A Fatal Grace | A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery, Book 2
Regular price $19.99Previously published as Dead Cold
A New York Times Bestseller
'Chief Superintendent Armand Gamache of the Quebec police isone of the most interesting detectives in crime fiction' The Times
Winter in Three Pines, and the sleepy village is carpeted in snow. It's a time of peace and goodwill - until a scream pierces the biting air. A spectator at the annual Boxing Day curling match has been fatally electrocuted. Despite the large crowd, there are no witnesses and - apparently - no clues.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache discovers a history of secrets and enemies in the dead woman's past. But he has enemies of his own, and as he is frozen out of decision-making in the Surete du Quebec, he has to decide who he can trust...
'A cracking storyteller, who can create fascinating characters, a twisty plot and wonderful surprise endings' Ann Cleeves
Louise Penny is the number one New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Gamache series, including Still Life, which won the CWA John Creasey Dagger in 2006. Recipient of virtually every existing award for crime fiction, Louise was also granted the Order of Canada in 2014 and received an honorary doctorate of literature from Carleton University and the Ordre Nationale du Québec in 2017. She lives in a small village south of Montreal.
A World of Curiosities | A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery, Book 18
Regular price $39.99Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns in the eighteenth book in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's beloved series.
It's spring and Three Pines is reemerging after the harsh winter. But not everything buried should come alive again. Not everything lying dormant should reemerge.
But something has.
As the villagers prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselves increasingly worried. A young man and woman have reappeared in the Surete du Quebec investigators' lives after many years. The two were young children when their troubled mother was murdered, leaving them damaged, shattered. Now they've arrived in the village of Three Pines.
But to what end?
Gamache and Beauvoir's memories of that tragic case, the one that first brought them together, come rushing back. Did their mother's murder hurt them beyond repair? Have those terrible wounds, buried for decades, festered and are now about to erupt?
As Chief Inspector Gamache works to uncover answers, his alarm grows when a letter written by a long dead stone mason is discovered. In it the man describes his terror when bricking up an attic room somewhere in the village. Every word of the 160-year-old letter is filled with dread. When the room is found, the villagers decide to open it up.
As the bricks are removed, Gamache, Beauvoir and the villagers discover a world of curiosities. But the head of homicide soon realizes there's more in that room than meets the eye. There are puzzles within puzzles, and hidden messages warning of mayhem and revenge.
In unsealing that room, an old enemy is released into their world. Into their lives. And into the very heart of Armand Gamache's home.
ABCs of Biology
Regular price $14.99Fans of Chris Ferrie's ABCs of Science, ABCs of Space, and Rocket Science for Babies will love this introduction to biology for babies and toddlers!
This alphabetical installment of the Baby University baby board book series is the perfect introduction to science for infants and toddlers. It makes a wonderful science baby gift for even the youngest biologist. Give the gift of learning to your little one at birthdays, baby showers, holidays, and beyond!
A is for Anatomy
B is for Bacteria
C is for Cell
From anatomy to zoology, the ABCs of Biology is a colorfully simple introduction to STEM for babies and toddlers to a new biology concept for every letter of the alphabet. Written by two experts, each page in this biology primer features multiple levels of text so the book grows along with your little biologist.
If you're looking for the perfect science toys for babies, STEAM books for teachers, or a wonderful baby board book to add to a special baby gift basket, look no further! ABCs of Biology offers fun early learning for your little scientist!
Chris Ferrie is an award-winning physicist and Senior Lecturer for Quantum Software and Information at the University of Technology Sydney. He has a Masters in Applied Mathematics, BMath in Mathematical Physics and a PhD in Applied Mathematics. He lives in Australia with his wife and children. Cara Florance has a PhD in Biochemsitry from the University of Colorado Boulder and BS in Chemistry from Iona College. She enjoys cooking, fermenting, and experimenting in the kitchen, and she loves hanging out with her awesome, creative kids.
Birdsong
Regular price $22.95A touching and thoughtful gift for the art lovers in your life.
BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, KIRKUS, HORN BOOK, QUILL & QUIRE, GLOBE AND MAIL
WINNER OF THE TD CANADIAN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AWARD
FINALIST FOR THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S AWARD
AN AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH LITERATURE HONOR TITLE
A BOSTON GLOBE--HORN BOOK HONOR BOOK
When Katherena and her mother move to a small town, Katherena feels lonely and out of place. But when she meets an elderly woman artist who lives next door, named Agnes--her world starts to change.
Katherena and Agnes share the same passions for arts and crafts, birds, and nature. But as the seasons change, can Katherena navigate the failing health of her new friend?
Award-winning author and artist Julie Flett's textured images of birds, flowers, art, and landscapes bring vibrancy and warmth to this powerful story, which highlights the fulfillment of intergenerational relationships, shared passions, and spending time outdoors with the ones we love.
Includes a glossary and pronunciation guide to Cree words that appear in the text.
"Cree-Métis author/illustrator Julie Flett's smooth and lyrical words and gorgeous... images truly capture the warmth and solidarity of the female protagonists in this tender intergenerational friendship story."-The Horn Book
"Cycling from spring to spring, [Julie Flett's] subtle, sensitive story delicately traces filaments of growth and loss through intergenerational friendship, art making, and changing moons and seasons." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Discovering Words: English * French * Cree
Regular price $10.00Neepin Auger’s colourful board books for infants have collectively sold well over 20,000 copies since they first appeared on the market. With more and more parents and educators looking for Indigenous resources, this paperback edition of Discovering Words will bring the experience of learning French and Cree to a whole new group of early elementary school-aged kids.
In addition to the English words presented, the French and Cree equivalents are also given, along with pronunciation support, making these some of the most dynamic and useful picture books on the market, perfectly suitable for the classroom, library, and playroom.
______________
Neepin Auger is a Cree artist, educator, and mother. Originally from the Bigstone Cree Nation in northern Alberta, she has been painting for over ten years, having studied art under her father, Dale Auger, a renowned First Nations artist and author of the award-winning children’s book Mwakwa – Talks to the Loon: A Cree Story for Children. Neepin graduated from the department of education and schooling at Mount Royal University and is now a full-time teacher. She is also mother to one daughter, Gracie, whom she believes is her greatest masterpiece. Neepin’s titles for children include Discovering Animals: English * French * Cree, Discovering Numbers: English * French * Cree, Discovering People: English * French * Cree, and Discovering Words: English * French * Cree. All of the titles in the series are available as boardbooks (newborn to age 3), paperbacks (ages 3–5), and ebooks. Neepin Auger lives in Calgary, Alberta.
Ducks
Regular price $39.95
An exceptionally beautiful book about loneliness, labor, and survival." - Carmen Maria Machado
Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark! A Vagrant, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beaton, specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. With the singular goal of payingoff her student loans, Katie heads out west to take advantage of Alberta's oil rush - part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can't find it in the homeland they love so much. Katie encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands, where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet is never discussed.
Beaton's natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, northern lights, and boreal forest. Her first full length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people.
Kate Beaton was born and raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. After graduating from Mount Allison University with a double degree in History and Anthropology, she moved to Alberta in search of work that would allow her to pay down her student loans. During the years she spent out West, Beaton began creating webcomics under the name Hark! A Vagrant, quickly drawing a substantial following around the world.
The collections of her landmark strip Hark! A Vagrant and Step Aside, Pops each spent several months on the New York Times graphic novel bestseller list, as well as appearing on best of the year lists from Time, The Washington Post, Vulture, NPR Books, and winning the Eisner, Ignatz, Harvey, and Doug Wright Awards. She has also published the picture books King Baby and The Princess and the Pony .
Beaton lives in Cape Breton with her family.
Evolution for Babies
Regular price $14.99Fans of Chris Ferrie's Quantum Physics for Babies, ABCs of Science, and Organic Chemistry for Babies will love this introduction to evolutionary biology for babies and toddlers!
Help your future genius become the smartest baby in the room! It only takes a small spark to ignite a child's mind.
Written by an expert, Evolution for Babies is a colorfully simple introduction to evolutionary biology. Babies (and grownups!) will learn how organisms mutate, evolve, and survive. Co-written by Cara Florance, who has a PhD in Biochemistry and a BS in Chemistry with work experience in astrobiololgy and radiation decontamination. With a tongue-in-cheek approach that adults will love, this installment of the Baby University board book series is the perfect way to introduce basic concepts to even the youngest scientists. After all, it's never too early to become a scientist!
If you're looking for the perfect science baby gifts, science for babies, or evolution for kids, look no further! Evolution for Babies offers fun early learning for your little scientist!
Chris Ferrie is an award-winning physicist and Senior Lecturer for Quantum Software and Information at the University of Technology Sydney. He has a Masters in Applied Mathematics, BMath in Mathematical Physics and a PhD in Applied Mathematics. He lives in Australia with his wife and children. Cara Florance has a PhD in Biochemsitry from the University of Colorado Boulder and BS in Chemistry from Iona College. She enjoys cooking, fermenting, and experimenting in the kitchen, and she loves hanging out with her awesome, creative kids.
Hotline
Regular price $21.95
A vivid love letter to the 1980s and one woman’s struggle to overcome the challenges of immigration.
It’s 1986, and Muna Heddad is in a bind. She and her son have moved to Montreal, leaving behind a civil war filled with bad memories in Lebanon. She had plans to find work as a French teacher, but no one in Quebec trusts her to teach the language. She needs to start making money, and fast. The only work Muna can find is at a weight-loss center as a hotline operator.
All day, she takes calls from people responding to ads seen in magazines or on TV. On the phone, she’s Mona, and she’s quite good at listening. These strangers all have so much to say once someone shows interest in their lives–marriages gone bad, parents dying, isolation, personal inadequacies. Even as her daily life in Canada is filled with invisible barriers at every turn, at the office Muna is privy to her clients’ deepest secrets.
Following international acclaim for Niko (2011) and The Bleeds (2018), Dimitri Nasrallah has written a vivid elegy to the 1980s, the years he first moved to Canada, bringing the era’s systemic challenges into the current moment through this deeply endearing portrait of struggle, perseverance, and bonding.
Awards: Longlist - 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Canada Reads Selection 2023
Praise:
“Nasrallah’s fourth novel, it takes his work to a new level of sophistication and constitutes a significant addition to the literary chronicling of the Canadian immigrant experience.” – Ian McGillis, Montreal Gazette
“Hotline intertwines hope and sorrow to create a moving story that sears the heart.” - Zeahaa Rehman, Quill & Quire
“I admire how Nasrallah plumbs new territory with each novel. That said, underlying themes and concerns thread through his oeuvre, such as emotional and geographic exile and ‘family.’" - Ami Sands Brodoff, Montreal Review of Books
“A quietly transformative story, one that takes your assumptions, twists them into a shape you didn’t initially see and casts them back at you in a really lovely way.” - Alison Manley, Miramichi Reader
"Fiction about immigrants tends toward melancholy and tragedy. Dimitri Nasrallah’s new novel delivers something different. Hotline suggests that immigrant literature may be able to navigate its own course between the Scylla of despair and the Charybdis of naïveté. The problems of bootstraps narratives aside, happy endings are still worth writing." – Amanda Perry, The Walrus
“Nasrallah’s fourth novel, it takes his work to a new level of sophistication and constitutes a significant addition to the literary chronicling of the Canadian immigrant experience.” – Ian McGillis, Montreal Gazette
“Hotline intertwines hope and sorrow to create a moving story that sears the heart.” - Zeahaa Rehman, Quill & Quire
“I admire how Nasrallah plumbs new territory with each novel. That said, underlying themes and concerns thread through his oeuvre, such as emotional and geographic exile and ‘family.’" - Ami Sands Brodoff, Montreal Review of Books
“A quietly transformative story, one that takes your assumptions, twists them into a shape you didn’t initially see and casts them back at you in a really lovely way.” - Alison Manley, Miramichi Reader
"Fiction about immigrants tends toward melancholy and tragedy. Dimitri Nasrallah’s new novel delivers something different. Hotline suggests that immigrant literature may be able to navigate its own course between the Scylla of despair and the Charybdis of naïveté. The problems of bootstraps narratives aside, happy endings are still worth writing." – Amanda Perry, The Walrus
It's a Mitig!
Regular price $22.95Giizis—the sun—rises. What’s hiding in the trees?
It’s a Mitig! guides young readers through the forest while introducing them to Ojibwe words for nature. From sunup to sundown, encounter an amik playing with sticks and swimming in the river, a prickly gaag hiding in the bushes and a big, bark-covered mitig.
Featuring vibrant and playful artwork, an illustrated Ojibwe-to-English glossary and a simple introduction to the double-vowel pronunciation system, plus accompanying online recordings, It’s a Mitig! is one of the first books of its kind. It was created for young children and their families with the heartfelt desire to spark a lifelong interest in learning language.
My Giant Animal Book
Regular price $24.95This highly visual giant colorful book presents some of the most adorable and beautiful animals on the planet. The big board pages are packed with amazing photos and fantastic facts presented in a fun way, waiting to be discovered by early leaners.
Sweetest Kulu
Regular price $10.95"Dream a little, Kulu, this world now sings a most beautiful song of you."
This beautiful bedtime poem, written by acclaimed Inuit throat singer Celina Kalluk, describes the gifts given to a newborn baby by all the animals of the Arctic.
Lyrically and tenderly told by a mother speaking to her own little Kulu; an Inuktitut term of endearment often bestowed upon babies and young children, this visually stunning book is infused with the traditional Inuit values of love and respect for the land and its animal inhabitants.
A perfect gift for new parents.
The Paper Bag Princess
Regular price $7.95What if your imagination runs wild? New York Times bestselling creator Renata Liwska explores what if" scenarios from silly to serious, examining the curiosities of everyday life and celebrating the power of imagination. Ideal for children 3-7 who are stuck inside or learning to cope with new uncertainties, The Little Book of Big What-Ifs is perfect for fans of I Wish You More and The Quiet Book .
Every day is filled with opportunities to wonder . . . what if?
In this charming book of big questions for little readers, New York Times bestselling creator Renata Liwska explores scenarios that span the spectrum from silly to serious, gently examining both the anxieties and curiosities of everyday life.
Wondering what might happen helps expand our imaginations, whether the options are humorous or thought-provoking-or both!
So: what if . . . you turned the page? "
Renata Liwska lives and works in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She is the illustrator of the New York Times best-selling and critically acclaimed picture book The Quiet Book written by Deborah Underwood. She has also illustrated a sequel The Loud Book, and the The Christmas Quiet Book . Other books include Places to Be by Mac Barnett, Boom, Snot, Twitty written by Doreen Cronin, and Once Upon a Memory written by Nina Laden. Renata has written and illustrated Red Wagon and Little Panda . Visit her at RenataLiwska.com.
The Sleeping Car Porter
Regular price $23.95WINNER OF THE 2022 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY TOP 20 LITERARY FICTION BOOKS OF 2022
OPRAH DAILY: BOOKS TO READ BY THE FIRE
THE GLOBE 100: THE BEST BOOKS OF 2022
CBC BOOKS: THE BEST CANADIAN FICTION OF 2022
When a mudslide strands a train, Baxter, a queer Black sleeping car porter, must contend with the perils of white passengers, ghosts, and his secret love affair
The Sleeping Car Porter brings to life an important part of Black history in North America, from the perspective of a queer man living in a culture that renders him invisible in two ways. Affecting, imaginative, and visceral enough that you’ll feel the rocking of the train, The Sleeping Car Porter is a stunning accomplishment.
Baxter’s name isn’t George. But it’s 1929, and Baxter is lucky enough, as a Black man, to have a job as a sleeping car porter on a train that crisscrosses the country. So when the passengers call him George, he has to just smile and nod and act invisible. What he really wants is to go to dentistry school, but he’ll have to save up a lot of nickel and dime tips to get there, so he puts up with “George.”
On this particular trip out west, the passengers are more unruly than usual, especially when the train is stalled for two extra days; their secrets start to leak out and blur with the sleep-deprivation hallucinations Baxter is having. When he finds a naughty postcard of two queer men, Baxter’s memories and longings are reawakened; keeping it puts his job in peril, but he can’t part with the postcard or his thoughts of Edwin Drew, Porter Instructor.
"Suzette Mayr’s The Sleeping Car Porter offers a richly detailed account of a particular occupation and time—train porter on a Canadian passenger train in 1929—and unforcedly allows it to illuminate the societal strictures imposed on black men at the time—and today. Baxter is a secretly-queer and sleep-deprived porter saving up for dental school, working a system that periodically assigns unexplained demerits, and once a certain threshold is reached, the porter loses his job. Thus, success is impossible, the best one can do is to fail slowly. As Baxter takes a cross-continental run, the boarding passengers have more secrets than an Agatha Christie cast, creating a powder keg on train tracks. The Sleeping Car Porter is an engaging and illuminating novel about the costs of work, service, and secrets." – Keith Mosman, Powell's Books
“Mayr’s prose is vivid but never overwrought, capturing the surrealism of intense fatigue in constant motion … Readers will be captivated.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review
"In 1929, being a passenger train porter was fraught with challenges...Baxter’s own sleep deprivation is perhaps the most intriguing character of the book. It leads to hallucinations, questionable decisions, and borderline supernatural suggestions."– Kirkus Reviews
"Suzette Mayr’s novel The Sleeping Car Porter an artfully constructed story that moves, beguiles, and satisfies." – Brett Josef Grubisic, The Toronto Star
"Suzette Mayr brings to life –believably, achingly, thrillingly –a whole world contained in a passenger train moving across the Canadian vastness, nearly one hundred years ago. As only occurs in the finest historical novels, every page in The Sleeping Car Porter feels alive and immediate –and eerily contemporary. The sleeping car porter in this sleek, stylish novel is named R.T. Baxter –called George by the people upon whom he waits, as is every other Black porter. Baxter’s dream of one day going to school to learn dentistry coexists with his secret life as a gay man, and in Mayr’s triumphant novel we follow him not only from Montreal to Calgary, but into and out of the lives of an indelibly etched cast of supporting characters, and, finally, into a beautifully rendered radiance." – 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize Jury
"Mayr’s new novel, through painstaking historical research, reconstructs the workdays of a Black, lower-class, closeted gay man." – Reinhold Kramer, The Winnipeg Free Press
"Baxter works the trains as they run from Toronto to Winnipeg, through Calgary and Banff to Vancouver. Passengers on board wrestle with the details of their lives: hats and weddings, books and paperwork, drinks and cigars, childhood loss and bad telegrams, boots to be shined, a scrutinized pocket watch, communication with the dead. Baxter continuously serves them, ever watchful, needing perfection. Ten more demerits will get him fired, and a black man hiding his desire for other men has plenty of reasons to fear being targeted by whites with money. Endless patience is required to be a sleeping car porter. He's always exhausted, but it's a job, and he's saving, determined to pay for school and become a dentist who will one day be important. Then he'll be the one riding. For now, his dreams keep him alive, and time spent with people shoved together in tight spaces can shake up whole worlds. In the end, it's a little girl who fully reveals him. She’s just lost her mother and won't sleep, clinging to Baxter instead. This is intensely researched historical fiction that doesn’t feel like history. It feels like heart." – Tim McCarthy, Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, WI
"Mayr evokes the mystique of transcontinental travel and the tumult of lives on the margins in this much-anticipated period novel. All aboard!" – Oprah Daily
“I couldn’t help imagining what a film Wes Anderson might make of Suzette Mayr’s The Sleeping Car Porter. The novel’s main character is a gay Black porter riding the rails in 1920’s Canada, coping with a horde of difficult long-haul passengers, including a child who appears to have permanently attached herself to his leg. Terrified that a breach of one of the railway’s insanely restrictive rules will get him fired before he can save enough money for dental school, he amuses himself—and keeps awake on his grueling shifts—by imagining the medical horrors that lie behind the smiles (or grimaces) of his clientele.” – The New York Times
This is How I Disappear
Regular price $29.95An affecting glimpse into the ways millennials cope with mental health struggles
Clara's at a breaking point. She's got writer's block, her friends ask a lot without giving much, her psychologist is useless, and her demanding publishing job leaves little time for self care. She seeks solace in the community around her, yet, while her friends provide support and comfort, she is often left feeling empty, unable to express an underlying depression that leaves her immobilized and stifles any attempts at completing her poetry collection. In This Is How I Disappear, Mirion Malle paints an empathetic portrait of a young woman wrestling with psychological stress and the trauma following a sexual assault.
Malle displays frankness and a remarkable emotional intelligence as she explores depression, isolation, and self-harm in her expertly drawn novel. Her heroine battles an onslaught of painful emotions and while Clara can provide consolation to those around her, she finds it difficult to bestow the same understanding on herself. Only when she allows her community to guide her toward self-love does she find relief.
Filled with 21st century idioms and social media communication, This Is How I Disappear opens a window onto the lives of young people as they face a barrage of mental health hurdles. Scenes of sisterhood, fun nights out singing karaoke, and impromptu FaceTime therapy sessions show how this generation is coping, connecting, and healing together.
Mirion Malle is a French cartoonist and illustrator who lives in Montreal. She studied comics at the École Superieure des Arts Saint-Luc in Brussels before pursuing a master's degree in sociology specializing in gender and feminist studies, via Université Paris Diderot and the Université du Québec á Montréal. Malle has published three books. The League of Super Feminists was her first book to be translated into English and was nominated for the 2020 Prix Jeunesse at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.
What You Won't Do For Love
Regular price $20.95What if we could love the planet as much as we love one another?
"Warm, wise, and overflowing with generosity, this is a love story so epic it embraces all of creation. Yet another reminder of how blessed we are to be in the struggle with elders like David and Tara.” – Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis
What You Won’t Do for Love is an inspiring conversation about love and the environment. When artist Miriam Fernandes approaches the legendary eco-pioneer David Suzuki to create a theatre piece about climate change, she expects to write about David’s perspective as a scientist. Instead, she discovers the boundless vision and efforts of Tara Cullis, a literature scholar, climate organizer, and David’s life partner. Miriam realizes that David and Tara’s decades-long love for each other, and for family and friends, has only clarified and strengthened their resolve to fight for the planet.
What You Won’t Do for Love transforms real-life conversations between David, Tara, Miriam, and her husband Sturla into a charmingly novel and poetic work. Over one idyllic day in British Columbia, Miriam and Sturla take in a lifetime of David and Tara’s adventures, inspiration, and love, and in turn reflect on their own relationships to each other and the planet. Revealing David Suzuki and Tara Cullis in an affable, conversational, and often comedic light, What You Won’t Do For Love asks if we can love our planet the same way we love one another.