Penguin Canada
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Vanishing and Other Stories explores emotional and physical absences, the ways in which people leave, are left, and whether or not it's ever possible to move on. Readers will encounter a skinny ice-cream scooper named Nina Simone, a vanishing visionary of social utopia, a French teacher who collects fiancés, and a fortune-telling mother who fails to predict the heartbreak of her own daughter. The characters in this collection will linger in the imagination, proving that nothing is ever truly forgotten.
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On her first voyage as a stewardess aboard the Empress of Ireland, Ellie is drawn to the solitary fire stoker who stands by the ship’s rail late at night, often writing in a journal. Jim. Ellie finds it hard to think of his name now. After their wonderful time in Quebec City, that awful night happened. The screams, the bodies, the frigid waters … she tries hard to tell herself that he survived, but it’s hard to believe when so many didn’t. So when Wyatt Steele, journalist at The New York Times asks her for her story, Ellie refuses. But when he shows her Jim’s journal, she jumps at the chance to be able to read it herself, to find some trace of the man she had fallen in love with, or perhaps a clue to what happened to him. There’s only one catch: she will have to tell her story to Steele and he’ll “pay” her by giving her the journal, one page at a time.
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As the first girl born to the Nachimada family in over 60 years, the beautiful Devi is the object of adoration of her entire family. Strong-willed and confident, she befriends the shy Devanna, a young boy whose mother has died under tragic circumstances. The two quickly become inseparable, until Devi meets Machu the tiger killer, a hunter of great repute and a man of much honour and pride. Soon they fall deeply in love, an attraction that drives a wedge between Devi and Devanna. It is this tangled relationship among the three that leads to a devastating tragedy--an event that forever changes their fates and has unforeseen and far-reaching consequences for generations to come.
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It was like a scene out of a thriller: one night in April 2012, China’s most famous political activist--a blind, self-taught lawyer--climbed over the wall of his heavily guarded home and escaped. For days, his whereabouts remained unknown; after he turned up at the American embassy in Beijing, a furious round of high-level negotiations finally led to his release and a new life in the United States. Chen Guangcheng is a unique figure on the world stage, but his story is even more remarkable than we knew. The son of a poor farmer in rural China, blinded by illness when he was an infant, Chen was fortunate to survive a difficult childhood. But despite his disability, he was determined to educate himself and fight for the rights of his country’s poor, especially a legion of women who had endured forced sterilizations under the hated “one child” policy. Repeatedly harassed, beaten, and imprisoned by Chinese authorities, Chen was ultimately placed under house arrest. After a year of fruitless protest and increasing danger, he evaded his captors and fled to freedom. Both a riveting memoir and a revealing portrait of modern China, this passionate book tells the story of a man who has never accepted limits and always believed in the power of the human spirit to overcome any obstacle.
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The Right to Be Cold is a human story of resilience, commitment, and survival told from the unique vantage point of an Inuk woman who, in spite of many obstacles, rose from humble beginnings in the Arctic community of Kuujjuaq, Quebec--where she was raised by a single parent and grandmother and travelled by dog team in a traditional, ice-based Inuit hunting culture--to become one of the most influential and decorated environmental, cultural, and human rights advocates in the world. The Right to Be Cold explores the parallels between safeguarding the Arctic and the survival of Inuit culture--and ultimately the world--in the face of past, present, and future environmental degradation. Sheila Watt-Cloutier passionately argues that climate change is a human rights issue and one to which all of us on the planet are inextricably linked. The Right to Be Cold is the culmination of Watt-Cloutier’s regional, national, and international work over the last twenty-five years, weaving historical traumas and current issues such as climate change, leadership, and sustainability in the Arctic into her personal story to give a coherent and holistic voice to an important subject.
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Aimée’s rural homesteader upbringing, years working as a professional chef, and everyday life as a busy mom led to the creation of the hugely popular blog Simple Bites. Raising three young children with husband Danny, Aimée traded her tongs and chef whites for a laptop and camera, married her two passions--mothering and cooking--and has since been creating recipes with an emphasis on whole foods for the family table, sharing stories, tips and inspiring readers to make the family-food connection on the Simple Bites blog. Brown Eggs and Jam Jars is Aimée’s long-awaited cookbook inspired by her urban homesteading through the seasons and the joyous events they bring. It embraces year-round simple food with fresh flavours from celebrating spring with a stack of Buttermilk Buckwheat Pancakes and pure maple syrup, to a simple late-summer harvest dinner with Chili-Basil Corn on the Cob and Lemon Oregano Roast Chicken. Autumn favourites include Apple Cinnamon Layer Cake with Apple Butter Cream Cheese Frosting and Make-Ahead Currant Scones that are delicious topped with homemade Strawberry-Honey Jam with Orange Zest. Comfort meals include Chicken Leek Shepherd’s Pie and Slow Cooker Cider Ham; homemade treats abound like Whole-What Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Orange Zest, Cinnamon Shortbread Bars with Dark Chocolate Ganache, Ice Cider Caramel Corn, and much more. Created for the family-minded home cook, Aimée shares over 100 recipes from melt-on-your-tongue maple butter tarts to tangy homemade yogurt that have a touch of nostalgia, feature natural ingredients, and boast plenty of love. Aimée’s heart-warming stories capture everyday life in a busy family. In addition, she shares tips and advice on how to get the whole family involved in cooking from the ground up and enjoying homemade food. Brown Eggs and Jam Jars will inspire you to connect your family and food right where you are in life--from growing your own tomatoes to making a batch of homemade cookies. Enjoy your urban homestead!
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His drug and alcohol-fuelled antics made world headlines and engulfed a city in unprecedented controversy. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s personal and political troubles have occupied centre stage in North America’s fourth largest city since news broke that men involved in the drug trade were selling a videotape of Ford appearing to smoke crack cocaine. Toronto Star reporter Robyn Doolittle was one of three journalists to view the video and report on its contents in May 2013. Her dogged pursuit of the story has uncovered disturbing details about the mayor’s past and embroiled the Toronto police, city councilors, and ordinary citizens in a raucous debate about the future of the city. Even before those explosive events, Ford was a divisive figure. A populist and successful city councillor, he was an underdog to become mayor in 2010. His politics and mercurial nature have split the amalgamated city in two. But there is far more to the story. The Fords have a long, unhappy history of substance abuse and criminal behavior. Despite their troubles, they are also one of the most ambitious families in Canada. Those close to the Fords say they often compare themselves to the Kennedys and believe they were born to lead. Regardless of whether the mayor survives the scandal, the Ford name is on the ballot in the mayoralty election of 2014. Fast-paced and insightful, Crazy Town is a page-turning portrait of a troubled man, a formidable family and a city caught in an jaw-dropping scandal.
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Joyous Health is a fresh new approach to eating that will change the way you think about food and what you eat, and it offers a simple and practical path to creating a healthy lifestyle. In just six short weeks, holistic nutritionist Joy McCarthy, creator of the popular blog Joyous Health, will guide you through an easy-to-follow and flexible program. You’ll quickly be eating and living joyously and on a permanent path to good health with amazing results--both inside and out--that include: • improved digestion
• increased energy and zest for life
• sleeping like a baby
• glowing skin and shiny hair
• balanced hormones
• weight loss and increased libido
• lowered blood pressure and cholesterol
• feeling fabulous every day of the week Joyous Health celebrates eating delicious, clean, whole foods and enjoying a vibrant lifestyle. Inside you’ll learn all about the best foods and habits for joyous health, foods to avoid, benefits of detoxing, how to create a joyous kitchen, along with a ten-day meal plan to get you started. Featuring beautiful colour photography throughout, the book also features eighty recipes with pure ingredients and delicious combinations--including Carrot Cake Smoothie, Coconut Flour Banana Pancakes, Thai Beetroot Soup, Chewy Almond Butter Cookies, Curry Chicken Burgers, and Double-Chocolate Gluten-Free Cookies. -
It's one thing we all have in common. We've all been to school. But as Zander Sherman shows in this fascinating, often shocking account of institutionalized education, sending your kids off to school was not always normal. In fact, school is a very recent invention. Taking the reader back to 19th-century Prussia, where generals, worried about soldiers' troubling individuality, sought a way to standardize every young man of military age, through to the most controversial debates that swirl around the world about the topic of education today, Sherman tells the often astonishing stories of the men and women-and corporations-that have defined what we have come to think of as both the privilege and the responsibility of being educated. Along the way, we discover that the SAT was invented as an intelligence test designed to allow the state to sterilize "imbeciles," that suicide in the wake of disappointing results in the state university placement exams is the fifth leading cause of death in China, and that commercialized higher education seduces students into debt as cynically as credit card companies do. Provocative, entertaining-and even educational-The Curiosity of School lays bare the forces that shape the institution that shapes all of us.
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"Dear Ethan: I know you must be terribly confused, a little bit scared and thinking, hoping, praying, that the plane will return. It will not." Ethan can barely believe it. Until now, his biggest problems have been trying to stay in one school without getting expelled and finding his next drink. But after Ethan's drunken imitation of the current headmaster goes up on YouTube, his father steps in with a shockingly drastic measure. Now Ethan is sprawled in the sand. In the Sahara desert. Alone. According to his father's letter, Ethan is to trek 200 km across the desert to the city of Tunis, with the help of a guide and three other young people. Confused, hungover, and-if he is truthful-more than a little scared, Ethan has no choice. He will face sandstorms, vipers, and agonizingly painful blisters ... but, most painful of all, he will face his inner demons and come to a true realization of who he really is.
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China’s rise is having a direct impact on our prosperity, our health and well-being, and our security here in Canada. The road to achieving many of our middle-power aspirations now runs through the Middle Kingdom. We need to start paying closer attention, says former ambassador David Mulroney. China has become our second largest economic partner, not as important as the US is, but far bigger than all the rest. Canada exerts a magnetic pull on Chinese tourists and students. It’s also a popular destination for Chinese home buyers in search of a new life or simply looking for a safe place to park money. An assertive China is challenging the balance of power in the Pacific, and it is more than willing to reach across borders, including Canada’s, to steal technologies and to confront challenges to its ideology. We must do better. David Mulroney is uniquely positioned to discuss this issue as the former ambassador to China, and as a leader in forming a successful strategy in Afghanistan. He discusses what our challenges in Afghanistan were and how we eventually got it right, and how these lessons can be applied to the future challenges of China, and beyond. Cutting right to the heart of the issue, Middle Power, Middle Kingdom is an intimate account of how foreign policy works, and how policies must be changed if Canada is to prosper.
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Millie Bird, seven-years old and ever hopeful, always wears red gumboots to match her curly hair. Her struggling mother, grieving the death of Millie’s father, leaves her in the big ladies’ underwear department of a local store and never returns. Agatha Pantha, eighty-two, has not left her house – or spoken to another human being – since she was widowed seven years ago. She fills the silences by yelling at passersby, watching loud static on the TV and maintaining a strict daily schedule.Karl the Touch Typist, eighty-seven, once used his fingers to type out love notes on his wife's skin. Now that she’s gone, he types his words out into the air as he speaks. Karl’s been committed to nursing home but in a moment of clarity and joy, he escapes. Now he’s on the lam.Brought together in strange circumstances, the three will embark upon a road trip across Western Australia to find Millie’s mum. Along the way, Karl wants to find out how to be a man again; Agatha just wants everything to go back to how it was.Together, they will discover that old age is not the same as death, that the young can be wise, and that letting yourself feel sad once in a while just might be the key to a happy life.
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In this inspiring book, Harvard-trained child and adult psychiatrist and expert in human motivation Dr. Shimi Kang provides a guide to the art and science of inspiring children to develop their own internal drive and a lifelong love of learning. Drawing on the latest neuroscience and behavioral research, Dr. Kang shows why pushy “tiger parents” and permissive “jellyfish parents” actually hinder self-motivation. She proposes a powerful new parenting model: the intelligent, joyful, playful, highly social dolphin. Dolphin parents focus on maintaining balance in their children’s lives to gently yet authoritatively guide them toward lasting health, happiness, and success.
As the medical director for Child and Youth Mental Health community programs in Vancouver, Dr. Kang has witnessed firsthand the consequences of parental pressure: anxiety disorders, high stress levels, suicides, and addictions. As the mother of three children and as the daughter of immigrant parents who struggled to give their children the “best” in life--her mother could not read and her father taught her math while they drove around in his taxi--Dr. Kang argues that often the simplest “benefits” we give our children are the most valuable. By trusting our deepest intuitions about what is best for our kids, we will in turn allow them to develop key dolphin traits to enable them to thrive in an increasingly complex world: adaptability, community-mindedness, creativity, and critical thinking.Life is a journey through ever-changing waters, and dolphin parents know that the most valuable help we can give our children is to assist them in developing their own inner compass. Combining irrefutable science with unforgettable real-life stories, The Dolphin Parent walks readers through Dr. Kang’s four-part method for cultivating self-motivation. The book makes a powerful case that we are not forced to choose between being permissive or controlling. The third option--the option that will prepare our kids for success in a future that will require adaptability--is the dolphin way. -
At turns heartbreaking and wise, tender and wry, Bobcat and Other Stories establishes Rebecca Lee as one of the most powerful and original voices in Canadian literature. A university student on her summer abroad is offered the unusual task of arranging a friend's marriage. Secret infidelities and one guest's dubious bobcat-related injury propel a Manhattan dinner party to its unexpected conclusion. Students at an elite architecture retreat seek the wisdom of their revered mentor but end up learning more about themselves and one another than about their shared craft. In these acutely observed and scaldingly honest stories Lee gives us characters who are complex and flawed, cracking open their fragile beliefs and exposing the paradoxes that lie within their romantic and intellectual pursuits. Whether they're in the countryside of the American Midwest, on a dusty prairie road in Saskatchewan, or among the skyscrapers and voluptuous hills of Hong Kong, the terrain is never as difficult to navigate as their own histories and desires.
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In this, her fourteenth novel--and one of her most endearing--Anne Tyler tells the story of a lovable loser who's trying to get his life in order.
Barnaby Gaitlin has been in trouble ever since adolescence. He had this habit of breaking into other people's houses. It wasn't the big loot he was after, like his teenage cohorts. It was just that he liked to read other people's mail, pore over their family photo albums, and appropriate a few of their precious mementos.
But for eleven years now, he's been working steadily for Rent-a-Back, renting his back to old folks and shut-ins who can't move their own porch furniture or bring the Christmas tree down from the attic. At last, his life seems to be on an even keel.
Still, the Gaitlins (of "old" Baltimore) cannot forget the price they paid for buying off Barnaby's former victims. And his ex-wife would just as soon he didn't show up ever to visit their little girl, Opal. Even the nice, steady woman (his guardian angel?) who seems to have designs on him doesn't fully trust him, it develops, when the chips are down, and it looks as though his world may fall apart again.
There is no one like Anne Tyler, with her sharp, funny, tender perceptions about how human beings navigate on a puzzling planet, and she keeps us enthralled from start to finish in this delicious new novel. -
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Macon Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary. He is grounded by loneliness and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts when he meets Muriel, a deliciously peculiar dog-obedience trainer who up-ends Macon’s insular world–and thrusts him headlong into a remarkable engagement with life.
Praise for The Accidental Tourist
“Poignant . . . funny . . . The Accidental Tourist is one of her best. . . . [Tyler] has never been stronger.”--The New York Times
“Bittersweet . . . evocative . . . It’s easy to forget this is the warm lull of fiction; you half-expect to run into her characters at the dry cleaners. . . . Tyler [is] a writer of great compassion.”--The Boston Globe
“Tyler has given us an endlessly diverting book whose strength gathers gradually to become a genuinely thrilling one.”--Los Angeles Times
“A delight . . . a graceful comic novel about getting through life.”--The Wall Street Journal
“A rarely equaled richness and depth . . . Delicious humor . . . Without Anne Tyler, American fiction would be an immeasurably bleaker place.”--Newday
“Incandescent, heartbreaking, exhilarating . . . One cannot reasonably expect fiction to be much better than this."--The Washington Post
From the Trade Paperback edition. -
From the inimitable Anne Tyler, a rich and compelling novel about a mismatched marriage--and its consequences, spanning three generations.
They seemed like the perfect couple--young, good-looking, made for each other. The moment Pauline, a stranger to the Polish Eastern Avenue neighborhood of Baltimore (though she lived only twenty minutes away), walked into his mother's grocery store, Michael was smitten. And in the heat of World War II fervor, they are propelled into a hasty wedding. But they never should have married.
Pauline, impulsive, impractical, tumbles hit-or-miss through life; Michael, plodding, cautious, judgmental, proceeds deliberately. While other young marrieds, equally ignorant at the start, seemed to grow more seasoned, Pauline and Michael remain amateurs. In time their foolish quarrels take their toll. Even when they find themselves, almost thirty years later, loving, instant parents to a little grandson named Pagan, whom they rescue from Haight-Ashbury, they still cannot bridge their deep-rooted differences. Flighty Pauline clings to the notion that the rifts can always be patched. To the unyielding Michael, they become unbearable.
From the sound of the cash register in the old grocery to the counterculture jargon of the sixties, from the miniskirts to the multilayered apparel of later years, Anne Tyler captures the evocative nuances of everyday life during these decades with such telling precision that every page brings smiles of recognition. Throughout, as each of the competing voices bears witness, we are drawn ever more fully into the complex entanglements of family life in this wise, embracing, and deeply perceptive novel. -
Skylar never imagined that she’d end up helping a boy from another planet search through Earth’s history for a way to end his people’s secret control over her world. But now that she’s been drawn into Win’s group of rebels, she can’t walk away until their mission is completed and her Earth is free. Whisked to the immense space station that Win and the rest of the Kemyates call home, Skylar escapes suspicion by passing as an Earthing “pet” of Win’s rival, a brash and cocky boy named Jule. The other rebels don’t quite treat her as an equal, but Skylar copes with her homesickness in this alien environment by throwing herself into work on the weapon they must finish assembling to save Earth. Her keen attention to detail and skill with numbers start to earn the Kemyates’ respect. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make her position any less precarious. The Enforcers are still intent on tracking down the rebels, and it becomes clear that someone within the resistance is leaking information to the enemy. With Win and Jule squabbling over her affections, and the entire rebel group growing increasingly suspicious of each other, Skylar feels her chances of saving Earth slipping away. It doesn’t help that she’s falling for Jule despite herself. Determined to see her mission through, she finds herself more and more wrapped up in the lives around her and discovers the truth is far more complicated than she could have expected. Setting Earth free may require her to betray both her heart and the family and friends she left behind.
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The History of Canada Series: Three Weeks in Quebec City
Christopher Moore
- Penguin canada
- 5 Mai 2015
- 9780143194507
In 1864, thirty-three delegates from five provincial legislatures came to Quebec City to pursue the idea of uniting all the provinces of British North America. The American Civil War, not yet over, encouraged the small and barely defended provinces to consider uniting for mutual protection. But there were other factors: the rapid expansion of railways and steamships spurred visions of a continent-spanning new nation. Federation, in principle, had been agreed on at the Charlottetown conference, but now it was time to debate the difficult issues of how a new nation would be formed. The delegates included John A. Macdonald, George Etienne-Cartier, and George Brown. Historian Christopher Moore demonstrates that Macdonald, the future prime minister, surprisingly was not the most significant player here, and Canada could have become a very different place. The significance of this conference is played out in Canadian news each day. The main point of contention at the time was the issue of power--a strong federal body versus stronger provincial rights. Because of this conference, we have an elected House of Commons, an appointed Senate, a federal Parliament, and provincial legislatures. We have what amounts to a Canadian system of checks and balances. Did it work then, and does it work now?
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The bestselling author of The Loyalty Leap applies the principles of customer intimacy to a business-to-business context. Since the publication of New York Times bestseller The Loyalty Leap, Bryan Pearson's customer loyalty approach to marketing has changed the way many organizations use their customer data. Small coffee shops and large corporations have applied the Loyalty Leap principles to effectively deliver mutual value to customers. But many readers have asked the same question: "How can I apply these lessons in a business-to-business context?" While the principles outlined in The Loyalty Leap hold true whether the customer is an individual or a business, the application of the Loyalty Leap steps can vary. While an individual might respond favorably to one sales pitch, a large corporation with a complicated sales chain might respond very differently. Drawing on his own experience and extensive research, Pearson helps B2B marketers avoid the pitfalls of loyalty marketing to businesses. He helps marketers segment their market into small business, large enterprise, and channel marketers, and explains how a customer loyalty plan can be adapted for each segment. Sharing case studies of successful B2B loyalty initiatives from leaders such as American Express, PHX, Teradata and Salesforce.com, he shows that B2B organizations can successfully take The Loyalty Leap. The Loyalty Leap for B2B is a practical guide that will help you cultivate loyalty among your business customers
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The Winner of the BBC Short Story Award, "The Dead Roads" was acclaimed as "note perfect" and "perfectly constructed" by the jury. Wilson's unforgettable tale of two friends trying to win the affections of a girl in the middle of a road-trip through a gothic landscape is a masterpiece of tension and understatement.
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Gartner is a deft practitioner of irony and stylishly detached prose, and here she is in top form in an unsparing satire. At once hilariously biting and deeply disturbing, "The Adopted Chinese Daughters' Rebellion" is a savage exposé of unthinking privilege and middle-class blindness.
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Giller prize winning Johanna Skibsrud's stories are both wise and querying, showing us through her characters' eyes what even they cannot see. In "The Electric Man," a woman's safe world is confronted and doubted by an unusual man. Does he despise her, or like her too much? Through their uneasy time together, false perceptions give way to greater truths.
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It includes an essay and a short story by the author. Wonder: The advent of Webmind--a vast consciousness that spontaneously emerged from the infrastructure of the World Wide Web--is changing everything. From curing cancer to easing international tensions, Webmind seems a boon to humanity. But Colonel Peyton Hume, the Pentagon's top expert on artificial intelligence, is convinced Webmind is a threat. He turns to the hacker underground to help him bring Webmind down. Then, hackers start mysteriously vanishing. Is Webmind killing them before they can mount an attack? Meanwhile, Caitlin Decter--the once-blind 16-year-old math genius who discovered Webmind-- desperately tries to protect her friend. And Masayuki Kuroda, the scientist whose implant gave Caitlin sight, modifies his technology to help Sinanthropus, a paraplegic Chinese freedom blogger, regain use of his legs--unaware of Sinanthropus's role in China's plans to eliminate Webmind. Can this new world of wonder survive--or will everything, Webmind included, come crashing down?
