At FriesenPress, we celebrate each and every book we help our authors publish. Here are some of our team’s recent favourites – happy reading!
The music world exploded into Technicolor on February 9, 1964, when the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and ignited the music phenomenon dubbed “The British Invasion”. In the weeks and months to come, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Ottawa teenagers put away their hockey sticks and picked up guitars, starting up bands in basements and garages, with visions of screaming girls and stardom dancing in their heads. For some, that dream came true, in packed High School Gymnasiums, Church basements, bowling alleys and every other venue they could find. Groups were working three or four nights a week on both sides of the Ottawa River. The Esquires, The Staccatos, The Townsmen, Don Norman and the Other Four and many others cut records that were as good as anything coming out of Britain or the States. DJ's Gord Atkinson, Nelson Davis and Al "Pussycat" Pascal make them stars by playing their records. Sandy Gardiner followed their exploits in his weekly "teen" column in the Ottawa Journal, and we checked out the weekly "Swing Set" to get the lowdown on the newest groups. From the day Elvis Presley came to town in 1957, to the release of The Five Man Electrical Band’s mega-hit “Signs”, we relive those memories with the bands, the clubs, the concerts and the colorful cast of characters who made it happen. Pull back the curtain on the magic of "Ottawa’s Golden Age of Rock and Roll”,
This powerful and lyrical poetry collection was inspired by a year of cold-water swimming in the ocean and rivers on the edge of Haida Gwaii. Kim Larocque started daily dips in the frigid waters after a joyful New Year’s Day swim with friends. These poems, steeped in the wild beauty of coastal British Columbia, document her journey and tell her story of loss, renewal, courage and the joyful, healing power of water.
When twenty-something couple Bryce and Juniper are on route to a romantic getaway, a huge, wolf-like animal darts in front of their car and causes them to crash, injuring Juniper. A stranger claiming to be a doctor appears and offers to help, bringing them to his secluded property. While Juniper’s condition seems to mysteriously worsen day after day, Bryce becomes entranced by his host’s sensual artist wife, and intrigue leads to obsession. As the couple’s stay drags on, the forest surrounding them begins to reveal something sinister about their hosts. The longer Bryce and Juniper stay, the more their relationship and even their lives will be threatened. But how does one break away when physically and emotionally compromised?
These poems transport the reader to an imaginative world resonating with mythological, spiritual, and existential significance. Here, with wit and irony, the poet challenges us to resist common assumptions with measured skepticism, and posits that ultimately, there is no comfort in conformity. We are both entertained and enlightened by a unique, poetic exploration of ordinary experience and the mysteries of life.
Once Second Prince of the mightiest kingdom in the known world, Othrun now leads the last survivors of his exiled people into an uncertain future far across the Shimmering Sea from their ancestral home, now lost beneath the waves. With his Single God binding his knights to chivalric oaths, intent on wiping out idolatry and pagan worship, they will have to carve out a new kingdom on this mysterious continent―a continent that has for centuries been ravaged by warlords competing for supremacy and mages channeling the mystic powers of the elements―and unite the continent under godly rule. With a troubled past, a cursed sword, and a mysterious spirit guiding him, Othrun means to be that ruler, and conquer all. But with kingdoms fated on the edge of spears, alliances and pagan magic, betrayal, doubt, and dangers await him at every turn. Othrun will be forced to confront the truths of all he believes in on his journey to become a king, and a legend. When one kingdom drowns, a new one must rise in its place. So begins the saga of that kingdom, and the man who would rule it all.
Red Robinson: The Last Broadcast is the sequel to the best-selling Red Robinson: The Last Deejay. It details the legendary Canadian deejay’s last radio broadcast in the summer of 2017, and provides an in-depth look at the careers of his equally colourful friends and colleagues in the broadcasting industry. Over a career that spanned six decades, Red’s colleagues include Doc Harris, Stirling Faux, Fanny Kiefer, Gloria Macarenko, Wayne Cox, and many others. Robinson was the first DJ to play rock ‘n roll regularly in Canada. He also emceed live concerts by Elvis Presley and the Beatles. With humour and candour, Red Robinson: The Last Broadcast explores why the old days of working in radio were far more fun, daring, and innovative than in today’s environment of media concentration. This blast from the past will entertain readers both old and young and give an emerging generation of broadcasters a sense of why theirs is a profession worth preserving through stubborn persistence, endless curiosity, a dash of hubris, and a strong dose of old-fashioned chutzpah.
Darkness is always with us, just behind the brightness of day. It’s beyond the sun in the sky, beyond the overhead lights in our houses … beyond the night-lights that keep darkness at bay when all the other lights go out. Does that scare you? Inspired by dreams, as well as the fear of darkness and the unknown, Where the Light Doesn't Go is a dark and whimsically unconventional book, with illustrations that show the dramatic contrast between the darkness and the light. This adventure captures that instinctive fear we all experience when the light goes out, and counsels us to find the strength and focus to overcome it, together.
When Mei was eight years old, her aunt tried to sell her to a strange man with a foreign accent. Betrayed amongst the backwater villages of Cambodia, she ran for her life. When she was found, grass-stained and teary-eyed in a ramshackle orphanage, security consultant Quinton Mills fell in love with her fiery spirit and dogged will to survive. Now, years later, Mei has gone missing and this time, Quinn fears the worst. When the head of a victims' shelter informs him that Mei and several other girls have been abducted in the night, he sets out against all odds to find her and bring her home. Unraveling the mystery of Mei’s disappearance takes him from the jungles of Cambodia to the seedy back alleys of Bangkok's notorious red-light district, and onwards to Cairo, a city consumed by corruption and political tension, the beating heart of North Africa on the brink of revolution. As clues to Mei's whereabouts continue to fade among the shadows, his desperate search for an innocent child drags him ever deeper into the clandestine underworld of the modern slave trade.
