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Showing 1 - 15 of 15 items
The concubine's children: portrait of a family divided
By Denise Chong. 1994
Chong traces her family's history from China to Canada. Her grandfather left his wife and emigrated to Canada, accompanied by…
the concubine he bought in 1924. In Canada, they stinted and sacrificed to support his family in China. Chong tells of her grandparents and parents, and the visits she made to China to try to unite the strands of her family's past. Winner of the 1995 CNIB Talking Book of the Year Award. 1994.Ten green bottles: the true story of one family's journey from war-torn Austria to the ghettos of Shanghai
By Vivian Jeanette Kaplan. 2002
For a brief period between 1938 and 1941, roughly 20,000 Jews found refuge from the Nazis in the one place…
not requiring visas, police certificates or proofs of financial independence: Shanghai. In 1939, the author's family made a month-long, 7,000-mile journey to Shanghai, struggling with heat, disease, poverty, and fear. With the war's end came the shock of learning what became of family and friends left behind in Europe. Descriptions of violence. 2002.Tempting Faith DiNapoli: A Novel
By Lisa Gabriele. 2002
Faith genuinely wants to be a good Catholic girl and she's pretty sure Jesus loves her, though the evidence is…
sometimes difficult to find. The trouble is, Faith's angry with everyone in her family. She breaks every commandment and finds herself torn between who she wants to be and who she is. 2002.Shingwauk's vision: native residential schools in Canada
By J. R Miller. 1996
A comprehensive study of residential schools, the institutions where attendance by Native children was compulsory as recently as the 1960s.…
Former students have come forward in increasing numbers to describe the psychological and physical abuse they suffered in these schools, and many view the system as an experiment in cultural genocide. Miller explores all three players in the story: the government officials who authorized the schools, the missionaries who taught in them, and the students who attended them. Co-winner of the 1996 Saskatchewan Book Award for nonfiction. Some descriptions of sex and violence, some strong language. 1996.Most of the writing on global warming is by scientists, academics, environmentalists, and journalists. Kevin Taft, a former leader of…
the opposition in Alberta, brings a fresh perspective through the insight he gained as an elected politician who had an insider's eyewitness view of the role of the oil industry. His answer, in brief: The oil industry has captured key democratic institutions in both Alberta and Ottawa. Taft begins his book with a perceptive observer's account of a recent court case in Ottawa which laid bare the tactics and techniques of the industry, its insiders and lobbyists. He casts dramatic new light on exactly how corporate lobbyists, politicians, bureaucrats, universities, and other organizations are working together to pursue the oil industry's agenda. He offers a brisk tour of the recent work of scholars who have developed the concepts of the deep state and institutional capture to understand how one rich industry can override the public interest. Taft views global warming and weakened democracy as two symptoms of the same problem--the loss of democratic institutions to corporate influence and control. He sees citizen engagement and direct action by the public as the only response that can unravel big oil's deep state. 2017.Land to light on
By Dionne Brand. 1997
Brand writes about Canada as it is seen by an outsider and about the outsiders who have come here over…
and settled over the years, uncomfortable with the land and its people, uncomfortable sometimes with themselves. Winner of the 1997 Governor General's Award for English poetry.Lake of the prairies: a story of belonging
By Warren Cariou. 2002
Cariou's memoir on growing up in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, where he witnessed the discrimination, anger and fear directed at the…
town's Cree and Métis populations by the European settlers. While he has absorbed these prejudices as his own, he is forced to confront the politics of race as an adult. Then, he discovers secrets that his family had kept hidden for generations, secrets that would alter forever his sense of identity and belonging in Meadow Lake. Winner of the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize of the 2003 Writers' Trust of Canada Awards. 2002.Child soldier: when boys and girls are used in war (CitizenKid)
By Jessica Dee Humphreys, Michel Chikwanine. 2015
It's 1993, and the Democratic Republic of Congo is going through major political changes. Five-year-old Michel is playing with friends…
one day when, without warning, a group of rebel soldiers pulls up to the school grounds. Forced onto trucks, the frightened boys are taken to a camp in the hills. There they are thrust into a terrifying and violent world. Grades 5-8. Winner of the 2017 Red Maple Non-Fiction Award. 2015.As long as the rivers flow
By Oskiniko Larry Loyie, Connie Brissenden. 2005
It is Larry Loyie's last summer before entering residential school, a time of learning and adventure. He cares for an…
abandoned baby owl, watches his grandmother make winter moccasins, helps the family prepare for a hunting and gathering trip. But soon, a truck comes to forcibly take Lawrence and his siblings away to their new school, which would try to erase their traditional language and culture. Grades 3-6. 2002.A place within: rediscovering India
By M. G Vassanji. 2008
Author M. G. Vassanji was born in Africa, where his Indian grandparents had settled, and his relationship to India had…
been complex and contradictory. Vassanji describes his many visits to India, encompassing bustling cities, quiet landscapes, fantastic stories and fascinating characters, in this his part travelogue and description, part history and meditation, and above all a quest for a lost homeland. Some descriptions of violence. Winner of the 2009 Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction. Canada Reads 2012. 2008.A fair country: telling truths about Canada
By John Ralston Saul. 2008
In this vision of Canada, Saul unveils 3 founding myths: he argues that the famous "peace, order, and good government"…
that supposedly defines Canada is a distortion of the country's true nature. He describes Canada as a Métis nation, heavily influenced and shaped by aboriginal ideas. Lastly, he believes that Canada has a colonial non-intellectual business elite that doesn't believe in Canada. c2008.A good place to come from
By Morley Torgov. 1974
An account of life in a small town community in Sault Ste. Marie in the late 1930's and early 1940's.…
Winner of the 1975 Stephen Leacock Award for humour. Strong language. 1974.The Russian album
By Michael Ignatieff. 1987
Through the use of his grandparents' diaries, the author recreates his family history. The Ignatieffs, firmly entrenched in the Russian…
nobility, served in the tsarist government. In late 1917, the events of the Revolution overtook the family and they chose exile in the West. 1987 Governor General's Award winner. 1987.Celui qui reste: lettre à une amie disparue
By Stéphane Garneau. 2021
Cette lettre à une amie disparue est l'histoire d'un homme qui a vécu une triste succession de deuils. Aujourd'hui, s'il…
est en mesure d'en faire le récit, c'est qu'il a compris que, avec le passage du temps, arrivera un moment où les morts seront plus nombreux que les vivantsLouis le magnétiseur
By Serge Gauthier. 2005
En 1837, Louis Larouche, un habitant de la paroisse de Sainte-Agnès dans la région de Charlevoix, prétend connaître le magnétisme…
et posséder des pouvoirs quasi surnaturels. L’abbé Godefroy Tremblay, curé de cette même paroisse et chargé par son évêque de trouver l’argent nécessaire pour la construction d’une belle église de pierre, est d’abord choqué par les présomptions du magnétiseur, mais, peu à peu, fasciné malgré lui, il se prend à écouter d’une oreille beaucoup plus attentive les propos de Larouche, qui affirme connaître l’emplacement d’un trésor fabuleux. Envoûté, le curé de Sainte-Agnès se met à rêver, à croire que cet improbable trésor pourrait enfin permettre à sa paroisse de se doter de l’église qu’elle mérite. Ainsi donc, malgré les objurgations de certains de ses fidèles, il plonge aveuglément dans cette aventure étrange, aux charmes maléfiques… Inspiré de documents d’archives, ce court récit présente un Canada français du XIXe siècle moins uniforme, où la foi catholique est moins monolithique et incontestée que ne le voudrait l’imagerie courante de la vie paysanne de cette époque. Certaines pratiques magiques, dont la base est une recherche spirituelle, ont connu leur vogue aussi bien en ce temps-là que de nos jours. Louis le Magnétiseur en est une démonstration brillante, digne de nos légendes les plus belles.