This haunting Speculative Fiction novel will carry you from Ireland, to remote northern Ontario, to the big city of Toronto and all the way to Jamaica. The teenaged heroine, Irish-Canadian, Kathleen Dunkley, was desperate to leave her haunting pasts and horrific tragedies behind her.Through her coming-of-age journey, Kathleen soon learns that the witch of Rose Hall was originally from Irish stock and there is also a mysterious ghost boy called Santiago, inhabiting the house where she is staying. Kathleen is left to ponder why spooks have caught up with her, and if her new found Chinese-Jamaican friend, David Chang, can help to defend her from harm.This moving story of survival is a page turner for just about anyone that likes adventure.
In a Fragile Moment: A Landscape of Canadian Poetry is an insightful collection of essays and reviews, written from the poetic heart of Professor Olivé. The authors covered in this astute critical study are treated with heart felt respect. Professor Olivé has the uncanny ability to portray his incisive observations in a poetic and perceptive manner. This is a significant study of 31 Canadian writers:Milton Acorn, Margaret Atwood, Al Purdy, John B. Lee, Keith Inman, Lala Heine-Koehn, Linda Rogers, Glen Sorestad, Anna Yin...
This passionate Cuban author brings us Forge of Words, his first solo poetry book, which takes us into overwhelming lands of emotions and endurance. Don´t miss this ardent collection of poems by Miguel Olivé! Este apasionado autor cubano nos ofrece Fragua de palabras, su primer libro de poesía en solitario que nos transporta a impresionantes contextos de emoción y constancia ¡No se pierda esta vehemente colección de poemas de Miguel Olivé!
Division Street is a complex, multifaceted, memoiresk, collection of poems about growing up in small town Ontario in the early 1960's. This is Arthur Bull's fifth collection of poetry. It brings together a historical, cultural, political and personal perspective of a 12-year-old, looking out on his worlds from the shore of Lake Ontario. Drawing together popular culture, current events, historical reflections with personal narrative, it features appearances by Godzilla, Poe, Diefenbaker and Mister Ed, among many others. Arthur Bull's world is balanced on the edge of the maelstrom of the 60's seen through the eyes of someone on the verge of becoming a teenager.
Serve hash brownies to her bridge club? Check. Attend her granddaughter's prom channeling her inner Thelma and Louise? Check. Get arrested? Check. Shirley Palmer is determined to have the most exciting summer of her life. And her husband, daughter, grandkids, and friends can either come along for the ride or stay and pick up the pieces. Their choice. But Shirley's bucket list is widening the fault lines in her relationships. Some fractures create new understanding with those she loves. Others release resentments that threaten everything she holds dear. Ultimately Shirley comes to realize what really matters and what she must do. But first there's that last golden wish to fulfill, perhaps the most dangerous one of all... "What Shirley Missed" will resonate with anyone who has loved- and hated- their family. Donna Wootton has created unforgettable characters with complex inner lives that will keep you turning the pages long after you should have turned out the light.
Grandma Hall and a six-volume set of books called, The Children's Hour, were an important influence on Graham Ducker turning into a writer. His creativity shimmers, sparks and sparkles from story to story so don't be surprised when he gives an inanimate objects or even a nebulous concepts a voice. Don't be shocked when he develops plots through ethereal conversations. All of this gives his work a sometimes humorous, sometimes thought provoking twist. He often leaves the reader contemplating a possible continuation to a storyline that a lesser writer would have tied up with a pretty bow. This book will leave you thinking.Time and Space do not mean the same thing to Graham Ducker as it does to the rest of the human race. Plan to be surprised, even flabbergasted by what he presents in these absorbing stories.
Poems by Don Gutteridge, one of Canada best living poets and novelists with sixty plus titles and many awards. His most resent Hidden Brook Press books are: Home Ground, The Star-Brushed Horizon, Inking the World, with a 500 page poetry book to follow.
Bruce Kauffman's poetry, particularly in this latest collection, an evening absence still waiting for moon, is full of light. There is a sensation of delicate fingers lithely travelling over the ivory keys of a piano and producing a melody so fine, so exquisite, we simply gasp. And Kauffman's pen is indeed infused with light-and lightness. We feel that he is illuminating the way-but he does it with such a diaphanous touch, we don't feel like we are being pushed or coaxed: we absolutely want to go! -Carolyne Van Der Meer, author of Journeywoman, and Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience
This collection of poems, Whatever We Are, will resonate with the reader in a powerful way. Full of emotions directly inspired by life, they explore the hidden roads of imagination, allowing readers to become immersed in new territories that are not always comfortable, even though necessary and rewarding.Eva Kolacz began her journey without the need to escape from the facts. She had the ability to face the truth in order to find solace in the most challenging circumstances. These poems will transport the reader beyond everyday matters - the world's troubles - to bring us into a place of transcendence, of luminous intensity.In her poem "The Blueprint of a Lake" she writes, We are now lost in the reflection of clouds / between the rocks covered with algae over time / time faster than our thoughts.In the book, Whatever We Are, Eva Kolacz has emerged as a poet who understands the power of the written word. Her poems become a stage that allows her inner thoughts to surface. Her poetry not only leads the reader into her world, but into the perspectives of others. Her poems are full of emotion. They are genuine and life-enhancing. By avoiding sentimentality, she depicts stories without shame. Her lines, although raw at times, strive to defy any challenge and overcome her haunting past through the destruction of unwanted images.
Don Gutteridge, in his book, The Star-Brushed Horizon, looks at his boyhood days, in the village of Point Edward, Ontario, with a sardonic and sentimental perspective. The pleasures and pains of growing up are detailed in sharp, poignant lyrics that readers will be able to relate to. The middle section of the book contains poems about his family, his friends and the joys of being a grandfather. This supremely well written volume concludes with two sections devoted to the loss of his wife, Anne, of fifty-seven years. This concluding section is tender, touching and clear-eyed in the face of monumental grief.In, The Star-Brushed Horizon, Don Gutteridge looks at his boyhood days, in the village of Point Edward, Ontario, with a wry and nostalgic eye. Further on in the book there are poems about his family and friends, including those whom he has lost.The poems in The Star-Brushed Horizon are a nostalgic look at the poet's childhood, its pleasures and its sorrows.
Some Sort of Normal is a realistic, confessional novel that shuffles between rationalizations and redemption of the protagonist, Mark Beetleman. Not since Vladimir Nabokov wrote his earth-shattering Lolita in 1955 has anyone attempted the topic of pedophilia on this level. After reading, Some Sort of Normal, no one will walk away without wondering what lurks in the dark shadows of their own family closet. This book will force you to analyze your perspective on forgiveness, redemption and mercy. You will never trust your child to be alone with a male ever again.In, Some Sort of Normal, Grove successfully fuses elements of literary realism and memoir styles into the difficult but socially relevant topic of pedophilia. Bravely and well written.Some Sort of Normal, is James Frey's, Million Little Pieces, meets Vladimir Nabokov's, Lolita.
Don Gutteridge has been writing great books for decades. Now with 60 titles this book, Out of the Blue, poems selected by James Spence really makes him shine. Selected poems from 1983 to 2011 will show you why he is considered one of Canada's very best. Don't miss this milestone book.
When two small-time hoods execute a drug heist for their boss but decide to keep some of the take, trouble erupts. Stubb Malley's Thornton mob, the Dalco east-coast crime syndicate, an Insurance Company president and College Dean, a High School Superintendent, a nervous rookie on the local police force, the manager of the swanky Voyageur's End, an elderly woman who claims to have been abducted by aliens, the giant Deed and his best friend, the ever-talking Dom, an eccentric university professor, a carpet salesman, a dog named Angus, and a host of others, all become involved-kidnapping, murder, mayhem and philosophical enquiry ensue. Welcome to the world of The Prince of Leroy. From the dregs of society to its most intellectual sophisticates, from the halls of Thornton University to historic World War One tunnels that snake beneath the local nether-regions, The Prince of Leroy is a rousing, comic tale of action and adventure. Often bordering on Menippean satire, the narrative explores sundry layers of society and involves a panoply of complex contemporary themes and issues: can individuals ever achieve justice against overwhelming forces in matters that range from the illegal appropriation of land to the brutality of sexual rape; what kind of hero can an individual become in a world where lines of morality and acceptable conduct are irrevocably blurred, if or when those lines exist at all? Or what of Dom's dream of death from which he emerges with an inherently existential question-how do you wake from being dead? Welcome to the world of The Prince of Leroy, a boisterous, comic tale of action and adventure. When two small-time hoods execute a drug heist for their boss but decide to keep some of the take, trouble erupts like a summer storm; kidnapping, murder and mayhem ensue. And a bit of philosophizing too. Most of the novel takes place around the old Le Roi Motor Inn, the motel simply known to locals as the Leroy. Managed by a local god of good deeds and mythic reputation, John P. March, the Prince of Leroy, is quickly tasked to set his world in order-the question, to what lengths and depths will he allow himself to be drawn to sort through the sordid chaos and bring events to a settled and peaceful conclusion?
Kathleen Whelan writes with one of the most unique voices in Canadian literature I've ever heard. These stories are surreal and yet they don't fit cleanly into the surrealist genre. These stories are also real without being realist and, at the same time, absurd in the tradition of Kafka and Beckett. They are absurdly real. Perhaps, the best description of Whelan's style is absurd-realism, but the truth is Things I Will Tell You When I'm Dead is so original it defies all genre categories; it surprises and unsettles like a strange, yet somehow beautifully crafted dream.Jacob Scheier,Governor General Award winning author of‘More to Keep us Warm’ (ECW Press, 2007) Kathleen Whelan’s distinctive voice shines through in Things I Will Tell You When I am Dead, her first book of stories. Readers of Whelan’s work have been waiting for her debut collection, and the waiting is finally over. The appealing directness of Whelan’s prose, her startling images and irreverence—Whelan’s stories both wrench the heart and clench the gut in often hilarious stories that are relayed in a wildly entertaining and startling, moving style that is uniquely Kathleen Whelan’s.J. Jill Robinsonauthor of the novel ‘More in Anger’and four collections of short stories. Kathleen Whelan lives in her own, strangely slanted world – much like the rest of us. The difference is, she knows how to open the door to her world, even if only a crack, and invite you to peek in. If you’re brave enough, you might actually enter. But don’t enter if you’re looking for some kind of redemption. Do it with an open mind and you’ll encounter a fear that borders on elation and that will tear you open and make you cry, either with sorrow, or with joy, and often with both simultaneously.Kathleen’s sentences are ragged at the edges, like strips of cloth flapping in the wind, they twine together, then shiver apart, suggesting a chaos that never quite materializes, but also never ceases to threaten the narrative.I read a lot of these stories years ago and was awestruck and mystified by Kathleen’s way. I didn’t know exactly how she did it, but I wanted more… and she was kind enough to share more with me. Reading these stories again now, I am still mystified. Kathleen reminds me that it is still possible for me to be lost. It’s okay to be lost. Lost is a valid, and often wondrous place to be.Ken Sparlingis the author of six novels,has been shortlisted for the Trillium Award.
byzantine proceeds through shallow breaths and heavy swells. Individual poems change their tenor, their voice, their perspective, and their concerns even as the collection builds a continuity of experiences and reflections on various contexts, historical and contemporary, and perspectives or voices. The collection oversees at least three generations: poet, father, grandfather. It moves from Canada to Cyprus. It heaves through academic prose and notes and it flits through soft reflections. This book is Greek and English. Historical and modern. Coy, sad, and ideological. The collection merits reading from front to back. It is something like a novel, deconstructed with respect to character, setting, and plot. Yet the title reveals a great deal about its content. Byzantium is an enigma, as characterized popularly, when it is regarded at all. Put simply, it was the continuation of the Roman Empire post its move to Constantinople from Rome and post its Christianization in the fourth century. Intricate court life. Mystical hierarchies and structures. Decline and fall. Byzantium is a space remember largely through negative connotation in the western world and through mythologizing and memory in the eastern world. Byzantium is a space of historical lore, spiritual exercise and patience, and intellectual efflorescence. The poet standing at his window could very well be overlooking the Bosphorus in contemporary Istanbul. He looks at the world around him, the world past, and the world he could only imagine through stories, and weaves his tale accordingly.
Rosemary Aswani's book, Rain Dance, tells the story of a young girl in Kenya and her perceptions of and relationship with the rain - its moods, its sounds, its rhythmic nature. Through the eyes of a child, we see how the music of the rain can be both comforting and joyful. Colourful, woodcut illustrations by talented artist, Elizabeth Webb complete this fine work. With vocabulary suitable for an older child, this delightful little book is sure to please. Richard Patz, Teacher Rain Dance is a beautifully illustrated fireside story from Kenya. A realistic thunderstorm experience for the reader! Suggestions for classroom use/Curriculum: 'Literacy' - Reading Comprehension Strategy of 'Visualizing' (descriptions paint a picture for the reader) - 'Character Builds' trait: Courage (overcoming fears, bravery) 'The Arts' - Music: creating a soundscape of the thunderstorm - Drama: creating tableaux of 4-5 key events in the story - Dance: movements to represent various parts in the story...Create a 'Rain Dance' Social Studies - Study storytelling traditions from around the world (discuss storytelling similarities to folktales and fairy tales in Canada) - Rewrite a story you remember hearing from your childhood (especially at Hess as most students come from different countries/cultures) Recommended Grade Levels: This book would be fantastic for Grade 2, especially because Grade 2 studies 'Traditions Around the World' (storytelling). However, it would be appropriate for all Primary grades (K-3). Amy Onat, Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, Hess Street School, Grade 2
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