great comic writers of the twentieth century. Determined to claw his way out of Montrealas Jewish ghetto, young Duddy takes to heart his grandfatheras maxim that "a man without land is nobody." In his relentless pursuit of property and a big-time reputation, the cynical dreamer lies, cheats, and hurts everyone who loves him. Amoral, yet oddly endearing, Duddy Kravitz is one of the most charismatic anti-heroes of all time -- a man who learns the hard way that dreams are not exactly what they seem, even when they do come true. Abridged by the author himself and featuring the melodious voice of Broadwayas Paul Hecht, along with original music and sound effects, this superb archival recording (which first aired on CBC Radio in 1980) captures the frenetic pacing and sharp wit of Richleras 1959 masterpiece.
The book of negroes
Hill, Lawrence, 1957-, author
2007
A sweeping story that transports the reader from a tribal African village to a plantation in the southern United States, from the teeming Halifax docks to the manor houses of London.
The diviners
Laurence, Margaret, 1926-1987.
1988
The culmination and completion of Margaret Laurence's celebrated Manawaka cycle,The Divinersis an epic novel. This is the powerful story of an independent woman who refuses to abandon her search for love. For Morag Gunn, growing up in a small Canadian prairie town is a toughening process -- putting distance between herself and a world that wanted no part of her. But in time, the aloneness that had once been forced upon her becomes a precious right -- relinquished only in her overwhelming need for love. Again and again, Morag is forced to test her strength against the world -- and finally achieves the life she had determined would be hers. The Divinershas been acclaimed by many critics as the outstanding achievement of Margaret Laurence's writing career. In Morag Gunn, Laurence has created a figure whose experience emerges as that of all dispossessed people in search of their birthright, and one who survives as an inspirational symbol of courage and endurance. The Divinersreceived the Governor General's Award for Fiction for 1974. From the Paperback edition.
The handmaid's tale
Atwood, Margaret, 1939- author
2017
In this seminal work of speculative fiction, the Booker Prize-winning author asks: In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies? Soon to be a10-episode TV series produced by MGM Television, starring Elizabeth Moss ( Madmen ), Samira Wiley ( Orange is the New Black ), Joseph Fiennes, and Max Minghella
Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the days before, when she lived and made love with her husband Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now.... Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, andliterary tour de force.
Hold fast
Major, Kevin, 1949-, author
2013
Hold Fast is the widely acclaimed story of a young boy's struggle to survive in a new environment and his fight against those who stand as threats to his pride in himself and his way of life.
Michael turned fourteen in May. By June, both his parents are dead, victims of a car crash. And for Michael, who has lived all his life in a small Newfoundland outport community, this means being suddenly uprooted and sent to live with relatives in St. Albert, a city hundreds of miles away.
Hold Fast is the story of Michael's struggle to survive in his new world. In vivid, honest prose, it depicts his fight against those who threaten him - the loud-mouthed Kentson who makes fun of the way he talks at school, and his uncle who tries to rule life at home with an iron hand. It is also the story of the friendship that develops between Michael and Curtis, his cousin, and of his new uncertain feelings for Brenda.
The book was written, Kevin Major says, "out of love for a way of life and a people. It is an appeal for us Newfoundlanders to be like certain of the species of seaweed that inhabit our shores, which, when faced with the threat of being destroyed by forces they cannot control, evolve an appendage to hold them to the rocks, a holdfast."
It's not me, it's you
McFarlane, Mhairi, author
2015
An achingly funny story about how to be your own hero when life pulls the rug out from under your feet. From the author of the bestselling YOU HAD ME AT HELLO
Delia Moss isn't quite sure where she went wrong.
When she proposed and discovered her boyfriend was sleeping with someone else -- she thought it was her fault.
When she realised life would never be the same again -- she thought it was her fault.
And when he wanted her back like nothing had changed -- Delia started to wonder if perhaps she was not to blame...
From Newcastle to London and back again, with dodgy jobs, eccentric bosses and annoyingly handsome journalists thrown in, Delia must find out where her old self went -- and if she can ever get her back.
Lives of girls and women : a novel
Munro, Alice, 1931- author
2005
Lives of Girls and Women is the intensely readable, touching, and very funny story of Del Jordan, a young woman who journeys from the carelessness of childhood through an uneasy adolescence in search of love and sexual experience.
As Del dreams of becoming famous, suffers embarrassment about her mother, endures the humiliation of her body's insistent desires, and tries desperately to fall in love, she grapples with the crises that mark the passage to womanhood.
Morris Micklewhite and the tangerine dress
Baldacchino, Christine, 1977- author
2014
Morris is a little boy who loves using his imagination. He dreams about having space adventures, paints beautiful pictures and sings the loudest during circle time. But most of all, Morris loves his classroom's dress-up center -- he loves wearing the tangerine dress.
But the children in Morris's class don't understand. Dresses, they say, are for girls. And Morris certainly isn't welcome in the spaceship some of his classmates are building. Astronauts, they say, don't wear dresses.
One day when Morris feels all alone, and sick from the taunts of his classmates, his mother lets him stay home from school. Morris reads about elephants, and puts together a puzzle, and dreams of a fantastic space adventure with his cat, Moo.
Inspired by his dream, Morris paints the incredible scene he saw, and brings it with him to school. He builds his own spaceship, hangs his painting on the front of it and takes two of his classmates on an outer space adventure.
With warm, dreamy illustrations Isabelle Malenfant perfectly captures Morris's vulnerability and the vibrancy of his imagination. This is a sweetly told story about the courage and creativity it takes to be different.
The scorpion rules
Bow, Erin, author
2016
The children of world leaders are held hostage in an attempt to keep the peace in this "slyly humorous, starkly thought-provoking" ( Kirkus Reviews , starred review) novel.
Greta is a Duchess and a Crown Princess. She is also a Child of Peace, a hostage held by the de facto ruler of the world, the great Artificial Intelligence, Talis. This is how the game is played: if you want to rule, you must give one of your children as a hostage. Start a war and your hostage dies.
The system has worked for centuries. Parents don't want to see their children murdered.
Greta will be free if she can make it to her eighteenth birthday. Until then she is prepared to die with dignity, if necessary. But everything changes when Elian arrives at the Precepture. He's a hostage from a new American alliance, and he defies the machines that control every part of their lives--and is severely punished for it. His rebellion opens Greta's eyes to the brutality of the rules they live under, and to the subtle resistance of her companions. And Greta discovers her own quiet power.
Then Elian's country declares war on Greta's and invades the prefecture, taking the hostages hostage. Now the great Talis is furious, and coming himself to deliver punishment. Which surely means that Greta and Elian will be killed...unless Greta can think of a way to break all the rules.
Such is my beloved
Callaghan, Morley, 1903-1990
2007
One of the great novels of the 1930s, Such Is My Beloved recounts the tragic story of two down-and-out prostitutes and the young priest who aspires to redeem their lives. The novel is at once a compassionate portrait of innocence and idealism, and an emphatic condemnation of a society where the lines between good and evil are essentially blurred.
Such Is My Beloved is widely considered to be Morley Callaghan's finest novel.
This one summer
Tamaki, Mariko, author
2014
Winner of the Governor General's Award for Children's Illustration
Rose and Windy are summer friends whose families have visited Awago Beach for as long as they can remember. But this year is different, and they soon find themselves tangled in teen love and family crisis. From the creators of Skim comes an investigation into the mysterious world of adults.
Sure, Rose's dad is still making cheesy and embarrassing jokes, but her mother is acting like she doesn't even want to be there. Plus, being at the cottage isn't just about going to the beach anymore. Now Rose and Windy are spending a lot of their time renting scary movies and spying on the teenagers who work at the corner store, as well as learning stuff about sex no one mentioned in health class.
Pretty soon everything is messed up. Rose's father leaves the cottage and returns to the city, and her mother becomes more and more withdrawn. While her family is falling to pieces, Rose focuses her attention on Dunc, a teenager working at the local corner store. When Jenny, Dunc's girlfriend, claims to be pregnant, the girls realize that the teenagers are keeping just as many secrets as the adults in their lives.
No one seems to want to talk about the things that matter. When the tension between Dunc and Jenny boils over, Jenny makes a desperate and destructive move and Rose's mother is galvanized into action. In the aftermath, nothing is completely resolved, but secrets have been aired, which means that things are at least a bit better for everyone. For Rose and Windy, the end of summer brings the realization that, while Awago Beach might always be the same, they have both been changed forever.
From Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, creators of the multi-award-winning graphic novel Skim, comes a stunning and authentic story of friendship, illustrated with subtly heart-breaking moments and pure summer joy.
Three wishes : Palestinian and Israeli children speak
Ellis, Deborah, 1960-
2004
Deborah Ellis's enormously popular Breadwinner trilogy recounted the experiences of children living in Afghanistan; now Ellis turns her attention to the young people of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After visiting the region to conduct interviews, she presents their stories here in their own words. Twelve-year-old Nora, eleven-year-old Mohammad, and many others speak directly about their lives -- which prove to be both ordinary and extraordinary: They argue with their siblings. They hate spinach. They have wishes for the future. Yet they have also seen their homes destroyed and families killed, and live amidst constant upheaval and violence.
This simple, telling book allows young readers everywhere to see that the children caught in this conflict are just like them - but living far more difficult and dangerous lives. Without taking sides, it presents an unblinking portrait of children victimized by the endless struggle around them.
Underground to Canada
Smucker, Barbara, 1915-2003, author
2013
There's a place the slaves been whisperin' around called Canada. The law don't allow no slavery there. They say you follow the North Star, and when you step onto this land you are free ......
Taken away from her mother by a ruthless slave trader, all Julilly has left is the dream of freedom. Every day that she spends huddled in the slaver trader's wagon travelling south or working on the brutal new plantation, she thinks about the land where it is possible to be free, a land she and her friend Liza may reach someday. So when workers from the Underground Railroad offer to help the two girls escape, they are ready. But the slave catchers and their dogs will soon be after them .....
When everything feels like the movies
Reid, Raziel, 1990- author
2014
WINNER, Governor General's Literary Award
CBC Canada Reads 2015 Runner-up
An edgy and extravagant YA novel about a glamorous boy named Jude.
School is just like a film set: there's The Crew, who make things happen, The Extras who fill the empty desks, and The Movie Stars, whom everyone wants tagged in their Facebook photos. But Jude doesn't fit in. He's not part of The Crew because he isn't about to do anything unless it's court-appointed; he's not an Extra because nothing about him is anonymous; and he's not a Movie Star because even though everyone knows his name like an A-lister, he isn't invited to the cool parties. As the director calls action, Jude is the flamer that lights the set on fire.
Before everything turns to ashes from the resulting inferno, Jude drags his best friend Angela off the casting couch and into enough melodrama to incite the paparazzi, all while trying to fend off the haters and win the heart of his favourite co-star Luke Morris. It's a total train wreck!
But train wrecks always make the front page.
Who is Frances Rain?
Buffie, Margaret.
2007
In this 20th-anniverary edition of the novel by Margaret Buffie, it's going to be a long, hot summer for 15-year-old Lizzie. Normally a vacation at her grandmother's northern Manitoba cottage is the highlight of the year, but this summer the whole family is going along, including her new stepfather whom she detests. To escape the family's bickering, Lizzie explores a nearby island, where she finds the remains of an old cabin and uncovers a pair of spectacles. When she tries on the old glasses she is surprised to find herself watching a woman and girl from the past. Lizzie is determined to find out who these ghosts are, and why they are appearing to her. Enlisting the help of her grandmother's teenage neighbor, Alex, she puts together clues about the ghosts' identities and in doing so, finds a way to help her estranged family reunite. It's a compelling story, carrying young readers from the present to the past and back again.