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Showing 7841–7856 of 9481 results

  • The Murders That Made Us

    The Murders That Made Us

    $24.95

    The 170-year history of the San Francisco Bay Area told through its crimes and how they intertwine with the city’s art, music, and politics

    In The Murders That Made Us, the story of the San Francisco Bay Area unfolds through its most violent and depraved acts. From its earliest days when vigilantes hung perps from downtown buildings to the Zodiac Killer and the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, murder and mayhem have shaped the city into the political and economic force that she is today.

    The Great 1906 Earthquake shook a city that was already teetering on the brink of a massive prostitution scandal. The Summer of Love ended with a pair of ghastly drug dealer slayings that sent Charles Manson packing for Los Angeles. The 1970s come crashing down with the double tragedy of Jonestown and the assassination of Gay icon Harvey Milk by an ex-cop. And the 21st Century rise of California Governor Gavin Newsom, Trump insider Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Vice President Kamala Harris is told through a brutal dog-mauling case and the absurdity called Fajitagate. It’s a 170-year saga of madness, corruption, and death revealed here one crime at a time.

  • The Muse Sings

    The Muse Sings

    $24.95

    The Muse Sings and the poet sings songs of love and longing from states of joy, self-doubt, vexation, curiosity, affection, observation, mock-indignation…

    The poems speak for themselves and sometimes “they talk all at once.” In seductive acts of language itself, they invoke and embrace the Muses as much as they do the writers who would become muses, from ancient Homer and Shakespeare to poets of contemporary time.

    These poems are the seasoned work of a trickster poet in his prime with a crow’s eye trained on the world. No silent words on the page, these: they are alert, thoughtful, at turns cheeky and saucy. The poems all but produce decibels despite the inked imprint on the page that would fix them silent in place, until a living voice sets them free.

  • The Muse Sings

    The Muse Sings

    $18.99

    The Muse Sings and the poet sings songs of love and longing from states of joy, self-doubt, vexation, curiosity, affection, observation, mock-indignation…

    The poems speak for themselves and sometimes “they talk all at once.” In seductive acts of language itself, they invoke and embrace the Muses as much as they do the writers who would become muses, from ancient Homer and Shakespeare to poets of contemporary time.

    These poems are the seasoned work of a trickster poet in his prime with a crow’s eye trained on the world. No silent words on the page, these: they are alert, thoughtful, at turns cheeky and saucy. The poems all but produce decibels despite the inked imprint on the page that would fix them silent in place, until a living voice sets them free.

  • The Museum at the End of the World

    The Museum at the End of the World

    $19.95

    In this, his first book of fiction since Adult Entertainment, a New York Times Notable Book of 1990, legendary Canadian writer and editor John Metcalf is back—in full comic force—with a linked collection of stories and novellas. Set in Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, and Ottawa, these tales span the life of writer Robert Forde and his wife Sheila. Playing with various forms of comedy throughout, Metcalf paints a portrait of 20th century literary life with levity, satire, and unsuspecting moments of emotional depth. Destined to be heralded as one of the most important books of the year, The Museum at the End of the World secures Metcalf’s position among Canada’s greatest literary figures.

  • The Museum of Possibilities

    The Museum of Possibilities

    $19.95

    Barbara Sibbald’s The Museum of Possibilities presents sixteen shadow-box narratives-short, concentrated scenes depicting complicated relationships, strong emotions and hard consequences.

  • The Music

    The Music

    $12.00

    The Music is an integrated collection of poems written over a six-year period. The music Norris charts is “the music of everyday life,” of Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday, of sex and jazz, of poetry and baseball. An exciting collection by a writer who has been called “one of the best poets of his generation” (Matrix).

  • The Mystery of Maddy Heisler

    The Mystery of Maddy Heisler

    $16.95

    As a young man in the midst of World War II, Jacob fell in love with an older woman and began a rapturous affair, until she seemingly vanished. As strange things start to happen around him, a familiar young woman appears at Jacob’s house with a mysterious notebook. The past doesn’t stay buried and the mystery of Maddy Heisler is reveled. With secrets and lies, lovers and spies, Jacob will never be the same again.

  • The Mystery of the Frozen Brains

    The Mystery of the Frozen Brains

    $10.95

    The Mystery of the Frozen Brains is adapted from Marty Chan’s successful radio series The Dim Sum Diaries. Set in a French Canadian town in rural Alberta, the novel develops the coming to awareness of a Chinese boy in a community under the myriad of ethnic influences including French, English and Ukrainian. As serious as the novel’s thematic dispatch is, Chan’s buoyant, gifted humour overrides the tone.

  • The Mystery of the Portuguese Waltzes

    The Mystery of the Portuguese Waltzes

    $12.95

    Tamara is struggling to find the confidence to play her accordion in front of an audience. She learns the tunes well enough, and can play them when she’s alone?but as soon as she tries to perform for others, everything falls apart.

    One day her father encourages her to try playing for an elderly man in the seniors’ home where her grandmother lives. This man is Art Stoyles, a legendary accordion player in her hometown of St. John’s, who is best known for a beautiful set of tunes called “The Portuguese Waltzes.” Inspired by Stoyles, and by the stories of his musical friendship years before with a sea captain who fished the Grand Banks with the Portuguese White Fleet, Tamara gains the confidence she needs to perform.

    This charming middle reader celebrates the interconnections that music creates?forging bonds between young and old, reaching across cultures and oceans?and the mysterious hold that music can have on listeners and musicians alike. The story also highlights the deep connections that developed between Portugal and Newfoundland because of the cod fishery.

    Part of a larger, on-going project, The Mystery of the Portuguese Waltzes grows out of author and musician Richard Simas’s fascination with the tunes Tamara learns; they are among the most beautiful and unique tunes that have come out of Newfoundland and Labrador, and their creation is the stuff of local legend.

    Art Stoyles, a much loved figure in the traditional music community in Newfoundland, was a member of many local musical groups, including the ground-breaking trad/rock band Figgy Duff. In 2005, he received the East Coast Music Association’s Stompin’ Tom Connors Award for his contributions to Atlantic Canadian music. He died in 2015 after a musical career that spanned almost six decades.

    The book features several colourful linocut illustrations by St. John’s-based printmaker and musician Caroline Clarke, whose lively and engaging artwork often explores traditional Newfoundland music.

  • The Mystery Shopping Cart:

    The Mystery Shopping Cart:

    $19.95

    A collection of essays, reviews, personal reflections and interviews that offer a welcoming and insightful tour of contemporary Canadian poetry, as well as cultural studies on topics ranging from clothespins to eulogies. Anita Lahey, former editor of Arc Poetry Magazine, Canada?s most distinguished and lively poetry journal, brings together here her thought-provoking Arc essays with appreciations and reviews of a who?s who of Canadian women poets, including the exquisite (and rebellious!) formalist Diana Brebner, ?miniaturist? M. Travis Lane, grand dame P.K. Page, the long-neglected Dorothy Roberts, and Gwendolyn MacEwen, whose dramatic life and death unfortunately persist in overshadowing the legacy of her work. She writes on her Polish-immigrant grandmother and on growing up as the daughter of a cash register repairman, and engages in probing discussions with eminent Canadian authors Stephanie Bolster, John Barton, Joan Thomas and Alice Munro.

  • The Namasté Way

    The Namasté Way

    $24.95

    The Namasté Way is a collection of short stories written in journal form. Three of the stories reach into the hearts of grieving mothers and expose the darkest places a woman can go when faced with the unthinkable loss of her child. The author takes readers on a rollercoaster ride of emotion as the women gradually make their way out of their grieving and into a place of refuge; a place without blame or regret, where they and their families find a livable peace and they can again feel their soul connection to their lost children. Three other stories explore the heartache that comes with the breakup of a relationship, and the final three explore surrendering to cancer, caring for aging parents, and losing a best friend to suicide.

    Healing is a journey that is different for everyone. The Namasté Way shows by example characters honouring the light, peace, and truth in oneself where the whole universe resides.

  • The Name I Call Myself

    The Name I Call Myself

    $19.95

    A sweet and moving picture book depicting Ari’s gender journey from childhood to adolescence in order to discover who they really are.

    Meet Ari, a young person who doesn’t like to be called by their birth name Edward: “When I think of the name Edward, I imagine old kings who snore a lot.” Throughout this beautiful and engaging picture book, we watch Ari grow up before our very eyes as they navigate the ins and outs of their gender identity; we see how, as a child, they prefer dolls and princess movies, and want to grow out their hair, though their father insists on cutting it short, “because that’s what boys look like.” At nine, they play hockey but wish they could try on their mother’s dresses; at fifteen, they shave their face, hoping to have smooth skin like the girls. At sixteen, they want to run away, especially from their father, who insists, “You’re a boy, so you have to act like one.” Who will Ari become?

    Moving from age six to adolescence, The Name I Call Myself touchingly depicts Edward’s tender, solitary gender journey to Ari: a new life distinguished and made meaningful by self-acceptance and unconditional love.

  • The Narrow Cabinet

    The Narrow Cabinet

    $20.00

    From old school dispensation to Zombie apocalypse: on change, loss and rapid transformations.

    The Narrow Cabinet is a book about change, loss and the struggle to understand what the hell is going on in a world experiencing such rapid transformations. The movement is from (a) an old dispensation of tough minded, rugged living and surviving troubled times through (b) a narcissistic sinkhole of complacency leading ultimately to (c) a zombie apocalypse. That is the general trajectory, but the work itself complicates the tropes. The old dispensation is by no means a paradise, nor is it dealt with nostalgically. The seeds of all the trouble are there from the start. But there is something admirable in the strength and fearless grit we find during that phase. In the sinkhole phase, the voice flits between depressive angst and lunatic outrage as oppressive forces exert ever more stubborn pressure. Here the speaker begins seeking the cause of the trouble that worsens until ultimately manifesting as zombie culture. With the outbreak of the zombie apocalypse, the terms of the illness become apparent.

  • The Narrows of Fear (Wapawikoscikanik)

    The Narrows of Fear (Wapawikoscikanik)

    $22.95

    Finalist for the 2021 Rasmussen & Co. Indigenous Peoples’ Writing Award

    The Narrows of Fear (Wapawikoscikanik) weaves the stories of a group of women committed to helping one another. Despite abuse experienced by some, both in their own community and in residential schools, these women learn to celebrate their culture, its stories, its dancing, its drums, and its elders. Principal of these elders is Nina, the advisor at the women’s shelter. With the help of Sandy and Charlene, Nina uses Indigenous practices to heal the traumatized Mary Ann. This is a powerful novel&151;sometimes brutally violent, sometimes healing, sometimes mythical, and always deeply respectful of the Indigenous culture at its heart.

  • The Native Voice

    The Native Voice

    $24.95

    In 1945, Alfred Adams, a respected Haida elder and founding president of the Native Brotherhood of British Columbia (NBBC), was dying of cancer. After decades of fighting to increase the rights and recognition of First Nations people, he implored Maisie Hurley to help his people by telling others about their struggle. Hurley took his request to both heart and mind, and with $150 of her own money, started a small newspaper that would become a powerful catalyst for change: The Native Voice.

    At that time, the Welsh-born Hurley had been an advocate for First Nations clients in court. She did not have a law degree, but was graced with the courage and confidence to challenge all who stood in her way. When defending a First Nations woman accused of stealing a hotel clerk’s wallet, she seared the hapless plaintiff with such a withering cross examination that his off-colour rejoinder earned him a night in jail for contempt after he refused to pay the fine.

    After Hurley launched The Native Voice, it became the official newspaper of the NBBC, one of the largest democratic First Nations organizations in the country, but she continued to serve on the editorial board as publisher and director for many years without remuneration. At a time when telecommunication was expensive and often inaccessible in Aboriginal communities, The Native Voice reported relevant news and stories of everyday life to First Nations throughout the province, including hard-won rights such as the right to vote provincially (1949) and federally (1960). As the official publication of the NBBC, the Voice chronicled both the realities of Aboriginal life and a vision for the future, enabling and inspiring overdue change in Canada.

    Maisie Hurley’s dedication to improving the lives of those she referred to as “my people” was honoured through several First Nations naming ceremonies by people of the Skeena, Squamish/North Vancouver and Comox areas. The story of the NBBC, The Native Voice and Maisie Hurley offer an inspiring testament to the power of cooperation and vision to create powerful change.

  • The Natural History

    The Natural History

    $16.95

    Christopher Dewdney has been working on the The Natural History for two decades. He describes it as a book about high summer, though according to his natural history the fingers of summer reach in both directions of time: as early as March and as late as November. This is a sensual book, in love not only with foliage and creatures, weather and landscape, but also with the textures of language, the rhythm of English itself; not just Anglo Saxon and Germanic, but also its southern Latin heritage blowing like a scientific sirocco up from the Mediterranean. A compendium of particulars written from the inside of its subject, The Natural History evokes the timeless moment of perception itself. And while it is set in the present, the whole geological past of the planet is represented, so that an event occurring on a summer day in current time will be juxtaposed with an event occurring during the Silurian epoch, some 440 million years ago. Revised, augmented, and presented in its entirety for the first time here, The Natural History is one of the most beautiful and erotic bodies of work this country has to offer. As Stan Dragland has commented: “The New-Old World of this long poem… is sensuously and conceptually so immediate that orgasm and epiphany are one in it. This is writing, and reading, as immersion.”

    “There is no one else in this country… who has so persuasively chipped away at a rock face to reveal the poetry striated just beneath the surface.… These intelligent, uncompromising sensual poems are not for the rapid reader, but anyone who lingers with them a while will be amply repaid.”
    Quill & Quire