Robert James Campbell Stead (4 September 1880 - 1959) was born at Middleville, Ontario. The family homesteaded at Cartwright, Manitoba in 1882. Robert J.C. Stead began a weekly newspaper in Cartwright in 1899, at the age of 18 years. His first book, The Empire Builders and Other Poems was published in 1908 and for the next 23 years, until 1931, he continued a steady flow of novels, short stories and books of verse, which enriched the portraiture of Canadian prairie life. Views: 210
A car tumbles through darkness down a snowy ravine...A woman without a name walks out of a dust storm in sub-Saharan Africa...And in the seething heat of Lagos City, a criminal cartel scours the Internet, looking for victims...Lives intersect. Worlds collide. And it all begins with a single email: “Dear Sir, I am the daughter of a Nigerian diplomat, and I need your help…”Will Ferguson takes readers deep into the labyrinth of lies that is 419, the world’s most insidious Internet scam.When Laura Curtis, a lonely editor in a cold northern city, discovers that her father has died because of one such swindle, she sets out to track down—and corner—her father’s killer. It is a dangerous game she’s playing, however, and the stakes are higher than she can ever imagine.Woven into Laura’s journey is a mysterious woman from the African Sahel with scars etched into her skin and a young man who finds himself caught up in a web of violence and deceit.And running through it, a dying father’s final words: “You, I love.”From Publishers WeeklyFerguson's African epic, which won Canada's Scotiabank Giller prize in 2012, details the linked lives of four individuals, three African and one Canadian, drawn together by Nigeria's bloody, exploited history. Laura seeks justice for her murdered father; amoral Winston chases wealth at any cost; Nnamdi and Amina seek only honest employment and a chance to raise Amina's child. Greed contends with generosity and vengeance with forgiveness in a world where the bad prosper and acts of charity are harshly punished. Despite the terrible events of the book, the author leaves room for hope of a better tomorrow. White North Americans grappling with the €˜matter of Africa' is an often fraught affair, bright white teeth contrasted with chocolate skin, where tides of causeless violence wash across the hopeless continent and exoticized, sexualized natives exist solely to provide a supporting cast for white protagonists. Ferguson avoids many of the pitfalls of this genre; every terrible action has a motivation, Nigeria's present calamities have a historical and international context. Most importantly, Winston, Nnamdi and Amina do not exist merely to cast an edifying light on Laura, but, as she belatedly comes to appreciate, have inner lives, goals and ambitions of their own. Ferguson provides a template for novels about Africa other Western authors would do well to contemplate. Agent: Grainne Fox, Fletcher & Company. (Sept.)From BooklistStarred Review According to Ferguson, Nigeria’s Igbo people believe that we each have a pair of souls, and that when we die, one soul leaves and the second attaches to someone else as protector. In 419 (named for the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code forbidding fraud), this belief in linked souls is wrapped with manipulation and revenge in a package nothing short of epic. In Canada, Laura Curtis’ father plunges his car from an embankment, and investigators discover he’s fallen prey to a Nigerian e-mail scam. Laura resolves to get both revenge and remuneration. In Lagos, the enterprising scammer who snared Laura’s father is snatched up by a local crime boss and forced to work for his violent crime syndicate. Amina has fled her northern desert village, seeking safety for her unborn child. Nnamde, a storyteller’s son from Nigeria’s oil-soaked Delta region, has been both oil worker and saboteur, using his sharp wits to avoid being killed by either side. Ferguson draws these characters closer with each page, finally hurling them together in a multilevel game of cunning and manipulation. His Nigeria is alternately mystical and grounded in harsh realities, tragic and hopeful, hard-boiled and soft-spoken. Absolutely worthy of its 2012 Giller Prize, 419 is a gift for both crime- and general-fiction readers, especially fans of Khaled Hosseini, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Edwidge Danticat, and John le Carré. --Christine Tran Views: 162
The Second Chance is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Nellie L. McClung is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Nellie L. McClung then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. Views: 115
At the age of 50, newly widowed Rowena Hill feels only relief to be free of her penny-pinching fusspot of a husband. As she makes her stumbling efforts to become fulfilled as a woman and a wage-earner, well-intentioned friends and her overbearing daughter all make plans for her future, with results that are sometimes comical, sometimes disastrous. However, Rowena's growing taste for independence leads her to a solution to her problems that no one could have predicted and which astonishes even herself. First published in 1991, A Serious Widow collected glowing reviews. Views: 71
On a late summer day along the shores of Nova Scotia, a young woman makes a mistake that will claim her life, while at the other end of the beach her brother, Damian, is unaware that she is drowning. Beginning with this shattering event, Anne Simpson’s mesmerizing novel unfolds in unexpected ways. A year after the accident, Damian and his mother, Ingrid, travel to Niagara Falls to scatter Lisa’s ashes and to visit Ingrid’s estranged brother, once a famous daredevil of the Falls, now blind, and his mentally disabled son. But old wounds and new misunderstandings soon collide. Damian, burdened by guilt, finds solace in an intense relationship with a girl he first glimpses in a tattoo parlour. A runaway with dreams of New York City, Jasmine has her own reasons for wanting to escape the past. Meanwhile, Ingrid, having reluctantly returned to her childhood home, finds herself at odds with her brother and besieged by memories. As the summer progresses, each of them becomes caught in the pull of the past — until an act of recklessness shocks them into a new course for the future. In startling, luminous language, Anne Simpson captures both the natural beauty and tawdry eccentricity of Niagara Falls, while evoking the elemental bonds that tie us to the ones we love. By turns uncompromising and heartbreakingly tender, Falling is a riveting story of ordinary people poised on the knife-edge of grief and hope. With this, her second novel, Anne Simpson proves herself to be one of our most striking and original writers.From the Hardcover edition.ReviewPraise for Falling“This is a tender and wise novel; a remarkable story of love lost, and then found.” — David Bergen“In concise, beautiful language, Anne Simpson’s Falling captures a family in free-fall after tragedy strikes. Against the quiet loveliness of a Nova Scotian landscape, and the endless, brutal roar of Niagara Falls, Simpson’s characters struggle to regain their balance, caught between the poles of acceptance and rage, hope and despair. We fall with them and surface, shaken, transformed. Tough, heartbreaking, astute, this novel confronts our deepest fears, and teaches us how to survive.” — Beth Powning“The novel moves forward much like the rushing river that ends up as the tumbling waterfall, unstoppable, a force of nature, like life itself. . . . The novel deserves the highest praise: Simpson has brought together character, plot, language and metaphor with both subtlety and intensity. The result is a potent mix, one that might well result in a Giller award to stand beside her Griffin Prize.” — National Post“Simpson's skill is such that the sum total here is far greater than the parts. We don't quite realize the force of what's built up until near the end, when we suddenly find ourselves fully invested in this compelling web of characters.” — Toronto Star“Profound and sharply observed. . . . Simpson has the poet’s art of paying close attention to details, which take on added fierceness and luminosity [in this novel]. . . . We see, with increasing admiration and wonder, the forces [her characters] are able draw on, as they tumble through the waterfall, in order to survive.” — Globe and Mail“It’s rare to come across a current writer whose characters not only make you think, but are described in such sensual language that t... About the AuthorANNE SIMPSON is the author of four books of poetry, Is (2011); Quick (2007), winner of the Pat Lowther Memorial Award; Loop (2003), winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize; and Light Falls Through You (2000), winner of the Gerald Lampert Memorial Prize and the Atlantic Poetry Prize. She has also written two novels, Falling (2008), longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and winner of the Dartmouth Award for Fiction, and Canterbury Beach (2001). Her book of essays, The Marram Grass: Poetry and Otherness (2009), delves into issues of poetry, art, and empathy. While her home is in Nova Scotia, she has been a writer-in-residence at many universities and libraries across Canada. Views: 71
Seeking justice for the murder of a fellow cop, Jack Taggart goes undercover to penetrate a gang whose leader is the culprit.Jack Taggart is out for justice, and just a little revenge, when he goes undercover as a pimp to hunt down the murderer of a cop to whom he owes his life. Embroiled in a mysterious international crime syndicate, for once Taggart might be in over his head.It seemed like a simple investigation of a drug trafficker at first, but when Taggart gets a desperate call for help from one of his informants, he falls headlong into a ruthless network of black marketeering and murder orchestrated by an elusive mastermind. After an Interpol agent is compromised and assassinated, Jack is drawn deeper into the web of crime as things get personal. Despite the constant risk of exposure, Jack is getting close, but any mistake could be fatal. As his allies fall, the only protection Jack has left is a stolen painting that might as well be a bullseye on... Views: 69
The Fairy Books, or "Coloured" Fairy Books is a collection of fairy tales divided into twelve books, each associated with a different colour. Collected together by Andrew Land they are sourced from a number of different countries and were translated by Lang's wife and other translators who also retold many of the tales. The collection has been incalculably important and, although he did not source the stories himself direct from the oral tradition he can make claim to the first English translation of many.First published in 1897, The Pink Fairy Bookis the 5th volume in this series. Views: 67
