Robinson

Few politicians have enraged opponents, frustrated colleagues and polarized Canadians like Svend Robinson but few embraced the causes he did. Over his twenty-five years as a New Democrat MP, Robinson was imprisoned for blocking loggers from clear-cutting in Clayoquot Sound, assaulted by police while protesting at the 2001 Summit of the Americas, expelled from foreign countries for defending human rights, and harassed after coming out as Canada's first openly gay MP. Robinson always took his ideals to the front lines, helping to define the Canadian left. Though his brash tactics dominated headlines, Robinson's full story has not yet been told. In this in-depth biography, Graeme Truelove explores an accomplished life and career, including Robinson's difficult childhood, his growing realization of his own sexuality, and the bipolar diagnosis which followed his baffling, career-ending theft of a diamond ring. A portrait emerges of a complex figure driven, gifted, visionary and flawed who challenged his country and continues to make his indelible mark on the world.

Elizabeth is a precocious middle-school-age student who loves science. In Elizabeth Goes to Mars! she is watching a documentary on going to Mars and falls asleep. She starts dreaming of an actual trip to Mars. Her adventure with her dog, Rigel, reflects just a few of the challenges we will face if we want to live on Mars.

"A heartfelt and exciting debut...a wise and honest story of how it feels to be a young woman in search of yourself."—Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Malibu Rising The Bookish Life of Nina Hill meets Younger in a heartfelt debut following a young woman who discovers she'll have to ditch the "dream job" and write her own story to find her happy ending. Meet Nora Hughes—the overworked, underpaid, last bookish assistant standing. At least for now. When Nora landed an editorial assistant position at Parsons Press, it was her first step towards The Dream Job. Because, honestly, is there anything dreamier than making books for a living? But after five years of lunch orders, finicky authors, and per my last emails, Nora has come to one grand conclusion: Dream Jobs do not exist. With her life spiraling and the Parsons staff sinking, Nora gets hit with even worse news. Parsons is cutting her already unlivable salary. Unable to afford her rent and without even the novels she once loved as a comfort, Nora decides to moonlight for a rival publisher to make ends meet...and maybe poach some Parsons' authors along the way. But when Andrew Santos, a bestselling Parsons author no one can afford to lose is thrown into the mix, Nora has to decide where her loyalties lie. Her new Dream Job, ever-optimistic Andrew, or...herself and her future. Your next book club read touching on mental health, happiness, and the peaks and perils of being a young woman just trying to figure it all out. Nora Hughes is the perfect heroine for anyone looking to get past their own chapter twenty-something and build their storybook life. "A tender reflection on finding your person while you're still desperately searching for yourself."—KJ Dell'Antonia, New York Times bestselling author of The Chicken Sisters "A book for book lovers... It's impossible not to root for Nora!"—Jesse Q. Sutanto, National Bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties

WINNER of The Gertrude J. Robinson Book Prize, awarded by the Canadian Communication Association, and the Canadian Association of Work and Labour Studies, Book of the Year Award. This book examines the striking rise of call centres over the past quarter century through the lens of the resistance and collective organizing generated by workers along the digital assembly lines. Drawing on field research in Atlantic Canada, Ireland, Italy, and New Zealand, Enda Brophy investigates the contested making of the transnational call centre workforce and its integration into the circuits of global capitalism. Moving beyond depictions of call centre labour as either entirely liberated or utterly subordinated, Language Put to Work inquires into the forms of work refusal and insubordination provoked by the spread of these communicative workplaces, including informal strategies of quitting, slacking and sabotage, conventional trade union activity, tactical innovations at the margins of the labour movement, and forms of self-organization forged by workers outside of the established trade union movement. Weaving rich empirical evidence together with political-economic analysis and theories of resistance, this book argues that the submission of language to the production of value in the call centre is a process of proletarianization rather than professionalization, and that the new working class has widely opposed this transformation.

From a writer whom the New York Times dubbed Canada’s “Generation X laureate” comes a quartet of haunting, unforgettable tales of young people stuck in the inescapable prison of family A New York Times Notable Book and winner of Britain’s prestigious Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, Traplines is the book that introduced the world to Canadian author Eden Robinson. In three stories and a novella, Robinson explodes the idea of family as a nurturing safe haven through a progression of domestic horrors experienced by her young, often helpless protagonists. With her mesmerizing, dark skill, the author ushers us into these worlds of violence and abuse, where family loyalty sometimes means turning a blind eye to murder, and survival itself can be viewed as an act of betrayal. In the title story, for a teenager named Will growing up on a Native reserve in northwestern Canada, guilt, race, and blind fidelity are the shackles chaining him to the everyday cruelty and abuse he is forced to endure. In “Dogs in Winter,” a girl recalls life with her serial-killer mother and fears for her own future. A young teen and the sadistic, psychopathic cousin who comes to live with him engage in a cat-and-mouse game that soon escalates out of control in “Contact Sports,” while in the final story, “Queen of the North,” a young Native girl deals in her own way with sexual molestation at the hands of a pedophile uncle. Each of these tales is vivid, intense, and disturbing, and Robinson renders them unforgettable with her deft flair for storytelling and a surprising touch of humor.

In Crossing the Line, Laura Robinson takes an unflinching look at abuse in junior hockey, the breeding ground for the NHL. She explains how this great sport has gone so bad, and challenges those who are a part of the world of hockey to rethink the game and consider ways to fix it.

Chief Inspector Alan Banks of the Criminal Investigation Department has been recently transferred from London to Eastvale, a town in the Yorkshire dales. His desire to escape the stress of city life appears to be satisfied by Eastvale's cobbled market square, its tree-shaded river and its picturesque castle ruins. But the village begins to show a more dangerous side... As a peeping Tom disturbs the peace of Eastvale women, police are accused of underestimating the seriousness of the crime. At the same time, Banks is investigating the case of two local teenagers whose crimes are escalating from theft to violence. The two cases weave together as this tough, gritty novel of power and suspense reaches a terrifying and surprising climax.

In this award-winning collection, the bestselling author of Gilead offers us other ways of thinking about history, religion, and society. Whether rescuing "Calvinism" and its creator Jean Cauvin from the repressive "puritan" stereotype, or considering how the McGuffey readers were inspired by Midwestern abolitionists, or the divide between the Bible and Darwinism, Marilynne Robinson repeatedly sends her reader back to the primary texts that are central to the development of American culture but little read or acknowledged today. A passionate and provocative celebration of ideas, the old arts of civilization, and life's mystery, The Death of Adam is, in the words of Robert D. Richardson, Jr., "a grand, sweeping, blazing, brilliant, life-changing book."