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In this enchanting novel, VC, a onetime aspiring pugilist become university professor, explores the meaning of life both in this world and in those worlds still to come. Together with Moreen, the love of his life, their daughter Aila, and their families and friends---not to mention characters out of the pages of his own novel, somehow come to life---VC embarks on a journey that will test the limits of true love. Readers will come away from Finding My Way Home struck by the author's ability to balance humour and pathos, joy and tragedy---and with much to mull over in their own lives.

In this remarkable book, noted cultural scholar D. Paul Schafer examines the great cultural awakening that is taking place all across the world---an awakening that is opening the doors to a cultural age. Schafer begins by considering the importance of culture, as well as discussing how culture has been defined by a variety of thinkers. He then turns to an examination of the vast constellation of cultures that exist in the world before moving progressively "up the ladder," from the cultures of individuals, children, parents, homes, families, communities, and schools to those of towns, cities, regions, countries, the entire human world, and finally the cultures of other species. This is followed by an assessment of several foundational requirements for the creation of a cultural age, such as the cultural interpretation of history and the centrality of cultural development and policy. The author concludes by discussing various ways of opening the doors to a cultural age, strategies to harmonize crucial relationships and cultivate spirituality and compassion, the prerequisites for living in a cultural age, and, finally, an exploration of why it is so essential to make the transition from the present economic age to a future cultural age.The Great Cultural Awakening represents the culmination of a lifetime of research, analysis, and advocacy in the cultural field. In the words of the reviewers, it is truly a "masterpiece" as well as a "beacon of light," urging us on toward a better future.ADVANCE PRAISE FROM AROUND THE WORLD FOR THE GREAT CULTURAL AWAKENING¿¿Amazing! Schafer chronicles the evolution of the cultural realm and describes the interwoven dimensions of nature, human beings, other species, cultures, time, and space. Reading this book is like seeing ourselves as part of nature rather than apart from nature, as well as imagining a world where harmony, sustainability, and well-being for all people, countries, and species are the ultimate goal. ---Mira Sartika, Founder and Director, Chakra Cultural Foundation, IndonesiaSchafer guides us with erudition, authority, and conviction toward a clear and positive vision of a cultural age. His inexhaustible range of references, depth of insight and analysis, and trust in what he terms "the great cultural awakening" make this book essential reading for everyone interested in a serious, far-ranging, and scrupulously-argued discussion of the vital need for the citizens of the world to come together to build a just, harmonious, and productive future: a new cultural age. ---Max Wyman, author of The Compassionate Imagination: How the Arts Are Central to a Functioning Democracy, CanadaCulture is much more than a dimension of sustainable development; it is the overarching key to a sustainable world. ---Engelbert Ruoss, USI Università della Svizzera Italiana, and Co-Owner at Innoreg SAGL, SwitzerlandA much needed, comprehensive, and insightful map to find our way out of the global crisis and make the transition to a cultural age. Paul Schafer, an acknowledged expert in the field, offers an enlightening perspective on how to develop culture and cultures from the ground up, drawing on a wealth of inspiring references and compelling examples. ---Thomas Legrand, author of Politics of Being: Wisdom and Science for a New Development Paradigm, France

The year is 1938. With the prospect of another world war looming and faced with overwhelming personal problems, acclaimed Canadian author L.M. Montgomery begins to compose what she has decided will be her final novel featuring Anne Shirley. As she works on the novel, Montgomery remembers the now distant days when Anne of Green Gables became a worldwide literary phenomenon, and the dilemma that she faced at that time: whether to write a series of "Anne novels" in which Anne would forever remain the red-haired girl that the world had come to know and love, or whether she would allow Anne to grow to adulthood, with all the agonizing torments of the one who had given her life---L.M. Montgomery.

For decades David J. Forsyth has researched his ancestors' stories, assembling an enormous cache of records and anecdotes. Although history is filled with the tales of the great and the powerful, much less is known about the lives of ordinary people. Forsyth's goal in his research and in the writing of Alice and the Machine Gunner is to address that gap.Alice and the Machine Gunner is a conscientious blend of fact and fiction, a multigenerational account of the Geherty family based on information gleaned from civil, parish, military and personal records, as well as the reminiscences of the late Alice Geherty.The author begins with Peter Geherty, a 19th-century Irish linen weaver, and concludes with the life story of his great-granddaughter Alice, a London-born war bride. In 1919, she emigrated to Hamilton, Ontario, with little hope of ever seeing her parents again.This engrossing work of creative nonfiction brings to life generations of people now departed, as well as providing a vivid portrait of the city of Hamilton, Ontario in the first half of the 209th century. In the process, it opens the door to a deeper understanding of the past.

In Water Voices, author Sheldon Clark presents a moving series of spiritual reflections grouped together under three general themes: Calm, Storm, and Peace. Readers will find both insight and reassurance in these meditations and remembrances, spanning the lifespan from birth to final years. Evocative illustrations enhance the meaning of the poems and prayers included in the book.A word from the author:In the summer of 1958, my brother and I rode horseback into the hill ring surrounding a cattle ranch near Gunnison, Colorado. We followed a creek to its spring, dismounted, and we and our horses refreshed ourselves with cool clear water. We felt history flowing down our throats. We felt at one with the eternal source sending cleansing blood through our veins. We gave thanks for this natural baptism. I could only wish that people everywhere could give thanks for the unmerited gift of pure water. Water voices are heard in varieties of music from classical, gospel, country and western, folk, easy listening, and rock. Water voices are seen in drawings, paintings, and photography, as representative, abstract, and mood inspiring. Water voices in literature appeal to the five senses and express inner thoughts. Words are the instruments used to articulate passionate love, reflect on grief, loss, danger, and death, and are intentionally chosen to provoke a response. Water voices are as constant as sunrise and sunset. They possess character. They are as soothing as divine mercy. They are as gentle as the lion that lies down with the lamb, as violent as unbridled war and storms at sea, as miraculous as spiritual conversion, as nourishing as Mother Earth, and as mysterious as love. In listening to water voices, we hear the divine replenishing Creation, itself. The narrative poems in Water Voices were inspired to acknowledge each person's experience as they bring their welcoming capabilities to our essential source of existence. In these uncertain times of climate change, it is incumbent upon humanity to listen to water voices as friendly sounds ever so subtly appealing for human help to achieve the goals of balance, conservation, restorative justice, and mutually assured survival.

While driving his granddaughter home from day care, John -- the very author of this book! -- suddenly finds himself without warning standing in the midway of a carnival of Mother Goose fairy tales! He is greeted by Jack -- of Jack and Jill fame, of course -- who tells John that Mother Goose is expecting him, as she has a role for him to play. But what does Mother Goose really want? And why does she think John is a writer of detective stories? And why when she meets John does she greet him as almost a long-lost son? And for that matter, why do so many of the fairy-tale characters have a different story they want John to write for them, instead of the ones in which they have lived for hundreds of years? John is not a mythical creature -- he's only a human, after all -- but can he save the Mother Goose Carnival? Can he solve the mystery of the vanishing fairy-tales?John and Mother Goose: The Carnival of Tales is complemented by a selection of Mother Goose rhymes, chosen by John himself. Together, this charming novella and the fairy tales make ideal reading for young and old.

The terrifying Wîhtikow Rex takes centre stage in this exciting second book in the Lukas Encounters series. The mysterious creature-a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton that Lukas and his cousin KC accidentally bring to life-is described in Cree mythology as a ravening monster that grows as it consumes its victims. The adventures begin when Lukas and KC meet paleontologist Mekwen Calf Robe at the Royal Tyrrell Museum. From Mekwen they learn that Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park is not far from the Johnson family farm where KC lives. She agrees to show them various rock formations and maybe even some dinosaur fossils at the park. But as Lukas and KC begin exploring the park on their own, they stray into areas Mekwen warned them to avoid, and before you can say "Tyrannosaurus rex," a menace as old as time is nipping at their heels!

The Tuneful Voice: Selected Libretti presents a collection of works by Eugene Benson, professor, novelist, playwright, and editor, written over a fifty-year period. The volume includes adaptations of the writings of such prominent authors as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Oscar Wilde as opera, operetta, musical theatre, and oratorio. The death of Canadian painter Tom Thomson is probed in the oratorio The Mystery of Canoe Lake, and the extraordinary story of the Canadian theatre mogul Ambrose J. Small is dramatized in the musical The Millionaire Who Disappeared. Other subjects range from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century.This is a book, rich in detail and personal insight, and an illuminating exploration of how musical theatre in its various genres is created. Benson's work has been performed by the Canadian Opera Company, the Stratford Festival of Canada, the Guelph Spring Festival, Toronto Operetta Theatre, Westben Arts Festival, Opera-in-Concert (Toronto), Stratford Summer Music, and broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

One thing most people want more of is confidence. Consider this your how-to guide to feel and project confidence in all situations. Flaunting requires you to notice your wins, feel proud of them, and share them out loud with others. To do that, you need to overcome barriers by quieting the voices that quiet you (including your own), looking at language that helps or hinders how you're perceived, and applying your new, confident self to challenging situations like navigating power dynamics. These problems aren't new. Brenda Landry's solutions are. Flaunt will develop your confidence from the inside out. Get reading. Eureka moments await!

Recently hired as the assistant librarian at Masterson College, Eric Merton is thrown into a bewildering maelstrom of murder and mayhem. It begins with the brutal slaying of the head librarian's administrative assistant. Meanwhile controversy arises about an embargoed journal that may hold a crucial medical secret. As the bodies pile up, will Eric be able to figure out the killer's identity before he, too, becomes yet another victim?Masterson Murders draws on author Peter Abbot's long experience in academic life to draw a compelling portrait of a university library under siege. It's a whodunit unlike any other, with surprises right to the very last line.

In this moving novella, Peter Abbot has penned a moving meditation on what it means to live --- and to die. In short order, Derrick deals with the passing of his Auth Martha, home from South Africa to die; the loss of his best friend "Pip"; the implications of hundreds of children's graves newly found at former residential school sites; and the grisly end of his long-lost uncle, gunned down on the sidewalk outside Derrick's house.What does it all mean? Does it mean anything at all? Exeunt, like all of Abbot's works, looks unflinchingly at the dark corners of the human condition, yet finds hope in the hidden strengths of the human heart.

With contributions by Kim Blanchette and Colleen KillingsworthIntroduction by Daniel GrangerThis book was created to assist entry-level communicators in learning how to develop successful campaigns, as well as to provide more seasoned practitioners with a refresher on the elements of an effective communication plan. It covers:the creation of executive summaries using the RACE formula; research and analysis;the setting of goals and objectives;identification of target audiences and key messages;development of strategies, tactics, timelines, and budgets;effective use of human resources in a campaign; andevaluation of a campaign's outcome.Case studies of real-life campaigns round out this invaluable guidebook.

At the end of 2019, Aron Lee decided to live 2020 without access to the internet. He would interact with the world in what we have already come to think of as the "old-fashioned" way --- taking calls and texting on a flip phone, paying bills by cheque (and receiving them by snail mail), and writing actual pen-on-paper letters to friends and family, all the while continuing his doctoral work at McGill University. Along the way he discovered a good deal about the internet, about our modern wired (and wireless) world, and about himself. This is his story."A modest experiment, beautifully chronicled." --- Darin Barney, Grierson Chair in Communication Studies, McGill University"¿¿¿Lee's memoir challenges readers' beliefs about the power of connection (and disconnection), as well as the very nature of what it means to live a life 'online.' " --- Roopika Risam, Director of the Digital Ethnic Futures Consortium, Dartmouth College"Jacking Out is a queer and quirky account of the queer and difficult year that was 2020." --- Wendy Oberlander, Artist, Educator, Lesbian Mom

In this poignant memoir, anthropologist and author David Turner tells of how he played the yiraga --- a musical instrument played by the aboriginal peoples of Australia --- for his friend and former partner Alexa, following her death in 2020. Turner describes the meaning of the yiraga within Australian aboriginal culture, and how he learned to play the instrument over the course of several decades living with and learning from indigenous peoples on Australia's Groote Eylandt archipelago. The result is a profound meditation on the meaning of life and death.FROM THE BOOK:"Grief might prove debilitating at first and serve to clear the mind of all thoughts and distractions in preparation, except that the act of playing the yiraga induces a becalming state of mind/being in which only the sense of breathing remains. This is effected by the repetitive rhythms of the mouth-sound tempos (which there is no need to sound to oneself once one becomes adept at playing), of which there are three: degul degul, quick; degul-degula-gula, medium; and degula degula, slow. It is in a becalmed but empty state of mind/being that one potentially enters a mediating zone between the "real" and the "transcendent" and is able to open a portal for the departed in their journey." Illustrated with more than 40 full-colour images

Professor Hair draws on a lifetime of scholarship and teaching in this brief yet insightful introduction to Charles Dickens's novel Little Dorrit. Both readers coming to the novel for the first time and those returning to it will find their enjoyment and understanding enhanced by his analysis of how Dickens uses character, plot and atmosphere to drive home his message of social protest. And that message is as relevant today as it was when Little Dorrit was first published more than a century and a half ago, for in the novel (as Hair points out) "Dickens is exposing and attacking that most difficult of social ills to define precisely, the one that people sometimes refer to as the 'system'... 'Nobody's fault' was Dickens's original title for the novel, and it is of course ironic: something that is 'nobody's fault' is everybody's fault."

Following in the tradition of Mark Twain's cherished classics Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Time and The Place is a poignant story of a boy's coming of age in the America of the 1940s. Despised by his father, David --- known to all as Junior --- finds solace in his summers at his grandparents' farm, "The Place," where he confronts death, loss, love, and the tangled web of family history. Will Goede's previous novel, Quantrill, was a finalist for the B.C. Book Prize, while his story collection Life in Beijing was a finalist for the Edith Wilson Prize in literary fiction.

Glenn Gould's life as a musician begins as a fairy-tale, as his very first recording --- the Goldberg Variations --- skyrockets the young Canadian to the top of the music world, as a must-see and must-hear concert-pianist with sold-out performances all around the world. And then, at the height of his powers and his popularity, he makes a decision about his music and his life which splits the music world right down the middle, and remains controversial to this day.

Edmund Altenkirch was one of the great pioneers of refrigeration technology and thermoelectricity. This book represents the first extended discussion of his work to be made available in English. It provides detailed coverage of both Altenkirch's theoretical and practical work in the field, ranging in time from before the First World War to his death in 1953. Altenkirch's research not only underlay advancements in refrigeration technology and thermoelectric power generation in the first half of the twentieth century, but also provided the basis for developments in green energy production and utilization that are occurring today.

In this charming collection of stories, John Steckley describes the (mainly) imaginary adventures of his granddaughter Mia. Whether it's foiling bullying at school or a robbery at a restaurant, investigating a case of baby-snatching carried out by aliens, or saving a pair of orphaned bear cubs, Mia's adventures are sure to entertain readers young and old.I was very fortunate to have been able to spend a lot of time with my grandfathers when I was growing up. Both of them took me fishing, for example, and put up with my lack of ability to cast. They were my heroes. But they were in their early sixties when I was born. When Mia was born I was 70. She was our first grandchild. Her birth and presence in our lives were exciting to us, her Omi (grandmother) and Opa (grandfather), and cherished memories soon were created. Alas, we probably won't have the years together with Mia that my grandfathers had with me....When I retired as a college professor in 2015, I began writing short stories, along with my usual nonfiction books (several published by Rock's Mills Press) and articles. It was only natural that Mia would prove to be an inspiration for story after story. It wasn't long before I wrote enough of them to make up a book. I felt it was important to publish such a book. In that way, when Mia has grown up, she will have the book to remind her of her grandmother Angie (the illustrator) and me and of our time together in her early years. I am also hoping that grandparents who read the book will be inspired to write their own short stories about their grandchildren!---From the Author

As the author notes in his introduction, this fascinating and insightful book is "family history with a context." Placing the lives of his parents, John Hair and Alice Runnalls, at the centre of the narrative, Dr. Hair explores the history and culture of Southwestern Ontario, that great peninsula of fertile farmland lying between Lake Erie and Lake Huron.Dubbed "Souwesto" in the 1960s by artist Greg Curnoe and playwright James Reaney, the region was home to the kind of people that Alice Munro writes about in her short stories---people mostly of Scots-Irish descent; Protestant; practical, hard-working people attached to the land, defining their community as their school section and their social milieu as their rural Methodist or Presbyterian church.Souwesto Lives tells their story, beginning in the first days of European settlement, continuing through the clearing of "the bush" and into the twentieth century, when the coming of the telephone and rural electrification marked the beginning of social and technological changes that would change the area forever. It is a story of the movement from country to city, from family farm to suburban lot, told with verve and affection.Natives of Souwesto, historians and genealogists, and the general reader all will find much to treasure in this detailed portrait of a region, its people, and a family.

A charming story of Christmas magic from the author of John Passfield: Saturday Morning, nominated for the 2022 ReLit novel awardAs writer John Passfield is driving home from a December book-discussion meeting and thinking about the Christmas topics that were discussed---in particular, Dickens, who wrote a novella which transformed the world's conception of Christmas---he suddenly finds himself sitting in a sleigh pulled by Rudolph and eight tiny reindeer. What an excellent opportunity to ask San-ta about a seventy-year-old mystery---the mystery of the missing cowboy shirt!