On Family, Hockey and Healing
Regular price $21.00The inspiring story of an ordinary man who, from humble beginnings and against the odds of a devastating illness, has led—is leading—an extraordinary life.
To many people, Walter Gretzky is the ultimate dad, the father of the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, and the first inspired coach to a talented young boy. Walter’s major insight into hockey—that a player should “go where the puck is going”—guided Wayne’s brilliant style, and Wayne himself has said about his talent: “It’s God-given. It’s Wally-given.” It's safe to say that no other famous hockey player’s father is held in such high esteem, and that Walter Gretzky has carved out this singular niche in his own right.
Now, for the first time, Walter tells at length the story of his life, about growing up on a small family farm, about meeting and marrying Phyllis, about raising four boys and a girl in a modest home in Brantford on the salary of a telephone repairman, about hanging onto his modesty and values when the comet of talent and celebrity hit.
Walter also talks about the process of recovering from a stroke that came close to killing him ten years ago. Through his own grit and determination, and with the help of dedicated therapists and doctors, his family and friends, Walter battled back from an aneurysm that left him with many cognitive difficulties and destroyed a decade of memories—including his recollection of the death of his mother and almost all of Wayne’s NHL triumphs of the eighties.
As many of the people who have encountered Walter even briefly will testify, he is very charismatic, and it’s his extraordinary compassion, which has flourished since his stroke, that makes him so compelling. Yes, he struggles with some limitations, but he has also discovered a calling in helping others. All of his many public speaking engagements are for charity, and this book would not exist were it not for Walter’s role as the official spokesperson for Canada’s Heart and Stroke Foundation. The only way he would ever agree to talk about himself at such length was in the hope that his experience with stroke would be useful to other people. “Every second of every day is important to me,” he writes, “and I only hope that if telling my story can help even one person, then all of this will be worth it. And remember, there is life after stroke…look at me!”
You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance
Regular price $23.99NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From beloved astrologer Chani Nicholas comes an essential guide for radical self-acceptance.
Your weekly horoscope is merely one crumb of astrology’s cake. In her first book You Were Born For This, Chani shows how your birth chart—a snapshot of the sky at the moment you took your first breath—reveals your unique talents, challenges, and opportunities. Fortified with this knowledge, you can live out the life you were born to. Marrying the historic traditions of astrology with a modern approach, You Were Born for This explains the key components of your birth chart in an easy to use, choose your own adventure style. With journal prompts, reflection questions, and affirmations personal to your astrological makeup, this book guides you along the path your chart has laid out for you.
Chani makes the wisdom of your birth chart accessible with three foundational keys:
Astrology is not therapy, but it is therapeutic. In a world in which we are taught to look outside of ourselves for validation, You Were Born for This brings us inward to commit to ourselves and our life’s purpose.
Invisible Boy
Regular price $24.99A narrative that amplifies a voice rarely heard—that of the child at the centre of a transracial adoption—and a searing account of being raised by religious fundamentalists
Harrison Mooney was born to a West African mother and adopted as an infant by a white evangelical family. Growing up as a Black child, Harry’s racial identity is mocked and derided, while at the same time he is made to participate in the fervour of his family’s revivalist church. Confused and crushed by fundamentalist dogma and consistently abused for his colour, Harry must transition from child to young adult while navigating and surviving zealotry, paranoia and prejudice.
After years of internalized anti-Blackness, Harry begins to redefine his terms and reconsider his history. His journey from white cult to Black consciousness culminates in a moving reunion with his biological mother, who waited twenty-five years for the chance to tell her son the truth: she wanted to keep him.
This powerful memoir considers the controversial practice of transracial adoption from the perspective of families that are torn apart and children who are stripped of their culture, all in order to fill evangelical communities’ demand for babies. Throughout this most timely tale of race, religion and displacement, Harrison Mooney’s wry, evocative prose renders his deeply personal tale of identity accessible and light, giving us a Black coming-of-age narrative set in a world with little love for Black children.
A Dance of Self-Isolation
Regular price $18.95In this collection, Windsor’s Poet Laureate Emeritus Marty Gervais, Poet Laureate Mary Ann Mulhern, Youth Poet Laureate Samantha Badaoa, and Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens reflect and respond to the COVID-19 global pandemic through poetry. The poems included capture the impact of the pandemic, as well as the hopes, dreams, challenges, triumphs and fears of an entire community navigating lockdown and recovery in truly unprecedented times.
Suck & Spit
Regular price $18.95An ancestry enthusiast,Laurie Smith has traced her roots to Emperor Charlemagne, as well as Lady Godiva, which explains her hair and love for horses. This collection of poetry is based on this exploration, yet another spinoff of her interest in Darwin and his influence.
Thicket
Regular price $18.95Melanie Janisse-Barlow’s second book of poetry, Thicket, is a treatise on risk and the uncertainties of language in the modern world. In poems that gather and collect force page after page, Thicket negotiates humankind’s overwhelming desire to communicate, and the discomfort that comes with the process of entanglement/disentanglement. When Janisse-Barlow writes of a “thousand awkward conversations,” she’s working away at the knots of language, unraveling and recombining the threads to create self-styled lyric essays. Thicket is a linguistic tour de force.
Praise for Thicket
In a sense the gorgeous mutant child of Jenny Holzer and Ken Babstock, given its power-blocks, loaded with neologisms and linguistic triple-axels, yet wholly hers—Janisse-Barlow’s Thicket is a thrillingly original and word-perfect satellite containing masses of tight images—immaculate goosenecks, glitter, snails, stone lions and dogshit—it is a colony of rage, rescue, love and humbling grace.—Lynn Crosbie
Thicket is a masterful book. Stories, images, dreams, ideas and elements of dailiness weave through and nestle within Janisse-Barlow’s gorgeous, and absorbing, stanzas. I read and re-read these poems, finding something new each time. As poet herself observes: “Pass us over and we can slip back and forth unannounced.”—Lynn Crawford
Ceaseless Rain
Regular price $18.95Ceaseless Rain is a meditation on grief. It is a carnival ride where the floor drops out, it is a ghost apple, it is the bones left in the birdbath by crows. This is where the redemptive power of rain streams down in an eclectic mix of images, revealing the daily routines of a hospice residential home. Written in both free verse and halibun, the poems combine to create an intimate portrait of love and humour at the end-of life journey. This is a collection to hold close to the heart.
Thimbles
Regular price $18.95
In this heart-wrenching collection, Vanessa Shields chronicles the life of her Nonna, Maria, from her origins as a seamstress in Italy to her eventual death from dementia. These raw, prosaic poems thread together grief, memory, loss, and love into a conversation that speaks across pages, years, and oceans. Shields bravely interrogates her own feelings of guilt, grief, and curiosity with unflinching precision. As she attempts to navigate and accept Nonna’s decline, Shields takes on the role of witness as she excavates the larger narrative that is her Nonna’s legacy. Thimbles is a courageous celebration of the transformative power of love across generations.
Praise for Thimbles
Shields has an ear for the ocean, the fugitive word, insect symphonies and the luscious unsaid. Thimbles is a beautiful blaze of a book, a paean to generations of gently brave women, but, most of all, an unforgettable tribute to the gospel of Nonna.—Kyo Maclear
The Missing Person
Regular price $17.00Swing Low: A Life
Regular price $21.00________________
Miriam Toews is the author of seven bestselling novels: Women Talking, All My Puny Sorrows, Summer of My Amazing Luck, A Boy of Good Breeding, A Complicated Kindness, The Flying Troutmans, and Irma Voth, and one work of non-fiction, Swing Low: A Life. She is a winner of the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, the Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Writers Trust Marian Engel/Timothy Findley Award. She lives in Toronto.
We Were Dreamers
Regular price $34.99Marvel’s newest recruit shares his own inspiring and unexpected origin story, ranging from China to the bright lights of Hollywood. An immigrant who battled everything from parental expectations to cultural stereotypes, Simu Liu struggled to forge a path for himself, rising from the ashes of a failed accounting career (yes, you read that right) to become Shang-Chi.
Our story begins in the city of Harbin, where Simu’s parents have left him with his grandparents while they seek to build a future in Canada. One day, a mysterious stranger shows up; it’s Simu’s father, who whisks him away from the only home he has ever known to the land of opportunity and maple syrup.
Life in the new world, however, is not all that it was cracked up to be. Simu’s new guardians lack the gentle touch of his grandparents, resulting in harsh words and hurt feelings. His parents, on the other hand, find their new son emotionally distant and difficult to relate to. Although they are related by blood, they are separated by culture, language and values.
As Simu grows up, he plays the part of the ideal son well, getting A’s at school, crushing national math competitions and making his parents proud. But as time goes on, he grows increasingly disillusioned with the expectations placed on his shoulders, and finds it harder and harder to keep up the charade. Barely a year out of college, he hits rock bottom when he is laid off from his first job as an accountant. Unemployed, riddled with shame and with nothing left to lose, Simu sees an ad on Craigslist that will send him on a wildly unexpected journey into the mysterious world of show business. Through a swath of rejections and comical mishaps, Simu’s determination leads him to succeed as an actor and to open the door to reconciling with his parents.
We Were Dreamers is more than a celebrity memoir—it’s a story about growing up between cultures, finding your family and becoming the master of your own extraordinary circumstances.
“A sincere, funny, and fascinating love letter to family, and a guidebook to pursuing your dreams.” — Olivia Munn
“Don’t let Simu Liu fool you. On the outside you may see boyish good looks, talent, and a body made of tightly coiled muscle. But on the inside? It’s quite good-looking in there, too. Strong heart, beautiful ligaments, and a soul made of spun sugar. Also, he wrote this hilarious and heartfelt story about growing up, finding yourself, and seizing your moment.” — Ryan Reynolds
“Oh great, another underdog story of overachievement. Just what we needed.” — Ronny Chieng
"In this triumphant debut, Liu, star of Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, traces how he followed his immigrant dream' all the way to the big screen. . . .The book’s beating heart, however, lies in the affecting story of his family’s path to healing: 'My parents are beaming with pride at the son who has disobeyed practically every single order they had ever given.' This real-life hero’s journey is a knockout." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Like your favourite superhero, within the first few pages, this book made me feel like I could do anything.” — Shifter Magazine
“[We Were Dreamers] is an excellent celebrity memoir that takes readers beyond the velvet rope and into the life of one of Canada’s most beloved stars. Simu’s story gives readers a chance to know a different side of him as he creates a compelling narrative of his life in words.” — The Daily Hive
The Boy in Number Four
Regular price $21.99“The Boy in Number Four had a passion and a dream … to one day be a player on a big league hockey team.” It takes hard work and dedication to make it to the big league, but those aren’t the only things that are important. Respect, determination and the sheer thrill of the game brought Bobby Orr from a small northern town in Canada to one of the best teams in the NHL. Using Bobby Orr and his journey as a model, The Boy in Number Four celebrates the game of hockey—from backyard rinks to the big leagues. A book for hockey enthusiasts of all ages!
Tahira in Bloom
Regular price $13.99Life is full of surprises in a winning novel about a girl dreaming big during one unexpected small-town summer.
When seventeen-year-old aspiring designer Tahira Janmohammad’s coveted fashion internship falls through, her parents have a Plan B. Tahira will work in her aunt’s boutique in the small town of Bakewell, the flower capital of Ontario. It’s only for the summer, and she’ll get the experience she needs for her college application. Plus her best friend is coming along. It won’t be that bad.
But she just can’t deal with Rowan Johnston, the rude, totally obsessive garden-nerd next door with frayed cutoffs and terrible shoes. Not to mention his sharp jawline, smoldering eyes, and soft lips. So irritating. Rowan is also just the plant-boy Tahira needs to help win the Bakewell flower-arranging contest—an event that carries clout in New York City, of all places. And with designers, of all people. Connections that she needs!
No one is more surprised than Tahira to learn that floral design is almost as great as fashion design. And Rowan? Turns out he’s more than ironic shirts and soil under the fingernails. Tahira’s about to find out what she’s really made of—and made for. Because here in the middle of nowhere, Tahira is just beginning to bloom.
About the author, Farah Heron:
After a childhood filled with Bollywood, Monty Python, and Jane Austen, Farah Heron constantly wove uplifting happily ever afters in her head while pursuing careers in human resources and psychology. She started writing her stories down a few years ago and is thrilled to see her daydreams become books. The author of Accidentally Engaged and The Chai Factor, Farah writes romantic comedies for adults and teens full of huge South Asian families, delectable food, and most importantly, brown people falling stupidly in love. Farah lives in Toronto with her husband and two teens, a rabbit named Strawberry, and two cats who rule the house. She has way too many hobbies, but her thumb is more brown than green. For more information visit www.farahheron.com.
The Marrow Thieves
Regular price $16.95Winner of the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award (Young People's Literature - Text)
Winner of the 2017 Kirkus Prize
Winner of the 2018 Sunburst Award
Winner of the 2018 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award
Winner of the 2018 Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Young Adult Literature
Just when you think you have nothing left to lose, they come for your dreams.
Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The Indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden - but what they don't know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.
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Cherie Dimaline is a Métis author and editor whose award-winning fiction has been published and anthologized internationally. Her first book, Red Rooms, was published in 2007 and her novel The Girl Who Grew a Galaxy was released in 2013. In 2014, she was named the Emerging Artist of the Year at the Ontario Premier''s Award for Excellence in the Arts, and became the first Aboriginal Writer in Residence for the Toronto Public Library. Her book A Gentle Habit was published in August 2016. The Marrow Thieves has won the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Kirkus Prize; it is a finalist for the White Pine Award, was named to the Globe and Mail Top 100 and was selected for CBC’s Canada Reads
Jonny Appleseed
Regular price $19.952021 CANADA READS WINNER
WINNER, Lambda Literary Award; Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction
Finalist, Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction; Amazon Canada First Novel Award; Indigenous Voices Award; Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award; Firecracker Award for Fiction
Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize
A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year
A tour-de-force debut novel about a Two-Spirit Indigiqueer young man and proud NDN glitter princess who must reckon with his past when he returns home to his reserve.
"You're gonna need a rock and a whole lotta medicine" is a mantra that Jonny Appleseed, a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer, repeats to himself in this vivid and utterly compelling debut novel by poet Joshua Whitehead.
Off the reserve and trying to find ways to live and love in the big city, Jonny becomes a cybersex worker who fetishizes himself in order to make a living. Self-ordained as an NDN glitter princess, Jonny has one week before he must return to the "rez"--and his former life--to attend the funeral of his stepfather. The seven days that follow are like a fevered dream: stories of love, trauma, sex, kinship, ambition, and the heartbreaking recollection of his beloved kokum (grandmother). Jonny's life is a series of breakages, appendages, and linkages--and as he goes through the motions of preparing to return home, he learns how to put together the pieces of his life.
Jonny Appleseed is a unique, shattering vision of First Nations life, full of grit, glitter, and dreams.
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Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree/nehiyaw, Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is the author of the novel Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018), longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the poetry collection full-metal indigiqueer (Talonbooks, 2017) and the winner of the Governor General's History Award for the Indigenous Arts and Stories Challenge in 2016. He is also the editor of Love after the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020). Currently he is working on a PhD in Indigenous Literatures and Cultures in the University of Calgary's English department (Treaty 7).
Dual Citizens
Regular price $22.95From Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Alix Ohlin comes an intimate and compelling novel of motherhood, love, a search for belonging, and what it means to be a sister.
All her life, Lark Brossard felt invisible, overshadowed by the people around her: first by her temperamental mother; then by her sister, Robin, a brilliant pianist as wild as the animals she loves; and finally by Lawrence Wheelock, a filmmaker who is both Lark’s employer and her occasional lover. When Wheelock denies her what she longs for most — a child — Lark is forced to re-examine a life marked by unrealized ambitions and thwarted desires. As she takes charge of her destiny, Lark comes to rely on Robin in ways she never could have imagined.
In this meditation on motherhood, sisterhood, desire, and self-knowledge, Alix Ohlin traces the rich and complex path towards fulfillment as an artist and as a human being.
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ALIX OHLIN is the author of six books, including the novels Inside and Dual Citizens, which were both finalists for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, Best American Short Stories, and many other publications. Born and raised in Montreal, she lives in Vancouver, where she chairs the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia.
Arlo & Pips #3: New Kids In The Flock
Regular price $9.99In the grand finale of Elise Gravel's graphic chapter book series that Kirkus called "a charming treasure," Arlo the crow is going to be a dad! The third book in this quirky series from acclaimed author Elise Gravel is perfect for fans of Narwhal and Jelly and Castronauts.
Parenting is tough—even for a genius like Arlo—but luckily he isn’t alone: his partner Marla and Uncle Pips are there to help! From building a new nest and taking care of Marla while she incubates the eggs to teaching the chicks everything they need to know, Arlo has his wings full. Join Arlo, Pips, Marla, and the new chicks as they explore this next big chapter in their lives.
Snappy dialogue paired with a limited color scheme that's perfect for newly independent readers, this final story has tons of amazing "kid-pleasing" bird facts.
More praise for Arlo & Pips #1: King of the Crows: A New York Public Library Best Book * A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best * A Junior Library Guild Selection * "An unexpected friendship story! In three short graphic chapters marked by [Gravel’s] signature sly humor, facts about crows are sprinkled throughout, making the reader believe that maybe crows are truly as amazing as Arlo says.” —The Horn Book (starred review)
Arlo & Pips #2: Join the Crow Crowd!
Regular price $9.99Everyone's crowing about Arlo & Pips, with Kirkus praising book 1 as "a perfect match for newly independent readers"!
Arlo is lonely and is looking for more friends in the city. This second book in the quirky graphic chapter book series from acclaimed author Elise Gravel is perfect for fans of Narwhal and Jelly and Castronauts.
Crows are very social birds, and even with Pips as company, Arlo misses hanging out with other crows. One day, he and his pal Pips meet a very special crow who knows how to do all kinds of cool stuff. Despite being super-smart himself, Arlo realizes that he might still have things to learn!
Has Arlo finally met his match? Elise Gravel presents a sequel full of her signature witty humor and more fascinating crow facts.
More praise for Arlo & Pips #1: King of the Crows: A New York Public Library Best Book * A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best * A Junior Library Guild Selection * "An unexpected friendship story! In three short graphic chapters marked by [Gravel’s] signature sly humor, facts about crows are sprinkled throughout, making the reader believe that maybe crows are truly as amazing as Arlo says.” —The Horn Book (starred review)
