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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.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.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.The woo-woo: how I survived ice hockey, drug raids, demons, and my crazy Chinese family
By Lindsay Wong. 2018
A young woman comes of age in a dysfunctional Asian family whose members blamed their woes on ghosts and demons…
when in fact they should have been on anti-psychotic meds. Lindsay Wong grew up with a paranoid schizophrenic grandmother and a mother who was deeply afraid of the "woo-woo"-Chinese ghosts who come to visit in times of personal turmoil. From a young age, she witnessed the woo-woo's sinister effects; at the age of six, she found herself living in the food court of her suburban mall, which her mother saw as a safe haven because they could hide there from dead people, and on a camping trip, her mother tried to light Lindsay's foot on fire to rid her of the woo-woo. The eccentricities take a dark turn, however, when her aunt, suffering from a psychotic breakdown, holds the city of Vancouver hostage for eight hours when she threatens to jump off a bridge. And when Lindsay herself starts to experience symptoms of the woo-woo herself, she wonders whether she will suffer the same fate as her family. On one hand a witty and touching memoir about the Asian immigrant experience, and on the other a harrowing and honest depiction of the vagaries of mental illness, 'The Woo-Woo' is a gut-wrenching and beguiling manual for surviving family, and oneself. Bestseller. Canada Reads 2019. Winner of the 2019 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. 2018.Wayside sang: poems
By Cecily Nicholson. 2018
Wayside Sang concerns entwined migrations of Black-other diaspora coming to terms with fossil-fuel psyches in times of trauma and movement.…
This is a poetic account of economy travel on North American roadways, across Peace and Ambassador bridges and through the Fleetway tunnel, above and beneath Great Lake rivers between nation states. Nicholson reimagines the trajectories of her birth father and his labour as it criss-crossed these borders in a study that engages the automobile object, its industry, roadways and hospitality, through and beyond the Great Lakes region. Winner of the 2018 Governor General’s Award for Poetry. 2018. Uniform title: Poems.This autobiography of Canadian Max Eisen details the rural Hungarian deportations to Auschwitz-Birkenau, back-breaking slave labour in Auschwitz I, the…
infamous 'death march' of January 1945, the painful aftermath of liberation, and a journey of physical and psychological healing. Winner of Canada Reads 2019. Bestseller. 2016. Childhood in Czechoslovakia -- Summers on the Farm -- Big Changes -- Life under Hungarian Rule -- Year of Birth and Death -- Final Seder -- Train -- Arrival in Auschwitz II-Birkenau -- Arbeit Macht Frei -- Draining Swamps -- Walking Ghosts -- Piece of Bacon -- Selections, July 1944 -- Land Reclamation Outside Auschwitz -- Operating Room -- Surgeries in Barrack 21 -- Pot of Stew -- Destruction of Crematorium 4 -- Death March -- Melk, Ebensee, and Liberation -- Ebensee, After Liberation -- From Ceske Budejovice to Moldava -- Emotional and Physical Healing -- Marienbad -- Prague -- Return to Kosice -- Ebelsberg DP Camp -- Canada.Some people think monsters are the stuff of nightmares--the stuff of scary movies and Halloween. But monsters can also be…
found right in your backyard. Animals like aye-ayes, goblin sharks and vampire bats may look scary, but they pose no threat to humans. Others, such as the prairie dog, seem innocent--cute, even--yet their behaviour could give you goose bumps. What makes a monster? Read this book to find out, if you dare... Grades 2-4. Winner of the 2019 Silver Birch Non-Fiction Honour Book Award. 2017. Aye-aye -- Vampire bat -- Honey badger -- Portuguese man-of-war -- Horror frog -- Greater honeyguide -- Cordyceps fungus -- Deathstalker scorpion -- Prairie dog -- Assassin bug -- Fangtooth moray eel -- Tyrant leech king -- Goblin shark -- Komodo dragon -- Japanese giant hornet -- Humboldt squid -- Human.Mamaskatch: a Cree coming of age
By Darrel McLeod. 2018
Growing up in the tiny village of Smith, Alberta, Darrel J. McLeod was surrounded by his Cree family's history. In…
shifting and unpredictable stories, his mother, Bertha, shared narratives of their culture, their family and the cruelty that she and her sisters endured in residential school. Darrel was comforted by her presence and that of his many siblings and cousins, the smells of moose stew and wild peppermint tea, and his deep love of the landscape. Bertha taught him to be fiercely proud of his heritage and to listen to the birds that would return to watch over and guide him at key junctures of his life. However, in a spiral of events, Darrel's mother turned wild and unstable, and their home life became chaotic. Sweet and innocent by nature, Darrel struggled to maintain his grades and pursue an interest in music while changing homes many times, witnessing violence, caring for his younger siblings and suffering abuse at the hands of his surrogate father. Meanwhile, his older brother's gender transition provoked Darrel to deeply question his own sexual identity. Winner of the 2018 Governor General’s Award for Non-fiction. 2018.Age of ambition: chasing fortune, truth and faith in the new China
By Evan Osnos. 2014
Age of Ambition describes some of the billion individual lives that make up China’s story. It is a story that…
unfolds on remote farms, in glittering mansions, and in the halls of power of the world’s largest authoritarian regime. In a nation riven by contradictions the defining clash taking place today is between the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control. Here is a China infused with a sense of boundless possibility and teeming romance. National Book Award in Non-Fiction 2014.All things consoled: a daughter's memoir
By Elizabeth Hay. 2018
Jean and Gordon Hay were a formidable pair. She was an artist and superlatively frugal; he was a proud and…
well-mannered schoolteacher with a temper that could be explosive. Elizabeth, their oldest daughter, was said to be a difficult and selfish child. Elizabeth always suspected she would end up caring for her parents in their final years, a way of making up for the sins of her childhood, proving herself to be a good daughter after all. But as her parents, who had been ferociously independent people, became increasingly dependent on her, their lives changed utterly and so did hers. Philip Roth once said, "Old age is a massacre." This book takes you inside the massacre. Bestseller. Winner of the 2018 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. 2018.This wound is a world: poems
By Billy-Ray Belcourt. 2017
The poet issues a call to turn to love and sex to understand how Indigenous peoples shoulder sadness and pain…
like theirs without giving up on the future. His poems and essays upset genre and play with form, scavenging for a decolonial kind of heaven where "everyone is at least a little gay." Winner of the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize for Canadian poetry. 2017. Uniform title: Poems.Smiley: a journey of love
By Joanne George. 2017
Smiley, a most remarkable Golden Retriever, was born without eyes. He was rescued from a puppy mill and has become…
a superb therapy dog, providing therapy to people all over the world through social media and television. This is his story. Winner of the 2018 Silver Birch Express Award. Winner of the 2019 Red Cedar Information Book Award. Winner of the 2019 Hackmatack Award for non-fiction. Grades 4-6. 2017. Smiley, the therapy dog -- Smiley and Joanne -- Smiley and Joanne's new family -- St. John Ambulance therapy dogs -- Smiley, the blind therapy dog -- Smiley, the celebrity -- Ways you can help.A guide to understanding the Indian Act and its impact on generations of Indigenous Peoples, as well as an examination…
of how Indigenous Peoples can return to self-government, self-determination, and self-reliance. Bestseller. Winner of the 2019 Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award. 2018.Boys: what it means to become a man
By Rachel Giese. 2018
What does it mean to be growing up male right now, when ideas about masculinity are in flux and power…
differences between the sexes are shifting? Award-winning Canadian journalist Rachel Giese connects with readers on both sides of the gender divide as she investigates how we can support boys to become their fullest and most honest selves. With empathy and insight, she tells stories of how boys from different races, classes and backgrounds are navigating the transition into manhood. Winner of the 2019 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. 2018.Lands of lost borders: out of bounds on the Silk Road
By Kate Harris. 2018
As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she most craved--that of a generalist explorer--had gone extinct. So she…
vowed to become a scientist and go to Mars. Well along this path, Harris set off by bicycle down a short section of the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel Yule. This trip was just a simulacrum of exploration, but Harris realized that an explorer, in any day and age, is by definition the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines. Forget charting maps, naming peaks, leaving footprints on another planet: what she yearned for was the feeling of soaring completely out of bounds. And where she'd felt that most intensely was on a bicycle, on a bygone trading route. So Harris hit the Silk Road again with Yule, this time determined to bike it from beginning to end. Weaving adventure and deep reflection with the history of science and exploration, she celebrates our connection as humans to the natural world, and ultimately to each other--a belonging that transcends any fences or stories that may divide us. Bestseller. Winner of the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize. 2018.Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI
By David Grann. 2017
An examination of the 1920s murders of wealthy Osage Indian Nation members in Oklahoma. When the newly-formed FBI bungled the…
investigation, young Director Hoover turned to ex-Texas Ranger Tom White, who put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the Bureau. Bestseller. Winner of the Spur 2018 best western historical nonfiction award and winner of the 2018 Edgar Award for best fact crime book. 2017.Birds, art, life: a year of observation
By Kyo Maclear. 2017
When it comes to birds, Kyo Maclear isn't seeking the exotic. Rather she discovers joy in the seasonal birds that…
find their way into view in city parks and harbors, along eaves and on wires. In a world that values big and fast, Maclear looks to the small, the steady, the slow accumulations of knowledge, and the lulls that leave room for contemplation. Celebrates the particular madness of chasing after birds in the urban environment and explores what happens when the core lessons of birding are applied to other aspects of art and life. Moving with ease between the granular and the grand, peering into the inner landscape as much as the outer one, this is a deeply personal year-long inquiry into big themes: love, waiting, regrets, endings. Winner of the 2018 Trillium Book Award. Bestseller. 2017.Mingan, mon village: poèmes d'écoliers innus
By Laure Morali, Joséphine Bacon, Rogé, Rita Mestokosho. 2012
Rogé a visité l'école de Mingan, un village innu au nord-est du Québec. Il y a passé quelques jours, histoire…
de prendre le temps de photographier chacun des écoliers. Rentré chez lui, dans son atelier des Îles-de-la-Madeleine, un pinceau à la main, il a revisité le regard de ces enfants. De ce séjour à Mingan, Rogé a gardé quinze visages, et quinze textes, des poèmes écrits par les jeunes Innus. Années 3-6. Gagnant de Prix Euphonia 2015. 2012.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.Indian Arm
By Henrik Ibsen, Hiro Kanagawa. 2016
Rita and Alfred Allmers live in an isolated family cabin on native leasehold land overlooking Indian Arm, a still untamed…
glacial fjord just north of Vancouver, BC. With Alfred now struggling with his latest work, Rita has been tasked with caring for their adopted son Wolfie, a sensitive First Nations teen who has been designated as 'special needs' for much of his life. Rita's resentments and frustrations are further embittered by her younger half-sister, Asta, a constant reminder of the innocence, idealism and sexual allure Rita once had and yearns for again. Winner of the 2017 Governor General’s Award for Drama. 2016.