Best of
Canada

2000

Island: The Complete Stories


Alistair MacLeod - 2000
    Quietly, precisely, he has created a body of work that is among the greatest to appear in English in the last fifty years.A book-besotted patriarch releases his only son from the obligations of the sea. A father provokes his young son to violence when he reluctantly sells the family horse. A passionate girl who grows up on a nearly deserted island turns into an ever-wistful woman when her one true love is felled by a logging accident. A dying young man listens to his grandmother play the old Gaelic songs on her ancient violin as they both fend off the inevitable. The events that propel MacLeod's stories convince us of the importance of tradition, the beauty of the landscape, and the necessity of memory.

Swing Low: A Life


Miriam Toews - 2000
    . . . Healing is a likely outcome of a book imbued with the righteous anger, compassion and humanity of Swing Low.” —Globe and Mail (Canada)Reverberating with emotional power, authenticity, and insight, Swing Low is Miriam Toews's daring and deeply affecting memoir of her father’s struggle with manic depression in a small Mennonite community in rural Canada. Personal and touching, a stirring counterpart to her novel IrmaVoth and reminiscent of works by Susan Cheever, Gail Caldwell, Mary Karr, and Alexandra Styron, Swing Low is an elegiac ode to a difficult life by an author drawing from the deepest well of insight,craft, and emotion.

Monkey Beach


Eden Robinson - 2000
    Growing up a tough, wild tomboy, swimming, fighting, and fishing in a remote village where the land slips into the green ocean on the edge of the world, Lisamarie has always been different. Visited by ghosts and shapeshifters, tormented by premonitions, she can't escape the sense that something terrible is waiting for her. She recounts her enchanted yet scarred life as she journeys in her speedboat up the frigid waters of the Douglas Channel. She is searching for her brother, dead by drowning, and in her own way running as fast as she can toward danger. Circling her brother's tragic death are the remarkable characters that make up her family: Lisamarie's parents, struggling to join their Haisla heritage with Western ways; Uncle Mick, a Native rights activist and devoted Elvis fan; and the headstrong Ma-ma-oo (Haisla for "grandmother"), a guardian of tradition. Haunting, funny, and vividly poignant, Monkey Beach gives full scope to Robinson's startling ability to make bedfellows of comedy and the dark underside of life. Informed as much by its lush living wilderness as by the humanity of its colorful characters, Monkey Beach is a profoundly moving story about childhood and the pain of growing older--a multilayered tale of family grief and redemption.

Star in the Storm


Joan Hiatt Harlow - 2000
    Unwilling to give up her beloved Newfoundland, Sirius, Maggie defies the law and hides Sirius away.But when a steamer crashes into the rocks during a violent storm and starts to sink with a hundred passengers on board, Maggie faces a difficult choice. She knows Sirius can help rescue the people trapped on the ship, but bringing him out of hiding would put his own life in jeopardy. Is Maggie's brave dog a big enough hero to save the desperate passengers -- and himself?

The Blind Assassin


Margaret Atwood - 2000
    Told in a style that magnificently captures the colloquialisms and clichés of the 1930s and 1940s, The Blind Assassin is a richly layered and uniquely rewarding experience.It opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious. The Blind Assassin proves once again that Atwood is one of the most talented, daring, and exciting writers of our time. Like The Handmaid's Tale, it is destined to become a classic.

A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali


Gil Courtemanche - 2000
    Keeping a watchful eye is Bernard Valcourt, a jaded foreign journalist, but his closest attention is devoted to Gentille, a hotel waitress with the slender, elegant build of a Tutsi. As they slip into an intense, improbable affair, the delicately balanced world around them–already devastated by AIDS–erupts in a Hutu-led genocide against the Tutsi people. Valcourt’s efforts to spirit Gentille to safety end in their separation. It will be months before he learns of his lover’s shocking fate.

Canadian History for Dummies


Will Ferguson - 2000
    This timely update features all the latest, up-to-the-minute findings in historical and archeological research. In his trademark irreverent style, Will Ferguson celebrates Canada's double-gold in hockey at the 2002 Olympics, investigates Jean Chretien's decision not to participate in the war in Iraq, and dissects the recent sponsorship scandal.

Last Resort


Linwood Barclay - 2000
    Now Linwood was hauling fish guts to the woods for burial, answering distress calls from women in the ladies’ room who found themselves without toilet paper, and standing in leaky chest-waders pounding dock posts into the lake bottom.The chores weren’t so bad, especially when he could help his father, who had been a commercial artist before he bought his way into the tourist business. And in other ways, it was a good life for a boy. He had wheels (a John Deere riding mower), a small aluminum boat with a 9.5-horsepower outboard and only one speed (fast), and Chipper, a dog that chased boats the way other dogs chase cars, sometimes with catastrophically comic results. Linwood also had access to The Chart, a cottage reservations list that was, for him, a guide to the arrivals and departures of the guests’ teenaged daughters. Summer romances could be as intense as they were heartbreaking.When he was sixteen, an unexpected tragedy changed Linwood’s life again. His older brother, Rett, helped out as best he could, but he was wrestling with demons of his own – often withdrawing into his own complicated inner world. Linwood found an extended family in the resort’s guests, who lent him a hand, and shaped him into the man he would become. His mother’s eccentricities (she quit driving to shame the police for having given her a ticket) made Linwood’s new responsibilities heavier than they might otherwise have been. When he finally decided to move away from Green Acres to make a separate life, she made it as difficult as possible for him.In the midst of all this, Linwood found his vocation, and mentors, too, in Margaret Laurence, and in Kenneth Millar, who (under the pen name Ross MacDonald) wrote a highly successful series of detective novels.In this memoir, Linwood Barclay looks back with humour, sadness, and affection on the singular circumstances of his coming of age.

Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy


Al Purdy - 2000
    In five decades as a published author he had produced over forty books and received innumerable distinctions, including two Governor General's Awards and the Order of Canada. A hands-on writer who delighted in co-producing specialty publications and small press titles in addition to his major collections with leading publishers, Purdy left a massive and diverse body of work, much of it long unavailable to the public.The Collected Poems, edited by Purdy critic Sam Solecki with the full participation of the author, for the first time brings all of Purdy's poetic writings together in one volume, including all his later books, work previously uncollected from earlier periods as well as several excellent new poems he completed in the months before his death. It is, as he said, everything he wished to be remembered for.

Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History


Erna Paris - 2000
    Combining storytelling with observation, Paris takes the reader on a remarkable journey through four continents to explore how nations reinvent themselves after cataclysmic events. She seeks out politicians and powerbrokers, as well as men and women living in the aftermath of repression, asking the question: Who gets to decide what actually happened yesterday, then to propagate the tale? How do people live with the consequences? Any why is it that many countries cannot lay the past to rest?Her journey takes her to the United States, with its memories of slavery; to South Africa, to sit in on a Truth and Reconciliation hearing to heal the divisions of apartheid; to Japan, to probe the unresolved struggled for truth in Second World history; to France, still wrestling with its wartime legacy of collaboration; to Germany, where ferocious 'memory battles' continue to swirl around the Holocaust; and to the former Yugoslavia, where she exposes the cynical shaping of historical memory, and the way the international community responded to the lethal outcome.Paris takes us directly to the places of reckoning; she finds hope in the way ordinary people grapple with defining events of their lives, and in the changing face of international justice. Long Shadows illuminates the modern world and makes us question where we stand as individuals in relation to our own collective histories.

The Mennonites


Larry Towell - 2000
    Starting with a friendship he made with a Mennonite family he met near his own home in Ontario, he has had a unique access to their lives, gradually being introduced to the wider community and making trips to visit the colonies in Mexico. Mennonite culture does not usually permit photography, so his comprehensive study represents a unique and most important photographic survey of the their way of life -- a way of life that may soon have changed beyond recognition.In addition to the photographs, Towell's own text tells in poignant and descriptive detail anecdotes of his experiences. With an artist's eye he paints a picture of the lives of these people: the harshness and poverty of their rural life, the disciplines and contradictions of their religion, their hunger for land, for work, and for the freedom to live the way they choose.The photographic content is of the highest quality and would easily justify a book of images alone. The text in addition, very atmospheric in the tradition of Steinbeck, makes the book an unusually successful and complete portrait of a way of life, and more than just a photography book.This definitive collection of Towell's most important work -- ten years in the making -- has been eagerly anticipated by his followers.

Franklin's First Day of School


Paulette Bourgeois - 2000
    But by the time the day is over, he discovers just how much he loves to learn!

The Explorer's Guide to Algonquin Park


Michael Runtz - 2000
    This idyllic haven from urban life features 1,500 lakes and is easily accessible from dozens of major U.S. and Canadian population centers.Michael Runtz has spent decades exploring Algonquin Provincial Park and chronicling its flora and fauna in all seasons. He is the ideal guide to everything a visitor might want to know about and experience within Algonquin. The features of this guidebook include:Access routes, hiking trails and canoe routes indicated on easy-to-read full-color maps Special chapters on seasonal highlights such as fall colors, wolf-howling sessions, and Northern Lights displays Points of historical interest, such as ranger cabins and aboriginal rock paintings Where, when and how to see moose, wolves, birds and other wildlife A complete list of park facilities, services and publications. The new, expanded color edition of The Explorer's Guide to Algonquin Park includes dozens of the author's award-winning photographs and chapters on local animal species and their habitats.

Hiking Canada's Great Divide Trail


Dustin Lynx - 2000
    border to Kakwa Lake is a demanding adventure. In this revised and updated guidebook devoted to Canada's 1,200-kilometre Great Divide Trail (GDT), Dustin Lynx helps hikers piece together the myriad individual routes that form a continuous trail along the Divide.Outlining the six major sections of the GDT, Lynx breaks the trail into shorter, more attainable segments and thoroughly describes the terrain and condition of each. Not only are these trail segments invaluable for planning shorter trips along the GDT, Lynx's pre-trip planning advice will also prove indispensable for long-distance hikers overcoming such daunting logistical challenges as resupply, navigation and access.

Le Quebecois: The Virgin Forest


Doris Provencher Faucher - 2000
    

One-Eyed Jacks


Brad Smith - 2000
    End of the line, Lee thought, where else would she find him? She stopped in front of him, almost as tall as him in her pumps, knowing full well that everybody in the joint was watching her and not giving one thin damn.She could only stand there a moment though, and then she had to touch him; she put her arms around his neck and her cheek next to his, just to feel him after all this time, to smell him after all these years. And then he put those hams of his around her and they stayed like that, not saying anything, for maybe a minute.Finally she put her lips against his neck and then on his mouth and she stepped back to look at him again."Oh, you goddamn mick," she said. "Where you been?"At 35, Tommy Cochrane is a washed-up boxer who missed out on a shot at the heavyweight title and has to hang up his gloves for good when he's diagnosed with an aneurysm. His best friend and former sparring partner, T-Bone Pike, isn't in great shape either as the two of them head to Toronto on a quest for the $5,000 Tommy desperately needs to buy back his grandfather's farm.In the big city, Tommy and T-Bone encounter an intriguing cast of characters operating on the questionable side of the tracks. Fat Ollie runs the weekly poker game on Queen Street; Buzz Murdoch gives Tommy a job as a doorman at the Bamboo club; Herm Bell is a sharp kid on a run of luck; and Tony Broad is a small-time hood with big-time ambitions and a seedy sidekick named Billy Callahan. There's also Lee Charles, a sharp, cynical, smart-mouthed torch singer, who happens to be Tommy's ex-girlfriend.In the tradition of James Ellroy, Brad Smith has readers instantly embroiled in a quick-paced plot that involves guns and money, good guys and bad guys, double and triple crosses, and an exciting, suspenseful payoff. An unerring tradition of '50s Ontario, rich in local colour and with the kind of crackling dialogue that drives an Elmore Leonard novel, One-Eyed Jacks is a great read that opens up the underbelly of Toronto the Good.

Old Ontario Houses: Traditions in Local Architecture


Tom Cruickshank - 2000
    Here and there -- in rural townships, small towns and the older parts of cities -- many of its original houses are still standing, a surprising number lovingly restored and maintained with historical authenticity in mind. Old Ontario Houses: Traditions in Local Architecture, a collaborative tribute to the past by writer Tom Cruickshank and renowned photographer John de Visser, offers a glimpse into a selection of these homes dating from the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, more than 150 in all. Filled with de Visser's exceptional full color photographs, the book features well-known landmarks as well as vintage houses. Their stories, told in Cruickshank's lively, appreciative voice, remind us of a bygone era and speak volumes about the values and aspirations of the province that built them.

Canada: A People's History (Volume 1)


Don Gillmor - 2000
    Canada: A People’s History doesn’t tell us where we are going, but it shows us where we have come fromThis richly illustrated book, the first of two volumes, tells the epic story of Canada from its earliest days to the arrival of the industrial age in the 1870s. Here is the story of the people who created this vast nation. The courageous explorers who tracked the vast wilderness; the adventurous settlers, many of them exiles from their homelands; the native peoples, crucial allies in the Europeans’ wars for possession of this land; the visionary politicians, and the shortsighted ones; but most of all the ordinary people who rose to the extraordinary challenge of building Canada. These people are all given voice here, their stories blending with accounts of the major events of the day.This is the story of Canada for the new millennium, one that draws on solid scholarship and presents the human drama and excitement of days gone by, one that makes past times memorable.From the Hardcover edition.

16 Categories of Desire


Douglas Glover - 2000
    A sheer tour-de-force, the collection features eleven new stories that demonstrate that Glover is capable of writing like no other writer. Like a good Beatles album, the collection includes Glover's best new stories, linked only by the quality of the writing. The stories are wide ranging examples of fine, often comic, writing."The Left Ladies Club" is about a man who leaves teaching to become a writer, giving himself licence to live the bohemian life. In Glover's merciless portrayal, the Ragged Point literary scene consists of the sorriest bunch of excuse-mongering losers you'll ever encounter.In "La Corriveau" (;ref: the Siren of Quebec who murdered her husband and was later hanged in an iron cage above a crossroads);, an Anglo woman awakens to find a dead man (;presumably a francophone); in her bed. In a hilarious turn-of-events, the female narrator, who cannot at first even remember the man's name nor how they happened to share the same bed, conceives of ways to hide the body in plain sight, while narrating the political implications of her circumstances interplayed with details from popular culture and Quebec history. In "Lunar Sensitivities," a mathematician and a scientist compete for the attention of a beautiful woman; in "Abrupt Extinctions at the End of the Cretaceous," dinosaurs compete for love and life. In both stories, love does everything but triumph. Ranging over time from pre-history to the present, from the American South to the Canadian North, Douglas Glover maps the heart in all its passion, valour, ineptitude, and vulnerability. Occasionally scabrous, horrifically funny, intermittently appalling, and wildly erotic, the stories in this collection bring to life a world in time, irony and desire prevail.

Frederick Street


Maude Barlow - 2000
    For the people of Frederick Street in Sydney, Nova Scotia, the past was about to come crashing into the present. They were living next door to one of the worst toxic waste sites in North America. Frederick Street: Life and Death on Canada’s Love Canalis the story of ordinary people like the McKenzies who are fighting not only the daily devastation of disease and early death from toxic exposure, but are also battling officially sanctioned destruction of the environment and their own fears about the death of their future — and their children’s future. It is also a meticulously researched story of how what was once a pristine body of water became a cesspool containing 700,000 tons of toxic sludge, a site 35 times worse than the infamous Love Canal. And it is a passionate indictment of public and private interests that ignored the increasingly dangerous signs of contamination. Written by Maude Barlow, one of Canada’s most respected activists and bestselling authors, and Elizabeth May, a dedicated environmentalist and writer, Frederick Street is a story that will not go away, as it continues to play out through our national media.

The Cultures of Native North Americans


Christian F. Feest - 2000
    Everyday life is portrayed - the totems, rituals, observances, shamans, holy clowns, hostilities, food gathering - in detail, and ethnologists explain the amazing diversity of culture.

Faking It: Poetics And Hybridity (The Writer As Critic Series, 7)


Fred Wah - 2000
    In this book, Wah demonstrates how writing poetry is writing critically. This scrapbook of Wah's work -- collected from fifteen years of his writing -- contains essays, reviews, journals, notes and, most importantly, poetic improvisations on contemporary poetry and identity. Faking It was written between 1984 and 1999 -- during major shifts in critical thinking and cultural production -- and the hybrid style of the book is an apt reflection of these changing times, as well as a reflection and study of Wah's own hybrid identity.

The Miracle in Preston: the Story of the Preston Springs Hotel


Paul Langan - 2000
    

The Dark Side of the Nation: Essays on Multiculturalism, Nationalism, and Gender


Himani Bannerji - 2000
    Though they begin from experiences of non-white people living in Canada, they provide a critical theoretical perspective capable of exploring similar issues in other western and also third world countries. This reading of 'difference' includes but extends beyond the cultural and the discursive into political economy, state, and ideology. It cuts through conventional paradigms of current debates on multiculturalism. In particular, these essays take up the notion of 'Canada' - as the nation and the state - as an unsettled ground of contested hegemonies. They particularly draw attention to how the state of Canada is an unfinished one, and how the discourse of culture helps it to advance the legitimation claim which is needed by any state, especially one arising in a colonial context, with unsolved nationality problems. The myth of the 'two founding peoples', anglos and francophones, has always conveniently ignored the reality of First Nations. More recently, it has also ignored the entrance of non-European immigrants who may have a history of being indentured and politically marginalised and only begin struggling for political enfranchisement in their new homeland.

United States Cookbook


Joan D'Amico - 2000
    In what state were both the lollipop and the hamburger-on-a-bun invented? 2. Where do the largest watermelons grow and what s the distance record for spitting watermelon seeds? How big is the world s largest potato chip and where is it now? 3. There s more to cuisine in America than just burgers and fries. Here s a mouthwatering journey across the United States where you ll discove and learn how to make fabulous foods from every part of the country. Treat yourself to such simple, kid-tested recipes as: * Banana Berry Pancakes with Real Maple Syrup from Vermont * Key Lime Pie from Florida * Deep Dish Pizza from Illinois The United States Cookbook is a delicious mixture of fun food trivia, fascinating tidbits about each state s history and traditions, and yummy recipes you can cook yourself. What a great way to stuff your face and feed your brain at the same time! ANSWERS: 1. Connecticut. 2. Hope, Arkansas. The record is 30 feet. 3. 25 feet long and 14 feet wide. 3. It s in the Potato Museum, Blackfoot, Idaho

There It Is: A Canadian in the Vietnam War


Les D. Brown - 2000
    Brown tells of his struggle to survive, a struggle which ultimately leads him to take a risky, rebellious stand.Featuring a scene-setting introduction by Global Television News anchor Peter Kent, There It Is is a powerful, personal account of war, and a surprising reminder of the role played by thousands of Canadians in Vietnam.

Voices : The Work of Joni Mitchell


Joni Mitchell - 2000
    Her art is vast and varied: large abstract canvases, intimate landscapes relating to her lyrics, sketches from the 1960s and 1970s, and portraits in oils. Produced with the collaboration of Joni Mitchell, this superbly produced hardcover limited edition contains original writings and more than 50 color illustrations of her work.

Editing Canadian English


Catherine Cragg - 2000
    The first edition (published in 1987 and selling over 7000 copies) established itself as an indispensable tool for editors, writers, journalists, government employees, students, teachers, librarians, copywriters, and marketing and public relations people – in short, anyone who uses Canadian English. Editing Canadian English tackles the tricky style issues of writing in "Canadian" and sorts out the distinctions between British and American editorial style and language usage. Overall, this guide outlines where convention dictates certain usage and where a style decision comes down to choice. The four authors, all seasoned professionals with over one hundred years of editing experience among them, show readers how to make their own informed and consistent choices when dealing with peculiarly Canadian questions of usage.

A Personal Calligraphy


Mary Pratt - 2000
    Her 1995 exhibition, The Art of Mary Pratt: The Substance of Light, drew record-breaking crowds on its tour of Canada. It also resulted in an unprecedented amount of press coverage on the biographical content of her work. The accompanying book by Tom Smart sold more than 6,000 copies and made almost every “best book of the year” list in Canada. Mary Pratt: A Personal Calligraphy features Mary’s own writings, drawn and adapted from her personal journals, the essays that she has written for numerous publications ranging from The Globe and Mail to The Glass Gazette, and the lectures that she has given at many public events. For the first time, Mary has written her own book in her own words, rather than rely on others to write about her. Treating both public and private issues, she writes of her childhood in Fredericton — her connection to her family, life in Salmonier as a young mother, her decision to pursue her own career as an artist, and her complicated relationship with her husband, Christopher. She writes about public issues — the death of Joey Smallwood, the 50th anniversary of Newfoundland entry into Confederation, and the cod fishery. She writes about the images that interest her and influence her art, and the process of painting. Like her paintings, Pratt’s writing packs a sucker punch. At first it appears to be a paean to the pleasures of house and home, until the more disturbing aspects subtly reveal themselves. Ironing shirts become an erotic act; a memory of visiting the local market with her grandmother conjures images of violence; dead chickens, meticulously plucked, and carcasses of cattle, meticulously flayed, suggest rituals of sacrifice. In Spring of 2001, Mary Pratt was awarded the Newfoundland and Labrador Writers’ Association prize for Non-fiction for A Personal Calligraphy.

Canada: Our History


Rick Archbold - 2000
    Using a key photograph as the starting point for each chapter, the individual narrators lead the reader through an exploration of a particular moment in Canadian history, explaining the photograph and chronicling the events of the decade in which it occurred.  Each section also contains 10 to 15 additional captioned images, which help the reader envision the past and enhance his or her experience of the events.Parents, children and teachers will all benefit from this exciting true story of Canada's past, which promises to become an essential component of every home and school library.

Hespeler's Hidden Secret: The Coombe Orphanage, 1905-1947


Paul Langan - 2000
    

Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat


Lynn Manuel - 2000
    Montgomery herself, Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat tells the story of the writing of Anne of Green Gables through the eyes of the author’s constant companion, her beloved gray cat.Montgomery was an avid journal-writer. She recorded how Daffy sat on her lap as she struggled with the first draft of the book that would become a worldwide classic, and how her cat accompanied her to Ontario and to her new life when she married. Filled with gentle insight, Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat is a delight for cat lovers everywhere, and of course, for the millions of readers who love Anne of Green Gables.

Toronto Street Names: An Illustrated Guide to Their Origins


Leonard Wise - 2000
    Now comes a book for everyone who has walked along or driven by a Toronto street and wondered, "Where do you suppose that name comes from?"Toronto's street names hold the city's past: the trails and portages of the First Nations inhabitants; the arrival of the early explorers; the founding of the town of York at the end of the 18th century; the growth and political turmoil of the 19th century; and the expansion and modernization in the 20th.The street names in Toronto collectively tell the story of a city that is steeped in history and is surprisingly rich in colorful characters. Chicora Avenue recalls a steamship that sailed the Great Lakes for 60 years. Harrison Road was named after William Harrison, a Reformer who died from wounds inflicted in the Rebellion of 1837. Viscount Julian Byng, who led Canadian troops to victory at Vimy in the First World War and served as Governor General in the 1920s, left his name on Byng Avenue. The Ojibway word for little hill, 'espadinong, ' became Spadina (Avenue and Road). Edith Boulton, the beloved wife of piano magnate Samuel Nordheimer, was her husband's inspiration for naming their beautiful house and estate Glen Edyth, now recalled in Glen Edyth Drive. The eloquent Thomas D'Arcy Magee, a Father of Confederaton who was assassinated in a Fenian plot, is honored by D'Arcy Magee Crescent.In all, the stories behind the naming of 350 streets - familiar, and not so familiar - are presented here. The lives of brewers, politicians, architects, royalty, explorers and farmers can be traced in the city's street names. So can the villages and homes that immigrants left behind in Great Britain, and the grand estates of Toronto's early upper class.Reading this charming book is like taking a trip through time, along the way meeting many of the people who shaped the city. The mini-stories open little windows on the past, presenting fascinating glimpses into not only where people lived, but how. Easy to read and yet intriguing enough to send you off to the library to find out even more, this book is illustrated with period photographs and is fully indexed and cross-referenced.

Putting a Roof on Winter: Hockey's Rise from Sport to Spectacle


Michael McKinley - 2000
    Combining rich period detail, gripping narrative and thrilling hockey action, Putting a Roof on Winter brilliantly explores the changing identity of a game that has become, for those who love it, the meaning of life in winter.

Disaster Canada


Janet Looker - 2000
    Some are caused by powerful natural phenomena and erratic weather patterns. Others can be put down to tragic human error: a miscalculation in the strength of steel and suddenly 86 men are crushed beneath the twisted remains of the Quebec Bridge; a miscommunication between two vessels in Halifax Harbour and 2,000 die, 9,000 are maimed and 25,000 are left homeless within minutes; a handful or erroneous assumptions and 77 hungry sealers freeze to death on an ice floe within walking distance of their ship. In this book, stories and dramatic photographs expose the human core: our will to survive, our heroism, and our capacity to face the worst. Beneath the the shock of headlines comes the rich story of Canada's sometimes painful growth, a nation that time after time has pulled together in crisis.

The Spirit of Canada: Canada's Story in Legends, Fiction, Poems, and Songs


Barbara Hehner - 2000
    With one hundred and fifty illustrations by some of Canada's most prestigious children's book artists, The Spirit of Canada will prove to be a useful reference guide, as well as a keepsake. Beginning with native creation myths, readers are introduced to a cross-section of Canadian history. Chapters include the discovery of the New World, early settlement, and Confederation, as well as legends, humour, and multiculturalism. The Spirit of Canada highlights classic pieces as well as hidden gems. Selections include: The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service; In Flanders Fields by John McCrae; Canadian Railway Trilogy by Gordon Lightfoot; The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier; This Was My Brother by Mona Gould; and I Am a Canadian #1 by Duke Redbird.

Love Medicine and One Song


Gregory Scofield - 2000
    Love Medicine melds intensely erotic imagery with elements of the Canadian bush and the rhythm of Cree words and phrases Scofield's poems come from an honest and candid place.

Thinking like a Mountain


Robert Bateman - 2000
    The wildlife he features in his paintings are expressions of his love and respect for the natural world.A passionate environmentalist who has devoted his life to documenting the awesome power of nature, Bateman is deeply worried about the state of our planet and the fate of our natural heritage. Whenever he talks about his paintings, he talks about the environmental messages they convey, and those who have heard him speak have clamored for a book that encapsulates his philosophy.Thinking Like a Mountain is the result of many years of thinking, talking and writing about the world's growing environmental crisis. Beautifully designed and illustrated with original drawings, it is a gathering of questions, observations and ideas Robert Bateman has drawn from his own life experiences and gleaned from the writings of some of the visionaries who have influenced him.As Einstein said, "We cannot solve the problems of today with the same thinking that gave us the problems in the first place."Only a profound shift in philosophy, Bateman believes, can save our species from extinction.Thinking Like a Mountain is printed on 100 per cent ancient-forest-free paper that is 100 per cent post-consumer recycled and has been processed chlorine free.

Night Artillery


Anurima Banerji - 2000
    Asian American Studies. Anurima Banerji is an exciting new voice in Canadian poetry. Passionate and subtly exotic, keenly aware of Persian mystical love concepts, and with a trained eye on Hindu mythology, these supple new poems explore the territories of love, the longings of the body, and the pains of loss and exile. Born in Ottawa, the poet is now based in Montreal. ** Call to check inventory before ordering.

The Oka Crisis: A Mirror of the Soul


John Ciaccia - 2000
    Issued also in French under title: La crise d'Oka: miroir de notre �ame.

On the Trail of Elder Brother: Glous'gap Stories of the Mimac Indians


Michael B. Runningwolf - 2000
    Among them is the Micmac of Maine, Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces. Since the seventeenth century, anthropologists have listened to Micmac storytellers and recorded their tales. Finally, here is a book devoted entirely to Glous'gap's adventures, told to us firsthand in the traditional Micmac versions by two Micmac authors.On the Trail of Elder Brother follows Glous'gap during the time he lived among the Micmac. When he arrives, the earth is barely formed. Glous'gap helps to shape it and populate it with creatures and plants. He teaches his people the right way to live, and how to live together harmoniously in the natural world. He battles the monsters who threaten them--a water-hoarding monster, a fearsome lake serpent, a giant bird of prey, and an evil sorceress, among them. By the time he leaves, the world has become a more settled place.With their pipe-smoking whales, irascible porcupines, witches, and the like, these stories are wondrous and magical. But they are also wise, immersed in what it means to be fully human in a fragile world. The sixteen accompanying pen-and-ink drawings enhance their appeal. Every reader, from the uninitiated to the specialist, will fall under the spell of this powerful, joy-filled volume.

Multiculturalism and the History of Canadian Diversity


Richard J.F. Day - 2000
    He argues that Canada's multicultural policies are propelled by a fantasy of unity based on the nation-state model. Our legislation, policies, and practices do not move us towards equality and reciprocity, he reveals, because they are rooted in a European drive to manage and control diversity.Day challenges the notion that Canadian multiculturalism represents either progress beyond a history of assimilation and genocide or a betrayal of that very history that supports the dominance of Anglo-Canadians. Only when English Canada is able to abandon its fantasy of unity, Day concludes, can the radical potential of multiculturalism politics be realized.

R.M. Patterson: A Life of Great Adventure


David Finch - 2000
    Patterson's mentor at the Bank of England when informed of the young man's decision to leave for Canada in 1924. He could not have known all the adventures that awaited Patterson in the Canadian wilds. This biography goes with Patterson to the Peace River country of northern Alberta where he homesteaded and on to the Northwest Territories, where he lived out his dream-questing after the fabled Nahanni gold on the River of Death. There, his escapades earned him the title "Hard to Kill" and provided the basis for Patterson's bestseller The Dangerous River.Patterson then married sweetheart Marigold Portman in 1929 and took up cattle and dude ranching on the Buffalo Head Ranch in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. Not content to just settle down and raise a family, he also used the ranch as a base for his adventures and spent the next 16 years exploring the high country of the Continental Divide with such colourful characters as George Pocaterra and Adolf Baumgart.In the late 1940s the Patterson family moved to Vancouver Island, where RMP continued his exploration of remote northern rivers in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories. And he returned to his beloved Nahanni three more times. By the time of his death in 1984, Patterson had become a Canadian legend, both for his exploits and for his five published books and numerous articles. His vivid portrayal of the Canadian wilderness has never been bettered. Through Patterson's diaries and letters and through personal communication with Patterson's family and friends, David Finch has created a fascinating portrait of a man who lived life to the fullest.

Pier 21: Gateway of Hope


Linda Granfield - 2000
    As the landing port for immigrants, it greeted more than one million new Canadians. It also saw many Canadians leave, including 368,000 soldiers who sailed overseas during the Second World War.This is the story of Pier 21 and the many people who passed through it, the war brides and their children, the returning warriors, and the refugees from war-torn Europe and beyond. It examines the importance of Canada’s “Ellis Island” and its role today as a historical center.

By the Standing Stone


Maxine Trottier - 2000
    Forced to travel through the North American wilderness on the eve of the American Revolution, Mack and Jamie's very lives are on the line. As they try to thwart the evil that stalks them, they meet many brave allies, participate in thrilling political intrigue, and even find love. It is a journey that neither Mack nor Jamie would have chosen, but once set upon its path, their lives will be changed forever. Be sure to read the first book in The Circle of Silver Chronicles, A Circle of Silver, for more tales of the MacNeils' adventures in the New World.