“[Metcalf’s] talent is generous, hectoring, huge, and remarkable.”—Washington Post In Temerity & Gall, Metcalf looks back on a lifetime spent in letters; surveys, with no punches pulled, the current state of CanLit; and offers a passionate defense of the promise and potential of Canadian writing. In a 1983 editorial letter to the Globe and Mail, celebrated Canadian novelist W.P. Kinsella railed that “Mr. Metcalf—an immigrant—continually and in the most galling manner has the temerity to preach to Canadians about their own literature.” Forty years later, in spite of Kinsella’s effort to discredit him in the name of a misguided nationalism both embarrassing and familiar, John Metcalf still has the temerity and gall to preach, to teach, and to write passionately (and uproariously) about literature in Canada. Part memoir, meditation, and apologia, part criticism and pure Metcalf, the present volume distills a lifetime of reading and writing, thinking and collecting, and continues his necessary work kicking against the ever-present pricks. As is the case with all of his critical work, Temerity & Gall will challenge, delight, anger, and inspire in equal measure, and is essential reading for anyone interested in literature in Canada and its place within the wider tradition of writing in English. Temerity & Gall is printed in a limited paperback edition of 750 copies signed and numbered by the author.

What happens after the war ends? Exhausted from a brutal and drawn-out war, Craze longs to retire in peace. But the Backworlds aren’t ready to let him go. One savage enemy lurks in the shadows, threatening to unravel the fragile peace he fought so hard to secure. Backworlders, still reeling from the devastation, look to Craze for hope. They believe the hero who won the war can save their shattered worlds. Only Craze has nothing left to give. Haunted by the ghosts of fallen friends and the lives lost under his command, he struggles to find peace within himself while confronting the daunting weight of the aftermath. In this final installment of the Backworlds series, the home Craze dreams of returning to is gone—reduced to rubble and ash. The war may be over, but for Craze, the fight to reclaim his life has just begun.

In the bestselling tradition of Jennifer Weiner, a clever, funny yet poignant novel about the friendship between two absolutely unforgettable women. Ellen has been an outsider since she was a child. In fact, she has done everything in her power to make herself seem completely invisible to those around her—until she becomes exactly that. Overweight, awkward, and utterly alone, she rarely leaves her apartment except to work the night shift at Costco. Everything changes when Ellen meets a charismatic blind woman named Temerity and surprises herself by stepping in to save her from two violent muggers. Ellen’s brave act sparks an intense friendship, and the unlikely pair—the invisible girl and her blind sidekick—begin a journey together filled with intrigue, humor, and surprises. Little by little, Ellen finds another, stronger side of herself as she realizes that she has so much more to offer than her invisible persona allowed.

Bolshevism at a Deadlock was written Karl Kautsky, one of the leading Marxist intellectuals of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, in response to the catastrophic failures of Stalin’s first Five Year Plan, which was intended to raise Russian industry and productivity to equal that of Western Europe. Kautsky sets out to demonstrate how the repressive autocracy of the Bolsheviks and the disregard for economic exigencies achieved nothing more than "the wholesale pauperisation and degradation of the Russian people", and prophesies the imminent collapse of Soviet Russia in the face of mass famine, ideological dogmatism and, ultimately, the failures inherent in the 1917 Revolution itself. Kautsky’s analysis of the situation of Socialist Russia at the beginning of the troubled 1930s will be of interest to students of pre-war Soviet political practice, economic history and domestic policy.

The ideal guide to choosing the right word. Entries go beyond the word lists of a thesaurus, explaining important differences between synonyms. Provides over 17,000 usage examples. Lists antonyms and related words.

How can teachers make content-area learning more accessible to their students? This text addresses instructional issues and provides a wealth of classroom strategies to help all middle and secondary teachers effectively enable their students to develop both content concepts and strategies for continued learning. The goal is to help teachers model, through excellent instruction, the importance of lifelong content-area learning. This working textbook provides students maximum interaction with the information, strategies, and examples presented in each chapter. This book is organized around five themes: Content Area Reading: An Overview The Teacher and the Text The Students The Instructional Program School Culture and Environment in Middle and High School Classrooms. Pedagogical features in each chapter include: a graphic organizer; a chapter overview, Think Before, Think While and Think After Reading Activities - which are designed to integrate students’ previous knowledge and experience with their new learnings about issues related to content area reading, literacy, and learning, and to serve as catalysts for thinking and discussions. This textbook is intended as a primary text for courses on middle and high school content area literacy and learning.

This astonishing, devastating debut novel, riven through with mystery and magic, tells the story of a lonely girl living in a small African town and her struggle to free herself from her mercurial, charming mother. Ayosa is a wandering spirit--joyous, exuberant, filled to the brim with longing. Her only companions in her grandmother's crumbling house are as lonely as Ayosa herself: the ghostly Fatumas, whose eyes are the size of bay windows, who teach her to dance and wail at the death news; the Jolly-Annas, cruel birds who cover their solitude with spiteful laughter; the milkman, who never greets Ayosa and whose milk tastes of mud; and Sindano, the kind owner of a café no one ever visits. Unexpectedly, miraculously, one day Ayosa finds a friend. Yet she is always fixed on her beautiful mama, Nabumbo Promise: a mysterious and aloof photographer, she comes and goes as she pleases, with no apology or warning. Set at the intersection of the spirit world and the human one, Things They Lost is a stunning and unforgettable novel that unfurls the dizzying dualities of love, at its most intoxicating and all-encompassing.