National Network for Equitable Library Service

This is the story of Levi Pepperfield, who tries to navigate his future while indulging in the sorrows of his past. With the intersection of parallel worlds-of age and youth, of teacher and student, of man and woman, of real and fictional characters-and the help of a female rabbi, a former student, and a succession of literary giants both real and imagined, Levi begins to find his purpose and gets a second chance at life. Perhaps.

Ninety-year-old Mitra has much history behind her. Young Sofija cannot grasp what her great-grandmother Mitra is telling her about life when Mitra was a young girl, growing up in a village back in Yugoslavia. These two are as far apart in their ways of thinking as they are in age. Inspired by a true story, Baba's Story encompasses many people and a vast geographic area, revealing differences in culture, time, and situation.

Strong female voice, a clear-eyed narrator examining self and family.Ash from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano fills the skies. Flights are grounded throughout Europe. Dessie, a cosmopolitan flight attendant from Canada, finds herself stranded in Addis Ababa - her birth place.Grieving her mother's recent death, Dessie heads to see her grandfather, the Shaleqa - compelled as much by duty as her own will. But Dessie's conflicted past stands in her way.

In 1858, the British took over the city of Lucknow, paving the way for Queen Victoria's reign over India. But what happened to Begam Hazrat Mahal, the woman of African-Indian descent who had valiantly organized a final key resistance to British rule, and to her ex-husband, Wajid 'Ali Shah, the last King in India, who remained imprisoned by the British? The Envy of Paradise tells their stories. Jocelyn Cullity's English family lived in India for five generations.

Written over a period of three years and across a range of styles and lengths, Walking with Albert is Keith Weaver's first short story compilation. These stories range from micro-narratives of a few pages in length to what could be called miniature novellas. Weaver's stories cover a vast territorial expanse, taking the reader from outer space to the minutia of Earth's countryside, then into the human heart. One story concerns a young man's unrealised expectation of winning a Fields Medal, while others explore the joys and challenges of rural life, past and present.

After dealing with the grizzly murder of a sexual assault victim near her cottage in Huntsville, Ontario, Robin MacFarland, the feisty Home and Garden reporter for a major Toronto paper, feels she must go elsewhere for a peaceful family holiday. She, her cop boyfriend Ralph, and her adult kids, travel to the beautiful long sand beaches on the South Shore of Nova Scotia for a few weeks in August.

Fifteen-year-old Charlie stays home from school so he can help his older brother, Tom, who is in a hip-to-toe cast after breaking his leg in a football game. When not waiting on his brother hand and foot, Charlie investigates a series of break-ins that have the whole neighborhood on edge. Things really hit home when Charlie nearly catches the thief and then foils an attempted break-in at his own house. As he continues to piece together the clues, Charlie realizes that the easiest way for the culprit to avoid suspicion is to hide in plain sight.

Gina Gallo is a mob goddaughter who doesn't want to be one. She's left her loopy family behind to elope with Pete to Vegas. Except that eloping may be a mortal sin in an Italian family. Between that and some weird deliveries and suitors, Gina's nerves are frayed. Vegas is full of great acts, but one impersonation is real: Gina has a crime-committing double whose activities are making Gina front-page news. Gina has to track down this fiendish fraud before the police catch up with her. And, of course, cousin Nico is along for the ride.

Shortlisted for the 2016 Bony Blithe Award and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. When actress Bella James relocates to the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake to perform at the renowned Shaw Festival, she is only looking to step out of the spotlight of television celebrity and onto the stage. What she finds instead are long-buried human remains in the yard of her rented house. Upon learning that a woman was brutally attacked in the home thirty years earlier, Bella becomes convinced the two events are inextricably linked and that a deeper story was buried with the bones.

Everyone assumes that because he's Chinese, Jon Wong must be good at math and science and a first-class nerd. No matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to shake the stereotypes. After a kung fu action movie, Jon and his best buddy pretend to be martial-arts warriors. Word soon spreads that Jon is a kung fu master, and the kids begin to treat him differently. Rather than correct the mistake, Jon plays up the role and basks in the positive attention from his classmates.