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The golden spruce: A True Story Of Myth, Madness And Greed
By John Vaillant. 2005
In 1997, when a shattered kayak and camping gear are found on an Alaskan island north of the Canadian border,…
they reignite a mystery surrounding a shocking act of protest. The author braids together the strands of this mystery and brings to life the historical collision of Europeans and the Haida and the harrowing world of logging. Canada Reads 2012. Winner of the 2005 Governor General's Award for Non-fiction. Bestseller. 2005.The end of elsewhere: travels among the tourists
By Taras Grescoe. 2003
Taras Grescoe plunges into the ruts where the tourists are thickest, starting at the tip of Spain's Land's End and…
finishing, nine months later, on the soldier-patrolled beaches of China's End of the Earth. Along the way, he crosses the entire Eurasian landmass, experiencing all sorts of travel such as all-inclusive resorts, pilgrimages, and bus tours. Some descriptions of sex and violence, some strong language. 2003.The end of absence: reclaiming what we've lost in a world of constant connection
By Michael Harris. 2014
Only one generation in history (ours) will experience life both with and without the internet. For everyone who follows us,…
online life will simply be the air they breathe. Today, we revel in ubiquitous information and constant connection, rarely stopping to consider the implications for our logged-on lives. The author chronicles this massive shift, exploring what we've gained and lost in the bargain. He argues that our greatest loss has been that of absence itself -- of silence, wonder and solitude. Winner of the 2014 Governor General’s Award for Non-fiction. 2014.The Greek for love: a memoir of Corfu
By James Chatto. 2005
They arrived as tourists in Corfu, Wendy from Canada and James from England. They enjoyed the sun, an idyllic beach,…
olives, fresh apricots and marinated lamb, and long evenings of storytelling at the local taverna. But what captivated James and Wendy was the way the islanders embraced them, and how their deep connection to Corfu and its people sustained them through tragedy just as it had carried them into love. Some strong language. 2005.The curse of the narrows: the Halifax explosion, 1917
By Laura MacDonald. 2005
On December 7, 1917, in the heart of the World War I, two ships collided in Halifax harbour. The resulting…
explosion killed over 2,000 people and injured some 6,000 more. Macdonald presents the whole story of how the military, volunteers and ordinary citizens united to organize one of the most complex relief efforts in North American history. Descriptions of violence. 2005.The blind mechanic: the amazing story of Eric Davidson, survivor of the 1917 Halifax Explosion
By Marilyn Elliott, Janet Kitz. 2018
Eric Davidson was a beautiful, fair-haired toddler when the Halifax Explosion struck, killing almost 2,000 people and seriously injuring thousands…
of others. Eric lost both eyes-a tragedy that his mother never fully recovered from. Eric, however, was positive and energetic. He also developed a fascination with cars and how they worked, and he later decided, against all likelihood, to become a mechanic. Assisted by his brothers who read to him from manuals, he worked hard, passed examinations, and carved out a decades-long career. Once the subject of a National Film Board documentary, Eric Davidson was, until his death, a much-admired figure in Halifax. Written by his daughter Marilyn, this book gives new insights into the story of the 1917 Halifax Explosion and contains never-before-seen documents and photographs. Winner of the 2019 The Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award (Non-Fiction). 2018.Sword of the spirit, shield of faith: religion in American war and diplomacy
By Andrew Preston. 2012
A richly detailed account of how religion has influenced American foreign relations, told through the stories of the men and…
women - from presidents to preachers - who have plotted the country’s course in the world. Winner of the 2013 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. 2012. If you request this book on CD it will be on 2 or more CDs. You must play the first CD to the end before playing the next CD.Stephen Harper
By John Ibbitson. 2015
Stephen Harper has made government smaller, justice tougher, and provinces more independent. Those who praise Harper point to the Conservatives'…
skillful economic management, the reformed immigration system, the uncompromising defence of Israel and Ukraine, and the fight against terrorism, while critics accuse the Harper government of being autocratic, secretive and cruel. Ibbitson explores Harper’s suburban youth, the forces that shaped his tempestuous relationship with Reform Leader Preston Manning, how Laureen Harper influences her husband, his devotion to his children--and his cats. Ibbitson explains how this shy, closed, introverted loner united a fractured conservative movement, defeated a Liberal hegemony, and set out to reshape the nation. Bestseller. Winner of the 2015 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. 2015.Seven fallen feathers: racism, death, and hard truths in a northern city
By Tanya Talaga. 2017
Over the span of ten years, seven high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The seven were hundreds of…
miles away from their families, forced to leave their reserve because there was no high school there for them to attend. Award-winning journalist Tanya Talaga delves into the history of this northern city that has come to manifest, and struggle with, human rights violations past and present against aboriginal communities. Bestseller. Winner of the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize and the 2018 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. 2017.Settler education: poems
By Laurie D Graham. 2016
In the stunning poems of "Settler Education", Graham explores the Plains Cree uprising at Frog Lake -- the death of…
nine settlers, the hanging of six Cree warriors, the imprisonment of Big Bear, and the opening of the Prairies to unfettered settlement. In ways possible only with such an honest act of imagination, and with language at once terse and capacious, she reckons with how these pasts repeat and reconstitute themselves in the present. Poems from this book won the 2013 Thomas Morton Poetry Prize. 2016. Uniform title: Poems.Shadow maker: the life of Gwendolyn MacEwen
By Rosemary Sullivan. 1995
Using the personal impressions of the poet's intimate friends, Rosemary Sullivan builds a composite portrait of Gwendolyn MacEwan, the Toronto…
poet who died in 1987 at the age of 46. The daughter of an alcoholic father and mentally ill mother, MacEwen's story is a painful one, yet the richness of her art and inner life redeemed the pain. Winner of the 1995 Governor General's Award for Non-fiction.Rag cosmology
By Erin Robinsong. 2017
In this time of ecological precarity, "Rag Cosmology" is an urgent invitation to reinvent our modes of engagement with the…
environment we not only inhabit, but are. Refusing the lamentation that leaves us as resigned witnesses to devastation, "Rag Cosmology" counters fatalist narratives with the pleasures of ecological entanglement and engagement. Tracing relationships between seemingly irreconcilable things--economy and ecology, weather and lust, bills and inner voices, wages of avoidance and wages of listening--these poems offer the intimate and lush language of thought that yearn for an imaginative reinvention of how we understand what we are part of and what we are losing. Winner of the 2017 A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry (QWF). 2017.Polio: an American story
By David M Oshinsky. 2005
Account of the twentieth-century search for a polio vaccine and the rivalries that developed between competing medical researchers, notably Jonas…
Salk, Albert Sabin, and Hilary Koprowski. Traces the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis campaigns and the public health experiment involving Salk's vaccine. Evokes the widespread panic over the disease. Winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for history. 2005.Pig girl
By Colleen Murphy. 2015
At 4:00 a.m. on a secluded farm, a woman fights to take her life back from a serial killer as…
her desperate sister and a haunted police officer reach across time and distance in an attempt to rescue her. Winner of the 2016 Governor General’s Award for Drama. 2015.Paris 1919: six months that changed the world
By Margaret MacMillan. 2001
Analyzes the failure of the Versailles Peace Conference after World War I. Focuses on the nationalistic goals of American president…
Woodrow Wilson, French premier Georges Clemenceau, and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George - the author's great-grandfather - as they reorganized the defeated empires and created the League of Nations. Foreword by Richard Holbrooke. Bestseller. Winner of the 2003 Governor General's Award for Non-fiction. Canada Reads 2012. 2001. Uniform title: PeacemakersOut of darkness: the Jeff Healey story
By Cindy Watson. 2010
Losing both eyes to retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer, opened a door to another world for Jeff Healey. Out…
of darkness he created music, becoming one of the most influential blues-rock and jazz performers of our time. Winner of the 2012 Golden Oak Award. Grades 5-8. 2010.One hour in Paris: a true story of rape and recovery
By Karyn L Freedman. 2014
Philosopher Karyn L. Freedman travels back to a Paris night in 1990 when she was twenty-two and, in one violent…
hour, her life was changed forever by a brutal rape. We follow Freedman from an apartment in Paris to a French courtroom, from a trauma centre in Toronto to a rape clinic in Africa. At a time when as many as one in three women in the world have been victims of sexual assault and when many women are still ashamed to come forward, Freedman's book is a moving and essential look at how survivors cope and persevere. Winner of the 2015 British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. 2014.On not losing my father's ashes in the flood
By Richard Harrison. 2016
In his final years, Richard Harrison's father suffered from a form of dementia, but he died without ever forgetting the…
poems he had memorized as a student and had taught to Richard as a child. In 2013, the poet feared his father's ashes had been lost in the flood water that ravaged Alberta--a crisis that would become the inciting event and central theme of this collection. Combining elements of memoir, elegy, lyrical essay and personal correspondence with appreciations of literary works ranging from haiku to comic books, Richard Harrison has written a book of great intellectual depth that is as generous as it is enchanting. Winner of the 2017 Governor General’s Award for Poetry. 2016. Uniform title: Poems.Notes from the rainforest
By György Faludy. 1988
The entries in this diary, written at night in the silence of the forest, range from philosophical aphorisms to acid…
comments on the state of Communism, the excesses of the American way of life, and the characteristics of Canadian culture. Winner of the 1990 CNIB Talking Book of the Year Award. c1988.Nation maker: Sir John A. Macdonald : his life, our times, volume two : 1867-1891
By Richard Gwyn. 2011
From Confederation Day in 1867, John A. Macdonald finessed a reluctant union of four provinces in central and eastern Canada…
into a strong nation, despite indifference from Britain and annexationist sentiment in the United States. Macdonald faced constant crises, from Louis Riel's two rebellions through to the Pacific Scandal that almost undid his government. Gwyn paints a portrait of Canada and its leaders through these formative years and also shows us Macdonald the man, as he wrestles with whether Riel should hang, marries for the second time, deals with the birth of a disabled child, and the assassination of his close friend Darcy McGee. Some descriptions of violence. Sequel to “John A: the man who made us : the life and times of John A. Macdonald” (DC31710). Winner of the 2011 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. c2011.