Fiction for Adults
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All books listed in Braille Books Acquired that also have an equivalent Electronic Braille version will now have both the BR and the EB number listed in the entry.
Disabled
BR73908, EB73908 Poppy Shakespeare by Clare Allan. 4 v. of braille. Welcome to the Dorothy Fish, a day hospital in North London. N has been a patient here for thirteen years; day after day N sits smoking in the common room, swapping medication and comparing MAD money rates. Like all the patients at the Dorothy Fish, N's chief ambition is never to be discharged, until Poppy Shakespeare turns up and things begin to change. Strong language. 2006.
Family stories
BR74520, EB74520 Soucouyant by David Chariandy. 2 v. of braille. Said to wear the skin of an old woman by day and take the form of a wandering fireball by night - and sucking the blood of her victims - the spectre of the Soucouyant haunts Adele, a Trinidadian Canadian. Adele is sliding into early-onset dementia when her husband is killed in an industrial accident, and her older son leaves home after Adele ceases to recognize him. Her younger son tries to unravel the hidden tragedies of Adele's youth, which included an encounter with the Soucouyant itself. Some descriptions of sex. Some descriptions of violence. Some strong language. 2007.
BR74035, EB74035 The custodian of paradise by Wayne Johnston. 6 v. of braille. Sheilagh Fielding - a striking, unconventional, six-foot-three Newfoundland columnist - has holed up on the island of Loreburn after her mother dies. There, Fielding senses the presence of her mysterious "Provider," who has shadowed her all her life and whom she has never met face-to-face. As Fielding tells her life story and keeps her secrets, her Provider draws closer. Sequel to "The colony of unrequited dreams" (BR67132). c2006.
BR74413, EB74413 The view from Castle Rock by Alice Munro. 4 v. of braille. The author's fictional tales about her Scottish ancestors' immigration to Canada in 1818. Stories follow the pioneers' life on the frontier and the family's progress through the generations. 2006.
BR73630, EB73630 A wall of light by Edeet Ravel. 3 v. of braille. This is the story of one remarkable day in the life of Sonya Vronsky, a mathematics professor; on this day she kissed a student, pursued a lover, found her father and left her brother. Sonya's life-changing journey leads her to the heart of Jerusalem and to the heart of family secrets. 2005. (Tel Aviv trilogy ; 3)
BR74039, EB74039 The friends of meager fortune by David Adams Richards. 4 v. of braille. Postwar New Brunswick. Mary Jameson, the widow of a lumber magnate, hopes to stymie the prophecy she receives from a fortune-teller - that her oldest son will be powerful and her younger son will bring glory upon the family, but they will be the end of the family. When Will, the brash older brother, suffers a fatal logging accident, and Owen, the intellectual younger son, returns a wounded hero from WWII, it seems the prophecy may come true. Some strong language and some descriptions of violence. 2006.
Fantastic fiction
BR73745, EB73745 Fabrizio's return by Mark Frutkin. 3 v. of braille. Cremona, Italy, 1682. Priest Fabrizio Cambiati awaits a returning comet in a clock tower, and uses his telescope to spot a Jesuit arriving in town - a Jesuit sent from Rome to investigate his candidacy for sainthood, 76 years later! It's now 1758, and Archenti the Jesuit must scrutinize Fabrizio's character. Meanwhile, a play in the town square magically connects the two time periods. 2006.
BR73660, EB73660 A breath of snow and ashes by Diana Gabaldon. 20 v. of braille. Jamie Fraser and his time-traveling wife, Claire, are caught in the conflict between Great Britain and its American colonies. Jamie knows from Claire that Britain loses, but he tries to keep North Carolina loyal. Sequel to "The Fiery Cross". Descriptions of sex, violence, and strong language. Bestseller. 2005. (Outlander ; 6)
BR74001, EB74001 Wizard and glass by Stephen King. 10 v. of braille. In a terrifying journey, Roland the gunslinger, with his motley companions, determines to reach his destiny. Threatened with destruction from hidden dangers along the way, the pilgrims desperately bargain for survival. Beyond the terror of Roland's relentless enemy and the temptation of the wizard's glass, the tower awaits. Sequel to "The waste lands" (BR74000). Followed by "Wolves of the calla" (BR74002). 1997. (Dark Tower ; 4)
BR73998, EB73998 The dark tower by Stephen King. 10 v. of braille. The final hour of Roland Deschain's quest for the Dark Tower has arrived. This tower has been his Holy Grail, the quest his raison d'etre - and Roland will not stop until he reaches the magical and dangerous tower that stands at the nexus of all time and space. Violence, strong language, and some descriptions of sex. Bestseller. Sequel to "Song of Susannah" (BR73999). 2004 (Dark tower ; 7)
BR74000, EB74000 The waste lands by Stephen King. 6 v. of braille. The last of the gunslingers turn their faces to the Turtle and travel the path of the Beam. Bound together in thought and treachery, pursued by the Ageless Stranger, they face the perils of Lud and the Tick-Tock Man to reach the Cradle of Blaine the Mono, who is truth and danger and will ransom their lives for a riddle and still the dark tower beckons. Sequel to "The drawing of the three" (BR65667). Followed by "Wizard and glass" (BR74001). 2003, c1991. (Dark Tower ; 3)
BR74284, EB74284 The twilight watch by Sergei Lukyanenko. 5 v. of braille. An Other has exposed the truth about their kind to a human, and now intends to convert that human into an Other. Now cooperating, the Night Watch and the Day Watch, along with an Investigator from the Inquisition, seek to unmask the culprit. Anton will represent the Night Watch, while the Day Watch is sending High Vampire Kostya Saushkin, once Anton's teenage neighbour. Some descriptions of violence. Sequel to "Day watch" (BR74268). Followed by "The last watch" (BR74628). 2004, c1998. (Watch ; 3)
General fiction
BR73913, EB73913 The shape I gave you by Martha Baillie. 2 v. of braille. Ulrike Huguenot gets an unexpected and unwelcome letter from Beatrice Mann, a Canadian sculptor who was a friend - and perhaps lover - of her father Gustave. Beatrice is writing after the death of her daughter - unable to speak with her husband Isaac, she turns to Ulrike. As Ulrike reads about Beatrice's life and Gustave's role in it, she reluctantly revisits the world of her own memories. Some descriptions of sex. 2006.
BR74350, EB74350 The communist's daughter by Dennis Bock. 3 v. of braille. Battlefield surgeon Norman Bethune - when not tending to Mao's starving army - is diligently writing a philosophical yet jarringly frank memoir for the daughter he has never seen. His musings over bombs, blood, betrayals, and lost love offer little in the way of comfort, providing trenchant insights into human nature instead. They reflect the troubled soul of a war-weary idealist whose dreams of a better world were battered by ugly reality. Some descriptions of violence and some strong language. 2006.
BR74045, EB74045 Paula Spencer by Roddy Doyle. 3 v. of braille. Ireland. Now forty-seven, long-widowed Paula Spencer, from "The Woman Who Walked into Doors" (BR68014), counts the days of her sobriety, the key to putting her life back together. Facing a low-paying job, dysfunctional children, and her sister's cancer, Paula takes things one day at a time. Some strong language. 2006.
BR74676, EB74676 The valley by Gayle Friesen. 3 v. of braille. Gloria is the thirty-eight-year-old mother of a sarcastic teenage daughter and the vaguely dissatisfied wife of a loving husband. When she must return to her family farm in its strict Mennonite community, she is forced to confront the demons of her past: estranged best friend, Des, whom Gloria abandoned when Des needed her most; the early love of her life, Gabe, now married to Des; and the ghost of her beloved twin brother, Jake, whose death as a teenager would deeply affect the lives of everyone around him for a generation. 2008.
BR74618, EB74618 The cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. 2 v. of braille. Sarajevo, 1992. A cellist plays Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor as a memorial on each of twenty-two days following a mortar attack that kills twenty-two citizens who are standing in a bread line. The music deeply affects a sniper, a father, and an older man. Inspired by historic events. Some descriptions of violence and some strong language. 2008.
BR74280, EB74280 The reluctant fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. 2 v. of braille. A young Pakistani man in the US is about to start a career and has fallen for a young woman when 9/11 occurs. Answering to his own conscience, he returns to Pakistan. From the perspective of a few years later, the young man relates his past experiences to an American man he meets in a cafe, whose visit to Lahore may or may not have to do with the young man's recent anti-American activities. Some strong language and descriptions of sex. 2007.
BR73749, EB73749 The successor by Ismail Kadare ; translated from the French of Tedi Papavrami by David Bellos. 2 v. of braille. The successor to 'the Guide' (Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha) is found shot in his bed, but is it suicide or murder? Suspects abound, including a rising political figure who will now be named successor, the architect who remodelled the successor's elaborate house, the successor's wife, and the Guide himself, elderly, ailing, and blind, but unable to imagine being replaced. Some descriptions of sex and some descriptions of violence. 2003.
BR74036, EB74036 Depths by Henning Mankell. 4 v. of braille. 1914. Swedish naval officer Lars Tobiasson-Svartman is taking soundings for secret channels in the approach to Stockholm. He is attached to but not a part of a crew; a husband to a wife willingly left behind as he pursues his secret mission. He is also the obsessed seeker of Sara, the lone inhabitant of Halsskär, a desolate and isolated island. Some strong language. 2006.
BR74358, EB74358 Lullabies for little criminals by Heather O'Neill. 4 v. of braille. Baby, almost twelve, and her father, Jules, twenty-six, move from crumbling apartment to shabby hotel due to his heroin habit. Baby also moves in and out of foster homes and into a detention centre, focussing on school and drugs to screen out the bad in her life. Unfortunately, there's only one career option for an attractive, neglected girl, no matter how bright and imaginative. Winner of Canada Reads 2007. Descriptions of sex, violence and strong language. 2006.
BR74034, EB74034 Consumption by Kevin Patterson. 5 v. of braille. An Inuit girl spends her teen years in the 1960s in a Montreal TB sanatorium, learning French and mathematics from nuns. Upon returning to Hudson Bay, Victoria feels like a stranger, and soon marries a white man. When her husband accepts work from a South African mining company that wants to dig for diamonds in the frozen tundra, things come to a boiling point. Some descriptions of sex and violence, some strong language. 2006.
BR74450, EB74450 Rose of no man's land by Michelle Tea. 3 v. of braille. With a hypochondriac mother, an older sister who dreams of being on reality TV, and Mom's live-in, unemployed slacker boyfriend passing for a family, it's no wonder Trisha is a loner. Tiring of never leaving her bedroom, the 14-year-old makes a plan for the summer: meet someone and make a friend. That friend turns out to be chain-smoking Rose, the classic dangerous friend, who introduces Trisha to life on the edge. Descriptions of sex, some descriptions of violence, and explicit strong language. 2005.
BR74493, EB74493 Resurrection by L.N. Tolstoy ; translated and with an introduction by Rosemary Edmonds. 6 v. of braille. A wealthy Russian prince serving as a juror in a murder trial recognizes the accused prostitute as a girl he seduced in his youth. Tormented by a sense of responsibility that completely disrupts his life, he determines to follow her to Siberia and marry her. This novel, critical of the church and the legal and penal systems of modern society, led to Tolstoy's excommunication from the church. 1966, c1899.
BR73898, EB73898 Dream wheels by Richard Wagamese. 4 v. of braille. In pursuit of a world-champion title, Joe Willie Wolfchild suffers a career-ending accident and is taken to his family's ranch to recuperate. Meanwhile, urban street-kid Aiden, sick and tired of his mother Claire's long string of abusive boyfriends, plans a robbery only to land in jail. Upon his release, a concerned parole officer finds a place for Aiden and his mom at the Wolfchild ranch. Strong language. 2006.
Historical novels
BR74273, EB74273 The Halifax connection by Marie Jakober. 5 v. of braille. 1862. As the American Civil War heats up, Southern Confederates flood into Montreal and Halifax, planning secret missions against the Union, missions they hope will provoke a war between England and the United States. Erryn Shaw, a British aristocrat banished to the colonies, is convinced to spy for the British. On a mission to Montreal, he gets wind of a sinister plot - and he can't seem to find a way to stop it. Some descriptions of sex and violence and some strong language. 2007.
Love stories
BR63906, EB63906 Adam's fall by Sandra Brown. 2 v. of braille. Lilah Mason would do almost anything for her sister Elizabeth. But what Elizabeth is asking her to do now is impossible. Lilah cannot stand Adam Cavanaugh, her sister's boss. Although Adam has a serious spinal cord injury, Lilah, an excellent physical therapist, refuses to help him. Elizabeth convinces her to try, and when Lilah arrives in Hawaii to work with Adam, the sparks fly! Some strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. Bestseller 1993.
BR62685, EB62685 Forgiving by LaVyrle Spencer. 6 v. of braille. 1876. Sarah Merritt has come to Deadwood in the Dakota Territory for two reasons - to find her sister Addie and tell her that their father is dead, and to start the town's first daily paper. Addie, who ran away from home five years ago, is working at Rosie Hossiter's boardinghouse as an "upstairs girl." Finding Addie is easy, but everything else Sarah tries lands her in big trouble. Some strong language. Descriptions of sex and violence. Bestseller. 1992.
BR74373, EB74373 The English air by D. E. Stevenson. 4 v. of braille. A gentle romance set in the English countryside during the first frenzied months of World War II. Franz von Heiden, son of a high Nazi official and an English mother who died when he was a child, falls in love with Wynne Braithwaite. 1968, c1940.
Mysteries
BR73635, EB73635 The last good day: a Joanne Kilbourn mystery by Gail Bowen. 3 v. of braille. Amateur sleuth Joanne Kilbourn is vacationing at a lawyer friend's cottage, in a group of homes all belonging to his law firm, when attorney Chris Altieri plunges his car off a dock and into the lake. Chris had earlier admitted to Joanne that he'd done something unforgivable; meanwhile, the vacationing lawyers close ranks about Chris and about a young female lawyer who had abruptly left the firm several months before and hasn't been seen since. When Joanne's cottage is broken into, she realizes that she must keep very quiet about her investigations. Some strong language, some descriptions of sex and violence. 2004.
BR74260, EB74260 Anarchy and old dogs by Colin Cotterill. 3 v. of braille. 1970's communist Laos. Siri Paiboun, national coroner, starts to investigate when blank papers are found on the body of Dr. Buagaew, a blind dentist hit by a truck. Paiboun quickly discovers encoded writing in invisible ink, which he eventually realizes are a series of chess moves. A trip to the southern Laotian city of Pakse draws him deeper into complex political intrigue. Some descriptions of violence. 2007.
BR73951, EB73951 The vanished man by Jeffery Deaver. 6 v. of braille. When a killer flees the scene of a homicide at a prestigious Manhattan music school and locks himself in a classroom, the police have him surrounded within minutes. A scream rings out, followed by a gunshot. The police break down the door. The room is empty. The ambitious Sachs, and the quadriplegic Rhyme, must work together to ferret out a master illusionist they've dubbed "the conjurer" and prevent a terrifying act of vengeance that could become the greatest vanishing act of all. Some descriptions of violence and some strong language. Sequel to "Stone monkey". 2003. (Lincoln Rhyme ; 5)
BR73751, EB73751 The treatment by Mo Hayder. 5 v. of braille. In a pleasant London neighbourhood, a man and his wife are found tied up in their own home and their young son has disappeared. Jack Caffery is called in to investigate, but a similar tragedy from his own past makes it impossible for him to be scientifically detached. Descriptions of sex, violence and explicit strong language. 2001.
BR74448, EB74448 The rabbit factory by Marshall Karp. 5 v. of braille. Detective Mike Lomax's wife has died, his father is trying to get him to go on dates, and his wayward gambler brother is in deep trouble. Meanwhile, he and partner Terry Biggs have to investigate a string of high-profile murders aimed at destroying Lamaar's Familyland, a Disneyesque theme park. First, the employee playing Rambunctious Rabbit is strangled, then a series of other employees and visitors to the park are killed, and soon Lomax and Biggs find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy. Descriptions of sex and violence, strong language. 2007.
BR74458, EB74458 The secret hangman by Peter Lovesey. 4 v. of braille. Widowed detective superintendent Peter Diamond of Bath, England, investigates the hanging deaths of a waitress and her ex-husband, which appear to be a murder-suicide. A secret admirer sends Diamond letters, and he begins to suspect that a serial killer is loose. Some strong language and some descriptions of sex. 2007.
BR74366, EB74366 Special topics in calamity physics by Marisha Pessl. 9 v. of braille. Blue Van Meer, erudite daughter of an itinerant professor, settles into Stockton, North Carolina, for her senior year in an elite high school. But she is unprepared for the death of a favourite teacher and some startling truths about her own family. Some strong language, some descriptions of sex and violence. Bestseller. 2006.
BR74568, EB74568 Exit music by Ian Rankin. 5 v. of braille. As he tries to tie up some loose ends before his retirement, Inspector Rebus investigates the murder of a dissident Russian poet. Although the death initially appears to have been a mugging gone wrong, the more he and DS Siobhan Clarke investigate, the more they are convinced that this is something more than a random killing. Some descriptions of violence and some strong language. 2007. (Inspector Rebus ; 18)
BR74049, EB74049 The water's lovely by Ruth Rendell. 4 v. of braille. Weeks went by when Ismay never thought of it at all. Then something would bring it back or it would return in a dream, a dream where she and her mother saw a body with a submerged face floating in a glassy lake. The dead man was Ismay's stepfather, Guy. Now, nine years on, she and her sister, Heather, still lived in the same house. They never discussed the renovations done to the house, still less what had happened that August day. Some descriptions of sex and violence. 2006.
BR74263, EB74263 The blackest bird: a novel of murder in nineteenth-century New York by Joel Rose. 5 v. of braille. New York, 1841. When Mary Rogers, a pretty clerk at a tobacco shop, is found brutally murdered in the Hudson River, High Constable Hays is charged with the search for her killer. A respected lawman known for creating a new interrogation technique called the third degree, Hays is starting to feel the full weight of his position, caught between public outrage and political red tape. High on his list of suspects is the eccentric poet Edgar Allan Poe, who freely admits that he was in love with the "cigar girl." Some descriptions of sex and violence. c2007.
BR74048, EB74048 Wash this blood clean from my hand by Fred Vargas. 4 v. of braille. Adamsberg, the eccentric commissaire of the French national police, faces a serial killer called the Trident who, 30 years previously, framed the commissaire's brother for a murder, successfully avoiding prosecution for that and numerous other slayings. Supposedly dead for more than 15 years, the Trident has risen from the grave - or so Adamsberg believes after encountering a new victim whose corpse bears the tell-tale signs of the Trident's work. Convincing anyone of this fact is impossible, and soon Adamsberg finds himself framed for the murder of a young woman. Strong language and descriptions of violence. 2007, c2004.
BR74558, EB74558 A sensitive case by Eric Wright. 2 v. of braille. When Linda Thomas, a massage therapist with influential clients, is murdered, Inspector Charlie Salter must handle the sensitive case. He is delighted when Sergeant Mel Pickett, an expert at homicides, is assigned to help with the case. Some strong language. 1991, c1990.
Science fiction
BR73813, EB73813 Shadow of the giant by Orson Scott Card. 4 v. of braille. Bean, who faces death from gigantism, and Petra, his wife, search for their missing children. Meanwhile Bean is given hope of surviving his disease if he helps Hegemon Peter unite the world. Sequel to "Shadow Puppets". Some violence and some strong language. 2005. (Ender's saga ; 8)
BR74670, EB74670 Identity theft and other stories by Robert J. Sawyer ; introduction by Robert Charles Wilson. 4 v. of braille. In this collection of short stories, discover the dark secret of the only priest on Mars, revisit H.G. Wells's Morlocks, and learn what really happens when aliens beam us the Encyclopedia Galactica. Some descriptions of sex and violence, some strong language. 2008.
Short stories
BR74406, EB74406 Moral disorder by Margaret Atwood. 3 v. of braille. Interconnected short stories that span the life of a skeptical, stoic, book-loving woman named Nell, from age 11, where she awaits the birth of an unexpected sibling, to her eventual marriage and life on a farm. Atwood dissects the demands of family, the persistence of sexism, the siege of old age, and the complex temperaments of other species. Some strong language and descriptions of violence. 2006.
BR74400, EB74400 Gargoyles: stories by Bill Gaston. 3 v. of braille. Stories crafted around the idea of the gargoyle - the concrete representation of extremes of human emotions; the physical manifestations of the disfigurements and contortions to which human beings subject themselves. Each story has a strange and unique gargoyle guardian spirit whose sometimes benevolent, sometimes malevolent, presence informs the characters and their actions. Strong language. 2006.
BR73792, EB73792 The facts behind the Helsinki Roccomatios by Yann Martel. 2 v. of braille. A Canadian student's life is changed when he hears the Rankin Concerto, written in honour of a Vietnam veteran; a prison warden reports to a mother on her son's last moments before he is executed; a surreal fable is presented in which mirrors are made from memories. In the title novella, Paul, a young man, is dying of AIDS, and his student mentor at college devises a plan to keep him engaged in life. They will invent the story of the Roccamatio family of Helsinki, which will have 100 chapters, each thematically linked to an event of the 20th century. Strong language. 2004, c1993.
BR74436, EB74436 The Penguin book of contemporary Canadian women's short stories edited by Lisa Moore. 5 v. of braille. Featuring writings from the last two decades, which capture the paranoia of post-9/11, the white noise of the information age, dislocation, bomb scares, sexual freedom, aberration, fractured identities, awakenings of every sort, redemption, and love. Includes pieces by such writers as Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Mavis Gallant, and Eden Robinson. Some descriptions of sex and violence. 2006.
Suspense
BR72913, EB72913 Birthright by Nora Roberts. 7 v. of braille. Ancient bones are uncovered at a construction site in Maryland and archaeologist Callie Dunbrook and her ex-husband are asked to investigate. When a local woman claims that Callie is her long-lost daughter - kidnapped twenty-nine years earlier - Callie must search for the truth. Strong language and some descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2003.
BR74456, EB74456 High noon by Nora Roberts. 6 v. of braille. Savannah, Georgia. Restaurant owner Duncan Swift romantically pursues hostage negotiator Lieutenant Phoebe MacNamara after she assists his suicidal bartender. Phoebe's family problems and a vicious attack by an unknown stalker threaten the new romance. Violence, strong language, and some explicit descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2007.
War stories
BR74534, EB74534 Chronicle in stone by Ismail Kadaré ; translated from the French of Tedi Papavrami by David Bellos. 2 v. of braille. In this autobiographical novel, the confusion and terror of World War II are portrayed through the eyes of a small boy, as his Albanian city is occupied and besieged. He introduces his parents, grandparents, and friends, and relates their suffering under enemy rule, inadvertently revealing the childlike naïveté that dominates the entire population of his secluded, mountain world. Some descriptions of violence. 2007, c1971.
BR74460, EB74460 Up in Honey's room by Elmore Leonard. 3 v. of braille. Federal marshal Carl Webster, from "Hot Kid", travels to Detroit in 1944 to search for escaped German POWs. Webster interviews beautiful Honey Deal, the divorced wife of Nazi meatcutter Walter Schoen, and investigates Ukrainian spy Vera Mezwa. Strong language and some violence. 2007.
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