National Network for Equitable Library Service

Flying with Amelia chronicles the dreams and struggles of a cast of unforgettable characters through more than a hundred years and across a vast landscape as they face challenges and find courage, sometimes in surprising places. In 1847 a famine ship arrives in Canada from Ireland, and here, the tale begins, weaving through generations and time. A St. John’s boy learns the finer points of communication while his employer receives the first transatlantic wireless signal. A British Home Child finds sorrow and solace on an Ontario farmstead.

For Bluma Goldberg, the teenaged daughter of a Jewish bootlegger, Prohibition-era Chicago is the furthest place one can get from law and temperance. Her first steps into womanhood are made all the more uncertain by the dangers of her father’s shadowy world. Decades later, her loving son, Joey Krueger, a man coming off his own share of emotional turmoil, remains mystified by the person he’s known all his life. Who is she really?

To all who knew him, Etienne Morneau lived unremarkably. Raised in an orphanage, his parents unknown, people considered him reserved, unfeeling, and antisocial. His death would have gone unnoticed were it not for his art and writing discovered afterwards. His secret drawings are proof of his artistic genius and his memoir, written in a kaleidoscope of thought and arranged like a dictionary, reveal the depth of his humanity and the uniqueness of his perception.

When Erika Drake, of the Westmount Drakes, met and fell in love with Marc Reiser, a Jew from northern Ontario, their respective worlds were turned upside down. Set against the backdrop of the first three years of the Second World War.

Doubting Yourself to the Bone is a story about the nature of grief, about what it means to be a parent in the face of great sorrow, the idea of re-invented love and hope. Set in Paris and a small town in the Canadian Rockies, the novel is propelled forward by a horrific car crash that reverberates for the victim's husband and daughters.

In telling the intersecting stories of Edmund, Teresa, and Joel - all of whom leave trails of hopeful chaos in their wake - Greg Kearney has painted a blackly comic, yet surprisingly earnest, portrait of modern loneliness.

When forest fire forensics expert Porter Cassel is called in to help catch a serial arsonist who goes by the name "Lorax", he must juggle his official investigation with a personal one: the Lorax's modus operandi resembles that of a long-dormant ecoterrorist who planted the bomb that killed Cassel's fiance;. His personal investigation creates friction with the Mounties, who have jurisdiction over the latest series murders.

In 1941, fifteen-year-old Madli hopes the Soviet occupation is temporary, but when thousands of Estonians are deported, she knows lives are in danger. She longs for the safety of her grandfather's farm. Days later, the Nazis invade her country. Friends and family find themselves divided as they try to choose which dictator they'd rather live under: Hitler or Stalin. Madli is horrified by both, but how long can she remain neutral? Every day brings new dangers and unimaginable decisions.

Cumberland is an industrial town located halfway between Ottawa and Montreal on the shore of the St. Lawrence River. It's facing the close of its factories and mills in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Ernest, a mill worker whose job is lost when the mill closes, is fifty-two; his employment prospects are poor. His life to this point hasn't equipped him to face any more loss. Longing for companionship, he meets Bea, a waitress at Malouf's, the local pub.