Sandra Birdsell's Books

The Russlander

By: Sandra Birdsell

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Katherine (Katya) Vogt is now an old woman living in Winnipeg, but the story of how she and her family came to Canada begins in Russia in 1910, on a wealthy Mennonite estate. Here they lived in a world bounded by the prosperity of their landlords and by the poverty and disgruntlement of the Russian workers who toil on the estate. But in the wake of the First World War, the tensions engulfing the country begin to intrude on the community, leading to an unspeakable act of violence. In the aftermath of that violence, and in the difficult years that follow, Katya tries to come to terms with the terrible events that befell her and her family. In lucid, spellbinding prose, Birdsell vividly evokes time and place, and the unease that existed in a county on the brink of revolutionary change. The Russländer is a powerful and moving story of ordinary people who lived through extraordinary times.

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Page Count

417

Publisher

McClelland & Stewart

Published Date

ISBN 10

1551996863

ISBN 13

9781551996868

The Chrome Suite

By: Sandra Birdsell

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The Chrome Suite

By: Sandra Birdsell

Set in Manitoba, Sandra Birdsell’s spellbinding novel reaches back nearly four decades into the life of scriptwriter Amy Barber. In a journey shadowed by the future and the past, Amy travels by car from Toronto to Winnipeg with her younger lover, and reconstructs the events that brought her to where she is today. As the narrative moves from a small town during one extraordinarily hot summer at the close of the fifties when a death changes everything, to the sixties and seventies when Amy marries, goes to live in the city, and begins to have reason to fear for her young son’s well-being, Sandra Birdsell uncovers the inadvertent damage that can be done within the most well-meaning of families. Vivid, darkly humorous, erotic, The Chrome Suite is an emotionally charged story of darkness and light that evokes the sometimes dangerous territory of the past.

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Page Count

423

Publisher

Emblem Editions

Published Date

ISBN 10

1551996855

ISBN 13

9781551996851

Waiting for Joe

By: Sandra Birdsell

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Waiting for Joe

By: Sandra Birdsell

After you've lost it all — job, house, savings, future —what have you got left? A piercing new novel of our times by one of Canada's finest fiction writers. On a chilly early morning in late spring, Joe Beaudry and his wife, Laurie, wake up in circumstances that would challenge saints: they are on the lam in a stolen motorhome on the edge of a Walmart parking lot in Regina, Saskatchewan. They've gone bust, spectacularly: lost the house that was Joe's gift from his dad, lost the business Joe started when he got married, and stuck his ancient father in a nursing home in Winnipeg so they could flee their creditors. Joe knows the reality of the situation, and is trying to raise enough cash to get them both to Fort McMurray where he hopes he can find work. But Laurie, even though she watched Joe trash their high-end appliances with a sledgehammer when the yard sale didn't deliver enough cash, somehow thinks it's only temporary, and maxes out their last credit card on wardrobe and hair dye and wishes and dreams. For Joe, it's the last straw in a marriage that once seemed star-crossed and now seems simply unworkable. Pushed to figure out what to do next, Joe simply takes off hitchhiking, leaving Laurie waiting for Joe, and Joe wondering how he will ever find meaning in a world that has disappointed his every expectation. The road for both of them provides surprising answers...

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Page Count

290

Publisher

Vintage Canada

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307359174

ISBN 13

9780307359179

The Town That Floated Away

By: Sandra Birdsell

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The Town That Floated Away

By: Sandra Birdsell

Things are proceeding normally during the annual Spring Break in the town of Wellington (major industries: donuts, grapes and toy boats). Chunks of ice as big as bulldozers flow down the river and Madame Galosh, owner of the Galosh Boot Manufacturing Company, prepares to sell a boatload of new rubber boots. At the same time, the lucky winner of the annual Spring Break Free Trip draw, Virginia Potts, is eager to embark on a long-awaited journey. Clang! Clang! Clang! A bell rings in the town square and an amazing series of events unfolds: too much lemonade is consumed, there's a little too much enthusiasm for the pursuit of profit and the town fails to mark the age-old "Batten Down the Hatches" holiday -- and the town of Wellington floats away. Ginny Potts is left behind, slowly shrinking from loneliness. In the tradition of Roald Dahl, Sandra Birdsell's debut children's novel is outrageously delicious reading, a clear-eyed and often poignant child's-eye perspective on an adult world -- where the adults are often the silly ones who don't always know what to do.

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Page Count

180

Publisher

Harper Collins

Published Date

ISBN 10

1443403415

ISBN 13

9781443403412

The Russlander

By: Sandra Birdsell

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The Russlander

By: Sandra Birdsell

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Page Count

417

Publisher

McClelland & Stewart

Published Date

ISBN 10

1551996863

ISBN 13

9781551996868

Waiting for Joe

By: Sandra Birdsell

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Waiting for Joe

By: Sandra Birdsell

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Page Count

290

Publisher

Vintage Canada

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307359174

ISBN 13

9780307359179

Children of the Day

By: Sandra Birdsell

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Children of the Day

By: Sandra Birdsell

Children of the Day opens on a June morning in 1953, when Sara Vandal, convinced that her husband has been having a decades-long affair, decides that she is too sick to get out of bed. With ten children in the house (and a possible eleventh on the way), this decision sets off a day of chaos, reflection and near disaster for the Vandal family. Sara’s husband, Oliver, heads to the town hotel and bar in Union Plains, Manitoba, where he has been the manager for the past twenty years—a position he suspects he’ll no longer have by the end of the day. In an attempt to avoid the unavoidable, Oliver decides instead to pay a visit to Alice Bouchard, his childhood sweetheart across the river. Throughout the day, both Oliver and Sara reflect on how their lives collided—a car accident that brought them together and tore them from the futures their families expected of them. Sara (from Sandra Birdsell’s previous novel, The Russländer) recalls her life in the big city of Winnipeg in the 1930s—a young Russian Mennonite woman lucky enough to escape the shackles of her overbearing culture. Oliver remembers his wedding day photograph—his the only Métis face in a crowd of Mennonites—and the precise moment when he suddenly grasped the enormity of his decision to “do the right thing.” The Vandal children, too, must deal with this unusual disruption of their daily routine. Alvina, the oldest, secretly handles the stress of her family, her plan to escape them all, and her discovery of the world’s evil in the only way she knows how. Emilie worries about losing her happy-go-lucky father while facing the town’s heretofore hidden racism head-on. The boys live up to their family name by recklessly taking chances and literally playing with fire. And since her mother won’t come out of her bedroom, Ruby, just a little girl herself, must take charge of the babies with danger lurking in every corner. By nightfall the extended Vandal family will be thrown together to work out the problems of the past and exorcise the ghosts that haunt them, which have all, in their own way, set this June day’s events in motion.

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Page Count

388

Publisher

Vintage Canada

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307375323

ISBN 13

9780307375322

The Chrome Suite

By: Sandra Birdsell

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The Chrome Suite

By: Sandra Birdsell

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Page Count

423

Publisher

Emblem Editions

Published Date

ISBN 10

1551996855

ISBN 13

9781551996851

Children of the Day

A Novel

By: Sandra Birdsell

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Children of the Day

A Novel

By: Sandra Birdsell

An immigrant Mennonite woman with a dark past marries a Mťis Winnipeg cabdriver.

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Page Count

418

Publisher

Random House Digital, Inc.

Published Date

ISBN 10

0679313699

ISBN 13

9780679313694

The Town That Floated Away

By: Sandra Birdsell

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The Town That Floated Away

By: Sandra Birdsell

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Page Count

180

Publisher

Harper Collins

Published Date

ISBN 10

1443403415

ISBN 13

9781443403412

Myths and Mysteries of Ohio

True Stories of the Unsolved and Unexplained

By: Sandra Gurvis

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Myths and Mysteries of Ohio

True Stories of the Unsolved and Unexplained

By: Sandra Gurvis

Myths and Mysteries of Ohio reveals the dark and ominous cloud of mysteries and myths that hovers over the Buckeye State. This book offers residents, travelers, history buffs, and ghost hunters a refreshingingly lively collection of stories about Ohio's unsolved murders, legendary villains, lingering ghosts, terrifying myths, and haunted places.

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Page Count

225

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1493016377

ISBN 13

9781493016372

The Visible Self

Global Perspectives on Dress, Culture and Society

By: Joanne B. Eicher,Sandra Lee Evenson

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The Visible Self

Global Perspectives on Dress, Culture and Society

By: Joanne B. Eicher,Sandra Lee Evenson

This anthropological investigation of dress featuring selected scholarly readings is ideal for courses focused on global perspectives and cultural aspects of dress.

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Page Count

420

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

1609018702

ISBN 13

9781609018702

The Culture of Education Policy

By: Sandra Stein

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The Culture of Education Policy

By: Sandra Stein

This powerful book shows the many unintended ways in which social and educational policy can shape, if not constrain, the work of educating students. Focusing on the creation and history of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) from its inception in 1965 to the present, Stein shows how underlying assumptions of policymakers and bureaucratic red tape actually interfere with both educational practice and the goals of the legislation itself. This examination is especially timely, given the recent passage of the No Child Left Behind Act and its sweeping attempts to raise achievement and reduce failure, especially for underserved populations. This invaluable volume: Offers an innovative framework for the analysis of education policy that can be applied to other government initiatives, particularly those directed at the poor. Challenges prevailing assumptions about children and poverty and the organizational strategies for addressing their needs. Brings the reader into the halls of Congress, analyzing the language of Congressional floor debates, showing shifts in how students have been characterized and their needs defined over time. Presents a fresh perspective on the controversial No Child Left Behind Act, the most recent reauthorization of ESEA, as well as federal desegregation and bilingual policies. Provides intimate portraits of nine elementary schools, presenting the language and routines of schooling to demonstrate how practitioners react to the culture of education policy in practice. “This book breaks new ground! Stein demonstrates the ways in which the language and symbols that are used work to delimit not only our understanding of the problems federal policy addresses, but the range of solutions it deploys. A foundational piece of work.” —Jean Anyon, Graduate Center, City University of New York

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Page Count

220

Publisher

Teachers College Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

080777717X

ISBN 13

9780807777176

Crises of Governance in Asia and Africa

By: Sandra J. MacLean,Fahimul Quadir

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Crises of Governance in Asia and Africa

By: Sandra J. MacLean,Fahimul Quadir

This title was first published in 2001. Investigating the relations between ethnicity and governance in Asia and Africa and going well beyond traditional and orthodox treatments, this volume is not only a stimulating text, but also an invaluable tool for original and innovative research.

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Page Count

305

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1351752782

ISBN 13

9781351752787

The Town that Floated Away

By: Sandra Birdsell,Helen Flook

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The Town that Floated Away

By: Sandra Birdsell,Helen Flook

Things are proceeding normally during the annual Spring Break in the town of Wellington (major industries: donuts, grapes and toy boats). Chunks of ice as big as bulldozers flow down the river and Madame Galosh, owner of the Galosh Boot Manufacturing Company, prepares to sell a boat-load of new rubber boots. At the same time, the lucky winner of the annual Spring Break Free Trip draw, Virginia Potts, is eager to embark on a long-awaited journey. Clang! Clang! Clang! A bell rings in the town square and an amazing series of events unfolds: too much lemonade is consumed, there's a little too much enthusiasm for the pursuit of profit and the town fails to mark the age-old "Batten Down the Hatches" holiday - and the town of Wellington floats away. Ginny Potts is left behind, slowly shrinking from loneliness. In the tradition of Roald Dahl, Sandra Birdsell's debut children's novel is outrageously delicious reading, a clear-eyed and often poignant child's-eye perspective on an adult world - where the adults are often the silly ones who don't always know what to do. Based on a popular radio play written for CBC Radio that became a successful. Juno award-nominated CD, The Town That floated Away is fresh and lively children's entertainment.

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Page Count

164

Publisher

HarperCollins

Published Date

ISBN 10

0002245450

ISBN 13

9780002245456

Agassiz Stories

By: Sandra Birdsell

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Agassiz Stories

By: Sandra Birdsell

The superbly crafted stories in this internationally acclaimed collection trace four generations of the Lafrenière family in the fictional small town of Agassiz, Manitoba, from the time of the great flood of 1950 to the present. There is Mika, the matriarch of the family, tired of being a mother to her children, and her Métis husband, Maurice, who is by turns fascinated and ashamed of his Native heritage. Their marriage has long been an uneasy truce. As their children grow up to pursue their own lives, the frustrations of one generation will collide with the dreams of another, and the past will leave an indelible mark on all that is to come. Agassiz Stories is at once funny and heartbreaking, and written with a rare, illuminating honesty.

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Page Count

382

Publisher

Emblem Editions

Published Date

ISBN 10

1551996847

ISBN 13

9781551996844

Long After Fathers

By: Roberta Rees

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Long After Fathers

By: Roberta Rees

A collection of linked short stories about three women whose lives are connected by blood, time and the mountainous landscape of the Crowsnest Pass. In "Long After Fathers" Jessie meets life head-on, and sometimes with her fists. Her fierce, indomitable spirit is tempered by humour and love. Rosalind, Jessie's daughter, has inherited her mother's dauntless spirit and her father's eye and ear for music and poetry. Solange, Rosalind's friend, must flee her inheritance - the coal slag of her backyard - for Calgary, where she can assume the disguise of a desirable woman. The women's stories are like the image of the mountainous landscape that is ever-changing with shifts in the weather. Their shared events are changed by memories, their desires and loyalties. The poetic narrative springs from the women's hearts and completes the entire landscape of "Long After Fathers,

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Page Count

232

Publisher

Coteau Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1550503588

ISBN 13

9781550503586

Book's by Sandra Birdsell

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