Flights of Imagination
Bird-watching is one of the most popular recreational activities in North America North American birders are estimated to spend as much as $32 billion annually. Many of the world's greatest natural history writers have penned eloquent, informative and profound essays about these alluring creatures. This timeless evocation of our passion for bird …
Still Fishin'
It is generally known that the West Coast's once-great commercial fishing industry has fallen on hard times, but as Alan Haig-Brown demonstrates in this new book, reports of its demise are exaggerated. A veteran of the industry himself, Haig-Brown here offers a "state of the industry" report, discovering pockets of surprising activity among the vi …
Pause
Unique among the artist's published works for its combination of words and drawings, this charming addition to the Emily Carr Library presents a poignant yet wry account of her convalescence in the English countryside.
While studying at the Westminster School of Art in London, England, Emily Carr so undermined her health by overwork that she was sen …
Book of Small, The
The legendary Emily Carr was acclaimed as both an artist and a writer. Her first book, Klee Wyck, won the presitigious Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction in 1941.
The Book of Small is a collection of thirty-six word sketches in which Emily Carr relates anecdotes about her life as a young girl in the frontier town of Victoria. She n …
Growing Pains
Completed just before Emily Carr died in 1945, Growing Pains tells the story of her life, beginning with her girlhood in pioneer Victoria and going on to her training as an artist in San Francisco, England and France. She writes about the frustration she felt at the rejection of her art by Canadians, of the years of despair when she stopped paintin …
The Al Purdy A Frame Anthology
This is a book with a mission. On one level it is a celebration of the great Canadian poet Al Purdy by eminent writers who were his contemporaries. It is also part of a campaign to preserve the place that was the centre of Purdy's writing universe--his home, a lakeside A-frame cottage in Ameliasburgh, Ontario, where he and his wife Eurithe lived f …
The Expanded Reilly Method
Mike McCardell's bestselling books about finding rays of pure sunshine among the dark byways of the big city have a full measure of heartwarming tales but this time he declares, "I have found the answer to enjoying an incredible life, no matter who you are or where you are or what you are doing or how much you weigh."
In his 2008 book, Getting to th …
I Like It Like That
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
Shortlisted for a TLA Gaybie Award (Best Gay Erotica)
From the editors of the Lambda Award-winning First Person Queer come these intelligent, sexy, true-life tales of gay men's desire. The stories push at the parameters of queer erotic life, featuring contributors both novice and well-known; subject matter ranges from s …
Black is the New Green
Those who have been following Arthur Black's award-winning publishing ventures over the past few years, or remember him from his long-running CBC radio show, Basic Black, will have come to appreciate the hilarious and unique vision of the world through the eyes of Canada's Blackest humourist. No less hilarious is his newest collection of observatio …
Adrift on the Ark
Adrift on the Ark is a collection of personal essays by Margaret Thompson that offers a straightforward study of the complex relationship between human beings and the natural world. The essays look at a wide range of beings—from spiders to peacocks—and cover issues such as our irrational phobias, our fascination with zoos, and the myths and sto …
The Big Picture
Whether he's discussing how to reconcile economy with ecology, why a warmer world will result in more poison ivy, why Britney Spears gets more hits on Google than global warming does, or why we might need to start eating jellyfish for supper, David Suzuki points the direction we must take as a society if we hope to meet the environmental challenges …
Second Person Queer
First Person Queer, an anthology of non-fiction essays written in the first person by a variety of gay and lesbian authors, was a snapshot of LGBT life and experience in the modern age. Published in 2007, it received wide acclaim, and won the Lambda Literary Award for Anthologies and the Independent Publisher Award (Gold) for Gay & Lesbian Books.
Se …
What Species of Creatures
The Europeans who colonized North America more than three centuries ago encountered fantastical creatures: flying squirrels, ruby-throated hummingbirds, the easily tamed beaver. Their literature of discovery — by turns comic, cruel, and adulatory — provides a revealing glimpse of the taxonomies they carried with them into their so-called New Wo …
My Natural History
Written with the author's trademark blend of enthusiasm and insight, My Natural History describes how gardening has always been Liz Primeau's therapy, obsession, and reward. Full of fascinating gardening lore, personal history, and practical insight (including what to do when you notice your son is growing funny tomatoes among your seedlings), this …
A Mountain Year
Nominated for ForeWord Magazine's 2008 Book of the Year Award - Nature Category
In 1988, Chris Czajkowski walked into British Columbia's Central Coast Mountains to build a homestead, a business, and a life. A Mountain Year is a beautifully produced art book full of original paintings, sketches and diary entries, offering an awe-inspiring glimpse int …
Getting to the Bubble
Mike McCardell, the legendary Vancouver reporter who tries to restore people's faith in living after they've finished watching the appalling mayhem on the evening news, is back with another collection of simple but irresistible stories: there are the ownerless shoes, sitting day after day in a washroom used mainly by big-time celebrities. There are …
Reconquering Canada
Fourteen of Quebec's leading thinkers dare to reimagine their province and its role within the Canadian federation.
Reconquering Canada is a breath of fresh air in the ongoing debate over Quebec's status within Canada. Fourteen leading Quebec personalities - politicians, militants, intellectuals, federalists all - invite Quebecers and other Canadi …
Early in the Season
A great essayist's portrait of British Columbia in the 1960s, following Notes from the Century Before.
In 1968 Edward Hoagland embarked on his second trip to British Columbia. The following year he published the journal from his first trip as Notes from the Century Before, a classic that is still in print today. Early in the Season is the never-bef …
Writing the West Coast
This collection of over thirty essays by both well-known and emerging writers explores what it means to "be at home" on Canada's West Coast. Here the rainforest and the wild, stormy cost dominate one's sense of identity, a humbling perspective shared in memoirs by individuals who come to see themselves as part of a larger ecological community.
Alexa …
A Passion for this Earth
Twenty influential writers and scientists contribute personal, practical, and political essays celebrating our planet.
In this powerful collection of original essays, twenty of the world's most influential journalists, writers, scientists, and environmentalists lend their voices to inform and engage those who are committed to the survival of the Ear …
A Passion for This Earth
David Suzuki's lifelong work as an environmentalist, naturalist, and scientist have influenced countless others in their fight to save the planet, 20 such devotees of them have contributed to this inspiring collection. These journalists, scientists, writers and environmentalists have taken their enthusiasm for Suzuki's philosophy and funneled it in …
What the Bleep is Going on Here?
Lawyer, politician, radio broadcaster--and crusader! That's Rafe Mair. Even at 75 he is still fighting to save the planet, this country, this province, the Pacific salmon, our public health care and our electoral system. He castigates lawyers for cashing in on the compensation to aboriginals abused in the residential schools, slaps the wrists of st …
An Ecology of Enchantment
For the past 36 years, Des Kennedy and his family have lived largely outside their hand-built house in intimate contact with the Earth its creatures, its changing seasons, and its weather patterns. In this charming book’s 52 chapters, Kennedy brings readers deep into his garden, week by week, from winter’s dormancy to summer’s splendor. Wi …
Black to the Grindstone
Longlisted for the 2007 Victoria Butler Book Prize
Arthur Black--bestselling author, three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, beloved radio personality, and newspaper columnist-- proves in his latest sidesplitting collection of tales, Black to the Grindstone, that, without a doubt, you not only get better but funnier with age.
Demon …
Nomad's Hotel
Since making his first voyage as a sailor-to earn his passage from his native Holland to South America -- Cees Nooteboom has been captivated by foreign countries and cultures and has never stopped travelling. This collection of his most enjoyable travel pieces ranges far and wide, informed throughout by the author's humanity and gentle humour. From …
How to Be a Canadian
When Margaret Atwood suggested Will Ferguson follow up his runaway best-seller Why I Hate Canadians with a "tongue-in-cheek guidebook for newcomers on how to be Canadian," Will thought it was a swell idea, and he quickly recruited his brother, comedy writer Ian Ferguson, creator and executive producer of the television series Sin City. Together, th …
An Enchantment of Birds
In these delightful meditations, biologist and bird lover Richard Cannings weaves stories of his personal encounters with birds into fascinating descriptions of their behavior, anatomy, and evolution. He muses over the meadowlarks' ability to hide their nests so completely that he has seen only two in a lifetime spent searching for them; the trumpe …
Comfort Food for Breakups
Finalist,The Golden Crown Literary Award, Lesbian Short Story Essay Collection
Winner, Independent Publisher Award (SILVER), Autobiography/Memoir
Winner, ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award (GOLD), Autobiography/Memoir
Finalist, Lambda Literary Award, Women's Memoir/Biography
Shortlisted for the Kobzar Literary Award
One of Quill & Quire's …
Home and Away
In her best-selling first book, Home: Tales of a Heritage Farm (2005), Anny Scoones introduced readers to historic Glamorgan Farm. In Home and Away, Anny presents more stories about the joys and sorrows, excitements and mishaps and also takes readers farther afield, sharing with them her travels to other parts of Canada, to New York and to such pla …
Over the Mountains
"I'm no good at writing," says Rafe Mair, paraphrasing Robert Benchley, "but by the time I realized that, I was too famous to stop." He didn't begin writing until he was fifty, but since that time he has won the coveted Michener Canadian Media Award, the Hutchison Award for Lifetime Contribution to BC Journalism and has been inducted into the Broad …
Nobody's Mother
Finalist for the 2007 BC Book Prizes' Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award
Statistics say that one in 10 women has no intention of taking the plunge into motherhood. Nobody's Mother is a collection of stories by women who have already made this choice.
From introspective to humorous to rabble-rousing, these are personal stories that are well and ho …
The Passionate Gardener
In this rollicking read, Des Kennedy demonstrates his unerring skill with a satirical pitchfork. The 13 short pieces here roam widely and wildly, examining, among other things, common idiosyncrasies and the collective chaos of garden clubs. The book hilariously ponders the host of psychopathologies that afflict plants people,” from weather phob …
Hard Talk
BC's most outspoken broadcaster and writer is back with a collection of all-new essays that are sure to provoke, enrage and entertain. Rafe tackles controversial issues such as the Liberal Party sponsorship scandal, the election of a new Pope and the Anglican Church's debate on same-sex marriage. He suggests that pedophiles should be found Not Gui …
Irresponsible Freaks, Highball Guzzlers and Unabashed Grafters
Bob Edwards, the Great White North's equivalent to H. L. Mencken, remains a singular figure in Canadian journalism. His newspapers, published in Wetaskiwin, Leduc, High River, Strathcona, Winnipeg, Port Arthur, and most famously Calgary, skewered politics, society, and business leaders with a fearlessness and outrageousness rarely seen then, now, o …
The Short Version
In a volume inspired by Czeslaw Milosz, Stan Persky appropriates the format of the alphabet book as a springboard for musings both personal and philosophical. The Short Version — which, at 300-plus pages is the author's longest book — is a literal ABC: Persky covers only topics that begin with those three letters, though he can't resist tweakin …
Curious by Nature
Curious by Nature showcases Candace Savage's exploration of the varied ways we relate to wildlife, from our retelling of fairytales about the big, bad wolf to our struggles to find a balance between harvesting trees and allowing grizzly bears the space to roam. Creating a livable future for ourselves and for other species calls for both knowledge a …
The Heart of a Peacock
A collection of 51 short stories by the legendary writer and painter Emily Carr, arranged in themes such as her experiences with Native people, her adventures with various beloved creatures and her love of nature. Together, they underline Carr's place as a writer with the sharp yet tender eye of an artist, with a deep feeling for the tragedies of l …
Black & White And Read All Over
Like a well-delivered punch line, Black & White And Read All Over, the tenth book by award-winning writer Arthur Black, is guaranteed to make you laugh. The beloved radio personality and newspaper columnist tackles a range of subjects from Sasquatch hunters to nose jobs to the legalization of pot. Known for his delight in the bizarre and derision o …
The Book of Small
The legendary Emily Carr was acclaimed as both an artist and a writer. Her first book, Klee Wyck, won the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction in 1941.
The Book of Small is a collection of thirty-six word sketches in which Emily Carr relates anecdotes about her life as a young girl in the frontier town of Victoria. She no …
The House of All Sorts
Before winning recognition for her painting and writing, Emily Carr built a small apartment building with four suites that she hoped would earn her a living. But things turned out worse than expected, and in her forties, the gifted artist found herself shoveling coal and cleaning up other people's messes.
The House of All Sorts is a collection of f …
Flash Black
The author of Black Tie and Tales and Black in the Saddle Again, both winners of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, returns with a new collection guaranteed to tickle your funny bone and make you scratch your head at the absurdities of life in the early years of the new millennium. In slyly ironic, pointedly witty essays, Black takes aim at the …
When the Wild Comes Leaping Up
These essays describe childhood memories, everyday walks transformed into life-changing events, being in the grip of a great force, startling encounters with wild animals and even one fantasy. They are funny, sad, reflective, optimistic, nostalgic, exciting, pessimistic and outlandish. Each one presents a singular experience of enlightenment, awe, …