Best of
Canada

2006

The Other Side of the Bridge


Mary Lawson - 2006
    Arthur is reticent, solid, dutiful and set to inherit the farm and his father’s character; Jake is younger, attractive, mercurial and dangerous to know – the family misfit. When a beautiful young woman comes into the community, the fragile balance of sibling rivalry tips over the edge.Then there is Ian, the family’s next generation, and far too sure he knows the difference between right and wrong. By now it is the fifties, and the world has changed – a little, but not enough. These two generations in the small town of Struan, Ontario, are tragically interlocked, linked by fate and community but separated by a war which devours its young men – its unimaginable horror reaching right into the heart of this remote corner of an empire. With her astonishing ability to turn the ratchet of tension slowly and delicately, Lawson builds their story to a shocking climax. Taut with apprehension, surprising us with moments of tenderness and humour, The Other Side of the Bridge is a compelling, humane and vividly evoked novel with an irresistible emotional undertow.Arthur found himself staring down at the knife embedded in his foot. There was a surreal split second before the blood started to well up and then up it came, dark and thick as syrup. Arthur looked at Jake and saw that he was staring at the knife. His expression was one of surprise, and this was something that Arthur wondered about later too. Was Jake surprised because he had never considered the possibility that he might be a less than perfect shot? Did he have that much confidence in himself, that little self-doubt? Or was he merely surprised at how easy it was to give in to an impulse, and carry through the thought which lay in your mind? Simply to do whatever you wanted to do, and damn the consequences.–from The Other Side of the BridgeFrom the Hardcover edition.

No Safe Harbour: The Halifax Explosion Diary of Charlotte Blackburn


Julie Lawson - 2006
    The explosion levelled most of the city and sent shards of glass and burning debris flying for miles. It left thousands dead, blinded or homeless.Suddenly orphaned, Charlotte turns to her diary to help her cope with the events that killed her entire family — leaving her older brother, still fighting in the trenches of WWI, as her only surviving relative. This is an affecting story of loss and recovery, powerfully told by award-winning author Julie Lawson.

Carried Away: A Personal Selection of Stories


Alice Munro - 2006
    The stories brought together here span a quarter century, drawn from some of her earliest books, The Beggar Maid and The Moons of Jupiter, through her recent best-selling collection, Runaway. Here are such favorites as “Royal Beatings” in which a young girl, her father, and stepmother release the tension of their circumstances in a ritual of punishment and reconciliation; “Friend of My Youth” in which a woman comes to understand that her difficult mother is not so very different from herself; and “The Albanian Virgin," a romantic tale of capture and escape in Central Europe that may or may not be true, told by an elderly married woman to her younger friend who is on a desperate adventure of her own..Munro’s incomparable empathy for her characters, the depth of her understanding of human nature, and the grace and surprise of her narrative add up to a richly layered and capacious fiction. Like the World War I soldier in the title story, whose letters from the front to a small-town librarian he doesn’t know change her life forever, Munro’s unassuming characters insinuate themselves in our hearts and take permanent hold.Carried Away, Alice Munro's Best and My Best Stories contain the same 17 works: Royal beatings -- The beggar maid -- The turkey season -- The moons of Jupiter -- The progress of love -- Miles City, Montana -- Friend of my youth -- Meneseteung -- Differently -- Carried away -- The Albanian virgin -- A wilderness station -- Vandals -- Hateship, friendship, courtship, loveship, marriage -- Save the reaper -- Runaway -- The bear came over the mountain.

Dave Cooks the Turkey


Stuart McLean - 2006
    Dave fails to realize quite what's involved, and the result is a Homeresque struggle to beat all the odds and somehow get an unappetizing, frozen, and slightly scarred bird home and roasted in time for Christmas dinner—before Morley cooks Dave's goose.

The Birth House


Ami McKay - 2006
    Epic and enchanting, 'The Birth House' is a gripping saga about a midwife's struggles in the wilds of Nova Scotia. As a child in the small village of Scot's Bay, Dora Rare -- the first female in five generations of Rares -- is befriended by Miss Babineau, an elderly midwife with a kitchen filled with folk remedies and a talent for telling tales. Dora becomes her apprentice at the outset of World War I, and together they help women through difficult births, unwanted pregnancies and even unfulfilling marriages. But their traditions and methods are threatened when a Doctor comes to town with promises of painless childbirth, and sets about undermining Dora's credibility. Death and deception, accusations and exile follow, as Dora and her friends fight to protect each other and the women's wisdom of their community. Hauntingly written and alive with historical detail, 'The Birth House' is an unforgettable, page-turning debut.

Lullabies for Little Criminals


Heather O'Neill - 2006
    Motherless, she lives with her father, Jules, who takes better care of his heroin habit than he does of his daughter. Baby's gift is a genius for spinning stories and for cherishing the small crumbs of happiness that fall into her lap. But her blossoming beauty has captured the attention of a charismatic and dangerous local pimp who runs an army of sad, slavishly devoted girls—a volatile situation even the normally oblivious Jules cannot ignore. And when an escape disguised as betrayal threatens to crush Baby's spirit, she will ultimately realize that the power of salvation rests in her hands alone.

Bow Grip


Ivan E. Coyote - 2006
    Coyote is one of North America’s most beguiling storytellers and the author of three story collections, including Loose End, which was shortlisted for the Ferro-Grumley Award for Fiction in 2006. Bow Grip, Coyote’s first novel, is a breathtaking story about love and loneliness; in it, a good-hearted, small-town mechanic struggles to deal with a wife who has left him for another woman until a used cello and an acquaintance’s suicide attempt compel him to make some changes in his life. With quiet authority, Bow Grip is about one man’s true rite of passage—trying to keep the ghosts of personal history at bay with a heart that’s as big as the endless prairie sky.

Dream Wheels


Richard Wagamese - 2006
    His parents and grandparents use all their native wisdom to ease him out of his subsequent bitter depression, but without success. Meanwhile, in a distant city, a troubled young kid named Aiden plans a holdup that goes wrong and lands himself in jail. When he emerges, a sympathetic police officer arranges a job at a ranch, where his mother Claire will accompany him in an attempt to restore their relationship. It is the Wolfchild ranch.Supported by the ferocious strength and native spirituality of the Wolfchild women, Joe Willie and Aiden fight through painful transformations, and their physical and mental rehabilitations are mirrored in the age-worn chrome of an ancient pickup truck they restore together. As the two men first clash and then come together in a friendship that helps each overcome the challenge of reentering a world that's forever changed, Claire's eyes are opened to a life she has never hoped for and opens her heart to a love she still can't convince herself she deserves. Written with lyric intensity and a great respect for native teachings, Dream Wheels announces the presence of a major new literary talent, sure to take his rightful place alongside writers like Cormac McCarthy and Jim Harrison as a gifted chronicler of the modern West.

Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?


Anita Rau Badami - 2006
    Years after Rosa’s shadowy death, Leela has learned to deal with her in-between status, and she marries Balu Bhat, a man from a family of purebred Hindu Brahmins, thus acquiring status and a tenuous stability. However, when Balu insists on emigrating to Canada, Leela must trade her newfound comfort for yet another beginning. Once in Vancouver with her husband and two children, Leela’s initial reluctance to leave home gradually evolves.While Bibi-ji gains access to a life of luxury in Canada, her sister Kanwar, left behind to weather the brutal violence of the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, is not so fortunate. She disappears, leaving Bibi-ji bereft and guilt-ridden.Meanwhile, a little girl, who just might be Kanwar’s six-year-old daughter Nimmo, makes her way to Delhi, where she is adopted, marries and goes on to build a life with her loving husband, Satpal. Although this existence is constantly threatened by poverty, Nimmo cherishes it, filled as it is with love and laughter, and she guards it fiercely.Across the world, Bibi-ji is plagued by unhappiness: she is unable to have a child. She believes that it is her punishment for having stolen her sister’s future, but tries to drown her sorrows by investing all her energies into her increasingly successful restaurant called the Delhi Junction. This restaurant becomes the place where members of the growing Vancouver Indo-Canadian community come to dispute and discuss their pasts, presents and futures.Over the years, Bibi-ji tries to uncover her sister Kanwar’s fate but is unsuccessful until Leela Bhat – carrying a message from Satpal, Nimmo’s husband – helps Bibi-ji reconnect with the woman she comes to believe is her niece – Nimmo. Used to getting whatever she has wanted from life, Bibi-ji subtly pressures Nimmo into giving up Jasbeer, her oldest child, into her care.Eight-year old Jasbeer does not settle well in Vancouver. Resentful of his parents’ decision to send him away, he finds a sense of identity only in the stories , of Sikh ancestry, real and imagined, told to him by Bibi-ji’s husband, Pa-ji. Over the years, his childish resentments harden, and when a radical preacher named Dr. Randhawa arrives in Vancouver, preaching the need for a separate Sikh homeland, Jasbeer is easily seduced by his violent rhetoric.Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? elegantly moves back and forth between the growing desi community in Vancouver and the increasingly conflicted worlds of Punjab and Delhi, where rifts between Sikhs and Hindus are growing. In June 1984, just as political tensions within India begin to spiral out of control, Bibi-ji and Pa-ji decide to make their annual pilgrimage to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest of Sikh shrines. While they are there, the temple is stormed by Indian government troops attempting to contain Sikh extremists hiding inside the temple compound. The results are devastating.Then, in October of the same year, Indira Gandhi is murdered by her two Sikh bodyguards, an act of vengeance for the assault on the temple. The assassination sets off a wave of violence against innocent Sikhs.The tide of anger and violence spills across borders and floods into distant Canada, and into the lives of neighbours Bibi-ji and Leela. Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? weaves together the personal and the political – and beautifully brings the reader into the reality of terrorism and religious intolerance. Bibi-ji turned to gaze out at the street. They could become far more prosperous, she was sure of that. Opportunities lay around them like pearls on these streets. But they were visible only to people with sharp eyes.“What are you looking at, Bibi-ji?” Lalloo asked, coming around to the front with a box full of pickle jars. He lowered it carefully on the floor and stared out the window.“What am I looking for, Lalloo, for,” Bibi-ji corrected. “I am looking for pearls.”“I don’t see anything there, Bibi-ji,” Lalloo remarked after a few moments.She laughed. “Neither do I, but I will. I know I will.” The war had left the whole world poorer: why had Pa-ji not thought of opening a used-clothing store instead of this Indian grocery shop? She wondered whether the shop would do better in Abbotsford or in Duncan, where there were more Sikhs than here in Vancouver. But no, she had a feeling that it was a city with a future, one in which she would be wise to invest her money and her hard work.–from Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?From the Hardcover edition.

Kanada


Eva Wiseman - 2006
    The name meant untold riches and promise to Jutka, a young Hungarian girl who was captivated by stories of a vast, majestic country where people were able to breathe free of hatred and prejudice. Freedom was in short supply, but hatred was everywhere in Hungary as hundreds of thousands of Jews were deported to concentration camps during the last year of WWII. Jutka, her friends, and her family are sent to Auschwitz.In that hellish place, there was another Kanada. It was the ironic name given to the storehouse at Auschwitz where the possessions, clothing and jewelry stripped from the victims were deposited, and where Jutka was put to work. The war may have ended, but it did not end the suffering of many of the inmates of concentration camps. Many had no homes to go to, and if they did, they were not welcome. Hundreds went back to Poland and were murdered. Famished, diseased, and homeless, they lived in the hopelessness of camps, wondering if they could ever find a home in the world. Some went to Israel, but for Jutka there was only one dream left her: the dream of a country full of hope, where she would no longer have to live in fear.Eva Wiseman's powerful novel describes the war and its long, difficult aftermath with compassion and tenderness.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume One: 1919-1968


John English - 2006
    As prime minister between 1968 and 1984, Trudeau, the brilliant, controversial figure, intrigued Canadians and attracted international attention as no other Canadian leader has ever done. Volume One takes us from his birth in 1919 to his election as leader in 1968.Born into a wealthy family in Montreal, Trudeau excelled at the best schools, graduating as a lawyer with conservative, nationalist and traditional Catholic views. But always conscious of his French-English heritage, desperate to know the outside world, and an adventurer to boot, he embarked on a pilgrimage of discovery – first to Harvard and the Sorbonne, then to the London School of Economics and, finally, on a trip through Europe, the Middle East, India and China. He was a changed man when he returned – socialist in his politics, sympathetic to labour, a friend to activists and writers in radical causes. Suddenly and surprisingly, he went to Ottawa for two mostly unhappy years as a public servant in the Privy Council Office. He frequently shocked his colleagues when, on the brink of a Quebec election, for example, he departed for New York or Europe on an extended tour. Yet in the 1950s and 60s, he wrote the most important articles outlining his political philosophy.And there were the remarkable relationships with friends, women and especially his mother (whom he lived with until he was middle-aged). He wrote to them always, exchanging ideas with the men, intimacies with the women, especially in these early years, and lively descriptions of his life. He even recorded his in-depth psychoanalysis in Paris. This personal side of Trudeau has never been revealed before – and it sheds light on the politician and statesman he became.Volume One ends with his entry into politics, his appointment as Minister of Justice, his meeting Margaret and his election as leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister of Canada. There, his genius and charisma, his ambition and intellectual prowess, his ruthlessness and emotional character and his deliberate shaping of himself for leadership played out on the national stage and, when Lester B. Pearson announced his retirement as prime minister in 1968, there was but one obvious man for the job: Pierre Trudeau.In 1938 Trudeau began a diary, which he continued for over two years. It is detailed, frank, and extraordinarily revealing. It is the only diary in Trudeau’s papers, apart from less personal travel diaries and an agenda for 1937 that contains some commentary. His diary expresses Trudeau’s own need to chronicle the moments of late adolescence as he tried to find his identity. It begins on New Year’s Day 1938 with the intriguing advice: “If you want to know my thoughts, read between the lines!”–from Citizen of the World

Hockey: A People's History


Michael McKinley - 2006
    A must-have for every fan!Hockey is not just Canada’s national game, it is part of every Canadian’s psyche, whether we like it or not. Watching it, playing it, coaching it, and talking about it are up there with eating on the list of the top ten things Canadians do most. In the first half of the last century it mirrored our increasing confidence as a nation and in the last years of the 1900s, which saw an aggressive but unsettling expansion of the game south of the border, it reflected our growing wariness of American influence on Canada.Hockey: A People’s History, like the ten-part CBC series it accompanies, tells the story of this breathtakingly fast game from its hotly contested origins, and the surge in its popularity after 1875, when it was first taken inside, through the rise and fall and rise again of women’s hockey, the sagas of long-lost leagues, such as the Pacific Coast Hockey League and, more recently, the World Hockey Association, to the present day and the first-ever lockout of players by the one remaining league. In that time, while play has changed only slightly (every generation of Canadians has complained about the growing violence of the game) hockey itself has been transformed from a rough and ready winter sport to a business worth many billions of dollars, played by millionaires.But Hockey: A People’s History is not a business story, rather, it is the story of the men and woman who helped make the game what it is today.It also tells the story of all the great moments in hockey: not just the unforgettable 1972 victory against Russia, but victories no less glorious at the time, such as the Leafs’ previously unheard-of third consecutive Stanley Cup in 1949. Through its lavishly illustrated pages skate the players, the coaches, the owners, many of them still legendary, too many of them almost forgotten. They are the reason why Canadians have stayed true to the game.

Oak Island Obsession: The Restall Story


Lee Lamb - 2006
    In reality they were Bob and Mildred Restall, parents of three, who balanced their glamorous show-business career with a happy, stable home life.In October 1959, the Restalls embarked on the ultimate family adventure, as Bob led his family to the east coast of Canada to dig for the famous treasure of Oak Island. For nearly six years they lived without telephone, hydro, or running water while newspapers and magazines chronicled their attempts to solve the mystery of the Money Pit. On August 17, 1965, their quest ended in tragedy when four men died.This biography, compiled by their daughter, includes material written by each family member. Lyrical descriptions of nature, amusing anecdotes, details of the dig, and numerous photographs help to tell the story. This book is a must for Oak Island enthusiasts.

Black


George Elliott Clarke - 2006
    But while the previous book meditated on the author's history as a black man growing up in Nova Scotia, Black is a brutally honest look at the present and future. Inspired by George’s time as a professor in North Carolina in the late 1990s, the book uses vivid images and surprising juxtapositions to riff on the experiences of a black man living with political and personal outrage. This is not pretty poetry but lacerating, transgressive, and ultimately transforming.

The Summer Before the Storm


Gabriele Wills - 2006
    It's the Age of Elegance in the summer playground of the affluent and powerful. Amid the pristine, island-dotted lakes, the granite cliffs, and pine-scented forests of the Canadian wilderness, the young and carefree amuse themselves with glittering balls, lavish picnics, and friendly competitions. But this summer promises to be different when the charming, ambitious, and destitute son of a disowned heir joins his wealthy family at their cottage on Wyndwood Island.Through Jack's introduction into the privileged life of the aristocratic Wyndhams and their social circle - including captains of industry and financial titans - he seeks opportunities and alliances to better himself, including in his schemes, his beautiful, headstrong, and audacious cousin, Victoria.A cast of engaging characters vividly brings to life the idyllic lifestyle of endless summers on tranquil lakes. But their charmed lives begin to unravel with the onset of the Great War, in which many are destined to become part of the "lost generation".This richly textured tale takes the reader on an unforgettable journey from romantic moonlight cruises to the horrific sinking of the Lusitania, genteel Muskoka to wartime Britain, regattas on the water to combat in the skies over France, extravagant mansions to deadly trenches - from innocence to nationhood.The Summer Before The Storm, the first of "The Muskoka Novels", evokes a gracious, bygone era that still resonates in this legendary land of lakes.Read an excerpt from the novel online at http://themuskokanovels.com/. Signed books are also available from that website.

Bats or Swallows


Teri Vlassopoulos - 2006
    The innocence and clarity of her narrative voice reveals new and unexpected layers. Vlassopoulos brings readers into her characters' worlds; making their desires intelligible, showing how they frame their live's events in terms of abstract superstitions, allowing us to feel what they feel. Bat or Swallows is a debut collection of excellent short fiction, with a style and tone reminiscent of Julie Orringer's How to Breathe Underwater.

You Can't Win If You Don't Enter


Carolyn Wilman - 2006
    Topics include:Promotion Types Rules and Regulations - and what to look for5 Ways To Enter - including Entering OnlineTools of the Trade - entering online fasterIncreasing Your Chances Time Saving Tips How to Avoid the Hazards of Being Online How to Spot a Scam Government Regulations Release Forms Tax ImplicationsThe Other Side of Contests - interviews with Contest Management CompaniesAttracting Luck And much more... Begin entering contests and sweepstakes as your hobby, have fun and BE A WINNER!

Too Bad: Sketches Toward A Self-Portrait


Robert Kroetsch - 2006
    Oscillating between the many moods of a human heart that has lived through so much — from whimsy and scorn through desire, longing, lust, love, and serenity — these sketches mark a candid walk through the tortuous corridors of the poet’s remembering, and exemplify the rehearsed dictum of an old teacher: “Every enduring poem was written today.”Robert Kroetsch states in his introduction, “This book is not an autobiography. It is a gesture toward a self-portrait, which I take to be quite a different kettle of fish.”

The Hollow Tree: Fighting Addiction with Traditional Native Healing


Herb Nabigon - 2006
    His powerful autobiography, The Hollow Tree, tells the story of his struggle to overcome addiction with the help of the spiritual teachings and brotherly love of his elders. Nabigon had spent much of his life wrestling with self-destructive impulses, feelings of inferiority and resentment, and alcohol abuse when Eddie Bellerose, an Elder, introduced him to the ancient Cree teachings. With the help of healing methods drawn from the Four Sacred Directions, the refuge and revitalization offered by the sweat lodge, and native cultural practices such as the use of the pipe Nabigon was able to find sobriety.

Mr. Hiroshi's Garden


Maxine Trottier - 2006
    "I will take care of your garden, Mr. Hiroshi," I offered. He smiled. "That would give me great comfort, Mary," he said. "The koi are greedy, you know. Do not let them get fat." We watched the bus drive away. For Mary, too young to fully understand about war and far-off places, the promise was meant to last only until Mr. Hiroshi came back. But after a while it was clear the her friend wouldn't be coming home. Still, Mary faithfully kept her word all through that long summer. And when the new people came to live in Mr. Hiroshi's house, she knew exactly what to do. A tale as elegant as a Japanese garden! Once more, Maxine Trottier takes a small piece of a larger story, nurtures it with care, and grows a tale as elegant as a Japanese Garden. Flags is a simple story of innocence and friendship set against a backdrop of fear and suspicion. A story that must be told and told again--but never allowed to recur. Originally published as Flags.

Writing Life: Celebrated Canadian and International Authors on Writing and Life


Constance Rooke - 2006
    Now Writing Life, promises to be the most successful volume yet. In Writing Life, fifty celebrated authors reveal surprising truths about what it means to be a writer, and about the sparks that can result when writing and life intersect — and sometimes collide. Provocative, candid, often very funny, personal, and passionately engaged, this inspired collection will take readers deep into the heart of the writing life.Margaret Atwood revisits how she came to write five of her novels; Russell Banks reveals why he doesn’t do research; John Berger and Michael Ondaatje discuss gate-crashing characters and the magical instant when a work begins; Joseph Boyden takes time out from promoting his first novel to go moose-hunting; Margaret Drabble considers the “wickedness” of stealing material from real life; Howard Engel describes the stroke that took away his ability to read, and where that left him as a writer; Yann Martel reflects on the impossible, necessary challenge of writing about the Holocaust; Lisa Moore shows how crucial the mess and vitality of family life are to her writing; Alice Munro shares why she might “give up” writing; Rosemary Sullivan negotiates the risks and responsibilities that come with telling the story of a life; Susan Swan wrestles with historical fact, fiction, and Casanova. Proceeds from this volume will go to PEN Canada in support of its vital work on behalf of writers in prison around the world and in defence of freedom of expression both in Canada and abroad.Writing Life Contributors ListAndré Alexis Margaret Atwood Russell Banks David BergenJohn Berger George Bowering Marilyn Bowering Joseph Boyden Di Brandt Barry Callaghan Lynn Coady Susan Coyne Michael Crummey Margaret DrabbleBernice Eisenstein Howard EngelDamon Galgut Jonathan Garfinkel Greg Gatenby Camilla Gibb Charlotte Gray Elizabeth Hay Michael Helm Sheila Heti Annabel Lyon David Macfarlane Alistair MacLeod Margaret MacMillan Alberto Manguel Yann Martel Anne Michaels Rohinton Mistry Lisa Moore Shani MootooAlice Munro Susan Musgrave Michael Ondaatje Anna Porter Eden Robinson Marilynne RobinsonPeter RobinsonJohn Ralston Saul Shyam Selvadurai Russell Smith Rosemary Sullivan Susan Swan Madeleine Thien Jane Urquhart Michael WinterPatricia Young

Liar


Lynn Crosbie - 2006
    From illusions of permanence and ownership to the pain of estrangement, Liar masterfully explores feelings familiar to anyone who has ever loved — and lost. Crosbie also goes beyond this territory, examining the lover’s own complicity in her joy and suffering. Liar is a grotesque, beautiful meditation on the nature of love.

Speaking Out Louder: Ideas That Work for Canadians


Jack Layton - 2006
    In Speaking Out Louder. Jack Layton outlines a bold and visionary "blueprint for Canada" that will do just that. Fully revised and updated to include fascinating behind-the-scenes details of how Martin and his Liberals squandered their leadership opportunities and how dangerously off-course Harper is steering the nation--Speaking Out Louder is a passionate call to action that will inspire all Canadians to embrace a better future.

I Am Canada


Heather PattersonJon Klassen - 2006
    With artwork from 13 of Canada's finest illustrators, each page is a celebration and a reminder of the infinite variety of our home and native land.Heather Patterson's free verse poem "I Am Canada," originally published in 1996, gets new life in this beautiful, illustrated hardcover timed to celebrate both Canada's 150th year and Scholastic Canada's 60th anniversary.

The Chronicles of the Virago--The Novus: Book I


Michael Bialys - 2006
    That is, until she is told that she must protect her newborn brother and sister to safeguard the future of the world. Armed with a mysterious weapon, three Fairy mentors, and a wisecracking earthworm named Fluffy, Makenna must battle the forces of evil and became a defender for hope. Can Makenna truly be ‘The Virago’?

Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe


Stephen Brumwell - 2006
    Yet in 1759, Wolfe's victory, bought at the cost of his life, ensured that English, not French, would become the dominant language in North America. But was there more to James Wolfe than a celebrated death? This book seeks to answer that question.

Robert Service: Under the Spell of the Yukon


Enid Mallory - 2006
    Fate intervened, however, and Robert Service became a household name across North America and throughout the British Commonwealth. Words were Service's lifelong passion, and he set them on many stages. But it was Dan McGrew, Sam McGee and other players of the Great White North who glittered with a golden glow and forever made him the "Bard of the Yukon" and the de facto Poet Laureate of Alaska.Enid Mallory's Robert Service: Under the Spell of the Yukon sheds new light on the life and career of this intriguing and intensely private man, and celebrates the poet's verse. This softcover edition includes a selection of some of Service's most loved poems, including "The Cremation of Sam McGee," "The Shooting of Dan McGrew," "The Call of the Wild," "The Spell of the Yukon" and "The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill."

Morningstar: A Warrior's Spirit


Morningstar Mercredi - 2006
    Morningstar Mercredi was born and lived in the north - Fort Chipewayan and Fort McMurray in Alberta, Uranium City in Saskatchewan, and a number of small communities. Sexually abused from an early age, by family members and the boyfriends she turned to for consolation, she was promiscuous, alcoholic and a drug user by the time she was thirteen. She married when she was sixteen and had a son two years later. Everything was a struggle. Days and weeks of sobriety were followed by weeks and months of drinking and self-abuse. Then, when her son was four, things began to change. Morningstar found support, from the community, from her son, and from within herself, to be a good mother, find employment, keep relationships and reconnect with her family. Today, she is a strong and creative member of her community, and eager to tell her story of defeat and ultimate triumph. Sadly, the first part of this story is all too common, while the second is all too rare. But Morningstar is a shining example that it can be done. She is honest and self-critical in her descriptions of many attempts and repeated failures. She gives enormous credit to her son, for his constant love, his determination to be honest with her, and his unfailing confidence in her ability to succeed.

To the Grave: Inside a Spectacular RCMP Sting


Mike McIntyre - 2006
    A pretty teenager from Brandon, Manitoba, named Erin Chorney steps out for coffee, tells her mom she’ll be back in an hour. . . and never returns. Rumours about Erin’s fate begin to fly. Psychics with bizarre theories and suggestions. Shocking accusations and denials. Cryptic diary entries. Disturbing anonymous letters. Search warrants and surveillance. But she doesn’t turn up. Nearly two years later, when all hope seems lost — a last—ditch plan straight out of Hollywood.The RCMP take aim at the prime suspect in Erin’s disappearance through a unique undercover sting operation, and the result is a wild, four—month ride into a dark criminal underworld filled with cunning mind games, shadowy figures, daring twists and Academy—award winning acting performances. And an explosive ending that nobody saw coming.

The Chronicles of Uncle Mose


Ted Russell - 2006
    Here you will meet not only Uncle Mose, but other characters whose names have become synonymous with traditional outport life: Grampa and Grandma Walcott, Skipper Joe, Aunt Sophy, Jethro Noddy, and—of course—King David. Told with a combination of humour and respect and in a manner that captures the essence of folk narrative, these stories stand as a monument to the dignity of the outport Newfoundlander. Edited by Ted's daughter, Elizabeth Miller, this book is a fine companion for Miller's biography, Uncle Mose: The Life of Ted Russell.

Interred With Their Bones (Bill Miner In Canada 1903 1907)


Peter Grauer - 2006
    A fascinating example of the historical true-crime genre, this volume highlights the ordinary people of B.C. during a time when the frontier was dying, and today's modern world was emerging. Intriguing glimpses into the operation of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, the B.C. Provincial Police,the Royal North West Mounted Police, and the B.C. Penetentiary bring a forgotten era to life. 100 years after the fascinating events that shook Canada's westmost province, this story can finally be told. The writer has taken a snapshot in time, rich in detail based on restricted and private sources never before seen or published. The tragic facts of the guilt and innocense of two men, one a tubercullin Canadian school teacher and the other a reclusive American on the run from unknown events across the border are revealed in this book. The wealth of detail presented by the author will enable the reader to render judgement on whether that Kamloops jury and the unmanipulated public opinion of 100 years ago were right or wrong. After years of painstaking research, the story of how a mysterious Third Man was identified and how retribution finally caught up to him is told in stark detail.

Until Our Hearts Are On the Ground: Aboriginal Mothering, Oppression, Resistance and Rebirth


Jeannette Corbiere Lavell - 2006
    Memee LavellHarvard and Jeannette Corbiere Lavell have brought together a multitude of voices to speak on the issues facing Aborigi- nal mothers in contemporary society. Beginning with an ex- amination of the experience of childbirth-the initiation into motherhood-the contributing authors illustrate its potential as a source of empowerment and revitalization for our nations. Through their own unique perspectives, the women bring us to an understanding of the variety of Aboriginal mothering prac- tices, the impacts of colonization and government legislation on Aboriginal mothers, and literary representations of Aborigi- nal mothering. Together, these women have worked to reveal not only the connection between the longstanding historical oppression experienced by Aboriginal women and the dire contemporary circumstances of many Aboriginal communities, but also the power of Aboriginal mothers to revitalize and transform our communities. They are truly the givers of new life.

S Is for Spirit Bear: A British Columbia Alphabet


G. Gregory Roberts - 2006
    Its diverse wildlife population includes killer whales, giant Pacific octopus, cougars, moose, grizzlies and spirit bears, a rare black bear that, because of a recessive gene, has all-white fur. Children will be awed to learn of legendary creatures reportedly sighted in British Columbia, such as the serpent-like lake demon called Ogopogo and the big-footed beast known as Sasquatch. They will also learn of Canada's Iceman, an ancient hunter whose body and clothing were nearly perfectly preserved in a glacier for more than 550 years. Capturing the essence of the richly varied regions and islands of British Columbia, S is for Spirit Bear takes children on a journey they will never forget.

Crazy About Canada!: Amazing Things Kids Want to Know


Vivien Bowers - 2006
    Tackling questions about Canada's wildlife, geography, and cultures with humor and energy, Bowers presents the answers in an accessible format, with manageable amounts of text, incredible photos, and lighthearted illustrations that make exploring Canada fun. By zeroing in on the information most exciting to them and showing young people how to find more on their own, the book encourages readers to develop and research their own projects and interests.

Clio's Warriors: Canadian Historians and the Writing of the World Wars


Tim Cook - 2006
    Tim Cook elucidates the role of historians in codifying the sacrifice and struggle of a generation as he discusses historical memory and writing, the creation of archives, and the war of reputations that followed each of the world wars on the battlefield. Only recently have military historians pushed the discipline to explore the impact of war on society. In analyzing where the practice of academic military history has come from and where it needs to go, Clio’s Warriors plays a vital role in the ongoing challenge of writing critical history.

Poets and Pahlevans: A Journey into the Heart of Iran


Marcello Di Cintio - 2006
    O. Mitchell Book PrizeMarcello Di Cintio prepares for his “journey into the heart of Iran” with the utmost diligence. He takes lessons in Farsi, researches Persian poetry and sharpens his wrestling skills by returning to the mat after a gap of some years. Knowing that there is a special relationship between heroic poetry and the various styles of traditional Persian wrestling, he sets out to discover how Iranians “reconcile creativity with combat.”From the moment of his arrival in Tehran, the author is overwhelmed by hospitality. He immerses himself in male company in tea houses, conversing while smoking the qalyun or water pipe. Iranian men are only too willing to talk, especially about politics. Confusingly, he is told conflicting statements–that all Iranians love George Bush, that all Iranians hate George Bush; that life was infinitely better under the Shah, that the mullahs swept away the corruption of the Shah’s regime and made life better for all.Once out of Tehran, he learns where the traditional forms of wrestling are practised. His path through the country is directed by a search for the variant disciplines and local techniques of wrestling and a need to visit sites and shrines associated with the great Persian poets: Hafez, Ferdosi, Omar Khayyám, Attar, Shahriyar and many others. Everywhere his quest leads him, he discovers that poetry is loved and quoted by everyone from taxi-drivers to students.His engagement with Iranian culture is intimate: he wrestles (sometimes reluctantly) when invited, samples illegal home-brew alcohol, attends a wedding, joins mourners, learns a new way to drink tea and attempts to observe the Ramazan fast, though not a Muslim himself. Though he has inevitable brushes with officialdom, he never feels in danger, even when he hears that a Canadian photo-journalist has apparently been beaten to death in a police cell during the author’s visit. The outraged and horrified reaction of those around him to this violent act tightens the already close bond he has formed with the Persians.His greatest frustration is that he is unable to converse freely with Iranian women aware that an important part of his picture of Iran is thus absent. Yet the mosaic of incidents, encounters, vistas, conversations, atmospheres and acutely observed sights, smells and moments creates a detailed impression of a country and society that will challenge most, if not all, preconceptions.

Haunted Harbours


Steve Vernon - 2006
    Documented and well-known stories from the provincial archives are mixed with word-of-mouth legends of strange happenings and scary sightings from across Nova Scotia. Steve Vernon relies on his storytelling experience to create moody and terrifying tales from the annals of history.

The Forgotten Explorer: Samuel Prescott Fay's 1914 Expedition to the Northern Rockies


Samuel Prescott Fay - 2006
    Compared to the millions each year who visit Banff and Jasper national parks immediately to the south, this northern area sees few visitors. Fewer still have ever attempted to travel through this wilderness in one continuous trip. The first to do so was Samuel Prescott Fay in 1914. To this day, his exact route has never been duplicated.Fay and his party set out from Jasper on June 26, 1914, with five saddle horses and 16 pack horses. After a treacherous, slogging journey of 1,200 kilometres through wild, uncharted country they reached their destination on October 15, 1914, with the outfit completely intact.During his expedition, Fay kept a detailed journal (currently held at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC), which he provided to the US Biological Survey (now known as the US Fish Wildlife Service) and to various Canadian government authorities. He also published several magazine articles about his discoveries. However, the journal in its entirety, with all his day-to-day observations, struggles and concerns, has never been published. Similarly, his maps, photographs and wildlife records have been preserved in various Canadian and US archives but never exhibited to a wider audience. Brought together for the first time in book form, they provide an early and dynamic record of an area that remains little known to this day.Complete with a large selection of never-before published photos and maps, The Forgotten Explorer is destined to become a classic of North American exploration history.

Voyageur: Across the Rocky Mountains in a Birchbark Canoe


Robert Twigger - 2006
    Mackenzie travelled by bark canoe and had a cache of rum and a crew of Canadian voyageurs, hard-living backwoodsmen, for company. Two centuries later, in a spirit of organic authenticity, Robert Twigger follows in Mackenzie's wake. He too travels the traditional way, having painstakingly built a canoe from birch bark sewn together with pine roots, and assembled a crew made up of fellow travellers, ex-tree-planters and a former sailor from the US Navy. After the ice has melted, Twigger and his crew of wandering spirits finally nose out into the Athabasca River . . . Three Years . . . two thousand miles . . .over one thousand painfully towing the canoe against the current . . . several had tried before them but they were the first people to successfully complete Mackenzie's diabolical route over the Rockies in a birch bark canoe since 1793. Subsisting on a diet of porridge, elk and jackfish, supplemented with whisky and a bag of grass for the tree planters, and with an Indian medicine charm bestowed by the Cree People of Fox Lake, the voyageurs embark on an epic road trip by canoe . . . a journey to the remotest parts of the wilderness, through Native American reservations, over mountains, through rapids and across lakes, meeting descendants of Mackenzie and unhinged Canadian trappers, running out of food, getting lost and miraculously found again, disfigured for life (the ex-sailor loses his thumb), bears brown and black, docile and grizzly. Voyageur is a moving tale of contrasts from the bleak industrial backwaters of Canada to the desolate wonder of the Rocky Mountains.

The Shoebox Bible


Alan Bradley - 2006
    On ragtag scraps of paper, his mother carefully copied snippets of Scripture. Was this Shoebox Bible related to why his father ran away? Years later, on her deathbed, his mother may help solve the mystery. Sad, funny, and inspiring.

Fieldnotes, a Forensic


Kate Eichhorn - 2006
    It was a question of a particular movement. A passage from analyses to terrifying hallucination. The pressure oozing out of her. Still nursing she held up the head. Her own singular sensation of pain. Ferociously archival proof of an event that left no other material.Fieldnotes, a forensic charts one forensic anthropologist's series of descents in the first decade of the new millennium - a decade when forensic discourses and experts became ubiquitous in popular culture and on the daily news. But the edgy, passionate and erudite writer of these fieldnotes is no Temperance Brennan or Kathy Reichs. Part parody of popular discourses on the forensic anthropologist, part exegesis of the fieldnote genre, and part response to the natural and human catastrophes that unfolded during the writing of this book, Eichhorn's second collection continues to explore the poetics and affective dimensions of knowledge making at the edges of poetry and fiction.

Wild Flowers


Emily Carr - 2006
    She wrote these short pieces later in life and they rekindled in her strong childhood memories and associations. She delights in the brightness of buttercups that "let Spring's secret out", muses over the hardiness of stonecrop ("How any plant can grow on bare rock and be so fleshy leafed and fat is a marvel.") and declares that "botanical science has un-skunked the skunk cabbage". Carr's playful words often bring a smile to readers. About catnip, she writes: "I did think it was kind of God to make a special flower for cats."In a brief Foreword and Afterword, archivist and historian Kathryn Bridge gives context to Wild Flowers within the body of Carr's previously published writings.Wild Flowers is illustrated with beautiful watercolours of wild plants by Emily Henrietta Woods, one of Carr's childhood drawing teachers in Victoria. The originals of Carr's manuscript and Woods' botanical illustrations reside in collections of the BC Archives; neither have been published until now."Woods' paintings fit so well with Carr's text. It's serendipity that Woods taught Carr and that we have her art and Carr's manuscript in the Archives' collection, and that neither have been published before now." - Kathryn Bridge

Going Downtown: A History of Winnipeg's Portage Avenue


Russ Gourluck - 2006
    Winner of the Manitoba Historical Society 2007 Award for Popular History?

At Risk: Earthquakes And Tsunamis On The West Coast


John J. Clague - 2006
    It offers timely and important information for these people and for anyone interested in the interplay between the forces of nature and cities. It provides information on why there are earthquakes and why they are common on the west coast of North America. It describes the giant earthquakes that will likely occur off the coast and the tsunamis that they may trigger. It also describes the destructive earthquakes that could take place on faults close to Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, and Victoria. It provides information on the many effects of earthquakes, including ground shaking, landslides, and liquefaction, and societal and individual measures that can be taken to reduce the damage and loss of life from earthquakes and tsunamis.

Home and Away: More Tales of a Heritage Farm


Anny Scoones - 2006
    In Home and Away, Anny presents more stories about the joys and sorrows, excitements and mishaps and also takes readers farther afield, sharing with them her travels to other parts of Canada, to New York and to such places as Malaysia and Belarus. Her travel tales offer not only her keen observations on what she sees and experiences while away, but also her perspective from afar on the importance of having a place to return to that truly is home.Anny has owned Glamorgan Farm since 2000. Located in North Saanich, B.C., it's one of the original farms and homesteads on Vancouver Island, established in 1870 by Richard John. She is restoring the historic structures and raising heritage breeds of livestock. The front meadows are gardened by an herb gardener and a group of mentally challenged adults who grow organic, heirloom varieties of flowers and produce.Anny writes candidly and colourfully about real things, from visits with her family-she is the daughter of internationally acclaimed artists Molly Lamb Bobak and Bruno Bobak-to simple pleasures like arranging bowls of pears and hearing the owls in the woods at dusk. She writes about making bonfires, sitting with a dying horse, playing with a 700-pound sow and visiting the SPCA. Some of her tales are told with humour, some in sadness, but all tell the truth about living, observing and creating, whether at home or away.

Signs of the Times


Bud Osborn - 2006
    As with their first collaboration, "Oppenheimer Park," "Signs of the Times" is both an unflinching look at Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and a beautiful object in its own right.

Judge Prowse Presiding


Frank Holden - 2006
    Daniel Woodley Prowse (1834-1914), police magistrate, journalist, sportsman, historian and champion of the common man, was a "cross between Dr Samuel Johnson and Falstaff." As he rails at both plaintiffs and felons in his jokes and yarns he revives the excitement and the agonies of his time. “It's title may be dry, but Frank Holden's one-man play is as colorful as can be, an absolute delight with no small measure of wit and a tour-de-force performance.” Times Colonist, Victorica, B.C. “A transfixing performance – simply enthralling.” Edmonton Journal Born in Port de Grave, Newfoundland in 1834 Judge D.W. Prowse is best known as the author of A History of Newfoundland, first published in 1895. A History of Newfoundland is widely hailed as one of the finest histories written about Newfoundland and Labrador. The song and melody "Greedy Harbour, " performed by Frank Holden, words and air composed by Jack Maher and Stephen Mullins, 1929, (Greenleaf's " Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland," Harvard University Press, 1933, page 256, Lib of Congress card catalogue # 68:20767).

Green Cuisine: Vegan Recipes from Green Cuisine Restaurant


Andy Cunningham - 2006
    

Exploring the Frozen North: An Omnibus


Pierre Berton - 2006
    Kane of the Arctic Seas, and Trapped in the Arctic.In Exploring the Frozen North, Pierre Berton documents the amazing lives of the men and women who mapped the Arctic at great personal cost. Berton tells the stories of the explorers, but he does not ignore the stories of those people living in the Arctic-the Inuit. Berton often remarks that if only the English and Americans had learned more about living in the far north from the Inuit people, they may have had better luck in their explorations.Retold in accurate detail, these are stories of the triumphs and the hardships of early expeditions to the Canadian Arctic.In Exploring the Frozen North, incredible Arctic adventurers abide: William Edward Parry was the first white man to attempt exploration of the Arctic islands. Ultimately imprisoned by the Arctic ice, he made it farther north than any other expedition would for another thirty years.Jane Franklin, in her relentless search for her lost explorer husband, rallied seamen from England to the United States to comb the Arctic islands. Berton argues that because of her much of that part of the world was mapped.Elisha Kent Kane was a sickly American doctor, who, on the pretext of searching for the lost Franklin expedition, instead sought the legendary "Open Polar Sea," a purportedly ice-free passage to the North Pole.Robert John McClure's ambitious and aggressive race for the North West Passage almost ended when he was trapped in the ice for two long years.

Pier 21: The Gateway That Changed Canada


Trudy Duiven - 2006
    This is the story of the importance of this site to Canada's growth and now the site of a National museum on Halifax's waterfront.

Freedom, Equality, Community: The Political Philosophy of Six Influential Canadians


James Bickerton - 2006
    This book also examines the way in which each understood freedom, equality and community, and the manner in which their work influenced Canadian politics.