Never Swim Alone and This is a Play


Daniel MacIvor - 1997
    [MacIvor is a writer with an angular sense of humour and an uncommon knack for probing basic elements and truths of human behaviour." ?Vit Wagner, Toronto StarThis Is a Play is a hilarious postmodern romp through the interior lives of actors in a bad play."Ingenious, whimsical, a lyrical lunacy in the writing, This Is A Play is a theatre experience comedy you might associate with Tom Stoppard." ?Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

Everybody's Talking About Jamie


Tom MacRae - 2017
    Time to make your dreams come true.

A Taste of Honey


Shelagh Delaney - 1956
    Jo's greatest fear is that her illegitimate baby might be mentally deficient like her own father. To soothe, clean and cook for her is Geof, an effeminate art student, with whom she makes a temporary home. Bruised by insensitivity and rejection, the boy and girl find a very real comfort in each other.

East of Berlin


Hannah Moscovitch - 2009
    It has been seven years since he stood in that same spot; seven years since he left his family and their history behind him.As a teenager, Rudi discovered that his father was a doctor at Auschwitz. Trying to reconcile his inherited guilt, Rudi lashed out against his family and his friends, and eventually fled to Germany. While there, he follows in his father's footsteps by studying medicine, and falls in love with Sarah, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor.Questioning redemption, love, guilt, and the sins of the father, East of Berlin is a tour de force that follows Rudi's emotional upheaval as he comes to terms with a frightening past that was never his own.

The Gap of Time


Jeanette Winterson - 2015
    His daughter is found and brought up by a shepherd on the Bohemian coast, but through a series of extraordinary events, father and daughter, and eventually mother too, are reunited.In The Gap of Time, Jeanette Winterson’s cover version of The Winter’s Tale, we move from London, a city reeling after the 2008 financial crisis, to a storm-ravaged American city called New Bohemia. Her story is one of childhood friendship, money, status, technology and the elliptical nature of time. Written with energy and wit, this is a story of the consuming power of jealousy on the one hand, and redemption and the enduring love of a lost child on the other.

Tough Girl: Lessons in Courage and Heart from Olympic Gold to the Camino de Santiago


Carolyn Wood - 2018
    Some 50 years later, author Carolyn Wood embarks on a solo pilgrimage to walk the 500 miles of the Camino de Santiago in an attempt to reclaim her "inner tough girl" as she reflects on coming out as gay in the 1970s after a brief marriage and motherhood, and the disillusionment and loss she experiences when her 30-year relationship suddenly ends. After several failed attempts at learning to swim, young Carolyn Wood finally conquers her fears and dives into unknown waters. By 1958 she sets a goal to make the 1960 Olympic team and, along with teammates and competitors, begins the arduous road to Rome. Losses, pain, fear, and fatigue accompany the rambunctious athlete as she finds her way through athletic training, school, and dealing with social gender expectations as she realizes she's gay. Tough Girl artfully weaves Wood's life story around the tale of her long walk on the Camino de Santiago, an effort to tap into her tough girl resilience so she can begin to accept the end of her long marriage. The ups and downs of Carolyn's childhood road to the Olympics as well as her journey on the Camino, will thrill and inspire readers.

The Red Letter Plays


Suzan-Lori Parks - 2000
    The letter A is as far as she gets. Hester Smith of Fucking A works the only job available—abortionist to the lower class, in order to save for a reunion picnic with her imprisoned son. Her branded A bleeds afresh every time a patient comes to see her.These are two mature, beautifully crafted, inventive and poetic plays by one of the most unique voices writing for the stage today.

Girls Will Be Girls: Dressing Up, Playing Parts and Daring to Act Differently


Emer O'Toole - 2015
    With all the revolutionary zeal, laugh-out-loud humour and intelligence of Laura Bates, Caitlin Moran and Bell Hooks, Emer O'Toole explores what it really means to 'act like a girl'.Being a woman is, largely, about performance - how we dress and modify our bodies, what we say, the roles we play, and how we conform to expectations. Gender stereotypes are still deeply embedded in our society, but Emer O'Toole is on a mission to re-write the old script and bend the rules of gender - and she shows how and why we should all be joining in.With game-changing ideas and laugh-out-loud humour, this book will open your mind and revolutionise the way that you think about gender.

Love That Journey for Me: The Queer Revolution of Schitt's Creek


Emily Garside - 2021
    Considering the fusion of existing sitcom traditions, references and tropes, this Inkling analyses the nuance of the show and its surrounding cultural and societal impact as a queer revolution.By discussing how the show reshapes LGBTQ+ narratives from the crafting of the town itself, and celebratory influences including Cabaret, to how writer-creator Dan Levy utilised and subverted expectations throughout his work, Emily Garside will showcase how one TV show became a watershed moment in queer representation and gay relationships on screen.Part analysis of Schitt’s Creek’s importance, part homage to a cultural landmark, this is a show that – in the words of David Rose himself – needs to be celebrated. This book is that celebration.This book is unofficial, and unaffiliated with Schitt’s Creek and its brand.

Love Is Blind


Kathy Lette - 2013
    

Bound by Lies


Gretta Mulrooney - 2017
    The chief character is so well defined and so likeable. The story was intriguing and had plenty of twists and turns. ” Julia Corbett “Swift is a good character, suitable for people who like PD James, the story is believable and comes together well.” “Absolutely loved this book! Extremely well written with believable characters and lots of twists!” E. Boisvert “Excellent mystery, well drawn characters, and a great storyline.” Suki Anne Perfect for fans of Robert Galbraith, Paula Hawkins, P.D. James, or Ruth Rendell. IN THIS THREE-BOOK BOXSET: BOOK 1: THE LADY VANISHED A missing woman holds the key to a valuable inheritance Florence Davenport hires Swift to find her missing stepmother. There are no leads and no suspects, but if the body is found, Florence will inherit half of a very valuable house. BOOK 2: BLOOD SECRETS Fifteen years ago a teenage boy, Teddy Bartlett, went to a woods on the outskirts of London and was beaten to a pulp and left damaged for life. The police never found who did it or why he was targeted. Now, the boy’s father, recently returned from Australia, wants to find out what really happened to his son. He hires private detective Tyrone Swift to investigate the tragic crime. BOOK 3: TWO LOVERS, SIX DEATHS A man stabs his girlfriend to death. Then hangs himself, leaving a note confessing to the murder. Open and shut case? Not for detective Tyrone Swift Dominic Merrell’s estranged wife Georgie doesn’t believe that he could have done it. Detective Swift discovers that Dominic was a reliable, devoted husband and father for eighteen years until he met the beautiful, charismatic Lisa, who he left his wife for. No one can believe that Dominic was capable of murder. But if it wasn’t him, then who killed the seductive but chaotic Lisa? THE DETECTIVE Tyrone Swift is an ex-police detective who now works privately. He’s survived a stabbing and his fiancée running off with another man. Swift's personal life is complicated. He is still involved with his ex-wife Ruth. THE SETTING The streets of London with their vibrant mix of nationalities, cultures, and rich and poor are beautifully evoked. From the quiet suburbs with their veneer of happy family life, to the bustling centre with refugees struggling to survive, to exclusive penthouses where the rich can have anything they want delivered. THE AUTHOR Gretta is a critically acclaimed author of best-selling detective and literary fiction. 'Mulrooney has a real gift for dialogue, the words and phrases ring true and make her characters wonderfully real . . .

A Carriage For The Midwife


Maggie Bennett - 2003
    The youngest son of a landowner offers her marriage but his brother seduces her little sister and then betrays her in the most brutal of ways. Susan faces losing everything.

Shopping and Fucking


Mark Ravenhill - 1996
    Five main characters are linked loosely and intermittently and at the center of the play is an ever-changing love triangle of petty criminals. It is a gritty, grimy urban society, a depressing  microcosm of drugs, shoplifting, prostitution, and sexual adventure. The characters have shunned morality and conduct hedonistic and destructive lives in this shocking, humorous, nihilistic play that examines a completely corrupted society.

The Tale of the Allergist's Wife and Other Plays: The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Psycho Beach Party, The Lady in Question, Red Scare on Sunset


Charles Busch - 2000
    Of his latest play, The New York Times has written, "Uproarious ... wall-to-wall laughs ... Mr. Busch has swum straight into the mainstream and stays comfortably afloat there." Busch is the author of such plays as Vampire Lesbians of Sodom -- one of the longest-running plays in Off-Broadway history -- and Psycho Beach Party, a cross between Gidget and Spellbound. After a successful Off-Broadway run at New York City's Manhattan Theater Club, Busch moves to Broadway with The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, a hilarious comedy about a self-absorbed Upper West Side doctor's wife whose life is devoted to mornings at the Whitney, afternoons at the Museum of Modern Art, and evenings at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Her world is shaken and transformed when a childhood friend makes an unexpected visit.

Sugar Land


Tammy Lynne Stoner - 2018
    Terrified, Miss Dara takes a job at Imperial State Prison Farm for men. Once there, she befriends inmate and soon-to-be legendary blues singer Lead Belly, who sings his way out (true story)―but only after he makes her promise to free herself from her own prison. SUGAR LAND is a triumphant novel that manages to be funny and endearing even as it tangles with race, class, and the fate of misfits."A powerful paperback that doesn't pull any emotional punches, Sugar Land is a debut you don't want to miss." - Bustle"With a lively sense of humor and a great sense of place, tammy lynne stoner’s debut is a Southern novel from a voice that rings true ... with keen insight into race, class, gender identity and social norms, Sugar Land is the story of a woman learning to come home to herself." - BookPage"Stoner creates a captivating story for the ages—a young, southern girl in the 1920s who becomes a ballsy broad in a double-wide...This heartbreaking and hysterical book inspires us with a brave and unusual life.”—Jillian Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Some Girls: My Life in a Harem and Everything You Ever Wanted