Author: Todd Babiak
Publisher: Emblem Editions
ISBN: 1551992507
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 426
Book Description
A local phenomenon goes national! This sparkling novel has the warmth and wide appeal of Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Cafe and the wit of Will Ferguson. What Alexander McCall Smith did with 44 Scotland Street, Todd Babiak does with The Garneau Block. This addictive and charming, laugh-out-loud funny novel enchanted readers when it was serialized in the Edmonton Journal in the fall of 2005 — and now, The Garneau Block makes its national debut. The Garneau Block follows the knowable citizens of the adored and hated city of Edmonton, capturing what we connect to in local stories and what is universal about modern life. Here, in what can only be described as a storytelling tour-de-force, we meet the warm, endearing, and delightfully flawed residents of a fictional cul-de-sac in the city’s Garneau neighbourhood just after the scandalous death of a neighbour and the sudden news that their land is about to be repossessed by the university. When mysterious signs begin to appear duct-taped to trees saying only LET’S FIX IT, the block — including a sacked university professor, a once-ambitious, knocked-up haiku expert living in her parents’ basement, an aging actor whose dreams are slipping away, and a quiet but polite stranger — is galvanized to band together in a wild attempt to save their homes. And when regular people put their dreams in motion, anything can happen — namely, political machinations, personal revelations, a public uproar, and unforeseen love. From a young author whose name will soon be on everyone’s lips come the most lovable Canadian characters since Dave and Morley, and a page-turning-good story. Readers nationwide won’t be able to get enough of The Garneau Block. For the next while, David talked about the merits of joining the PC party. Why fight it, really? No political organization is perfect, of course, but by giving your support to the Liberals or the New Democrats, what are you doing? Further dooming the City of Edmonton. Further empowering Calgary and the rural caucus. “Nonsense, David,” said Abby. “That’s the sort of talk that leads to tyranny, and we’ve had plenty enough of it in this province.” “Tyranny she says! Tyranny!” David took a few steps in Tammy’s direction, so they formed a political triangle. “No wonder the left is so flabby.” –From The Garneau Block
The Garneau Block
Author: Todd Babiak
Publisher: Emblem Editions
ISBN: 1551992507
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 426
Book Description
A local phenomenon goes national! This sparkling novel has the warmth and wide appeal of Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Cafe and the wit of Will Ferguson. What Alexander McCall Smith did with 44 Scotland Street, Todd Babiak does with The Garneau Block. This addictive and charming, laugh-out-loud funny novel enchanted readers when it was serialized in the Edmonton Journal in the fall of 2005 — and now, The Garneau Block makes its national debut. The Garneau Block follows the knowable citizens of the adored and hated city of Edmonton, capturing what we connect to in local stories and what is universal about modern life. Here, in what can only be described as a storytelling tour-de-force, we meet the warm, endearing, and delightfully flawed residents of a fictional cul-de-sac in the city’s Garneau neighbourhood just after the scandalous death of a neighbour and the sudden news that their land is about to be repossessed by the university. When mysterious signs begin to appear duct-taped to trees saying only LET’S FIX IT, the block — including a sacked university professor, a once-ambitious, knocked-up haiku expert living in her parents’ basement, an aging actor whose dreams are slipping away, and a quiet but polite stranger — is galvanized to band together in a wild attempt to save their homes. And when regular people put their dreams in motion, anything can happen — namely, political machinations, personal revelations, a public uproar, and unforeseen love. From a young author whose name will soon be on everyone’s lips come the most lovable Canadian characters since Dave and Morley, and a page-turning-good story. Readers nationwide won’t be able to get enough of The Garneau Block. For the next while, David talked about the merits of joining the PC party. Why fight it, really? No political organization is perfect, of course, but by giving your support to the Liberals or the New Democrats, what are you doing? Further dooming the City of Edmonton. Further empowering Calgary and the rural caucus. “Nonsense, David,” said Abby. “That’s the sort of talk that leads to tyranny, and we’ve had plenty enough of it in this province.” “Tyranny she says! Tyranny!” David took a few steps in Tammy’s direction, so they formed a political triangle. “No wonder the left is so flabby.” –From The Garneau Block
Publisher: Emblem Editions
ISBN: 1551992507
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 426
Book Description
A local phenomenon goes national! This sparkling novel has the warmth and wide appeal of Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Cafe and the wit of Will Ferguson. What Alexander McCall Smith did with 44 Scotland Street, Todd Babiak does with The Garneau Block. This addictive and charming, laugh-out-loud funny novel enchanted readers when it was serialized in the Edmonton Journal in the fall of 2005 — and now, The Garneau Block makes its national debut. The Garneau Block follows the knowable citizens of the adored and hated city of Edmonton, capturing what we connect to in local stories and what is universal about modern life. Here, in what can only be described as a storytelling tour-de-force, we meet the warm, endearing, and delightfully flawed residents of a fictional cul-de-sac in the city’s Garneau neighbourhood just after the scandalous death of a neighbour and the sudden news that their land is about to be repossessed by the university. When mysterious signs begin to appear duct-taped to trees saying only LET’S FIX IT, the block — including a sacked university professor, a once-ambitious, knocked-up haiku expert living in her parents’ basement, an aging actor whose dreams are slipping away, and a quiet but polite stranger — is galvanized to band together in a wild attempt to save their homes. And when regular people put their dreams in motion, anything can happen — namely, political machinations, personal revelations, a public uproar, and unforeseen love. From a young author whose name will soon be on everyone’s lips come the most lovable Canadian characters since Dave and Morley, and a page-turning-good story. Readers nationwide won’t be able to get enough of The Garneau Block. For the next while, David talked about the merits of joining the PC party. Why fight it, really? No political organization is perfect, of course, but by giving your support to the Liberals or the New Democrats, what are you doing? Further dooming the City of Edmonton. Further empowering Calgary and the rural caucus. “Nonsense, David,” said Abby. “That’s the sort of talk that leads to tyranny, and we’ve had plenty enough of it in this province.” “Tyranny she says! Tyranny!” David took a few steps in Tammy’s direction, so they formed a political triangle. “No wonder the left is so flabby.” –From The Garneau Block
The Garneau Block
Author: Todd Babiak
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0771009909
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The Garneau Block follows the knowable citizens of the adored and hated city of Edmonton, capturing what we connect to in local stories and what is universal about modern life. Here, in what can only be described as a storytelling tour-de-force, we meet the warm, endearing, and delightfully flawed residents of a fictional cul-de-sac in the city’s Garneau neighbourhood just after the scandalous death of a neighbour and the sudden news that their land is about to be repossessed by the university. When mysterious signs begin to appear duct-taped to trees saying only LET’S FIX IT, the block — including a sacked university professor, a once-ambitious, knocked-up haiku expert living in her parents’ basement, an aging actor whose dreams are slipping away, and a quiet but polite stranger — is galvanized to band together in a wild attempt to save their homes. And when regular people put their dreams in motion, anything can happen — namely, political machinations, personal revelations, a public uproar, and unforeseen love. From a young author whose name will soon be on everyone’s lips come the most lovable Canadian characters since Dave and Morley, and a page-turning-good story. Readers nationwide won’t be able to get enough of The Garneau Block.
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0771009909
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The Garneau Block follows the knowable citizens of the adored and hated city of Edmonton, capturing what we connect to in local stories and what is universal about modern life. Here, in what can only be described as a storytelling tour-de-force, we meet the warm, endearing, and delightfully flawed residents of a fictional cul-de-sac in the city’s Garneau neighbourhood just after the scandalous death of a neighbour and the sudden news that their land is about to be repossessed by the university. When mysterious signs begin to appear duct-taped to trees saying only LET’S FIX IT, the block — including a sacked university professor, a once-ambitious, knocked-up haiku expert living in her parents’ basement, an aging actor whose dreams are slipping away, and a quiet but polite stranger — is galvanized to band together in a wild attempt to save their homes. And when regular people put their dreams in motion, anything can happen — namely, political machinations, personal revelations, a public uproar, and unforeseen love. From a young author whose name will soon be on everyone’s lips come the most lovable Canadian characters since Dave and Morley, and a page-turning-good story. Readers nationwide won’t be able to get enough of The Garneau Block.
The Book of Stanley
Author: Todd Babiak
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
ISBN: 1551992329
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 393
Book Description
A riotous new novel from the #1 bestselling author of the hit sensation The Garneau Block. By all accounts, Stanley Moss is an average man. A retired florist, he lives quietly with his wife, Frieda, in a modest bungalow in Edmonton. Stricken with cancer, Stanley has few wishes for the time he has left, except perhaps for his son to call him back. But on the day of an appointment with the palliative care specialist, Stanley experiences a boom and a flash, and then, a remarkable transformation. He discovers he can read minds. He can fulfill people’s dreams. He has the strength of ten men. And, his illness has vanished. What could this mean? Could it be, as his New Age friend Alok believes, that Stanley’s powers are divine? Is Stanley, a confirmed agnostic, the new Messiah? With Alok and a reluctant Frieda in tow, Stanley heads to Banff (the most sacred place on earth) to look for answers and find a way to use his new powers for good. He encounters there his disciples — a Vancouver TV executive, a pro hockey player from the Prairies and a teenage girl from suburban Montreal — and together they start The Stan, a new religion, and invite the world to join. When the world shows up, along with the international media and an angry long-dead spiritualist, things take an unexpected turn. Satirical, fantastical, filled with humour and pointed observation about organized religion in the modern world, The Book of Stanley is a provocative comedy about life, love, and devotion in all its guises.
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
ISBN: 1551992329
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 393
Book Description
A riotous new novel from the #1 bestselling author of the hit sensation The Garneau Block. By all accounts, Stanley Moss is an average man. A retired florist, he lives quietly with his wife, Frieda, in a modest bungalow in Edmonton. Stricken with cancer, Stanley has few wishes for the time he has left, except perhaps for his son to call him back. But on the day of an appointment with the palliative care specialist, Stanley experiences a boom and a flash, and then, a remarkable transformation. He discovers he can read minds. He can fulfill people’s dreams. He has the strength of ten men. And, his illness has vanished. What could this mean? Could it be, as his New Age friend Alok believes, that Stanley’s powers are divine? Is Stanley, a confirmed agnostic, the new Messiah? With Alok and a reluctant Frieda in tow, Stanley heads to Banff (the most sacred place on earth) to look for answers and find a way to use his new powers for good. He encounters there his disciples — a Vancouver TV executive, a pro hockey player from the Prairies and a teenage girl from suburban Montreal — and together they start The Stan, a new religion, and invite the world to join. When the world shows up, along with the international media and an angry long-dead spiritualist, things take an unexpected turn. Satirical, fantastical, filled with humour and pointed observation about organized religion in the modern world, The Book of Stanley is a provocative comedy about life, love, and devotion in all its guises.
The Spirits Up
Author: Todd Babiak
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
ISBN: 0771096305
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Warm, witty, and unsettling all at once, here is an unforgettable story of a family desperate for something to believe in. Benedict is an inventor whose life’s work is a clean energy machine. It has just made him an overnight sensation and his family is suddenly wealthy. Benedict’s wife, Karen, and his teenage daughters, Charlotte and Poppy, are proud of him. But there are problems Benedict is too busy to see: Karen is deeply unhappy in the marriage and contemplating an affair, Charlotte, who is dealing with a chronic illness, is growing more and more distant, and Poppy is cracking under the pressures of her social circle. And there’s another problem. Benedict holds a rather terrible secret about his clean energy machine. Then, on Halloween night, an accident threatens to make everything far worse for the family. The accident kicks off a series of hauntings in their beautiful, historic home in affluent Belgravia, and the ghosts make it clear that they want something from them. Karen has to save her daughters — and herself. Meanwhile, Benedict is consumed by the knowledge that he has to achieve the impossible by Christmas. As time ticks ever closer to the revelation of his secret, he spirals further into despair . . . The Spirits Up is the story of a family haunted by the charmlessness of middle age and the cruelties of modern teenage life. Part social satire and part contemporary ghost story (with a hint of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol), it is an exploration of a timeless question: what happens when there’s nothing to believe?
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
ISBN: 0771096305
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Warm, witty, and unsettling all at once, here is an unforgettable story of a family desperate for something to believe in. Benedict is an inventor whose life’s work is a clean energy machine. It has just made him an overnight sensation and his family is suddenly wealthy. Benedict’s wife, Karen, and his teenage daughters, Charlotte and Poppy, are proud of him. But there are problems Benedict is too busy to see: Karen is deeply unhappy in the marriage and contemplating an affair, Charlotte, who is dealing with a chronic illness, is growing more and more distant, and Poppy is cracking under the pressures of her social circle. And there’s another problem. Benedict holds a rather terrible secret about his clean energy machine. Then, on Halloween night, an accident threatens to make everything far worse for the family. The accident kicks off a series of hauntings in their beautiful, historic home in affluent Belgravia, and the ghosts make it clear that they want something from them. Karen has to save her daughters — and herself. Meanwhile, Benedict is consumed by the knowledge that he has to achieve the impossible by Christmas. As time ticks ever closer to the revelation of his secret, he spirals further into despair . . . The Spirits Up is the story of a family haunted by the charmlessness of middle age and the cruelties of modern teenage life. Part social satire and part contemporary ghost story (with a hint of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol), it is an exploration of a timeless question: what happens when there’s nothing to believe?
The Urban Condition: Literary Trajectories through Canada’s Postmetropolis
Author: Eva Darias-Beautell
Publisher: Vernon Press
ISBN: 1622734173
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
Examining the centrality of the city in Canadian literary production post-1960, this collection of critical essays presents an interdisciplinary representation of the urban from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. By analysing contemporary Canadian literature (in English), the contributors intend to produce not only an alternative picture of the national literary traditions but also fresh articulations of the relationship between (Canadian) identity, citizenship, and nation. Since the 1960s, metropolitan regions across the world have experienced radical transformation. For critical urban studies scholars, this phenomenon has been described as a ‘restructuring’. This study argues that in Canada this ‘restructuring’ has been accompanied by a literary rearrangement of its canon, consisting of a gradual shift of focus from the wild or rural to the urban. Alluding to the changes within contemporary Canadian cities, the term ‘postmetropolis’ locates the contributors’ shared theoretical framework within a critical postmodern paradigm. Centered on a particular selection of poetic or fictional texts, each essay pushes the theoretical framework further, suggesting the need for new tools of interpretation and analysis. This book presents an urban literary portrait of Canada that is both thematically and conceptually coherent. Using a range of interdisciplinary methodologies, it adeptly navigates a range of urban issues such as surveillance, asylum, diaspora, mobility, the queer, and the post-political. This book will be of interest to those studying or working on Canadian literature, both in Canada and internationally, as well as to those scholars engaged in investigations that intersect literature and urban studies.
Publisher: Vernon Press
ISBN: 1622734173
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
Examining the centrality of the city in Canadian literary production post-1960, this collection of critical essays presents an interdisciplinary representation of the urban from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. By analysing contemporary Canadian literature (in English), the contributors intend to produce not only an alternative picture of the national literary traditions but also fresh articulations of the relationship between (Canadian) identity, citizenship, and nation. Since the 1960s, metropolitan regions across the world have experienced radical transformation. For critical urban studies scholars, this phenomenon has been described as a ‘restructuring’. This study argues that in Canada this ‘restructuring’ has been accompanied by a literary rearrangement of its canon, consisting of a gradual shift of focus from the wild or rural to the urban. Alluding to the changes within contemporary Canadian cities, the term ‘postmetropolis’ locates the contributors’ shared theoretical framework within a critical postmodern paradigm. Centered on a particular selection of poetic or fictional texts, each essay pushes the theoretical framework further, suggesting the need for new tools of interpretation and analysis. This book presents an urban literary portrait of Canada that is both thematically and conceptually coherent. Using a range of interdisciplinary methodologies, it adeptly navigates a range of urban issues such as surveillance, asylum, diaspora, mobility, the queer, and the post-political. This book will be of interest to those studying or working on Canadian literature, both in Canada and internationally, as well as to those scholars engaged in investigations that intersect literature and urban studies.
Thriving: 1920–1939
Author: Corinne Jeffery
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1525530313
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 396
Book Description
Thriving, book two of Corinne Jeffery’s Understanding Ursula series, continues the story of the challenges of the intriguing and contentious Werners, a family of German Lutheran homesteaders on the Saskatchewan prairie. Become reacquainted with their dynamic lives as they try to keep pace with the flourishing new decade and later discover innovative ways to endure the hardships of the Great Depression. With the return of prosperity to the Canadian prairies, Gustav Werner resumes his insatiable quest to acquire more prime farmland. Still, no one is more surprised than he when his hand is forced and his future reshaped by increasing drama and secrets. He wonders why he is persistently entangled in compromising family relationships, and then tragedy, until he begins to doubt his faith. When Mother Nature, in which he has always found peace and solace, too becomes his enemy—sending drought, grasshoppers, hail, and fierce winds that lift the rich topsoil off his land—he starts to despair. Steadily, though, his sorrow and despondency give way to a deepening awareness of his inner strengths and a heightening of his resolve to push onward for all those who count on him.
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1525530313
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 396
Book Description
Thriving, book two of Corinne Jeffery’s Understanding Ursula series, continues the story of the challenges of the intriguing and contentious Werners, a family of German Lutheran homesteaders on the Saskatchewan prairie. Become reacquainted with their dynamic lives as they try to keep pace with the flourishing new decade and later discover innovative ways to endure the hardships of the Great Depression. With the return of prosperity to the Canadian prairies, Gustav Werner resumes his insatiable quest to acquire more prime farmland. Still, no one is more surprised than he when his hand is forced and his future reshaped by increasing drama and secrets. He wonders why he is persistently entangled in compromising family relationships, and then tragedy, until he begins to doubt his faith. When Mother Nature, in which he has always found peace and solace, too becomes his enemy—sending drought, grasshoppers, hail, and fierce winds that lift the rich topsoil off his land—he starts to despair. Steadily, though, his sorrow and despondency give way to a deepening awareness of his inner strengths and a heightening of his resolve to push onward for all those who count on him.
The Standard
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Insurance
Languages : en
Pages : 634
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Insurance
Languages : en
Pages : 634
Book Description
Nunt
Author: Mingus Tourette
Publisher: Zygote Pub.
ISBN: 9780973445800
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 112
Book Description
"Alternating between startling obscenity and tender humanity, Nunt careens through a world of sex, drugs, prostitutes, buggery, fist fighting, murder, God, death, literature, jazz, rock and roll, zen, and madness."--Back cover.
Publisher: Zygote Pub.
ISBN: 9780973445800
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 112
Book Description
"Alternating between startling obscenity and tender humanity, Nunt careens through a world of sex, drugs, prostitutes, buggery, fist fighting, murder, God, death, literature, jazz, rock and roll, zen, and madness."--Back cover.
Choosing
Author: Corinne Jeffery
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 152552982X
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 431
Book Description
Choosing, book three of Corinne Jeffery’s Understanding Ursula series, concludes the heart-wrenching story of five generations of the controversial and secretive Warner family. Become reunited with Amelia and Gustav, meet their many descendants, and follow them across the Canadian prairies from Saskatchewan to Manitoba and finally to Alberta. In spite of relentless ambition and increasing prosperity, at every turn Gustav Warner is cursed by strife, upheaval, and tragedy. His own children seem determined to disobey him. He is still grappling with his eldest son's defiance that strikes at the very foundation of his beliefs, when his daughter Ursula dumbfounds him. Must he forever endure hardships that might break the spirit of ordinary men? Gustav's inexorable decision and unyielding influence over Ursula ultimately prove so powerful that she becomes her own worst enemy in order to take her secret to her grave. Still, it is not until his children's demands steadily compromise Amelia's peace of mind, and eventually her health, that Gustav is forced to make a choice that astounds them all, and no one more than his beloved wife.
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 152552982X
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 431
Book Description
Choosing, book three of Corinne Jeffery’s Understanding Ursula series, concludes the heart-wrenching story of five generations of the controversial and secretive Warner family. Become reunited with Amelia and Gustav, meet their many descendants, and follow them across the Canadian prairies from Saskatchewan to Manitoba and finally to Alberta. In spite of relentless ambition and increasing prosperity, at every turn Gustav Warner is cursed by strife, upheaval, and tragedy. His own children seem determined to disobey him. He is still grappling with his eldest son's defiance that strikes at the very foundation of his beliefs, when his daughter Ursula dumbfounds him. Must he forever endure hardships that might break the spirit of ordinary men? Gustav's inexorable decision and unyielding influence over Ursula ultimately prove so powerful that she becomes her own worst enemy in order to take her secret to her grave. Still, it is not until his children's demands steadily compromise Amelia's peace of mind, and eventually her health, that Gustav is forced to make a choice that astounds them all, and no one more than his beloved wife.
Arriving
Author: Corinne Jeffery
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1525518399
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 545
Book Description
Arriving, book one of Corinne Jeffery’s Understanding Ursula trilogy, vividly recreates the pioneer world of the Canadian prairies with a multitude of memorable characters. You’ll lose yourself between the pages as you watch them struggle to survive and flourish, always at the mercy of Mother Nature and the ever-changing seasons on the unfettered plains. On July 1, 1909, the day after his eighteenth birthday, Gustav Werner takes the inaugural ride on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway between Melville and Regina, to apply for a homestead grant at the Dominion Lands Office. He is eager to become the most thriving homesteader in the townships of Neudorf and Lemberg, Saskatchewan, set aside for Gustav’s people, the German Lutherans, by Sir Clifford Sifton in Canada’s “Last Best West” land deal. What he doesn’t realize is that beyond becoming a man and a landowner, life as he knows it is about to crumble from his grasp. Family drama and conflict plague Gustav as he learns English—the language that sparks hatred in his staunchly traditional father, Christian—and discovers that his parents have arranged his marriage to sixteen-year-old Amelia Schweitzer.
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1525518399
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 545
Book Description
Arriving, book one of Corinne Jeffery’s Understanding Ursula trilogy, vividly recreates the pioneer world of the Canadian prairies with a multitude of memorable characters. You’ll lose yourself between the pages as you watch them struggle to survive and flourish, always at the mercy of Mother Nature and the ever-changing seasons on the unfettered plains. On July 1, 1909, the day after his eighteenth birthday, Gustav Werner takes the inaugural ride on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway between Melville and Regina, to apply for a homestead grant at the Dominion Lands Office. He is eager to become the most thriving homesteader in the townships of Neudorf and Lemberg, Saskatchewan, set aside for Gustav’s people, the German Lutherans, by Sir Clifford Sifton in Canada’s “Last Best West” land deal. What he doesn’t realize is that beyond becoming a man and a landowner, life as he knows it is about to crumble from his grasp. Family drama and conflict plague Gustav as he learns English—the language that sparks hatred in his staunchly traditional father, Christian—and discovers that his parents have arranged his marriage to sixteen-year-old Amelia Schweitzer.