Elspeth, recently retired from Cape Breton University's Celtic Culture Department, is not sure how to deal with her teenage daughter Cecelia's outdated and strangely troubling post-secondary plans. Maybe the spiritual inclination Cecelia has would have been welcomed in the past, but with all the scandals the Catholic Church has been going through during recent decades, all Elspeth can do is wonder if it is too early in the day for a glass of wine before responding.

Cecelia has always been a quiet, sometimes even cold child, and Elspeth worries once again if she and Andrew had been too old to raise a menopausal baby. Now as Cecelia approaches high school graduation, and all the decisions that come with that transition, the gap between them seems to be more than merely an age thing.

As she tries to understand her strange desire to become a nun, Cecelia befriends an aging Sister at the Notre Dame congregation at the convent in Mabou. Madonna, a fitting name for a woman who lived a life devoted to God, is in a time of transition as well, struggling with ailments of an aging mind and body. Because of Cecelia's interest, she tries to piece together the reasons she became a bride of Christ.

Faith, family, and fate bring these three women together. Cecelia is looking for hope in an increasingly fragile world but Madonna's past, if she can face it, may challenge all of them.

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In sharp, insightful prose, Boy With a Problem taps into the heart of our deeply human fear of failing to truly connect with others. The fissures that erupt between us, how quickly they widen from cracks to chasms鈥攖his is the thread running through these wise, raw, and tender stories.

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On the street, hard-drinking Halifax police detective Ray Vargas has an unfailing habit for finding trouble, and when a man is found shot to death in the back of a Chevy truck, Vargas finds more trouble than he can handle 鈥� the murdered man is his oldest friend and the husband of his lover.

Frank's death reminds Ray of an unspoken debt left unpaid. He sets off to find a killer in a city that doesn't much want a killer to be found. At every turn, he encounters lies and danger. With his partner Artie Brennan and friends Ezekiel Dixon and jazz great Louis Armstrong, Ray tries to make sense of the deepening mystery, but hope is hard to come by 鈥� at least until he meets Lee White, Frank's one-time assistant, who might just be his own bridge to a better tomorrow.

Nothing in Halifax is what it seems. As the tension builds, and the stakes grow higher, Ray knows that his own future with Lee depends on his solving the mystery. But to do that, he must make a difficult choice: cross a bridge 鈥� or burn it.

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With his characteristic eye for detail and his skillful ability to evoke emotion and atmosphere, Wayne Curtis once again takes readers into a different time, where people long for what makes them feel most anchored, loved, and valued in an ever-changing world.

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The collection is part oral history, part narrative, part documentary, part anecdote, all seasoned by time, memory, and reflection, and knitted together with love and a teaspoon or two of invention.

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Having lost a breast to cancer, a young woman visits a psychic seeking answers to the questions in her life. A bullied boy finds solace in the arrival of another unfortunate who has attracted the attention of his tormentors. A divorced father attempts to shield his young daughter from the trauma of tragedy. An eight-year-old boy witnesses death for the first time, a massage therapist is unnerved by the discovery he makes about a new client, and a young widow flounders in her struggle to cope with the loss of her husband. These and other characters come to vivid life in stories told with the sensitivity and skill that have earned the author continued critical praise.

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But Gloria is wrong. She gets a chance to turn her life around. In Bruce Graham's heartwarming and hilarious new book, the final book of the Snake Road trilogy, he takes readers back to the close-knit and quirky community, picking up where Duddy Doesn鈥檛 Live Here Anymore left off. It is a story of romance, love and reformation as Gloria discovers the road back to health and happiness is not a straight line. While Gloria learns new survival skills at Carson鈥檚 Point, back on the Parrsboro shore, Minnie is struggling to adjust to life after Duddy鈥檚 reformation. There鈥檚 other news as well. A new arrival has taken up residence in Mink Martin鈥檚 trailer and made a 鈥渂reakthrough鈥� discovery of his own: an artifact of great historical significance.

What A Friend We Have in Gloria is classic Bruce Graham, filled with all the usual weirdness of his kooky characters and the strange goings-on on this twisty little road in rural Nova Scotia. This time, the focus is on Gloria, former lover of Mink Martin, in a story that proves no matter how far down you sink in life, you can rise again.

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