Best of
Canada

2015

The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 7-9


Louise Penny - 2015
    Featuring Chief Inspector of Homicide Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec, these extraordinary novels are here together for the first time in a fabulous ebook bundles. A Trick of the Light When Three Pines artist Clara Morrow's former friend is found dead in her garden, Chief Inspector Gamache finds the art world is one of shading and nuance, shadow and light. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they've found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light. The Beautiful Mystery No outsiders are ever admitted to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, where the monks have become world-famous for their glorious chants. But when the renowned choir director is murdered, the lock is drawn back to admit Chief Inspector Gamache. Before he can find the killer, the Chief must first consider the divine, the human, and the cracks in between. How the Light Gets In As Christmas approaches, Chief Inspector Gamache travels to Three Pines as a favor to the bookshop owner, whose friend has gone missing—a friend who was once one of the most famous people in the world. With mounting crises in his own homicide department, Gamache finds himself not only investigating a murder, but also seeking refuge for himself and his still-loyal colleagues—if such a refuge exists.

The Outside Circle: A Graphic Novel


Patti Laboucane-Benson - 2015
    One night, Pete and his mother’s boyfriend, Dennis, get into a big fight, which sends Dennis to the morgue and Pete to jail. Initially, Pete keeps up ties to his crew, until a jail brawl forces him to realize the negative influence he has become on Joey, which encourages him to begin a process of rehabilitation that includes traditional Aboriginal healing circles and ceremonies.Powerful, courageous, and deeply moving, The Outside Circle is drawn from the author’s twenty years of work and research on healing and reconciliation of gang-affiliated or incarcerated Aboriginal men.

A Place Called Winter


Patrick Gale - 2015
    They settle by the sea and have a daughter and conventional marriage does not seem such a tumultuous change after all. When a chance encounter awakens scandalous desires never acknowledged until now, however, Harry is forced to forsake the land and people he loves for a harsh new life as a homesteader on the newly colonized Canadian prairies. There, in a place called Winter, he will come to find a deep love within an alternative family, a love imperiled by war, madness and an evil man of undeniable magnetism.If you've never read a Patrick Gale, stop now and pick up this book. From the author of the bestselling NOTES FROM AN EXHIBITION comes an irresistible, searching and poignant historical novel of love, relationships, secrets and escape.

Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call


Arthur Manuel - 2015
    Unsettling Canada chronicles the modern struggle for Indigenous rights covering fifty years of struggle over a wide range of historical, national, and recent international breakthroughs. Arthur Manuel has participated in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues since its inception in 2002. Since 2003, he has served as spokesperson for the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade (INET). Working through INET, Manuel succeeded in having the struggle for Aboriginal title and treaty rights injected into international financial institutions, setting important precedents for Aboriginal title and rights in Canada. Manuel is a spokesperson for the Defenders of the Land. Author of the book's Afterword, Grand Chief Ronald M. Derrickson has been elected chief of his Westbank First Nation six times and is one of the most successful First Nations business people in Canada. He was made a Grand Chief by the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs in recognition of a lifetime of political and economic leadership. Naomi Klein provides the Foreword. The volume has the occasional black and white photograph, references, and an index. This is an important contribution to the current literature about First Nations' perspectives on their roles in the political and sovereignty movements across Canada from the 1950s, the White Paper, the Red Paper, Constitution Express, Oka, RCAP, Delgamuukw, Sun Peaks, international lobbying, the Fourth World, and Idle No More. An important call to action for all Canadians from a respected First Nation leader and activist.

A Knock on the Door: The Essential History of Residential Schools from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada


Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada - 2015
    It is the local Indian agent, or the parish priest, or, perhaps, a Mounted Police officer.” So began the school experience of many Indigenous children in Canada for more than a hundred years, and so begins the history of residential schools prepared by the Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). Between 2008 and 2015, the TRC provided opportunities for individuals, families, and communities to share their experiences of residential schools and released several reports based on 7000 survivor statements and five million documents from government, churches, and schools, as well as a solid grounding in secondary sources.A Knock on the Door, published in collaboration with the National Research Centre for Truth & Reconciliation, gathers material from the several reports the TRC has produced to present the essential history and legacy of residential schools in a concise and accessible package that includes new materials to help inform and contextualize the journey to reconciliation that Canadians are now embarked upon.Survivor and former National Chief of the Assembly First Nations, Phil Fontaine, provides a Foreword, and an Afterword introduces the holdings and opportunities of the National Centre for Truth & Reconciliation, home to the archive of recordings, and documents collected by the TRC.As Aimée Craft writes in the Afterword, knowing the historical backdrop of residential schooling and its legacy is essential to the work of reconciliation. In the past, agents of the Canadian state knocked on the doors of Indigenous families to take the children to school. Now, the Survivors have shared their truths and knocked back. It is time for Canadians to open the door to mutual understanding, respect, and reconciliation.

Vinyl Cafe Turns the Page


Stuart McLean - 2015
    Moving out and moving on.     Dave and Morley's marriage has mellowed and deepened like a fine wine, Sam has developed a palate for girls and Gruyere, and Steph's found happiness with an artist who photographs roadkill.      Everyone's growing wiser and worldlier--well, almost everyone.     Yes, Dave still has trouble with the automatic car wash, defibrillators, and hot yoga, but he's come to appreciate Mary Turlington, and that's saying quite a bit.     In this brand new collection of Vinyl Cafe stories, the more things change, the more things stay the same...

Unflinching: The Making of a Canadian Sniper


Jody Mitic - 2015
    While on patrol with the 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment deep within enemy territory, sniper Jody Mitic stepped on a land mine and lost both legs below the knee. Though Jody was a dedicated serviceman who had dreamed of a military life since he was a child, it seemed that his fighting days were done. Ever a soldier at heart, Jody was determined to still be of service to his country, and he refused to let his injury hold him back. After only a few short months of rehab, Jody was up and walking again on two prosthetic legs, and only a year later, he was running his first road race. But despite his success in physically recovering from his injury, Jody still struggled to mentally adapt to his new reality. As he experienced first-hand the controversial treatment of Canadian veterans, Jody turned his efforts towards developing programs for wounded veterans and publicly advocating on their behalf. With a renewed purpose to guide him, Jody came to find a new lease on life. An inspirational memoir of resilience and courage in the face of overwhelming adversity, Unflinching is a unique portrait of a man who exemplifies the perseverance, strength, and optimism needed to overcome seemingly unconquerable barriers.

Children of the Broken Treaty: Canada's Lost Promise and One Girl's Dream


Charlie Angus - 2015
    The movement was inspired by Shannen Koostachin, a young Cree woman whom George Stroumboulopoulos named as one of “five teenage girls who kicked ass in history.”All Shannen wanted was a decent education. She found an ally in Charlie Angus, who had no idea she was going to change his life and inspire others to change the country.Based on extensive documentation assembled from Freedom of Information requests, Angus establishes a dark, unbroken line that extends from the policies of John A. Macdonald to the government of today. He provides chilling insight into how Canada--through breaches of treaties, broken promises, and callous neglect--deliberately denied First Nations children their basic human rights.

A Wilderness Station: Selected Stories, 1968-1994


Alice Munro - 2015
    Alice Munro makes lives that seem small unfold until they are revealed to be as spacious as prairies and locates the moments of love and betrayal, desire and forgiveness, that change those lives forever. To read these stories--about a traveling salesman and his children on an impromptu journey; an abandoned woman choosing between seduction and solitude--is to succumb to the spell of a writer who enchants her readers utterly even as she restores them to their truest selves.

Stolen Sisters: An Inquiry into Feminicide in Canada


Emmanuelle Walter - 2015
    But tragically, they were not the only Aboriginal women to suffer that year. In fact, an official report revealed that since 1980, 1,200 Canadian Aboriginal women have been murdered or have gone missing. This alarming official figure reveals a national tragedy and the systemic failure of law enforcement and of all levels of government to address the issue.Journalist Emmanuelle Walter spent two years investigating this crisis and has crafted a moving representative account of the disappearance of two young women, Maisy Odjick and Shannon Alexander, teenagers from western Quebec, who have been missing since September 2008. Via personal testimonies, interviews, press clippings and official documents, Walter pieces together the disappearance and loss of these two young lives, revealing these young women to us through the voices of family members and witnesses.Stolen Sisters is a moving and deeply shocking work of investigative journalism that makes the claim that not only is Canada failing its First Nations communities, but that a feminicide is taking place.

Calling Down the Sky


Rosanna Deerchild - 2015
    Many were forbidden to speak their language and practice their own culture. The author portrays how the ongoing impact of the residential schools problem has been felt throughout generations and has contributed to social problems that continue to exist today.

The Reason You Walk


Wab Kinew - 2015
    The Reason You Walk spans that 2012 year, chronicling painful moments in the past and celebrating renewed hopes and dreams for the future. As Kinew revisits his own childhood in Winnipeg and on a reserve in Northern Ontario, he learns more about his father's traumatic childhood at residential school. An intriguing doubleness marks The Reason You Walk, itself a reference to an Anishinaabe ceremonial song. Born to an Anishinaabe father and a non-native mother, he has a foot in both cultures. He is a Sundancer, an academic, a former rapper, a hereditary chief and an urban activist. His father, Tobasonakwut, was both a beloved traditional chief and a respected elected leader who engaged directly with Ottawa. Internally divided, his father embraced both traditional native religion and Catholicism, the religion that was inculcated into him at the residential school where he was physically and sexually abused. In a grand gesture of reconciliation, Kinew's father invited the Roman Catholic bishop of Winnipeg to a Sundance ceremony in which he adopted him as his brother. Kinew writes affectingly of his own struggles in his twenties to find the right path, eventually giving up a self-destructive lifestyle to passionately pursue music and martial arts. From his unique vantage point, he offers an inside view of what it means to be an educated Aboriginal living in a country that is just beginning to wake up to its aboriginal history and living presence. Invoking hope, healing and forgiveness, The Reason You Walk is a poignant story of a towering but damaged father and his son as they embark on a journey to repair their family bond. By turns lighthearted and solemn, Kinew gives us an inspiring vision for family and cross-cultural reconciliation, and for a wider conversation about the future of aboriginal peoples.

Under the Visible Life


Kim Echlin - 2015
    It is only through music that she finds the freedom to temporarily escape and dream of a better life for herself, nurturing this hard-won refuge throughout the vagaries of unexpected motherhood and an absent husband, and relying on her talent to build a future for her family.Orphaned Mahsa also grows up in the shadow of loss, sent to relatives in Pakistan after the death of her parents. Struggling to break free, she escapes to Montreal, leaving behind her first love, Kamal. But the threads of her past are not so easily severed, and she finds herself forced into an arranged marriage.For Mahsa, too, music becomes her solace and allows her to escape from her oppressive circumstances.When Katherine and Mahsa meet, they find in each other a kindred spirit as well as a musical equal, and their lives are changed irrevocably. Together, they inspire and support one another, fusing together their cultures, their joys, and their losses—just as they collaborate musically in the language of free-form, improvisational jazz.Under the Visible Life takes readers from the bustling harbour of Karachi to the palpable political tension on the streets of 1970s Montreal to the smoky jazz clubs of New York City. Deeply affecting, vividly rendered, and sweeping in scope, it is also an exploration of the hearts of two unforgettable women: a meditation on how hope can remain alive in the darkest of times when we have someone with whom to share our burdens.

Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story


David Alexander Robertson - 2015
    She left her home to attend residential school and high school in a small town in Manitoba. On November 13, 1971, Betty was abducted and brutally murdered by four young men. Initially met with silence and indifference, her tragic murder resonates loudly today. Betty represents one of almost 1,200 Indigenous women in Canada who have been murdered or gone missing.This book is a true account. Content may be disturbing to some readers.

Missing Nimama


Melanie Florence - 2015
    Missing Nimama shows the human side of a tragic set of circumstances.An afterword by the author provides a simple, age-appropriate context for young readers. Includes a glossary of Cree terms.

Fight to the Finish: Canadians in the Second World War, 1944-1945


Tim Cook - 2015
    Cook combines an extraordinary grasp of military strategy with a deep empathy for the soldiers on the ground, at sea and in the air. Whether it's a minute-by-minute account of a gruelling artillery battle, vicious infighting among generals, the scene inside a medical unit, or the small details of a soldier's daily life, Cook creates a compelling narrative. He recounts in mesmerizing detail how the Canadian forces figured in the Allied bombing of Germany, the D-Day landing at Juno beach, the taking of Caen, and the drive south. Featuring dozens of black-and-white photographs and moving excerpts from letters and diaries of servicemen, Fight to the Finish is a memorable account of Canadians who fought abroad and of the home front that was changed forever.

Not-So-Blue Christmas


Bonnie Edwards - 2015
    Away from home, in a small harbor city in Canada, broken-hearted Kirk's lost and alone until one small dog refuses to give up on him.Vibrant widow Miranda Bailey is ready to move into the next phase of her life, except this Christmas is shaping up to be the worst since her husband's death. But instead of hiding, she takes charge, and drags Kirk into her Christmas miracle. The Christmas Collection Book 2: Invitation to Christmas The Christmas Collection Book 3: One Crazy Christmas

Splash!: 9 Refreshing Romances Filled with Faith


Valerie ComerJan Thompson - 2015
    Come visit Scotland, Zambia, Australia, Canada, and several American states, including Alaska, in these inspirational romance novellas. You'll love each refreshing contemporary romance as the characters enjoy the water on hot summer days, whether it be in a river, lake, ocean... or a swimming pool! His Perfect Catch by Narelle Atkins, author of the Snowgum Creek series A holiday romance isn’t part of the plan when Mia Radcliffe temporarily moves to Sapphire Bay and lives next door to Pete McCall, her secret crush from years ago. Pete prefers the simple life. Can Mia leave behind her big-city dreams and settle with Pete in the seaside town? Sweet Serenade by Valerie Comer, author of the Farm Fresh Romance series Carly and Reed thrive on the rush of running rapids in a canoe until they capsize in both river and romance. Will secrets from the past drown their future, or can this idyllic summer romance lead to a lifetime of sweet serenades? More than Friends by Autumn Macarthur, author of the Love in Store series When nurse Catriona asks for help with her Vacation Bible School for disabled children, she never imagines how much could go wrong on a simple seaside day out — or that the colleague she's secretly loved for years might come to see her as more than his best friend's little sister. Love Flies In by Heidi McCahan, author of the Emerald Cove series He’s a seaplane pilot determined to honor his convictions. She’s a kayak guide who mocked his faith for sport. One small lakeside cabin in Alaska can’t house them both.  Testing the Waters by Lesley Ann McDaniel, author of the Madison Falls series After breaking up with her ultra-critical boyfriend, Teresa decides to reinvent herself. She meets a nice guy named Curt on the beach in Crescent Cove, Oregon, and tells him she’s Terése from Paris. Pretending to be someone else is fun until the unthinkable happens — she starts to fall for him. The Lifeguards, the Swim Team, and Frozen Custard by Carol Moncado, author of the CANDID Romance series Lifeguard Alivia Collins looks forward to another summer on the guard stand at the Serenity Landing Aquatic Center. This year, she’s going to have to keep herself from falling for the cute, new guard - or realize it’s time to give love another chance. Time and Tide by Lynette Sowell, author of the Lone Star Hearts series When out-of-work fashion journalist Karyn Lewis uses the summer to regroup on the coast of Virginia, she plans to lie low at Pine Breezes campground. She doesn't plan for her heart to be on a collision course with old friend Brodie Reed. They must decide if the past that looms between them will be too much for them to have a future together.  Draw You Near by Jan Thompson, author of the Savannah Sweethearts series Savannah artist Abilene Dupree keeps her personal life out of her commercial paintings except one. That one painting has now brought Londoner Lars Cargill back to the coastal town and into her art world. Can she hold him at bay before he invades her personal space and her heart? Orphaned Hearts by Marion Ueckermann, author of the Heart of Africa series His faith buried with his wife,  Simon devotes himself to raising his daughter

Hand Drawn Halifax


Emma FitzGerald - 2015
    She effortlessly catches moments in the life of the city. While she draws, she keeps notes on what she sees -- and what people say to her. She has an ear, as well as an eye.In this sketchbook readers will find spots they didn't even know existed and hear stories they never imagined. Emma overhears conversations in the bookstore, notices prom night in the Public Gardens, learns the recipe for McNabs famous Island lemonade, checks out Ashtray Rock, and finds out where the real fishermen live. The personality and character of the city and its people shine through in the brightly illustrated pages.

The Education of Augie Merasty: A Residential School Memoir


Joseph Auguste Merasty - 2015
    They were taught to be ashamed of their native heritage and, as he experienced, often suffered physical and sexual abuse.But, even as he looks back on this painful part of his childhood, Merasty’s sense of humour and warm voice shine through.

Daydreams of Angels


Heather O'Neill - 2015
    In her bestselling novels Lullabies for Little Criminals and The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, she transformed the shabbiest streets of Montreal with her beautiful, freewheeling metaphors. She described the smallest of things--a stray cat or a second-hand coat--with an intensity that made them otherworldly. In Daydreams of Angels, O'Neill's first collection of short stories, she gives free reign to her imaginative gifts. In "The Ugly Ducklings," generations of Nureyev clones live out their lives in a grand Soviet experiment. In "Dear Piglet," a teenaged cult follower writes a letter to explain the motivation behind her crime. And in another tale, a grandmother reveals where babies come from: the beach, where young mothers-to-be hunt for infants in the surf. Each of these beguiling stories twists the beloved narratives of childhood--fairy tales, storybooks, Bible stories--to uncover the deepest truths of family life.

Stephen Harper


John Ibbitson - 2015
    He has made government smaller, justice tougher, and provinces more independent, whether they want to be or not. Under its 22nd prime minister, Canada shows the world a plainer, harder face. Those who praise Harper point to the Conservatives' skillful economic management, the impressive new trade agreements, the tax cuts and the balanced budget, the reformed immigration system, the uncompromising defence of Israel and Ukraine, and the fight against terrorism. Critics--pointing to punitive punishments, muzzled scientists, assaults on the judiciary, and contempt for parliament--accuse the Harper government of being autocratic, secretive and cruel.     But what about the man? In this definitive new biography, the Globe and Mail's John Ibbitson explores the life of the most important Canadian of our times--his suburban youth, the crisis that caused Stephen Harper to quit university for three years, the forces that shaped his tempestuous relationship with Reform Leader Preston Manning, how Laureen Harper influences her husband, his devotion to his children--and his cats. Ibbitson explains how this shy, closed, introverted loner united a fractured conservative movement, defeated a Liberal hegemony, and set out to reshape the nation. With unparalleled access to sources, years of research and writing, and a depth of insight that has made him one of the most respected voices in journalism, John Ibbitson presents an intimate, detailed portrait of a man who has remained an enigma to supporters and enemies alike. Now that enigma is revealed, in a masterful exploration of Stephen Harper, the politician and the man.

Quinn: The Life of a Hockey Legend


Dan Robson - 2015
         Tough guys sobbed. Networks carried montages of Quinn's rugged hits, his steely-eyed glare, and his famous victories. Quinn made a few enemies over the years, but there was no one who didn't respect the tough working-class kid who had fought his way to the very top of the hockey world.     He had butted heads with superstars, with management, and with the league itself. And he had also succeeded at every level, finishing his journeyman's career as the captain of an NHL team, then quickly emerged as one of the best coaches in the league. He gathered executive titles like hockey cards, and done things his own way, picking up a law degree along the way.      He was brash, dour, and abrasive--and people loved him for his alloy of pugnacity and flair, his three-piece suits and cigars, his Churchillian heft and his scowl.     In the end, the player who would never even have dreamed of being inducted into the Hall of Fame was the chair of the Hall's selection committee. That is Quinn's story: an underdog who succeeded so completely that his legacy has become the standard by which others are judged.      Told by bestselling author Dan Robson, and supported by the Quinn family and network of friends, Quinn is the definitive account of one of the game's biggest personalities and most storied lives.

Beneath the Surface: 101 Honest Truths to Take Life Deeper


Humble the Poet - 2015
    Beneath The Surface is a collection of personal stories and reflections that give insight in to Humble, and the experiences that led to his shift in mindset into the life long learner he has become. Beneath The Surface is not a sequel, but rather a second layer to UnLearn. It's the next natural step for anyone wanting to take their journey of self awareness and discovery to new depths.

A Place Called Sorry


Donna Milner - 2015
    Addie-as her grandfather Chauncey Beynon Beale affectionately calls her- believes that everything she could ever want or need is to be found on his cattle ranch, the place her family calls home, or in the little town twelve bush miles away, a place called Sorry. After tragedy strikes her family, Addie holds her sorrows close to her heart. Only later will she learn that her grandfather too has lived with his own secret torment for more than seventy years. It will take his slipping into blindness and dementia before the dark spectre from his past emerges, leaving her the one responsible for its consequences. And when that day arrives, when Chauncey Beale's past intersects with Addie's present, it will change her future in ways that she, and those she loves, could never have imagined.

Duchess Bake Shop Cookbook


Giselle Courteau - 2015
    It captivated the city with its delectable macarons, galettes and éclairs, made from the world's finest ingredients, and bounteously arranged on antique silver trays. Now, its owners-Giselle Courteau, Garner Beggs and Jacob Pelletier- have published the bakery's debut cookbook. Duchess Bake Shop is a triumphant collection of 80 recipes for the bakery's most-loved pastries that anyone can make at home. Like the bakery itself, the book is a feast for the eyes. Duchess Bake Shop offers 288 pages of recipes with exquisite, step-by-step photography and clear, detailed instructions for everything from the bakery's renowned tea-time treats and legendary tarts, to more complicated French classics: buttery brioche, delightful macarons, showy mille-feuilles, and the glorious St. Honoré cake. Duchess Bake Shop includes invaluable tips about equipment, ingredients, and techniques such as how to properly temper chocolate and make the best salted caramel. Family recipes have also made it into the bakery's menu-and into this book-such as the Courteau family Tourtiere (French-canadian meat pie) and Aunt Debbie's Lavender Lemonade. This is a delicious collection of timeless recipes that are a pleasure to make and a joy to eat. Bon Appetit!

Fallen: A Trauma, a Marriage, and the Transformative Power of Music


Kara Stanley - 2015
    She also describes the transformative role of music both before and during his continuing rehabilitation and his battle to return to work as a professional musician. At the heart of the story is the relationship between Stanley and her husband, as she explores what allows a marriage to grow and thrive amid pain, chaos, and uncertainty.

My Body Is Yours: A Memoir


Michael V. Smith - 2015
    Smith is a multi-talented force of nature: a novelist, poet, improv comic, filmmaker, drag queen, performance artist, and occasional clown. In this, his first work of nonfiction, Michael traces his early years as an inadequate male—a fey kid growing up in a small town amid a blue-collar family; a sissy; an insecure teenager desperate to disappear; and an obsessive writer-performer, drawn to compulsions of alcohol, sex, reading, spending, work, and art as many means to cope and heal.Drawing on his work as an artist whose work focuses on our preconceived notions about the body, this disarming and intriguing memoir questions what it means to be human. Michael asks: How can we know what a man is? How might understanding gender as metaphor be a tool for a deeper understanding of identity? In coming to terms with his past failures at masculinity, Michael offers a new way of thinking about breaking out of gender norms, and breaking free of a hurtful past.Michael V. Smith won the inaugural Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Emerging LGBT Writers from the Writers Trust of Canada for his first novel, Cumberland. He's since published two poetry books and a second novel, Progress. He teaches creative writing in the faculty of creative and critical studies at University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus.

In Flanders Fields: 100 Years: Writing on War, Loss and Remembrance


Amanda Betts - 2015
    In this anthology, Canada's finest historians, novelists and poets contemplate the evolving meaning of the poem; the man who wrote it and the World War I setting from which it emerged; its themes of valour, grief and remembrance; and the iconic image of the poppy.      Among the thirteen contributors: Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire (ret'd) writes about the emotional meaning of the poem for war veterans; Tim Cook describes the rich and varied life of McCrae; Frances Itani revisits her time in Flanders, and mines the acts of witnessing and remembering; Kevin Patterson offers a riveting depiction of the adrenaline-fueled work of a WWI field surgeon; Mary Janigan reveals the poem's surprisingly divisive effect during the 1917 federal election; Ken Dryden tells us how lines from the poem ended up on the wall of the Montreal Canadiens' dressing room; and Patrick Lane recalls a Remembrance Day from his childhood in a moving reflection on how war shapes us all.     Gorgeously designed in full colour with archival and contemporary images, In Flanders Fields: 100 Years will reflect and illuminate the importance of art in how we process war and loss.

Headline: Murder


Maggie K. Black - 2015
    Now they're after her—the newswoman witness who won't rest until she gets her story. She's rescued in the nick of time by a six-foot-four former bodyguard, but Olivia hardly feels safe. She's certain Daniel Ash is connected to her investigation into the dead man's business dealings, but how? With no one left to trust, Olivia accepts Daniel's offer of shelter at his abandoned country house in rural Ontario. But the killers are not far behind, and determined that Olivia takes the evidence she's uncovered to her grave.

A Distant Echo, Complete Series


Bobby Hutchinson - 2015
    Tom and Jackson, fortune hunters, watch the catastrophe in a movie--the disaster occurred over a hundred years ago. But suddenly, inexplicably the two adventurers are transported back in time. The town of Frank is intact, the disaster still a year ahead. Can they warn people about what's about to happen? ˃˃˃ WHAT CAN THEY DO IF NO ONE IS PREPARED TO BELIEVE THEM? They have no usable money, nowhere to stay--and they're thrown in jail, suspected of robbery.They're about to learn lessons involving kindness, generosity, and the power of love--but they're also about to encounter brutality, disbelief, poverty and frustration.The lives they had before are nothing more than a distant echo. ˃˃˃ IS THERE A WAY BACK? They have a plan, but it will mean leaving behind all those they've come to love and abandoning the town on the very night of the disaster. ˃˃˃ LOVE AND MONEY--Tom and Jackson much choose between the two. A TIME TRAVEL HISTORICAL ROMANCE THAT WILL KEEP YOU READING LONG PAST BEDTIME.

Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You


Donna Decker - 2015
    Bohemian and beautiful, this engineering student is as passionate about constructing sets for theater and opera as she is about Trey, the one man she can finally trust. Deirdre is a first year engineering major, earnest and perceptive, but too naïve to know that frat boys can be dangerous. Montreal columnist Jenean is feisty and urbane, a feminist who longs for peace between the sexes even as she ponders splitting from her live-in partner. In the face of startling and heartbreaking tragedy, we witness fierce love and bonding. This is not your everyday love story.The Montreal Massacre is lodged in Canadian memory: on December 6, 1989, fourteen female engineering students were murdered in their classroom. Set in that tragic historical moment, on two college campuses fraught with gendered antagonisms, this novel follows the imagined lives of women as they happen headlong into the December 6 tragedy. Were In Cold Blood to marry The Poisonwood Bible, this novel would be their progeny: a story disarmingly accurate and bountifully probing that explores the profundity of deepest love and unimaginable loss.

Pauls


Jess Taylor - 2015
    Paul runs through forests, drinks in student housing, flirts with girls, at times is a girl, loves men, makes friends, jumps from buildings, hurts people, gets hurt, climbs up towards the sky, waits for a sunrise, and all those human things.Pauls, the debut short-story collection by the exciting young writer Jess Taylor, is about people: the things that remain unseen to them; how they cope with their unforgettable pasts; the different roles they take in each other's lives; how they hurt each other; how they try to heal each other; the things they want to learn; and the things they'll never discover. At the same time, Pauls is a portrayal of the world as these people see it -- they all exist in a universe that is strange and indifferent to those within it. Coincidences, relationships, conversations, and friendships all pose more questions than answers.With a unique tone that balances humour, irony, and heavy themes, this series of interconnected stories has already garnered attention from awards' panels, with the title story winning Gold at the 2013 National Magazine Awards. Its contemporary tone and playful language offer an enjoyable read for people who like lively short fiction that focuses attention on themes of identity, relationships, and love.

Debris


Kevin Hardcastle - 2015
    Written in a lean and muscular style and brimming with both violence and compassion, these stories unflinchingly explore the lives of those — MMA fighters, the institutionalized, small-town criminals — who exist on the fringes of society, unveiling the blood and guts and beauty of life in our flyover regions.

Echo from Mount Royal


Dave Riese - 2015
    HER LIFE IS PERFECT...EXCEPT HIS FAMILY HATES HER! Montreal, 1951. Rebecca Wiseman, 18 years old, from a Catholic-Jewish family, briefly meets a handsome young man at a local dance. She has little hope of seeing him again. When Sol Gottesman tracks her down and asks her on a date, her joy mingles with disbelief: he is the son of a wealthy Westmount businessman. Sol takes her in a chauffeured Rolls-Royce to the most expensive restaurant in the city and Rebecca enters a world of upper-class wealth and privilege. She believes her life is perfect. She soon learns that despite Sol’s outward charm, he lacks self-confidence. On a visit to Mount Royal overlooking the city, Sol reveals the simmering conflicts in his family. When Rebecca tries to help him stand up to his family, she puts herself squarely in the midst of it all. Class, religion, family conflict and sexual secrets test their love. And then, a late night telephone call changes her life forever. "A bittersweet story of love and loss set in one of the most colorful cities on the planet in its film-noirish heyday." - Peter Behrens, author of Law of Dreams and The O'Briens

The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood


John Lorinc - 2015
    But the City considered it a slum, and bulldozed the area in the late 1950s to make way for a new civic square.The Ward finally tells the diverse stories of this extraordinary and resilient neighbourhood through archival photos and contributions from a wide array of voices, including historians, politicians, architects, story­­tellers, journalists and descendants of Ward residents. Their perspectives on playgrounds, tuberculosis, sex workers, newsies and even bathing bring The Ward to life and, in the process, raise important questions about how contemporary cities handle immigration, poverty and the geography of difference.

Do You Think This Is Strange?


Aaron Cully Drake - 2015
    First, he is expelled from school for fighting. Now, at his new school, he is required to have regular conversations with a counselor—an awkward situation for anyone, really, but even more so for Freddy, who has autism. Not only that, Freddy’s mom left years ago and his dad drinks too much.But then Saskia—a fair-haired girl Freddy hasn’t seen in ten years—appears at his new school. As children they attended the same group therapy sessions, and now she is hardly the same person he remembers. She doesn’t smile. And she doesn’t talk. But their reunion provides him with respite in a difficult time, and sets a chain of meetings and events into motion that reveals long-repressed memories and brings Freddy to a unexpectedly freeing moment of truth. A funny and touching coming-of-age story you won’t forget.

Transmitter and Receiver


Raoul Fernandes - 2015
    Wider areas of contemplation--the difficulty of communication, the ever-changing symbolism of language and the nature of human interaction in the age of machines--are explored through colloquial scenes of the everyday: someone eats a burger in a car parked by the river ("Grand Theft Auto: Dead Pixels"), a song plays on the radio as a man contemplates suicide ("Car Game"), and a janitor works silently once everyone else has gone ("After Hours at the Centre For Dialogue").Forthright and effortlessly lyrical, Fernandes builds each poem out of candor and insight, an addictive mix that reads like a favourite story and glitters with concealed meaning. Rather than drawing lines between isolation and connection, past and present, metaphor and reality, Transmitter and Receiver offers loneliness and longing hand-in-hand with affection and understanding: "The last assembly instruction is always you reading this. A machine / that rarely functions, but could never without you."

Rumrunners


Eric Beetner - 2015
    They're not criminals. They're outlaws. They have made a living by driving anything and everything for the Stanleys, the criminal family who has been employing them for decades. It's ended with Tucker. He's gone straight, much to the disappointment of his father, Webb. When Webb vanishes after a job, and with him a truck load of drugs, the Stanleys want their drugs back or their money. With the help from his grandfather, Calvin-the original lead foot-Tucker is about to learn a whole lot about the family business in a crash course that might just get him killed.Praise for RUMRUNNERS:“A killer. If you dug Bull Mountain, you’ll love it.”—Brian Panovich, author of Bull Mountain“The best word to sum up this book is ’FUN’, in capital letters.”—Stuart MacBride, author of The Missing and the Dead“Buckle up...RUMRUNNERS is a fast and furious read.”—Samuel W. Gailey, author of Deep Winter“Few contemporary writers do justice to the noir tradition the way Eric Beetner does. Others try to emulate and mimic; Beetner just takes the form and cuts his own jagged, raw and utterly readable path.”—Gar Anthony Haywood, author of Assume Nothing, Cemetery Road and the Aaron Gunner series“Rumrunners just never lets up. It's a fuel-injected, mile-a-minute thrill ride. I had a blast.”—Grant Jerkins, author of A Very Simple Crime and Done In One

The Idea of North: The Paintings of Lawren Harris


Steve Martin - 2015
    Sparse landscapes of Lake Superior's northern shores, boldvisions of the Rocky Mountains and haunting landscapes fromthe Eastern Arctic are hallmark themes of Lawren Harris'spaintings. He was a founding member of the renowned "Group ofSeven" artists' group, who believed that the Canadian landscapewas central to the foundation of a national identity. Focusingon Harris's most important work of the 1920s through the early1930s, this monograph features a selection of major worksthat are as iconic in Canada as those of Georgia O'Keeffe andEdward Hopper in the U.S. His remarkable use of color, light, andcomposition resulted in powerful scenes that reflect his progresstoward a universal vision of nature's spiritual power. Drawnfrom the Art Gallery of Ontario's substantial holdings as wellas other public collections throughout Canada, this publicationrepositions Harris's work and establishes him as major figurewithin the wider context of 20th-century modern painting in theAmericas.

The Wild in You: Voices from the Forest and the Sea


Lorna Crozier - 2015
    Together, Crozier and McAllister crystallize an ecosystem as powerful as the grizzly bear and as fragile as a crane fly’s wing." —Eliza Robertson, author of WallflowersA gorgeous and stirring collection of photos and poems from photographer Ian McAllister and Governor General’s Award-winning poet Lorna Crozier that reveals how the startling wildness of the natural world is mirrored in the human heart.A testament to the miraculous beings that share our planet and the places where they live, The Wild in You is a creative collaboration between one of our time’s best nature photographers and one of North America’s most talented and critically acclaimed poets. Inspired by the majestic and savage beauty of McAllister’s photographs, Crozier translates the wild emotion of land and sea into the language of the human heart. Featuring over thirty beautiful full-size photographs of wolves, bears, sea lions, jellyfish, and other wild creatures paired with thirty original poems, The Wild in You challenges the reader to a deeper understanding of the connection between humans, animals, and our earth.

Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada


Murray Sinclair - 2015
    This book contains the Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, released in June 2015.

The End Begins


Sara Davison - 2015
    After a series of terrorist attacks in 2053, martial law has been declared in Canada and the military has taken over. When a radical Christian group claims responsibility, Jesse and his platoon are sent to Meryn's city to keep an eye on the Christians and ensure they are not stepping outside the confines of the law.Fiery and quick-tempered, Meryn chafes under the curfew and other restrictions to her freedom. Jesse is equally amused, intrigued, and terrified by her spirit. She could find herself in prison if she shows defiance to the wrong soldier, namely Lieutenant Gallagher.Jesse watches out for Meryn when possible, although she wants nothing to do with him. His worst fears are realized when she commits a crime he cannot protect her from. Now they both face an uncertain future and the very real threat of losing everything, including their lives. With time running out, Jesse works feverishly to convince the authorities to show leniency to Meryn. And to convince her that love can overcome any barrier that lies between them.The first book of the Seven trilogy will have you biting your nails to the quick as Jesse and Meryn’s romance takes them to a place they never thought possible. Love and beliefs in 2053 battle it out as Canada, and the world, becomes an increasingly dangerous place for those who call themselves Christians.Buy The End Begins and be inspired by their story of romance and perseverance in a future world that feels all too possible.To continue the story, get your copy of Book 2, The Dragon Roars, available now.“Thought-provoking, relevant and suspenseful, The End Begins is a must-read.” ~4 ½-star, Top Pick! from RT Book Reviews

Born to The Wild


Rob Kaye - 2015
    Kaye gives a vivid account of wardens' lives in the park. He describes backcountry encounters with wolves, bears, bighorns, and other wildlife, as well as accounts of survival and tales of adversity. Kaye relates heartfelt and humorous stories about the backcountry wardens’ most trusted companions—the riding and pack horses that shared their high country travels. The author’s passion for the preservation and protection of wilderness and wildlife is a theme that runs throughout the book. Kaye invites the reader to ponder the future of our national parks. In reflecting on his career with the Warden Service, he illustrates how the few remaining (and no longer pristine) wild spaces are threatened by over-use, commercial development, habitat loss, and climate change.

Selected Stories of Morley Roberts


Morley Roberts - 2015
    Selection of the thirty best short stories written by Morley Roberts during more than 50 years as a writer.

Tomas and the Gypsy Violin


Robert Eisenberg - 2015
    It concerns an orphaned Roma child, Tomas, who is adopted by a Toronto couple. The traumatized boy is unresponsive to his new environment and withdraws into his own private world, but he comes out of his shell when he is reacquainted with the old and tattered violin he brought with him from Hungary, the only relic of his past life. A book about the love of music and the love of parent and child, it is also one of the few books that deal with the Roma community in Toronto.

Pony Castle


Sofia Banzhaf - 2015
    It’s a complex performance and I am very good. I am so good that it becomes confusing." Winner of the 2015 Metatron Prize for Rising Authors, Sofia Banzhaf’s literary debut is memorable and enthralling, like staring into the dark and seeing a prism. Life is snaking its way through the characters of Pony Castle, and bad things are happening to good people. "Pony Castle reads like a line of crushed pill up the nose: a quick breath in and then the rush. Banzhaf's writing is a straight chute to the most depraved of human behaviors, but within this brutal world, she finds grace and humanity." -Sarah Gerard, author of Binary Star "Sofia Banzhaf creates a captivating world where nothing is free and anything can happen.” -Chelsea Hodson, author of Pity the Animal

Meringue


Christine Lemieux - 2015
    With no one to turn to and a third child on the way, her future appears hopeless until she discovers an enchanted recipe for meringue tucked away in the attic. Thanks to a batch of divine meringue pâtisseries, a new chapter in June’s life begins with the opening of a French-inspired café. As she bakes away her sorrows, the humble restaurant flourishes. However, when June revamps the menu, setting aside the charmed concoction, disaster follows. The magic in the little café dwindles while conflict arises in the family. Soon, June is struck by another misfortune when Harold D’Alembert, an acclaimed French chef, opens an exquisite restaurant right next door… Like the pleasures of an epicurean experience, Meringue is a delicious and endearing tale about a cookbook inhabited by a spirit and the mesmerizing effects it has on a quiet little town.

Life Sketches


Robert Bateman - 2015
    His vast body of work—spanning species as large as the buffalo and as small as the mouse—has touched millions of hearts and minds, awakening a reverence for wildlife of all kinds. Bateman is perhaps best known for his gorgeous depictions of birds in flight and in repose, images that stir in the viewer a deep appreciation of colour, form and spirit.Life Sketches is a moving journey in both words and images that, for the first time, allows Bateman’s fans full access into his creative process, detailing his singular artistic vision and the inspiration behind his iconic art. What emerges is a portrait of a young boy enchanted by the natural world around him and called to record it in his sketches and paintings. Bitten by wanderlust, Bateman travelled the world and documented his real life experiences in journals, sketches, and paintings. In Life Sketches, he recounts the evolution of his style from abstraction to realism and the events that have shaped his art into a vocation over many decades. And through it all, Bateman shows how his keen sensibilities extend beyond art, to a passion for conservation and relentless advocacy for the natural world that underpins an incredible artistic legacy.Join Robert Bateman on this personal guided tour through his life and art.

The Little Washer of Sorrows


Katherine Fawcett - 2015
    The book's emotional impact is created with strong, richly drawn characters facing universal issues, but in unusual settings. The collection is both dark and comical with engaging plot twists and elements of the macabre as characters attempt to cope with high-stakes melodramas that drift further out of their control. The threat of something sinister lingers beneath the surface in many of Fawcett's stories, as she explores the messy "what ifs?" of life and the ever-present paradox of free will.

Jabbering with Bing Bong


Kevin Spenst - 2015
    Jabbering with Bing Bong chronicles the heartbreaking and slapstick pursuit of truth in the realms of religion, mental health, and poetic form itself. Praise for Jabbering with Bing Bong:“Belief and disbelief rub up against each other in this startling and flawless debut collection. … These important poems do not redeem so much as allow the possibility of redemption.”—Jen Currin, author of The Inquisition Yours“Fearless, attentively probing, and sonically sharp, he is a rare counter-theosophist rhapsodist. Spenst’s Jabbering…is the work of a remarkable shepherd.”—Sandra Ridley, author of The Counting House“Kevin Spenst provides further proof that the best writing these days is in the practice of poetry. Hang on tight as you are winged deftly through the human strains…curiosity, sexuality, death, religion and striving—it’s all here.”—Dennis E. Bolen, author of Black Liquor“Kevin Spenst’s muscular vocabulary, vigorous pace and nimble references to cultural details enliven his exploration of topics ranging from adolescence to God to Fenris wolf.”—Sarah Klassen, author of Journey to Yalta

The River


Helen Humphreys - 2015
    Does it move us with its beauty? Can we make a living from it? But what if we examined a landscape on its own terms, freed from our expectations and assumptions?This is what celebrated writer Helen Humphreys sets out to do in this stunning, groundbreaking examination of place. For more than a decade Humphreys has owned a small waterside property on a section of the Napanee River in Ontario. In the watchful way of writers, she has studied her little piece of the river through the seasons and the years, cataloguing its ebb and flows, the plants and creatures that live in and round it, the signs of human usage at its banks and on its bottom.The River is the result, a gorgeous and moving meditation that uses fiction, non-fiction, natural history, archival maps and images, and stunning full-color photographs to get at the truth. In doing this, Humphreys has created a work of startling originality that is sure to become a new Canadian classic.

Murder City: The Untold Story of Canada's Serial Killer Capital, 1959-1984


Michael Arntfield - 2015
     In its coming to inherit the unwanted distinction of being the serial killer capital of not just Canada—but apparently also the world during this dark age in the city’s sordid history— the crimes seen in London over this quarter-century period remain unparalleled and for the most part unsolved. From the earliest documented case of homicidal copycatting in Canada, to the fact that at any given time up to six serial killers were operating at once in the deceivingly serene “Forest City,” London was once a place that on the surface presented a veneer of normality when beneath that surface dark things would whisper and stir. Through it all, a lone detective would go on to spend the rest of his life fighting against impossible odds to protect the city against a tidal wave of violence that few ever saw coming, and which to this day even fewer choose to remember. With his death in 2011, he took these demons to his grave with him but with a twist—a time capsule hidden in his basement, and which he intended to one day be opened. Contained inside: a secret cache of his diaries, reports, photographs, and hunches that might allow a new generation of sleuths to pick up where he left off, carry on his fight, and ultimately bring the killers to justice—killers that in many cases are still out there. Murder City is an explosive book over fifty years in the making, and is the history of London, Ontario as never told before. Stranger than fiction, tragic, ironic, horrifying, yet also inspiring, this is the true story of one city under siege, and a book that marks a game changer for the true crime genre.

Floating is Everything


Sheryda Warrener - 2015
    A retired cosmonaut returns from a record-breaking 438 days in space and attempts to re-immerse himself in the world. One speaker considers reinvention from the top floor of the World's Tallest building; another, our complicated future from Reykjavik, post-eruption of Eyjafjallaj�kull. Confessions and aspirations suspend in air. Ghosts float in and out; inheritance and connection are called into question. Morrissey, Cindy Sherman, and Pancho Barnes make cameo appearances. Influence and personal lineage are traced back to the Vikings, demoted Pluto, artists frequenting a Parisian bar. One speaker confides: "Yes, she's longing to be elsewhere. Just past the sun deck there's something invisible worth having." In Floating is Everything, a resolution lies nearly always out of reach.

Meadowlark


Wendi Stewart - 2015
    But as Rebecca grows up in a farmhouse haunted by the absence of her mother and baby brother, raised by a man left nearly paralyzed with grief, she wonders if her father really did save her after all.Eventually though, Rebecca finds solace in the company of her friends: Chuck, the sensitive son of a violently abusive father; and Lissie, an Aboriginal girl being raised alone by a perfectionist white mother. As these three young people protect and support one another, Rebecca discovers that by saving Chuck and Lissie, she may also save herself.

A Profession of Hope: Farming on the Edge of the Grizzly Trail


Jenna Butler - 2015
    They knew they weren’t purchasing anything more than hard work and hope but still they headed up every weekend to clear a spot in those woods where they could plant their first crops. In this collection Butler talks of the hardships, humor and grace notes of trying to build a northern farm. From being driven out by mosquitoes to thwarting grasshoppers to sublime moments under a night sky, Jenna tells the story of how the farm has grown and changed over the years. While it has never quite become viable, it has pulled her always deeper into her love of the land. Jenna also talks about her reasons for starting a farm, poking fun at her own dyed-in-the-wool idealism. She explains her desire to protect and preserve the land, touching on the impact of climate change and of the wear and tear of trying to make a go of it as a small farmer. This is a beautifully written book, one that will leave readers wanting to start their own farm.

David Thompson's Narrative of His Explorations in Western America, 1784-1812 (1916)


David Thompson - 2015
    While he was writing this history of the portion of his life in which he undoubtedly took the most interest, he kept his note—books before him, and with their assistance he retraced the scenes through which he had passed in the days of his youth and strength. He tells his story with an accuracy that has rarely been equalled in the case of an old man who is recounting the experiences of his younger days. I have carefully compared his narrative with his note-books, written by him from day today as he travelled through the country, and in comparatively few instances were discrepancies found; where these occur they are indicated in the notes at the bottom of the pages. Part II of the Narrative covers in detail the years 1807 to 1812, which were spent as a partner in the North-West Company in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and the states of Montana, Idaho, and Washington, while Part I is a more general account of his life while in the employ of the Hudson’s Bay and North-West Companies between the years 1784 and 1807, in the country from Lake Superior and Hudson Bay westward to the Rocky Mountains. This well-appointed volume is designed to give to the public, in permanent and creditable form. David Thompson’s narrative of his own travels and explorations in the Canadian Northwest and in the old Oregon Territory. It embraces the period of his active service with the Hudson’s Bay and Northwest Fur companies, and terminates at about the year 1813, or almost exactly midway of Thompson's career. The value of the Narrative as historic authority is of course quite different from that of the Journals. The Journals are definite records, set down at the time of the events to which they relate, and thus constitute fixed and unalterable data. To such data must always be assigned the highest historic value. The Narrative, on the other hand, was written late in life (the author was between |seventy and eighty) and deals with recollections of men and events of a period which closed more than thirty years before. Naturally such reminiscences are liable to inaccuracies of memory and to a new coloring as seen through the misty, and often painful, light of advanced age. But Thompson seems to have kept himself free, to a remarkable extent, of these dangers. His note-books were always at hand for the verification of facts, and there seems to have been complete freedom of anything which might savor of complaint or prejudice in his review of the past. The Narrative is thus a most useful supplement to the Journals, for it fills in the bald record of daily events. Thompson’s literary style has generally the quality of clearness. The chief value of the Narrative will doubtless be in its descriptions of the country, the native inhabitants, and the fauna and flora, the varied phenomena as witnessed in the hard life of the trader, and the accounts of incredible hardships of a type of existence which is now a thing of the past. It is a never-ceasing wonder, in reading these accounts, how human beings could have survived such experiences.

The Northern Lights: Celestial Performances of the Aurora Borealis


Daryl Pederson - 2015
    Shot with ultra-high definition cameras, this book of amazing photographs showcases a period of unusually high solar activity in the northern lights. These new photos take full advantage of the latest advances in photographic technology and the active solar storms of the past several years that cause the lights. With 160 images that have never been collected in book form, this book allows us to witness charged particles in the earth's atmosphere clash with electrons and protons released by the sun.

Amik Loves School: A Story of Wisdom


Katherena Vermette - 2015
    Then his grandfather tells him about the residential school he went to, much different from Amik’s school. So Amik has an idea….Amik Loves School is one book in The Seven Teachings Stories series.The Seven Teachings of the Anishinaabe—love, wisdom, humility, courage, respect, honesty, and truth—are revealed in seven stories for children. Set in urban landscapes, Indigenous children tell familiar stories about home, school, and community.

Guarding Midnight, Canadian Muscle 1


Kacey Hammell - 2015
    He’s witnessed firsthand the emotional, physical and mental toll of being caught in the crossfire. Being a bouncer-slash-bodyguard may not be Gavin’s dream job, but he’s willing to do just about anything to help out family. When Gavin reports for his first day of work, he quickly discovers a woman who threatens to crack his legendary cool.Shree Walker is on the run from a dark past she tried to shut away. Battered and broken, a happily ever after doesn’t exist for her. Ready to start fresh with a new life in a new city, she is happy dancing at the Vixen Club. She’d be even happier without the presence of the prickly new bouncer who won’t let anyone or anything get past his carefully guarded defenses. He’s a distraction she doesn’t need. And a temptation she can’t resist. When Shree is kidnapped by the criminal mastermind hell-bent on taking the club at any cost, Gavin has to make a decision. Hold tight and continue to keep Shree at arm’s length. Or break down his walls and take a chance on something more powerful than them both: Love.

Page as Bone Ink as Blood


Jónína Kirton - 2015
    Delicate and dark, the pieces are like whispers in the night – a haunted, quiet telling of truths the mind has locked away but the body remembers. Loosely autobiographical, these are the weavings of a wagon-goddess who ventures into the double-world existence as a mixed-race woman. In her struggle for footing in this in-between space, she moves from the disco days of trance dance to contemplations in her dream kitchen as a mother and wife.With this collection, Kirton adds her voice to the call for the kind of fierce honesty referred to by Muriel Rukeyser when she asked, What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open. Kirton tells her truth with gentleness and patience, splitting the world open one line at a time.

The Seventh Crow


Sherry D. Ramsey - 2015
    The day a talking crow meets her on the way home from school, fourteen-year-old Rosinda is plunged into a forgotten world filled with startling revelations: magic ability flows in her veins, she’s most comfortable with a sword in her hand, and the responsibility for finding a missing prince rests solely with her.While dark forces hover in the background and four forgotten war gods from Earth’s past plot to reclaim long-lost power, Rosinda struggles with waves of slowly-returning memories as she searches for clues about her past and the true identity of her family; a search that takes her back and forth between two worlds. In a race against time to recover her memory, find the prince, and rescue her loved ones, Rosinda has only her friend Jerrell and an unusual trio of animals as companions. And as the gods prepare to bring her world to war, Rosinda is unaware that the shadow of betrayal lurks within one whom she trusts the most…

Carried Away on the Crest of a Wave


David Yee - 2015
    Two brothers in Malaysia trying to save their house from sinking; a Canadian radio-show host angered by disaster-relief efforts; a Japanese man who has been falling down a hole for years after learning of his daughter’s death; a lonely woman in Utah baking a pie when an FBI agent knocks on her front door.

The Well-Dressed Wound


Derek McCormack - 2015
    In the depths of the Civil War, in a theater in P. T. Barnum’s American Museum on Broadway, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln participate in a staged spiritualistic rite. But the medium conducting them has invited along another being: the Devil, disguised as twentieth-century French fashionista Martin Margiela (aka “King Faggot”). What follows is the most fiendish runway show ever mounted, complete with war dead, deconstructed couture, and gay ghosts infected with all manner of infectious agents, including oozy AIDS.While his previous fictions have explored the darker corners of country music, high fashion, and camp, The Well-Dressed Wound is McCormack’s most radical work yet, occultishly evoking the evil-twin muses of transgressive literature, Kathy Acker and Pierre Guyotat. The creation thus conjured is a gleeful grotesquerie, a savage satire not so much of fashion as of death, a work that, as Bruce Hainley observes in Artforum, puts “the ‘pus’ back in opus.” Here death and life spin on a viral double helix of contamination and couture, blistering and bandages, history and hysteria, semen and seams. “Being dead is so very now,” Hainley opines. “This tiny tome (a time bomb, a tomb) is to die for and radically alive.”

Indigenous Nationhood: Empowering Grassroots Citizens


Pamela Palmater - 2015
    Palmater offers critical legal and political commentary and analysis on legislation, Aboriginal rights, Canadian politics, First Nations politics and social issues such as murdered and missing Indigenous women, poverty, economics, identity and culture. Palmater s writing tackles myths and stereotypes about Indigenous peoples head-on, discusses Indigenous nationhood and nation building, examines treaty rights and provides an accessible, critical analysis of laws and government policies being imposed on Indigenous peoples.Fiercely anti-racist and anti-colonial, this book is intended to help rebuild the connections between Indigenous citizens and their home communities, local governments and Indigenous Nations for the benefit of future generations. "

Of Sea and Seed


Annie Daylon - 2015
    Family matriarch, storyteller, and ghost—Kathleen Kerrigan—confesses that heaven does not open its gates to women of her ilk. In her afterlife she is adrift, doomed, like some ancient mariner, to atone for mortal sin by telling repeatedly the story of her downfall. With the lyrical voice of Kathleen at the helm and through the voices of her children—the duty-bound Kevin and the strong-willed Clara—mysteries fall away until the core of Kathleen’s crime is revealed. Set against the backdrop of the unforgiving Atlantic Ocean, The Kerrigan Chronicles is an unforgettable family saga with a riveting undercurrent of suspense, one that will capture the imagination of readers everywhere.

My Name Is Arnaktauyok: The Life and Art of Germaine Arnaktauyok


Germaine Arnaktauyok - 2015
    In this book, she tells the story of her life in her own words: her "very traditional Inuk life" growing up in Nunavut at a camp near Igloolik, and her experiences later in a residential school in Chesterfield Inlet; her education as an artist in Winnipeg and Ottawa; and her return to the North, where she continues to create drawings, etchings, and illustrations that have been featured in museums and galleries worldwide. She also provides commentary on several of her works, offering a seldom seen perspective on her inspiration and process. Featuring over one hundred full-colour reproductions of Germaine Arnaktauyok's fascinating pieces from throughout her career, this beautiful book provides an in-depth look at one of the world's most important artists.

More Indian Ernie: Insights from the Streets


Ernie Louttit - 2015
    He gives people who are rarely exposed to crime a view of what policing “at the sharp end” is like, while acknowledging the struggles of those who are forced by circumstance to live in high-crime areas. The first point of contact for persons with mental illness and addictions is often the police, and Louttit highlights how changes in handling these individuals must occur. Other topics addressed in this fast-paced book include drugs and drug dealing, murder, changes in policing, and leadership. As before, Louttit looks at and comments on all this with empathy.

The Keening


Margaret Pinard - 2015
    Neil, the firstborn son at sixteen, must put duty before his own hopes and dreams, but what about when love enters his life?Muirne, younger than Neil by a year, can no longer count on a dependable future in her own parish, and wants to find a way to contribute to her family’s safety, too. But is marriage the only way to do it?Little ones Sheena and Alisdair are swept along with the tides of change as the McLeans flee their home in search of peace and security. But where will they find a new place to call home? When will the keening end, and their new lives begin?

Hit'N Run


Lori Power - 2015
     Determined to build a better life, Lorna has climbed the ladder to a successful public relations career one slippery rung at a time. But while on her way to an important meeting, a former lover crashes back into her life—literally—and she becomes embroiled in a police investigation that threatens everything she’s achieved. Mitch Morgan doesn’t believe in coincidences. Mitch has spent five years trying to forget Lorna, only to run into her on his way to an undercover sting operation. Old feelings quickly resurface and passion reignites, but as his investigation unfolds, evidence suggests the woman he’s falling for might have ties to the very criminals he’s after. When Mitch tugs any thread of his investigation, it seems to lead back to Lorna. Caught between his desire for the strong, curious beauty and the growing suspicions of his superiors, he must choose between trusting his instincts and following regulations. Lorna finds herself entangled in a web of betrayal. When she learns the nature of the investigation—and her role as a suspected spy—Lorna goes to dangerous lengths to clear her name and prove to everyone, including herself, she’s worthy of the handsome, tenacious Mitch. With danger around every corner, Lorna is on the run for her life, but refuses to run from the past any longer. She can find the evidence she needs, but at what cost? Mitch now knows her secrets and must find her first and convince her she—and their love—are worth fighting for, before it’s too late.

The Twelve Days of Christmas in Canada


Ellen Warwick - 2015
    Along the way Juliette gets really cool Canadian gifts—like 8 bears a-swimming, 6 Mounties marching, and a loon in a maple tree!

Dying from Improvement: Inquests and Inquiries into Indigenous Deaths in Custody


Sherene H. Razack - 2015
    Repeating details of fatty livers, mental illness, alcoholic belligerence, and a mysterious incapacity to cope with modern life, the legal proceedings declare that there are no villains here, only inevitable casualties of Indigenous life.But what about a sixty-seven-year-old man who dies in a hospital in police custody with a large, visible, purple boot print on his chest? Or a barely conscious, alcoholic older man, dropped off by police in a dark alley on a cold Vancouver night? Or Saskatoon’s infamous and lethal starlight tours, whose victims were left on the outskirts of town in sub-zero temperatures? How do we account for the repeated failure to care evident in so many cases of Indigenous deaths in custody?In Dying from Improvement, Sherene H. Razack argues that, amidst systematic state violence against Indigenous people, inquiries and inquests serve to obscure the violence of ongoing settler colonialism under the guise of benevolent concern. They tell settler society that it is caring, compassionate, and engaged in improving the lives of Indigenous people – even as the incarceration rate of Indigenous men and women increases and the number of those who die in custody rises.Razack’s powerful critique of the Canadian settler state and its legal system speaks to many of today’s most pressing issues of social justice: the treatment of Indigenous people, the unparalleled authority of the police and the justice system, and their systematic inhumanity towards those whose lives they perceive as insignificant.

Rom Com


Dina Del Bucchia - 2015
    These irreverent, playful, weird, and comedic poems come in a variety of forms, fully engaging in pop culture, without a judgmental tone. They see your frumpy expectations and raise you issues of sexuality, consent, sexism, homophobia, race, and class. They explore the highs and lows of romantic relationships and the expectations and realities of love, tackling real emotional worlds through the lens of film.Two cool people wrote it. Dina Del Bucchia, the fashionable and voluptuous, is a woman on the go, brazenly hosting literary events and tweeting about otters and award shows. Daniel Zomparelli, the handsome and dashing, is a young, gay man-about-Vancouver who somehow also quietly edits (in chief) a semi-annual poetry journal. (Ship them all you want, fools.)How to tell if you are compatible with this book: Are you equally versed in literature and pop culture? Are you a film-savvy fan of contemporary poetry? Are you an academic with interest in literature and cultural studies? Are you in general a cool, sad person? This book might just be the sassy best friend you’ve wanted.

Smog City


Rebecca McNutt - 2015
    Mandy, a pretentious and sullen teenager living in small-town Nova Scotia, becomes drawn to a strange new friend of hers who seems to be connected to a hazardous waste site situated in the middle of her hometown.

The History of Canada Series: Three Weeks in Quebec City: The Meeting That Made Canada


Christopher Moore - 2015
    The American Civil War, not yet over, encouraged the small and barely defended provinces to consider uniting for mutual protection. But there were other factors: the rapid expansion of railways and steamships spurred visions of a continent-spanning new nation.  Federation, in principle, had been agreed on at the Charlottetown conference, but now it was time to debate the difficult issues of how a new nation would be formed. The delegates included John A. Macdonald, George Etienne-Cartier, and George Brown. Historian Christopher Moore demonstrates that Macdonald, the future prime minister, surprisingly was not the most significant player here, and Canada could have become a very different place. The significance of this conference is played out in Canadian news each day. The main point of contention at the time was the issue of power—a strong federal body versus stronger provincial rights. Because of this conference, we have an elected House of Commons, an appointed Senate, a federal Parliament, and provincial legislatures. We have what amounts to a Canadian system of checks and balances. Did it work then, and does it work now?

Canada's Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume I


Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada - 2015
    Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to “civilize and Christianize” Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and their home communities. For children, life in these schools was lonely and alien. Discipline was harsh, and daily life was highly regimented. Aboriginal languages and cultures were denigrated and suppressed. Education and technical training too often gave way to the drudgery of doing the chores necessary to make the schools self-sustaining. Child neglect was institutionalized, and the lack of supervision created situations where students were prey to sexual and physical abusers. Legal action by the schools’ former students led to the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2008. The product of over six years of research, the Commission’s final report outlines the history and legacy of the schools, and charts a pathway towards reconciliation. Canada’s Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939 places Canada’s residential school system in the historical context of European campaigns to colonize and convert Indigenous people throughout the world. In post-Confederation Canada, the government adopted what amounted to a policy of cultural genocide: suppressing spiritual practices, disrupting traditional economies, and imposing new forms of government. Residential schooling quickly became a central element in this policy. The destructive intent of the schools was compounded by chronic underfunding and ongoing conflict between the federal government and the church missionary societies that had been given responsibility for their day-to-day operation. A failure of leadership and resources meant that the schools failed to control the tuberculosis crisis that gripped the schools for much of this period. Alarmed by high death rates, Aboriginal parents often refused to send their children to the schools, leading the government adopt ever more coercive attendance regulations. While parents became subject to ever more punitive regulations, the government did little to regulate discipline, diet, fire safety, or sanitation at the schools. By the period’s end the government was presiding over a nation-wide series of firetraps that had no clear educational goals and were economically dependent on the unpaid labour of underfed and often sickly children.

Un/inhabited


Jordan Abel - 2015
    Using his word processor’s Ctrl-F function, he searched the compilation for words that relate to the political and social aspects of land, territory, and ownership. Each search query represents a study in context (How was this word deployed? What surrounded it? What is left over once that word is removed?) accumulating toward a representation of the public domain as a discoverable and inhabitable body of land.Featuring a text by independent curator Kathleen Ritter – the first piece of scholarship on Abel’s work – Un/inhabited reminds us of the power of language as material and invites us to reflect on what is present in the empty space when we see nothing.

The Land We Are: Artists & Writers Unsettle the Politics of Reconciliation


Gabrielle Hill - 2015
    Using visual, poetic, and theoretical language, the contributors approach reconciliation as a problematic narrative about Indigenous-settler relations, but also as a site where conversations about a just future must occur. The result of a four-year collaboration between artists and scholars engaged in resurgence and decolonization, The Land We Are is a moving dialogue that blurs the boundaries between activism, research, and the arts.

Honouring the Buffalo: A Plains Cree Legend


Ray Lavallee - 2015
    The largest land animal in North America once thundered across the Great Plains in numbers of 30 to 50 million. They provided shelter, food, clothing, tools, hunting gear, ceremonial objects and many other necessities if for those who lived on the Plains. But by 1889, just over a thousand buffalo remained,and the lives of the Plains Cree people changed. The buffalo is honoured to this day, a reminder of life in harmony with nature as it was once lived. This is the story of how the buffalo came to share themselves so freely. Written in both English and Cree (y dialect), this is the legend about the buffalo and why they were so important to the Plain Cress people for their survival. The story woven around it is about a boy and his grandfather and their visit to see real buffalo.

Better Off Dead: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Canadian Armed Forces


Fred Doucette - 2015
    In the 1960s he joined the Canadian Armed Forces and served in Cyprus in the 1970s and 80s and Bosnia in the 1990s. When he returned home to New Brunswick in 1999 after his last overseas tour, he was diagnosed with severe chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. Eventually released from the army, Fred found a position with the Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) program, where he supported serving soldiers and veterans for ten years. "Better Off Dead" chronicles Fred's efforts in helping to rehabilitate and support soldiers and veterans suffering from what the military terms operational stress injuries. We meet Ted, saved from a suicide attempt by a timely phone call; Bob, at wit's end and reluctantly seeking help to overcome severe PTSD; Roger, caught in a cycle of violence and drug and alcohol abuse; and Jane, diagnosed with PTSD after having been sexually assaulted while on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. These accounts are raw, desperate, and often angry, but as Doucette shows, there is hope and real progress for those able to obtain proper diagnosis and treatment.

The Arrogant Autocrat: Stephen Harper's Takeover of Canada


Mel Hurtig - 2015
    He shows how Stephen Harper's single-minded pursuit of big oil and the tar sands, at a time when the world must take dramatic action to arrest climate change, has inflicted enormous damage on our country and on our international reputation. He contends that Harper rose to power with an agenda so contrary to Canadian principles and values, that the only way he could pursue it was through a takeover of Canadian democracy.Mel Hurtig is the legendary Edmonton bookseller, publisher and creator of The Canadian Encyclopedia who became a political activist, then an author in 1991 with his huge bestseller The Betrayal of Canada. He is also the author of Pay the Rent or Feed the Kids, The Vanishing Country, Rushing to Armageddon and The Truth About Canada. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and has received many honorary degrees and other honours. He lives in Vancouver.

My Ukraine: A Personal Reflection on a Nation's Independence and the Nightmare Vladimir Putin Has Visited Upon It


Chrystia Freeland - 2015
    In early 2014 tensions turned to conflict as Vladimir Putin, determined to keep Ukraine from forging stronger ties with the West, seized Crimea and fomented conflict in eastern Ukraine. In the latest Brookings essay, Chrystia Freeland, a former Ukrainian-based reporter with strong family ties to the country, offers a personal reflection on the conflict and the sentiment of the Ukrainian people. She highlights the fact that despite historic, cultural, and linguistic ties between the two countries, Ukrainians stand defiant in their desire for independence.

Hastings-Sunrise


Bren Simmers - 2015
    Bren Simmers's second collection captures her old East Vancouver neighbourhood in the midst of upheaval. As it is colonized by tides of matching plaid and diners serving pulled-pork pancakes, condo developments replace the small businesses and cheap rentals that once gave the area its charm.Much like opening a set of nesting dolls, leafing through the collection exposes further layers of depth and intimacy. Within the context of cultural change, Simmers explores the meaning to be found in everyday things: the making of a home, the life built from daily routines. At the same time, she reveals the dissonance that can occur between personal and large-scale change: "Twitter feed of melting sea ice, / colony collapse / while we picnic under pink ribbons, / kiss again like we mean it."Throughout the collection, the poet's eye unfailingly lights on the perfect details to evoke a scene: "On Mr. Donair's spit, / the earth rotates. Papal smoke emits / from Polonia Sausage, semis shunt / downtown." Visual poems forming maps of Christmas lights and autumn colours further bring the Hastings-Sunrise neighbourhood to life, illustrating the interweaving of human and natural spaces and locating "home" in between.Like a tree clothed in multicoloured yarn or a miniature house filled with free books, Hastings-Sunrise is a gift to readers, beautiful in its simplicity.

Swan Lake for Beginners (Electric Literature's Recommended Reading)


Heather O'Neill - 2015
    After scientist Vladimir Latska is given the task of creating Nuryev clones to redeem Russia's artistic pride and reputation, it's not long before thousands of baby-Nuryev's are running loose in the town of Pas-Grand-Chose in Quebec, Canada, along with tigers, wolves and 1940's Soviet artifacts. No matter what the scientists try, though, none of the children show the passion or talent of the original Nuryev. In this funny and intelligent cautionary tale, Heather O'Neill invites her readers to think about the importance of personal experience and individuality in order to make a life, and in order to make art. This edition features an original introduction by Diane Cook, author of MAN V. NATURE.

Vinyl Cafe: Seasons


Stuart McLean - 2015
    Join Dave and friends as they wander through the seasons with all the tears and laughter you’d expect from a year with friends and family at the Vinyl Cafe.(from publisher website)

Wild Like the Foxes the True Story of an Exkimo Girl


Anauta Anauta - 2015
    This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Stone Collection


Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm - 2015
    Although many of the stories are about loss, under that surface they are alive, celebrating the beauty and preciousness of life. —Kateri Akiwenzie-DammIn these 14 unique stories, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm takes on complex and dangerous emotions, exploring the gamut of modern Anishinaabe experience. Through unforgettable characters, these stories—about love and lust, suicide and survival, illness and wholeness—illuminate the strange workings of the human heart.The Stone Collection is one title in The Debwe Series.

Once They Were Hats: In Search of the Mighty Beaver


Frances Backhouse - 2015
    Once one of the continent’s most ubiquitous mammals, they ranged from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Rio Grande to the edge of the northern tundra. Wherever there was wood and water, there were beavers — 60 million (or more) — and wherever there were beavers, there were intricate natural communities that depended on their activities. Then the European fur traders arrived.In Once They Were Hats, Frances Backhouse examines humanity’s 15,000-year relationship with Castor canadensis, and the beaver’s even older relationship with North American landscapes and ecosystems. From the waterlogged environs of the Beaver Capital of Canada to the wilderness cabin that controversial conservationist Grey Owl shared with pet beavers, Backhouse goes on a journey of discovery to find out what happened after we nearly wiped this essential animal off the map, and how we can learn to live with beavers now that they’re returning.

Mezcalero


T.E. Wilson - 2015
    With the help of his narco father's connections, he has a PI license, a twilight existence tracking down errant husbands and missing persons. When his mother prevails upon him to help find a missing gringa, the search is not so much for the missing girl as it is for Ernesto himself: a trip that will find him slogging through the resort towns of the Mexican Pacific, the hills of Guerrero, the back streets of Mexico City, guerrilla territory and into the mysteries of identity and gender.From the publisher: Bicultural and transgender, detective Ernesto Sánchez seeks a missing Canadian woman on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Moving uneasily in a world where benign tourism co-exists with extreme violence, he becomes a pawn in a shadowy power-play between corrupt police and drug cartels. Forced to make hard choices – desperate, wounded, and friendless – Sánchez takes refuge in the lawless mountains of Oaxaca. And discovers his fate

Talking to the Diaspora


Lee Maracle - 2015
    Talking to the Diaspora, Maracle's second book of poetry, is at once personal and profound. From the revolutionary "Where Is that Odd Dandelion-Looking-Flower" to the tender poem "Salmon Dance," from the biting "Language" to the elegiac "Boy in the Archives," these poems embody the fearless passion and spirited wit for which Lee Maracle is beloved and revered.

Prisoner 4374


A.J. Griffiths-Jones - 2015
     For more than a century, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream has been listed as a potential 'Jack the Ripper' suspect. He was a sinister character, preying on the unfortunate souls who were forced to make a living as streetwalkers in Victorian London, and ultimately led those poor women to an untimely and torturous death. These crimes eventually branded him the 'Lambeth Poisoner'. However, during the time of the heinous Ripper murders, Dr. Cream was incarcerated in Joliet Prison, Illinois. Over the decades, this fact alone has caused debate as to whether or not he deserves to be under suspicion of being the Whitechapel fiend. Was it possible that Dr. Cream bribed his way out of jail, perhaps using a doppelganger to take his place while secretly finding a passage to England with murder in mind? This fascinating book, told from the standpoint of Cream himself, explains the twisted logic behind his actions. The author has done considerable and meticulous research, tracing Cream's life from his adolescent years in Canada to his last moments on the gallows at Newgate.

Flight and Freedom: Stories of Escape to Canada


Ratna Omidvar - 2015
    Yet in recent years Canada has deported, denied, and diverted countless refugees. Is Canada a safe haven for refugees or a closed door?In Flight and Freedom, Ratna Omidvar and Dana Wagner present a collection of thirty astonishing interviews with refugees, their descendants, or their loved ones to document their extraordinary, and sometimes harrowing, journeys of flight. The stories span two centuries of refugee experiences in Canada: from the War of 1812—where an escaped slave and her infant daughter flee the United States to start a new life in Halifax—to the War in Afghanistan—where asylum seekers collide with state scrutiny and face the challenges of resettlement.

Marry Burn


Rachel Rose - 2015
    Inspired by struggles both personal and global, these are not gentle poems--they probe deep into comforting personal and cultural myths, rending them to pieces even as they expose the beauty in the bright shards that remain. Although the language of blazing passion resonates throughout the discussion of love, longing and addiction, the driving rhythms often resemble more closely the relentless pounding of the ocean: "The sky's cauldron / tips a black storm to swarm the harried / hawk, call, Shame! Shame! Dawn has come / in flame." The golden glow of the ancient world, the dark sweetness of fairy tales, overlay these harsh contemporary moments of rape and addiction, loneliness and poverty, casting them in the richer light of another era. The pain of letting go, whether of love, old habits or cherished personal myths, permeates the collection. But these poems insist that once the dike has broken, once the myths have crumbled, the possibility emerges of building something new.

Descent


Kristina Stanley - 2015
    There are more suspects with motives than there are gates on the super-G course, and danger mounts with every turn. Kalin’s boss orders her to investigate. Her boyfriend wants her to stay safe and let the cops do their job. Torn between loyalty to friends and professional duty, Kalin must look within her isolated community to unearth the killer’s identity.

The Way Back from Broken


Amber J. Keyser - 2015
    His baby sister died in his arms, his parents are on the verge of divorce, and he's flunking out of high school. The only place he fits in is with the other art therapy kids stuck in the basement of Promise House, otherwise known as support group central. Not that he wants to be there. Talking doesn't bring back the dead. When he's shipped off to the Canadian wilderness with ten-year-old Jacey, another member of the support group, and her mom, his summer goes from bad to worse. He can't imagine how eight weeks of canoeing and camping could be anything but awful. Yet despite his expectations, the vast and unforgiving backcountry just might give Rakmen a chance to find the way back from broken . . . if he's brave enough to grab it. Amber J. Keyser's debut novel is a wrenching and brutally honest story of adversity and hope.

Kill The Messengers


Mark Bourrie - 2015
    It's losing its struggle against a prime minister and a government that continue to delegitimize the media's role in the political system. The public's right to know has been undermined by a government that effectively killed Statistics Canada, fired hundreds of scientists and statisticians, gutted Library and Archives Canada and turned freedom of information rules into a joke. Facts, it would seem, are no longer important.In Kill the Messengers: Stephen Harper's Assault on Your Right to Know, Mark Bourrie exposes how trends have conspired to simultaneously silence the Canadian media and elect an anti-intellectual government determined to conduct business in private. Drawing evidence from multiple cases and examples, Bourrie demonstrates how budget cuts have been used to suppress the collection of facts that embarrass the government's position or undermine its ideologically based decision-making. Perhaps most importantly, Bourrie gives advice on how to take back your right to be informed and to be heard.Kill the Messengers is not just a collection of evidence bemoaning the current state of the Canadian media, it is a call to arms for informed citizens to become active participants in the democratic process. It is a book all Canadians are entitled to read-and now, they'll get the chance.

Cosmophilia


Rahat Kurd - 2015
    Other poems in this collection draw on multiple cultural and artistic sources, family history, and Islamic imagery and language, and are elaborations on the author’s reflections on living and walking in Vancouver through the end of a marriage.The poet’s lyrical, emotionally powerful, narrative style engages cultural complexity by weaving traditional religious and political language and imagery into contemporary contexts. Some poems explore ideas of how the body refracts from historical trauma, including division of the state of Kashmir during the 1949 parition of Indian and Pakistan, as well as the loss of Arabic and non-Arabic scripts in Urdu and the consequent removal of language and memory embodied in language. Additionally there is a foregrounding of thematically interlinked schisms between religion and secularism, and the tension of navigating through these polarities as a person living within diaspora. Further areas that contribute to torquing the language are the emergence of secular modernism within the context of Muslim cultural and familial space.Cosmophilia represents and discovers the modern Muslim woman’s experience in Kashmir as well as urban North America, a setting both alienating and stimulating.

Sonosyntactics: The Selected and New Poetry of Paul Dutton


Paul Dutton - 2015
    Dutton is a surprising, witty, sensitive, and innovative explorer of language and of the human, and Sonosyntactics gathers a representative selection of his most significant and characteristic poetry together with a generous selection of uncollected new work.Best known for his acclaimed solo sound performances and his contributions to the iconic sound poetry group the Four Horseman, Sonosyntactics is an overview of Paul Dutton’s inspiring written work, which demonstrates his willingness to (re)invent and stretch language and to listen for new possibilities while at the same time engaging with his perennial concerns of love, sex, music, time, thought, humour, the materiality of language, and of poetry itself.Editor Gary Barwin’s introduction outlines the major subjects and techniques of Dutton’s poetry: an intricate weaving of thought and language, sound and emotion, sound and sense, and the unfolding of a text through the “logic” of language play such as puns, paradoxes, ambiguity, and sound relations. Dutton’s afterword wittily and insightfully completes the volume.

That's Why I'm a Journalist: Top Canadian Reporters Tell Their Most Unforgettable Stories


Mark Bulgutch - 2015
    But to those who work in journalism, up-close involvement with these stories can also be life-changing. In That’s Why I’m a Journalist, veteran broadcaster Mark Bulgutch interviews 44 prominent Canadian journalists, who each share their behind-the-scenes accounts of some of the most memorable stories of their careers and describe the moment that made them say to themselves, "That’s why I’m a journalist." Although many of the contributors' stories are related to their roles in the most high-profile events of the 20th and 21st centuries, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11, here too are reflections on quieter and more intimate moments that had a deep personal impact. Peter Mansbridge talks about a trip to Vimy Ridge on the hundredth anniversary of World War I, Adrienne Arsenault recalls bringing together old friends separated by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Terence McKenna recounts what it’s like to worry about being kidnapped as part of the job and Wendy Mesley reflects on the satisfaction of asking tough questions—and uncovering the truth. Together, these enthralling and varied accounts provide an intimate understanding of the people we see on camera and hear on the radio. As Bulgutch argues, modern journalism is undergoing existential threats. News has never been more accessible yet, paradoxically, important news has become harder to find, often buried by pseudo-news of celebrity, lifestyle tips and the latest viral video of a water-skiing squirrel. The stories in this book serve as reminders of the importance of real journalists and real journalism.

I Am a Victor: The Mordechai Ronen Story


Mordecai Ronen - 2015
    By the time he turned eleven years old, the world had gone mad. He became one of the millions of Jews to be shipped to a Nazi death camp. How he survived that ordeal and what followed is the incredible story told in these pages. That Mordechai is alive today is nothing short of a miracle. His is an incredible story of triumph and unwavering determination to survive, which is what he did against all odds in the Nazi death camps. The journey that began in the Holocaust carried Ronen through the establishment of Israel, immigration to Canada, and finally to an emotional return to Auschwitz, this time as a guest of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who called that moment one of the most extraordinary he had seen in his four decades in politics.