Books

Megabat wants to help his Daniel earn some money. But how? Easy! Become a STAR. The fifth laugh-out-loud book in this sweet and funny chapter book series featuring a talking bat, now available in paperback.

Daniel's allowance is not going to cover the cost to fix his dad's phone screen, which he and Megabat broke. And he is out of ideas. Megabat has a GREAT idea: become famous! Famous people have lots of money.

Daniel is also grounded, and being stuck inside is pretty boring. Megabat has no time to spend with bored Daniel, he's too busy learning the skill that will make him famous and rich.

Daniel really doesn't like Megabat's new catchphrase, or his fancy new hairdo. Megabat will show him!

When Megabat takes things too far and ruins Daniel's mom's dinner party with his "magic show," chaos ensues . . . and Daniel is not too happy. And Megabat learns there are some things that are more important than fame and riches. Kris Easler's adorable illustrations paired with Anna Humphrey's hilarious text make for another unforgettable Megabat adventure, one that will appeal to Megabat fans and newcomers!

Aria Ramdeen is learning to love herself — and her favourite foods — again. No guilt, no toxic boyfriend. Full of newfound confidence, she subscribes to LoveinTO, a Toronto-based dating website, where she’s matched with a crush she’s had for years: the attractive light-haired man who lives in her building. Aria messages him on the app, but there’s no response, leaving her quite embarrassed.

Rob Anderson, who’s recently divorced, secretly admires Aria. He just lacks the confidence to approach her. And since he’s let his LoveinTO sub­scription lapse, he doesn’t see Aria’s message. Suddenly, Aria seems guard­ed when they run into one another, and the pair endure months of long, awkward silences together in the elevator. Until one day, Rob decides to give the app another chance and subscribes again.

A fresh and entertaining modern story of two people from different back­grounds who find each other despite the pitfalls of dating technology, opin­ions from friends and family, and their own personal trauma. The Elevator will leave readers feeling hopeful about love, food and life in a big city.

Praise for The Elevator

Aria and Rob share a look and an attraction, but their lives are complicated, and connection doesn’t come easy. The world doesn’t pause for a look, though they-and we-wish it would. The Elevator is a warm, thoughtful, realistic novel of all the things that hold us back from love, from trauma and tough parents to bad timing, but also the kind friends, humour, and hamburgers that sustain us in the search for a partner. Love comes for Rob and Aria the way it does for most of us-in the middle of everything else.— Rebecca Rosenblum, These Days are Numbered, So Much Love

In The Elevator, Ramsingh crafts a poignant portrayal of the weariness of the modern dating world, steeped with missed opportunities, misguided intimacy, and a complex relationship with food. Brimming with vivid sensory details, Ramsingh centers a cast of characters both earnest and vulnerable in this engaging, compulsively readable story.—Deepa Rajagopalan, Peacocks of Instagram

Priya Ramsingh’s superpower as a novelist is the ability to create authentic and empathetic characters. She did it with Brown Girl in the Room and now with The Elevator. I found myself rooting for Aria and Rob. I cringed as they tried to navigate the world of dating apps, agonized over bad dates and self doubt and then I eagerly awaited the next chance encounter. — Scott Colby, best-selling author and opinion page editor at the Toronto Star

“Truthfully I can only tell you what’s missing” writes the heartbroken protagonist at the beginning of Victoria Mbabazi’s The Siren in the Twelfth House. But this isn’t a book that succumbs to grief. Mbabazi’s poems are siren songs, reclaiming love from pain, and rediscovering joy through the destruction and eventual rebuilding of astrological houses. Prepare to slow dance through this profound and powerful debut.

Praise for The Siren in the Twelfth House:

The Siren in the Twelfth House combines meta-allegory with a strident exploration of the vicissitudes of love and companionship. Its anthropomorphic signs bring the astrological into the quotidian, a logic to randomness of experience, and a symphony from the 12 orchestral sections of the skies. As we trace the transformation of the titular siren, we cannot help but have our own gazes and capacities for orphic interpretation sharpened as well.—Tolu Oloruntoba, The Junta of Happenstance, and Each One a Furnace

With a sweeping grace and theatrical, cinematic flare, Victoria Mbabazi writes us into the delicious tropes and archetypes of astrology—from the signs to the houses to the transits—with the careful, precise eye of a poet. Siren in the Twelfth House is bright with a familiar ancient fascination—what we have with the stars, with the sky and, most of all, with each other.—Sanna Wani, author of My Grief, the Sun

Apples on a Windowsill is a series of meditations on still life, photography, beauty, and marriage. Full of personal reflections, charming anecdotes, and the history behind the art of still lifes, this lyrical memoir takes us from Edmonton to Rome to museums all over North America as Lemay discusses the craft of writing, the ups and downs of being married to a painter, and her focus on living a life in art and in beauty. A must read for fans of The Flower Can Always Be Changing, Everything Affects Everyone, and Rumi and the Red Handbag.

Opening with an exit, the poems in Precedented Parroting accept no assumptions. With the determination and curiosity of a problem-solving crow, this expansive debut plumbs personal archives and traverses the natural world, endeavouring to shake the tight cage of stereotypes, Asian and avian. Praised as “lively and intelligent” and “lyrically delicious,” Barbara Tran’s poetry offers us both the keen eye and grace of a hawk, “red-tailed gliding / on time.”

Praise for Precedented Parroting:

Each poem in Precedented Parroting is a singular, sublime murmuration, their words swooping, shape-shifting, and thrumming with life.—Monique Truong, author of The Book of Salt, Bitter in the Mouth, and The Sweetest Fruits

The rhythms and soundscapes in Precedented Parroting are virtuosic. They make me think of waves or air currents that memory, narrative, relationship, and emotion are set loose on. Feathers are composed of barbs, as loss is, observes Tran in the early pages of this book, one implication being that, like feathers, loss can both enable and necessitate flight. An immensely powerful, clear-eyed account of harm, dislocation, and survival through generations.—River Halen, author of Dream Rooms

Whether in the country or the city creature or insect plant or animal a part of a big family or a small family we all live together and we all take care of one another we all count. Count along with Cree artist Julie Flett. This 20 page book features stunning illustrations alongside translated animal names and numbers. Soy based ink and water based protective coating. Made from paper sourced from sustainable forests.

The OC meets The Unhoneymooners in this shipwreck romcom when the reunited cast of a hit show get stuck on a deserted island with nothing but their complete lack of survival skills, simmering drama, and the sneaking suspicion that someone is up to no good.

Agnes “Ness" Larkin has been out of the spotlight for twenty years since her quick departure from a starring role in a hit teen TV drama. When the show is tapped for a reboot, no one is more surprised than Ness that she signs on to rejoin the cast, leaving behind a normal—if not exactly thrilling—life in Toronto. Also back for round two are Libby, Ness's former best friend and soon to be makeup empire magnate, and Hayes, Ness's one-that-got-away who has risen to A-list fame (and somehow gotten even better looking) in the years she's been gone.

When they set off for filming near the Bahamas, a storm leaves the seven actors and one production assistant stranded on a small island with only an abandoned, derelict mansion to wait out the storm. But when the weather clears and a new day rises—their boat is gone too.

Stuck in a bizarre, crumbling house on an uninhabited island with possibly the most useless survival group in history, Ness and her co-stars are forced to revisit a minefield of past transgressions and come to terms with the adults they've become as they work together to ride out the storm. Or at least pretend to—they are actors, after all.

Interspersed with weather reports, fictional memoir excerpts, a dating profile and Perez-Hilton-esque blog posts, Not How I Pictured It is a rollicking novel of delightful absurdity, pithy dialogue, and no shortage of heart.

Critical Praise

"Devastatingly funny and a delight from the first page. It's smart and it made me laugh out loud over and over. In other words, I adored this book!" — Susan Juby, author of A Meditation on Murder

Not How I Pictured It was full of suspense, adventure, backstabbing old friends, middling survival skills, and best of all, a swoony second chance romance with a sexy movie star. When the entire cast of a decades old TV show gets stranded on a Caribbean Island on route to film their reboot, they have no choice but to mend their relationships and learn to work together to survive. I loved seeing Ness grow as she came to terms with her past… and wrestle with a snake! What an incredibly fun book!   — Farah Heron, Author of Jana Goes Wild and Accidentally Engaged

What if the cast of 90210 unwittingly reunited for a season of Survivor? Not How I Pictured It is fun, funny and full of drama. The perfect beach read from one of my must-read authors! — Chantel Guertin, bestselling author of Two for the Road

“Not How I Pictured It is a zany, rollicking good time with a powerful emotional reckoning at its core. Lefler grapples with fame, growing up, and what we owe the people we love, all the while keeping up the Romancing the Stone-style hijinks.” — Jenny Holiday, author of Canadian Boyfriend and Earls Trip

"Robin Lefler fires up the page with sharp wit, dazzling imagination, and pulse-jumping plot twists! Not How I Pictured It is an epic adventure romcom where top-tier tropes meet a gripping mystery. The end result is a sexy, thrilling, and at turns hilarious modern nod to Gilligan's Island. I could not put this book down." — Courtney Kae, author of In the Event of Love and In the Case of Heartbreak 

"There's no one I'd rather be trapped on a desert island with than Ness Larkin and the rest of the hilariously dysfunctional cast of Not How I Pictured It. Both a nonstop-entertaining survival romp and a heartwarming exploration of second chances, Robin Lefler's sophomore novel is a MUST for your 2024 beach bag." — Nicolas DiDomizio, author of The Gay Best Friend

"Gilligan's Island meets Gossip Girl—this is a rom com that will have you reaching for the popcorn. SO. MUCH. FUN." — Amy T. Matthews, Someone Else's Bucket List

"Lefler’s plotting is pure fun, like a reality show in novel form—especially when it becomes clear that this detour may have been no accident. Romance fans will fall in love with Ness and her insecurities and hate the designated villains (including the last person readers will suspect). This is a pleasure." — Publishers Weekly

Butler-detective Helen Thorpe returns to help a wannabe influencer get her life in order—and solve the murders of her fellow content creators—in this hilarious sequel to Mindful of Murder by bestselling author Susan Juby 

When Buddhist butler Helen Thorpe is loaned out to help Cartier Hightower get her life in order, Helen finds herself working for a young woman entirely unbound by the fetters of good taste or sound judgment. One of Cartier’s fellow content creators has recently died in a strange accident. Soon after Helen arrives, another is killed in an equally bizarre way. Cartier begins to drag Helen around on the influencer circuit, where neither of them is particularly welcome. Then comes the terrible incident at the EDM nightclub that turns Cartier into a global pariah, at least according to social media.

Helen hopes a period of simplicity and reflection and an internet detox will help Cartier find her true nature and maybe acquire some social graces. But Helen’s job gets much harder when Cartier’s friends show up at the lavish ranch where Cartier and Helen have retreated. Soon, Helen finds herself trying to avoid becoming Instafamous while bringing some peace to a girl who very much needs it. This task turns out to be even more impossible when it becomes clear that they have been followed to Weeping Creek Ranch by a murderer. 

Critical Praise

“Juby has offered a cosy mystery with a unique vibe. There’s the murder mystery aspect with its menacing undertones, but this is clearly a comedic book, with delightful humour on every page. It kept me constantly amused, and I chuckled aloud more than a few times. Then, without warning, Juby delivers a gut punch of serious pathos, building empathy for a character while hitting the reader with Buddhist dharma teaching.” — The British Columbia Review

A sweeping multi-generational story about motherhood, race and secrets in the lives of three women, perfect for readers of Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half and David Chariandy's Brother

When 24-year-old Kareela discovers she's pregnant with a child she isn't sure she wants, it amplifies her struggle to understand her place in the world as a woman who is half-Black and half-white, yet feels neither.

Her mother, Evelyn, fled to Canada with her husband and their first-born child, Antony, during the politically charged Jamaican Exodus of the 1980s, only to realize they'd come to a place where Black men are viewed with suspicion—a constant and pernicious reality Evelyn watches her husband and son navigate daily.

Years later, in the aftermath of Antony's murder by the police, Evelyn's mother-in-law, Violet, moves in, offering young Kareela a link to the Jamaican heritage she has never fully known. Despite Violet's efforts to help them through their grief, the traumas they carry grow into a web of secrets that threatens the very family they all hold so dear.

Back in the present, Kareela, prompted by fear and uncertainty about the new life she carries, must come to terms with the mysteries surrounding her family's past and the need to make sense of both her identity and her future.

Weaving the women's stories across multiple timelines, We Rip the World Apart reveals the ways that simple choices, made in the heat of the moment and with the best of intentions, can have deeper repercussions than could ever have been imagined, especially when people remain silent.

Critical Praise

“Charlene Carr's deep dive into the complexities of race and belonging force, in the gentlest of ways, all of us to confront our own role in making the world a safer place. Carr's exploration of unresolved grief and the impact on family is one we need to hear; one we need to understand. A story of family and the decisions we make, We Rip the World Apart is a truly human exploration full of doubt, regret and most importantly, love. A remarkable story from a remarkable storyteller.” — Amanda Peters, bestselling author of The Berry Pickers

“At once intimate and epic, Charlene Carr crafts a sweeping portrait of motherhood and a woman’s right to choose across three generations of a Jamaican-Canadian family overcoming generational trauma. We Rip The World Apart explores the experiences of interracial couples and their biracial children, telling a nuanced tale of hurt and hope, all about finding yourself and your community.” — William Ping, author of Hollow Bamboo

"Charlene Carr’s eye for examining life’s most complicated spaces is at its sharpest in this frank, fearless reflection on race, identity, and parenthood. Spanning generations and brimming with family secrets, We Rip the World Apart is page-turning and propulsive, heartbreaking and hopeful in turn. An important and necessary book that will stay with me for a long time.” — Shelby Van Pelt, New York Times bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures

"The novel has the raw feel of a protest, while retaining the heart that sees a family to keep trying to connect despite generations of trauma. Moving, intelligent and complex, it deftly explores our struggle to understand even those who are closest to us, the different types of violence we perpetrate on one another, the identities we fight against and the ones we choose to project, and the different ways in which we cope and respond, despite our uncertainty that any of our choices are the correct ones....[A]t times a raised fist, at others a much needed embrace." — Craig Shreve, author of The African Samurai

"For fans of Britt Bennet’s The Vanishing Half and Charmaine Wilkerson’s Black Cake, Charlene Carr’s latest is both a charged emotional epic and a gentle exploration of the nuances of love. Motherhood, autonomy, race, politics, grief—every brushstroke works to paint a complex and important picture of the world as it is, and as it could be. This novel is sure to inspire book club discussion and personal reflection, and to stay on your mind long after the final page is turned. Truly a can’t-miss read!" — Marissa Stapley, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky  

A tender and funny debut about a Vietnamese Canadian family who will do whatever it takes to keep their no-frills nail salon afloat after a multimillion-dollar chain opens across the street.

Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran have made a good life for themselves in Toronto, but their landlord has just jacked up the rent of their family-run nail salon, Sunshine Nails, and it’s way more than they can afford. When Take Ten, a glamorous chain offering a more luxurious salon experience, moves into the neighborhood, the Tran family is terrified of losing their business—and the community they’ve built around them.

But daughter Jessica comes to their rescue. She’s just moved back home after a messy breakup and an even messier firing. Together with her workaholic brother, Dustin, and recently immigrated cousin, Thuy, they devise some good old-fashioned sabotage. But as the line between right and wrong gets blurred, relationships are put to the test, and Debbie and Phil must choose: Do they keep their family intact or fight for their salon?

Full of memorable manicures and even more memorable characters, Sunshine Nails is a humorous and heartfelt novel about family, resilience, and what it means to start over.

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