Albertan Authors

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Always brave, sometimes kind : a novel

Always brave, sometimes kind : a novel

Bickell, Katie, author
2020

Set in the cities, reserves, and rural reaches of Alberta, this novel is told in a series of stories that span the years from 1990 to 2016, through cycles of boom and bust in the oil fields, government budget cuts and workers rights policies, the rising opioid crisis, and the intersecting lives of people whose communities sometimes stretch farther than they know. We meet a teenage runaway who goes into labour at the West Edmonton Mall, a doctor managing hospital overflow in a time of healthcare cutbacks, a broke dad making extra pay through a phone sex line, a young musician who dreams of fame beyond the reserve, and a dedicated hockey mom grappling with sense of self when she’s no longer needed—or welcome—at the rink. Always Brave, Sometimes Kind captures a network of friends, caregivers, in-laws, and near misses, with each character’s life coming into greater focus as we learn more about the people around them. Tracing alliances and betrayals from different perspectives over decades, Bickell writes an ode to home and community that is both warm and gritty, well-defined and utterly complicated.

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Blood donor

Blood donor

Bass, Karen, 1962- author
2021

"Seventeen-year-old Jo McNair is one minute late for her curfew, and thanks to her controlling father, she's now locked out, cold and wandering the streets. She has no money and nowhere to sleep. Halfway through the night she meets someone who says they're with a group working with at-risk kids, helping them get back on their feet. Jo gratefully accepts the offer of shelter for the night, only to find she has walked into a kidnapper's trap. Now Jo and several other teens are being held prisoner. Their captors drug them regularly and force them to donate their blood. What is so special about the teens' blood? And how long before they're drained dry? When one of the teens doesn't return, Jo suspects their days are numbered. She has to find a way to escape before their time runs out."--Provided by publisher.

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Evil on the Peace River

Evil on the Peace River

Lein, Beverly, 1949-
2012


A history of my brief body

A history of my brief body

Belcourt, Billy-Ray, author
2020

Billy-Ray Belcourt's debut memoir opens with a tender letter to his kokum and memories of his early life in the hamlet of Joussard, Alberta, and on the Driftpile First Nation. From there, it expands to encompass the big and broken world around him, in all its complexity and contradictions. With startling honesty, and in a voice distinctly and assuredly his own, Belcourt situates his life experiences within a constellation of seminal queer texts, among which this book is sure to earn its place.

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Lookout : love, solitude, and searching for wildfire in the boreal forest

Lookout : love, solitude, and searching for wildfire in the boreal forest

Moyles, Trina, author
2021

While growing up in Peace River, Alberta, Trina Moyles heard many stories of fire tower lookouts - strange, eccentric types who spent whole summers alone in 100-foot high towers, watching for signs of fire in the surrounding Boreal forest. Thus begins Trina's first summer as one of a handful of scattered lookouts in the Boreal. Throughout two gruelling summers and the winter in between, Trina teeters on the edge of sanity while discovering a new kind of self-awareness and self-reliance that only solitude can deliver.

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The red chesterfield

The red chesterfield

Arthurson, Wayne, 1962- author
2019

M is a bylaw officer, living with two brothers, in their parent's old house. While investigating a suspicious yard sale, M discovers a red chesterfield sitting in a ditch. Looking closer, M finds a running shoe-- and a severed foot. Now M is involved in a murder investigation. Meanwhile, older brother K's work for a new political party begins to seem suspicious, while younger brother J navigates the complicated world of young-adulthood, and boss Rhonda demands more and more attention, M must navigate a world of Russian gangsters and neglected wives, biker gangs and suspicious coincidences. On top of everything else, M is determined to track down the owner of that red chesterfield and make sure they get a ticket. "The Red Chesterfield" is a delightful, unusual novel that upends the tropes and traditions of crime fiction while asking how far one person is willing to go to solve a crime, be it murder or the abandonment of a piece of furniture.

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Second chances

Second chances

Coates, J. L. (Judith)
2012


Tyr

Tyr

Tupper, N. R. author
2016


Who by fire

Who by fire

Stenson, Fred, 1951- author
2014