Showing titles in Coming of Age

'I have meditated repeatedly on what it was about Finn that had me so dismantled.' A young woman moves from the countryside to the city. Inexplicably, inexorably and immediately, she falls in love with another woman for the first time in her life. Finn is 19 years older than her, wears men's clothes, has a cocky smirk of a smile - and a long-term girlfriend. With precision, wit and tenderness, Women charts the frenzy and the fall out of love.

Not every story has a happy ending. Since her brother's death, eight-year-old Egg Murakami has been living day-to-day on the family ostrich farm near Bittercreek, discovering life to be an ever-perplexing condition. Mama Murakami has curled up inside a bottle, and Papa has exiled himself to the barn with the birds. Big sister Kathy tells stories to Egg so that the world might not seem so awful.

Meet Sofie. The history of her sexuality begins when she loses her virginity to Walter the recruitment consultant. So, naturally, she thought that things could only improve from there. But she was wrong. It seems Sofie's been wrong about a lot of things. First, she thought she was into men: wrong. Then she met Frida and thought she was set for life: wrong again. Turns out, facing up to everything she thought she knew about herself requires a lot of trial and error.

Set in Calgary in 1982, during the recession that arrived on the heels of Canada’s National Energy Program, The Western Alienation Merit Badge follows the Murray family as they struggle with grief and find themselves on the brink of financial ruin. After the death of her stepmother, Frances "Frankie" Murray returns to Calgary to help her father, Jimmy, and her sister, Bernadette, pay the mortgage on the family home. When Robyn, a long-lost friend, becomes their house guest, old tensions are reignited.

A Story of a Boy: Finding Light in the Shadows of Self-Acceptance is a compelling journey through the life of a young man as he navigates self-doubt, societal expectations, and self-discovery. This heartfelt narrative explores the challenges of identity, relationships, and resilience, offering a message of hope and empowerment for those on similar journeys.

Love, Sex, Hate, and Bullying whilst growing up in the Thatcher years. Matt grew up gay in the 1980s, in a landscape shaped by political correctness, multiculturalism, and Section 28. When he comes face to face with one of the guys who bullied him and his friends, all those years ago, he's forced to reflect on everything that happened, how much of it was due to the political climate and restrictions to free speech. Remembering those first fumblings with teenage boys—a time of innocence locked inside a condemning society, he wonders what can be done to reduce bigoted views and ...

Joyful, defiant and dazzling, this is the story of Rafi Aziz—a Northern boy dreaming of his name up in lights. It's 1981 in the suburbs of Blackburn and, as Rafi's mother reminds him daily, the family moved here from Pakistan to give him the best opportunities. But Rafi longs to follow his own path. Flamboyant, dramatic and musically gifted, he wants to be a Bollywood star.

Diamonds and Devils is a story of the life of Roger Holt who grew up as a gay boy with an Evangelical pastor-father, and later became a minister in a predominately LGBTQ congregation. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes disturbing, but always engaging, Roger's story takes the listener through a life of discovery and challenges. It explores finding and losing religion. When the elderly preacher-father shows up with dementia at his grown gay son’s doorstep, there are shattering revelations.

Caught between his well-meaning yet misapprehending family, his boisterous friends, and his self-assured partner Ben, Elom struggles to fit in. All he ever wants is to feel understood – but what does it mean to live authentically when the only thing changing faster than the world around you is the world within? Moving between Accra, Glasgow, London, and the islands of the outer Hebrides, Selali Fiamanya’s extraordinary debut asks what it means to love and be loved in return. Before We Hit the Ground is an intimate portrait of a family, and one man’s struggle to find his place.

Every summer, Jessie and Emma leave their suburban home in the Central Valley of California and fly north to Baymont. Nestled among Mendocino's golden hills, with ponies to love and endless acres to explore, Baymont should be a child's paradise. But Baymont belongs to Laurel, the girls' birth mother, whose heedless parenting and tainted judgement cast a long shadow over the sisters' summers - and their lives. Caught in a web of allegiances, the girls learn again and again that every loyalty has its price, and that even forgiveness can take unexpected turns.

It's the summer after college graduation, and three best friends must navigate the real world for the first time. Join Erick, Rhys, and Joey, as they spend the first summer after graduation trying to discover who they are outside of school, while not losing themselves. Along with their friends, the boys experience a summer full of joy, heartbreak, and humor on a journey that will test the bonds of friendship.

Always outnumbered, always outflanked. That’s the motto of the Justified, the small band of mercenaries who are determined to set the universe to rights after accidentally unleashing a cataclysm upon it. But they’re not the only people who are trying to change the order of the universe. A group of psychotic beings, the Cyn, seem determined to stop the Justified. This little band of heroes are going to have to travel to the farthest reaches of the universe in order to stop the Cyn and save the world.

One morning in the spring of 1958 I woke up in my room at the Hotel Alexandria with a paralyzing hangover (which was not unusual) and an idea for a book (which was). I sat in front of my typewriter, and within a few hours I had produced a chapter-by-chapter outline of a novel. I had all the characters sketched out and knew how they'd relate to one another, and how the rather elementary storyline would resolve itself. I even had a title: Shadows.

Lucy Carmichael is jilted at the altar. But no matter. Her loving and kind family never liked her explorer fiancé anyway. Instead of moping or falling into her supportive family’s arms, however, Lucy abandons their suburban home. Heading for the country, she takes up a teaching position in the industrial town of Ravonsbridge. There, she finds solace in her work, in her new (rather gossipy) colleagues – and rediscovers her sensible young self. But if Lucy has, despite everything, kept her head – where lies her heart?

The lonely life of fifteen-year-old Theron David Alden is transformed when he meets Jake. Older, cooler, more confident and startlingly beautiful, Jake likes the same bands, the same drugs, and has the same drive to oblivion. Over the course of two decades, Theron and Jake get high, drift apart, and are brought hurtling back together, until a final collision tears them apart forever.

Rainbow Reader Orange: “Flourish and Flings” This book includes content from the original, now super-secret manuscript, “Moments in Time: It is never too late to come out,” and has been modified, embellished and enhanced based on reader interest in the characters from the original series. There is really only one moment in time we can cherish, that we remember through all of the good and bad times in our lives. If you can take that one moment of time and cherish it forever, it can bring joy where there is sorrow; happiness and hope where there is despair. This is a secret that we ...

Rainbow Reader Green: “Live, Love, Loss” This book includes content from the original, now super-secret manuscript, “Moments in Time: It is never too late to come out,” and has been modified, embellished and enhanced based on reader interest in the characters from the original series. There is really only one moment in time we can cherish, that we remember through all of the good and bad times in our lives. If you can take that one moment of time and cherish it forever, it can bring joy where there is sorrow; happiness and hope where there is despair. This is a secret that we hold ...

Rainbow Reader Blue: “Hey! I’m Gay” This book includes content from the original, now super-secret manuscript, “Moments in Time: It is never too late to come out,” and has been modified, embellished and enhanced based on reader interest in the characters from the original series. There is really only one moment in time we can cherish, that we remember through all of the good and bad times in our lives. If you can take that one moment of time and cherish it forever, it can bring joy where there is sorrow; happiness and hope where there is despair. This is a secret that we hold true...

Rainbow Reader Purple: “Destructive Love” This book includes content from the original, now super-secret manuscript, “Moments in Time: It is never too late to come out,” and has been modified, embellished and enhanced based on reader interest in the characters from the original series. There is really only one moment in time we can cherish, that we remember through all of the good and bad times in our lives. If you can take that one moment of time and cherish it forever, it can bring joy where there is sorrow; happiness and hope where there is despair. This is a secret that we hold ...

Southern California, 1968. Eight-year-old Valerie Waterstone is a girl with big dreams, media-inspired adventures, and a world of optimism in front of her, largely fueled by the innocence of her upbringing and stories about Hollywood stuntwoman Alivia Chambers told to her by her “groovy” and somewhat larger-than-life neighbor, Theresa McKinley. But 1968 is a year of radical change, both for Valerie’s family and the world around her, with newfound financial struggles for her parents, an older sister who brings home a female “friend” from college, and the harsh reality of social ...