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The great escape: the untold story
By Ted Barris. 2014
On the night of March 24, 1944, eighty airmen crawled through a 400-foot-long tunnel, code-named "Harry," and dashed from Stalag…
Luft III, the infamous WWII German POW camp. It became known as The Great Escape. The breakout had taken a year to plan, involved 2,000 POWs, and prompted a massive manhunt across occupied Europe. All but three escapees were recaptured, and on Hitler’s orders, fifty were murdered. The author recounts this battle of wits and determination through the voices of those involved, assembles original interviews, memoirs, letters and diaries to reconstruct the Great Escape’s untold story. Bestseller. 2014.The end of diabetes: the eat to live plan to prevent and reverse diabetes
By Joel Fuhrman. 2012
The New York Times bestselling author of "Eat to Live" and "Super Immunity", and one of the country's leading experts…
on preventive medicine, offers a scientifically proven, practical program to prevent and reverse diabetes - without drugs. Bestseller. 2013, c2012.The damned: the Canadians at the battle of Hong Kong and the POW experience, 1941-45
By Nathan M Greenfield. 2010
Fall, 1941. Almost 2,000 members of the Royal Rifles and Winnipeg Grenadiers were sent to bolster the British garrison at…
Hong Kong, but in the seventeen day battle for the colony following the attack on December 8, the Canadians suffered grievous losses. The second part of their story describes how the Canadians survived the horrendous conditions of Japanese POW camps. Some descriptions of sex, explicit descriptions of violence and strong language. 2010.The Dionne years: a Thirties melodrama
By Pierre Berton. 1977
In 1934, Canada hit the international headlines when Elzire Dionne gave birth to five identical baby girls in northern Ontario.…
Berton examines the exploitation of the famous five by the media, commercial interests and government which created a rift in the Dionne family. 1977. (Reissue)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 boy on the beach: my family’s escape from Syria and our hope for a new home
By Tima Kurdi. 2018
Alan Kurdi's body washed up on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea on September 2, 2015, and overnight, the political…
became personal, as the world awoke to the reality of the Syrian refugee crisis. Tima Kurdi first saw the shocking photo of her nephew in her home in Vancouver, Canada. Tima recounts her idyllic childhood in Syria, where she grew up with her brother Abdullah and other siblings in a tight knit family. A strong willed, independent woman, Tima studied to be a hairdresser and had dreams of seeing the world. At twenty two, she emigrated to Canada, but much of her family remained in Damascus. As Tima struggled to adapt to life in a new land, war overtook her homeland. Caught in the crosshairs of civil war, her family risked everything and fled their homes. Tima worked tirelessly to help them find safety, but their journey was far from easy. Although thwarted by politics, hounded by violence, and separated by vast distances, the Kurdis never gave up hope. And when tragedy struck, Tima suddenly found herself thrust onto the world stage as an advocate for refugees everywhere, a role for which she had never prepared but that allowed her to give voice to those who didn't have an opportunity to speak for themselves. Bestseller. 2018.The black grizzly of Whiskey Creek
By Sid Marty. 2008
1980. Many citizens of Banff, Alberta, valued living in a place where wildlife grazed on the front lawn, but none…
were expecting bear attacks that summer. During the massive hunt that followed, Banff was portrayed as a town under siege by a killer bear, and the tourists stayed away. The pressure was on to find and destroy the Whiskey Creek mauler, but he evaded park wardens and struck again - and again. When the fight was over, the hard lessons learned led to changes that would save the lives of both bears and people in the coming years. Some descriptions of violence, some strong language. 2008.The ballad of Danny Wolfe: life of a modern outlaw
By Joe Friesen. 2016
In 2008, Danny Wolfe, a Winnipeg Aboriginal man, was 31-years-old and awaiting trial on two counts of first-degree murder in…
at the Regina Correctional Centre. In spite of his young age, Danny had found himself in and out of correctional facilities since his teenage years, sometimes even finding his own way out. Now, fifteen years after his last break out of prison, Danny was orchestrating a bigger escape from a jail where the notion was inconceivable. This biography traces the early years of Daniel Wolfe's life, from his birth in Regina to his mother Susan Creeley, a First Nations woman; to his first brush with the law at the age of four and then his subsequent arrests; to the birth of the Indian Posse--the Aboriginal street gang in Canada that would eventually claim the title of the largest street gang in North America with over 12,000 members (from BC to Ontario, and even Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona) and Danny at the helm; to Danny's death in 2010. Bestseller. 2016.Tecumseh & Brock: the War of 1812
By James Laxer. 2012
At the turn of the nineteenth century, the British Empire is at the height of its ascendancy; Napoleonic France is…
struggling to maintain its position as a world power; the incumbent American empire is quickly expanding its territory, while the Native peoples struggle to establish their own confederacy. Laxer focusses on the Native struggle for nationhood and sovereignty; the battle between the British Empire and the United States over Upper and Lower Canada; and the unlikely friendship and political alliance between Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh and Major-General Sir Isaac Brock. 2012.The Acadians: in search of a homeland
By James Laxer. 2006
In 1604, a small group of migrants fled political turmoil and famine in France to start a new colony on…
Canada's east coast. Their roughly demarcated territory included what are now Canada's Maritime provinces, land that was fought over by the British and French empires until the Acadians were finally expelled in 1755. In the absence of a state, what defines an Acadian today is elusive, and while their community, centred in New Brunswick, is more confident than ever, it is entering a contentious debate about its future. Some descriptions of violence. 2006.Strength of conviction
By Tom Mulcair. 2015
The inside story of Thomas Mulcair's rise from modest beginnings to the threshold of power. Discover the man behind the…
headlines, who he is, how he thinks, and the struggles he faced - from fighting sexual misconduct, to protecting our environment, to his work alongside Jack Layton leading the NDP to a historic breakthrough in Quebec. Bestseller. 2015.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.Shorty, an aviation pioneer: the story of Victor John Hatton
By James Glassco Henderson. 2004
Having survived the First World War in the trenches, Shorty Hatton started his aviation career in a near-fatal crash of…
an Avro 504K and ended it with another Avro aircraft, the Arrow. In the intervening years he was a military, bush, and test pilot, he taught fledgling aviators at Camp Borden, he was the first to fly new air mail routes in an open cockpit plane, and he tested newly-built Hawker Hurricanes before they joined the Battle of Britain. Some descriptions of sex. 2004.Precious cargo: my year driving the kids on school bus 3077
By Craig Davidson. 2016
Tells the story of one year in the author's life - driving a school bus full of special-needs kids. Shows…
us how his evolving relationship with the kids on that bus, each of them struggling physically as well as emotionally and socially, slowly but surely changed his life along with the lives of the precious cargo in his care. Bestseller. Canada Reads 2018. 2016.Poets and pahlevans: a journey into the heart of Iran
By Marcello Di Cintio. 2006
Di Cintio prepares for his journey to Iran by taking lessons in Farsi, researching Persian poetry and sharpening his wrestling…
skills. Once there, he talks politics with men in tea houses, wrestles, and visits sites and shrines associated with great Persian poets, learning that poetry is loved and quoted by everyone from taxi-drivers to students. The mosaic of incidents, encounters, conversations, sights, smells and moments creates a detailed impression of a country and society that will challenge preconceptions. 2006.Our turn
By Kirstine Stewart. 2015
Kirstine Stewart got her first job when she applied for a position as a "girl Friday" at a film distribution…
house. Having worked her way up from the bottom--under women and men, leaders good and bad--she believes it's time we leaped past the question of how women might create change in the working world and exploit the fact that profound change is already under way. The digital revolution, and the wave of millennials who are entering the work force with very different expectations than the generations who preceded them, have created a new reality that demands a new style of leader with attributes and perspectives that make women the natural front-runners. The opportunity is there. The question Stewart tackles is, how do we seize it? Bestseller. 2015.Original highways: travelling the great rivers of Canada
By Roy MacGregor. 2017
No country is more blessed with fresh water than Canada. MacGregor, has paddled, sailed and traversed Canada's rivers, learned their…
stories and secrets, and the tales of centuries lived on their rapids and riverbanks. He raises lost tales, like that of the Great Tax Revolt of the Gatineau River, and reconsiders histories like that of the Irish would-be settlers who died on Grosse Ile and the incredible resilience of settlers in the Red River Valley. Along the Grand, the Ottawa and others, he meets the successful conservationists behind the resuscitation of polluted wetlands, including even Toronto's Don, the most abused river in Canada (where he witnesses families of mink, returned to play on its banks). Long before our national railroad was built, our rivers held Canada together; in these sixteen portraits, filled with yesterday's adventures and tomorrow's promise, MacGregor weaves together a story of Canada and its ongoing relationship with its most precious resource. 2017.Open heart, open mind
By Clara Hughes. 2015
From one of Canada’s most decorated Olympians comes a raw but life-affirming story of one woman’s struggle with mental illness.…
After more than a decade in the gruelling world of professional sports that stripped away her confidence and bruised her body, Clara Hughes began to realize that her physical extremes, her emotional setbacks, and her partying habits were masking a severe depression. After winning bronze in the last speed skating race of her career, she decided to retire from that sport, determined to repair herself. She has emerged as one of our most committed humanitarians, advocating for a variety of social causes in Canada and around the world. Bestseller. 2015.Nine lessons I learned from my father
By Murray Howe. 2017
Unlike his two brothers, Murray Howe failed in his attempt to follow in his father's footsteps to become a professional…
athlete. Yet, his failure brought him to the realization that in truth, his dream wasn't to be a pro hockey player. His dream was to be his father, Gordie Howe. To be amazing at something, but humble and gracious. To be courageous, and stand up for the little guy. To be a hero. You don't need to be a hockey player to do that. What he learned was that it is a waste of time wishing you were like someone else. We need to identify and embrace our gifts. Gordie Howe may have been the greatest player in the history of hockey, but greatness was never defined by goals or assists in the Howe household. Greatness meant being the best person you could be, not the best player on the ice. Bestseller. 2017.