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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 great fire
By Jim Murphy. 1995
An account of the conflagration that levelled much of Chicago in 1871. Chronicles events from the fire's outbreak and rapid…
spread to its extinguishment by rain, as reported by survivors and in documents of the period. Examines the origins, circumstances, and official failures that contributed to the disaster. Grades 5-8. A 1996 Newbery Honor Book. c1995.The fleece era
By Joanna Lilley. 2014
Yukon-based, UK-born Joanna Lilley’s first book of poems is a wry and eloquent testament to the intricacies of our various…
relationships. From the shattered pieces of our environmental puzzles to the labyrinth of family dynamics, Lilley makes these dilemmas come alive. Chillingly sparse, attractively odd and refreshingly frank, these poems embrace the complexities of human life with an unsettling mix of the sardonic and the compassionate. c2014.The doctor will not see you now
By Jane Poulson. 2002
Autobiography of Dr. Jane Poulson, the first blind person in Canada to become a practising doctor. Poulson suffered from diabetes…
and because of the disease, lost her sight and then experienced severe heart problems. Nonetheless she was an extremely accomplished doctor, published widely in leading medical journals, and showed great courage and endurance to all who knew her. She wrote this book during the last two years of her life. 2002.The description of the world
By Johanna Skibsrud. 2016
In this collection of poems, the author asks: is our world really what it appears to be? How do we…
shape it through language? And if language can create our world, can it also transform or destroy it? She brings us to the edges of dreams and waking. With lines that are searching, but spacious, she deftly turns over ideas of perception and reality, inviting us to join her as she releases the abstract figure from its painting, or brings the poet in from the wilderness. 2016.The dream of Gerontius
By John Henry Newman. 2009
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 essential Rumi
By Coleman Barks, Maulana Jalal al-Din Rumi. 1995
Contemporary translation of spiritual poetry by the Sufi mystic Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273). These poems were created during Rumi's work with…
a dervish learning community that was "exploring the mystery of union with the divine." Includes sex. 1995. Uniform title: Selections.The empathy exams: essays
By Leslie Jamison. 2014
A collection of essays explores empathy, using topics ranging from street violence and incarceration to reality television and literary sentimentality…
to ask questions about people's understanding of and relationships with others. Winner of the Gray Wolf Press Nonfiction Prize. 2014. The empathy exams -- Devil's bait -- La frontera -- Morphology of the hit -- Pain tours (I) : La plata perdida ; Sublime, revised ; Indigenous to the hood -- The immortal horizon -- In defense of saccharin(e) -- Fog count -- Pain tours (II) : Ex-votos ; Servicio supercompleto ; The broken heart of James Agee -- Lost boys -- Grand unified theory of female pain -- Judge's afterword / A conversation with Leslie Jamison. Uniform title: Essays.The dog's last walk: (and other pieces)
By Howard Jacobson. 2017
Week after week, for eighteen years, the Booker Prize-winning novelist Howard Jacobson wrote a weekly column for the Independent, reflecting…
in inimitable style on the sacred and the profane in turn, the frivolous and the serious, the deeply personal and the most universal. As the much-loved newspaper ceases printing, this second collection of Jacobson's columns offers a selection of the witty and thunderous best. 2017. Uniform title: Independent (London, England)The corpses of the future
By Lynn Crosbie. 2017
A sustained, confessional new collection of poems that tells the story of Crosbie's father’s battle with frontotemporal dementia and blindness,…
following a stroke. The poems chronologically recount the poet’s conversations and time with her father, and capture his still-astonishing means of communicating. The book’s title is his sardonic remark. Crosbie considers dementia to be a symbolic language and as such, similar to poetry. The author’s attempts to understand her father’s distress, pain, fear, and brave love are assisted by her understanding of the “negative capability” required of readers of poetry. 2017.The Harvey girls: women who opened the West
By Lesley Poling-Kempes. 1989
From the 1880s to the 1950s, the Harvey Girls went west to work in Fred Harvey's restaurants along the Santa…
Fe railway. At a time when there were "no ladies west of Dodge City and no women west of Albuquerque," they came as waitresses, but many stayed and settled, founding the struggling cattle and mining towns that dotted the region. Interviews, historical research, and photographs help re-create the Harvey Girl experience. The accounts are personal, but laced with the history the women lived: the dust bowl, the depression, and anecdotes about some of the many famous people who ate at the restaurants--Teddy Roosevelt, Shirley Temple, Bob Hope, to name a few. Winner of the 1991 New Mexico PressWomen's ZIA award. 1989.The Hiroshima Maidens: a story of courage, compassion, and survival
By Rodney Barker. 1985
Japanese women who underwent surgery in the U.S. to repair the ravages caused by the atomic blast became known as…
the "Hiroshima maidens". The author documents the medical, humanitarian and diplomatic undertaking that brought them to the States. 1985.The gospel according to Clarence Thomas: a libretto
By Ashis Gupta. 2007
Crafted as a long poem, a libretto for stage presentations, this book is less about Clarence Thomas than it is…
about the devastating reign of the Bush administration. The central idea of the book is: ‘War is an Evil product of Evil/Hypocritical Minds’. The ‘Chorus of the Homeless’ occupies a central role in the poem, performing a function much like the Chorus in Greek Tragedies, providing a reasonably objective commentary. In a sense, the central story is a tragedy too – George Bush is a tragic figure. And, towards the end, he is conceived as a tragic hero, a Samson-like figure who pulls down the temple over his head to crush the Philistines. 2007.The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: an experiment in literary investigation
By Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenit͡ìsyn. 1973
Drawn from reports, letters, witnesses, and the Nobel Prize winner's own 11-year incarceration at Archipelago. This is an intense portrayal…
of the history of the Soviet prison system. Bestseller. 1973. Uniform title: Arkhipelag GULag, 1918-1956.The education of Laura Bridgman: first deaf and blind person to learn language
By Ernest Freeberg. 2001
Chronicles the life of Laura Bridgman, who, born into a New Hampshire farm family in 1829, became deaf and blind…
at the age of two. Freeberg recounts Laura's transformation into a woman who voraciously absorbed the world around her under the tutelage of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe of the Perkins Institution for the Blind. 2001.The Dunsmuirs: alone at the edge
By Rod Langley. 1991
Robbie Dunsmuir, exiled from Scotland, becomes an indentured labourer in the Nanaimo coalfields. He ruthlessly climbs his way to the…
top when he discovers a coal deposit on Vancouver Island. Some strong language. Followed by "The Dunsmuirs : a promise kept". c1991.The dogs are eating them now: our war in Afghanistan
By Graeme Smith. 2013
Graeme Smith’s highly personal narrative of Canada's war in Afghanistan and how it went dangerously wrong. This is a gripping…
account of modern warfare that takes you into back alleys, cockpits and prisons -- telling stories that would have endangered his life had he published this book while still working as a journalist. Winner of the 2013 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. 2013.The devil's cinema: the untold story behind Mark Twitchell's kill room
By Steve Lillebuen. 2012
On the night of October 10, 2008, Johnny Altinger was heading to his first date with a woman he had…
met online. He was never seen again. Two weeks earlier, aspiring filmmaker Mark Twitchell, with a devotion to the television series Dexter, began a three-day shoot for his latest short film. His horror story featured a serial killer who impersonates women on an online dating site to lure unsuspecting men to his suburban kill room. But his script was actually the blueprint for a real-life murder. Includes violence and strong language. Winner of the 2013 Arthur Ellis Best Crime Non-fiction Award. c2012.