Longlisted for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour A funny and heart-warming tribute to Canada’s most famous small town, and its most celebrated humourist, Stephen Leacock. Many Canadians grew up in small towns, or at least in neighbourhoods that acted like small towns. But what if you grew up in Canada’s most famous small town—Stephen Leacock’s Mariposa? This was the world that journalist Jamie Lamb was raised in, the actual place that inspired Leacock’s Canadian classic, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town,over a century ago. The Mariposa of Lamb’s time was slightly different, yet it still embodied the heart and soul, the eccentricities and the bizarre local customs of Leacock’s sketches. Christmas in Mariposa is a celebration of that town and its people. It tells of secret gardens, special rinks, oddball hotels, remarkable foods, fast boats and sunken aircraft, Christmas Eve fireworks, and the best Christmas office party in the country. It describes a place where Christmas could be celebrated in summer with a Baby Jesus look-alike contest, Canada’s only officially sanctioned reindeer races, and the Three Wise Men arriving with gifts by parachute. It transports readers to a world where where Gordie Howe once dropped by for a skate, and Glenn Gould regularly came to eat a well-done steak and six Parker House rolls slathered in butter at a Chinese restaurant. Jamie Lamb’s Mariposa is timeless and quintessentially Canadian.

Scottish Highlanders, and their descendants all over the world, are no better and no worse than any other people where "sinful" behaviour is concerned. Standards of morality and social conventions changed dramatically during the 19th century - and most of the people engaged in recording and commenting upon Highland life and tradition were puritanical ministers and priests who left out the racy bits. So, while there are many useful books that provide a wide range of Scottish Gaelic vocabulary to express many aspects of daily life - except, for the most part, the topics covered in this book.

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER The gruffest man in hockey opens up about the challenges, the feuds, and the tragedies he's fought through. Brian Burke is one of the biggest hockey personalities--no, personalities full-stop--in the media landscape. His brashness makes him a magnet for attention, and he does nothing to shy away from it. Most famous for advocating "pugnacity, truculence, testosterone, and belligerence" during his tenure at the helm of the Maple Leafs, Burke has lived and breathed hockey his whole life. He has been a player, an agent, a league executive, a scout, a Stanley Cup-winning GM, an Olympic GM, and a media analyst. He has worked with Pat Quinn, Gary Bettman, and an array of future Hall of Fame players. No one knows the game better, and no one commands more attention when they open up about it. But there is more to Brian Burke than hockey. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and an accomplished businessman with hard-earned lessons that comefrom highly scrutinized decisions made at the helm of multi-million-dollar companies. And despite his brusque persona on camera and in the boardroom, he is nevertheless a father with a story to tell. He lost his youngest son in a car accident, and has had to grapple with that grief, even in the glare of the spotlight. Many Canadians and hockey fans knew Brendan Burke's name already, because his father had become one of the country's most outspoken gay-rights advocates when Brendan came out in 2009. From someone whose grandmother told him never to start a fight, but never to run from one either, Burke's Law is an unforgettable account of old beefs and old friendships, scores settled and differences forgiven, and many lessons learned the hard way.

Earnest and industrious Beavers, funloving but discontented Frogs, a Lobster named Lugubrious J. Standfast and a wonderful Frog leader are some of the characters in this mythical tale about a Swamp named Canada. This delightfully illustrated and satirically sharp review of Canadian history in the late 1960s and early 1970s features some familiar faces--Lester B. Pearson, Richard Nixon, Rene Levesque, the immaculate chief-frog (chief beaver?) Pierre Trudeau--evolved slightly to survive in Swamp conditions. Frog Fables & Beaver Tales is a clever, hilarious souvenir of a particularly vibrant period in Canadian politics.

Los Angeles magazine is a regional magazine of national stature. Our combination of award-winning feature writing, investigative reporting, service journalism, and design covers the people, lifestyle, culture, entertainment, fashion, art and architecture, and news that define Southern California. Started in the spring of 1961, Los Angeles magazine has been addressing the needs and interests of our region for 48 years. The magazine continues to be the definitive resource for an affluent population that is intensely interested in a lifestyle that is uniquely Southern Californian.

Affectionately combining both the idyllic and ironic, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is Stephen Leacock’s most beloved book. Set in fictional Mariposa, an Ontario town on the shore of Lake Wissanotti, these sketches present a remarkable range of characters: some irritating, some exasperating, some foolhardy, but all endearing. Painted with the skilful brushstrokes of a great comic artist, the delightful inhabitants of Mariposa represent the people of small towns everywhere. As fresh, funny, and insightful today as when it was first published in 1912, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is Stephen Leacock at his best – colourful, imaginative, and thoroughly entertaining.

From Travelocity's Roaming Gnome commercial to Paris Hilton's famous People magazine gnome photo to the movie Amelie's wayward gnome, traveling the countryside is the hottest trend in gnome culture. Gnome Away from Home celebrates this latest craze with a mini traveling gnome figurine and a booklet of gnome travel tips, travel lore, and gnome history. The perfect quirky gift, Gnome Away from Home is a fun and hilarious tribute to the "roaming gnome" phenomenon and is sure to answer all your burning gnome questions!