- friendship (454)
- non-classifiable (322)
- canadian (260)
- mysteries & detective stories (254)
- self-esteem & self-reliance (248)
- humorous stories (242)
- law & crime (225)
- post-confederation (1867-) (209)
- values & virtues (180)
- literary (155)
- imagination & play (147)
- emotions & feelings (134)
- siblings (133)
- death & dying (120)
- environmental conservation & protection (118)
- personal memoirs (107)
- crime (100)
- bullying (98)
- school & education (98)
- western provinces (96)
Tales of the Cairds
In these magical tales of the Celts, Cameron does for old world mythology what she has done for new world myths in her best-selling Daughters of Copper Woman and Dzelarhons. Cameron adds wit and common sense to symbolism and to the mysteries of life and creation.
Resistance and Renewal
One of the first books published to deal with the phenomenon of residential schools in Canada, Resistance and Renewal is a disturbing collection of Native perspectives on the Kamloops Indian Residential School(KIRS) in the British Columbia interior. Interviews with thirteen Natives, all former residents of KIRS, form the nucleus of the book, a fra …
Mimosa
An authentic recreation of an extraordinary life set against the turbulent background of colonial Africa. Schermbrucker’s enigmatic prose creates a sweeping historical saga from Cairo to the Cape.
Mimosa is Bill Schermbrucker’s second published work of fiction. His first book Chameleon was published by Talonbooks to high critical acclaim.
Strong Voices
Reactions to Alan Twigg's first book of interviews with Canadian authors, For Openers:
"For Openers is much the best thing of its kind I've ever read, and much more difficult to achieve than the casual reader would guess. "
-Hugh MacLennan
"One can appreciate the zest, the engaging lack of stuffiness, with which Twigg confronts his authors."
-Ken Ada …
Island in the Creek
Vancouver's Granville Island complex rates the status of a genuine urban redevelopment wonder on several counts: it is an old industrial eyesore which has become one of Vancouver's most popular tourist attractions; it is a consciously planned "people place" that works; it is a government-run enterprise that makes money; it is a political creation w …
The Other Side of Silence
Ethel Wilson has delighted readers with her art, her humour, and her extraordinarily perceptive eye. She turned out six novels and a book of short stories - all highly acclaimed by famous critics and writers and all written after she reached the age of 49.
Mary McAlpine, a close friend of Wilson, has produced a biography that is very personal, humou …
Spider Woman
A traditional northwest coast legend for ages six to adult, told simply and gently be one of BC's best-loved writers.
". . . should be added to any collection of materials concerned with native peoples."
-Canadian Materials
An Error in Judgement
On January 22, 1979, an eleven-year-old Native girl died of a ruptured appendix in an Alert Bay, B.C. hospital. The events that followed are chronicled here by Dara Culhane Speck, a member by marriage of the Nimpkish Indian Band in Alert Bay. She has relied mainly on interviews, anecdotes and public records to describe how this small, isolated Nati …
Atlas
Who would have suspected the power of bubble gum? Atlas is bored. It's raining, so he sits inside, chewing a gumball. He blows a bubble and imagines that it is Australia. Then the stove becomes a Chinese dragon; the fridge is Antarctica, inhabited by penguins; the bathtub melts away into the Seven Seas; and the piano turns into an African elephant. …
Malcolm Lowry
From 1939 to 1954, Malcolm Lowry lived and wrote in a shack near Dollarton, in North Vancouver. It was here that he revised and polished Under the Volcano until it was almost ready for publication, and here that he experienced his happiest and most productive years. His posthumously published works are filled with references to the landscape and l …
The Annie Poems
Anne Cameron is well-known for her humourous retellings of North West Coast Indian legends - Daughters of Copper Woman and Dzelarhons. In the present collection of poetry, she enters a darker, more eerie and threatening corner of this world. "The Sickness That Has No Name" is an exploration of alienation and Indian mysticism, and of a woman's deter …
Orca's Song
Orca's Song is the tale of the love between Orca and Eagle-Flies-High, and explains the origin of the killer whale's song and exuberant dance.
Ethel Wilson
When Ethel Wilson published her first novel, Hetty Dorval, in 1947, she was nearly sixty years old. With her following books, she established herself as British Columbia's most distinguished fiction writer and one of Canada's best loved and most studied authors. Although she enjoyed and even encouraged her reputation as an unambitious latecomer who …
The Death of Albert Johnson
Albert Johnson was a loner, a deadly shot, who in 1932 triggered a gruelling manhunt that has become an Arctic legend. For over six weeks, amid blizzards and numbing cold, he eluded a posse of trappers, First Nations and RCMP, who for the very first time used a two-way radio and an airplane in their search.
Johnson was involved in four shoot-outs, …
Jitters
Jitters, David French’s sophisticated backstage comedy, opens on the night of a preview of a new play, “The Care and Treatment of Roses.” Within minutes, the audience is plunged into the world of the theatre, a world of instant loves and hates, easily bruised egos, contradictory interpretations of role and script—all complicated by crises …
The Face of Jack Munro
The poems collected in The Face of Jack Munro may be set on the Canadian Prairies, in the Kootenay region of southeastern BC, or in Vancouver during the 1983 Solidarity public sector general strike. But the humour, concern for the individual, and biting social commentary found throughout this collection are exactly what readers of Tom Wayman have l …
Vander Zalm
The first non-Bennett to lead BC's Social Credit Party, a former mayor of Surrey, nurseryman, husband, father, defeated Vancouver mayoralty candidate. . . As minister of Human Resources and later, of Education, he became for some the most hated man in BC. During his time as Municipal Affairs minister he was an autocrat who pushed through the develo …
Vancouver and Its Writers
Vancouver and its Writers introduces over 100 Vancouver related fiction authors, summarizes over 100 Vancouver novels, and locates 100 literary sites throughout the Lower Mainland.
For both the curious tourist and the serious scholar, this unprecedented study also includes provocative assessments of Vancouver (pro and con) in its 100th year from con …
The Canadian Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 22, 1984
The Canadian Yearbook of International Law is issued annually under the auspices of the Canadian Branch of the International Law Association (Canadian Society of International Law) and the Canadian Council on International Law.
Keepers of the Light
"MY WIFE HAS GONE CRAZY - one of the isolated upcoast lightkeepers in this astonishing book writes to his Victoria supervisor. "PLEASE SEND SOMEONE UP HERE AT ONCE."
It could be an incident from any one of many poignant stories which unfold as Don Graham, himself keeper of Vancouver's famous Point Atkinson Light, breaks the lighthouse fraternity's …
Floating Schools & Frozen Inkwells
This humourous look back at a neglected part of B.C.'s history will be of interest to those who were there . . . and to those who missed it!
Frozen inkwells on winter mornings, black bears coming to class, and wolves on the trail home in the evening are only some of the trials and adventures that one-room schoolteachers faced in the wilds of B.C. Jo …
Hubert Evans
Vancouver journalist-broadcaster Alan Twigg examines Evans' earliest, out-of-print novels and magazine serials, as well as his masterpieces Mist on the River and 0 Time In Your Flight, and his poetry. The plot synopses and criticism make this an important reference guide for students of Canadian literature, and Evans' own comments on his craft prov …
How Raven Freed the Moon
A beautifully illustrated book for children ages 6 and up relating the classic northwest coast myth telling how Raven, the trickster, freed the moon from the old fisherwoman's cedar chest and carried it to its rightful place in the heavens. Entrancingly retold from the female viewpoint by the celebrated author of Dreamspeaker and Daughters of Coppe …
How the Loon Lost her Voice
The famous northwest coast Indian myth, sometimes called "Raven Steals the Light" telling how Loon, Raven, and all the animals rallied to retrieve the daylight from behind its wall of ice after it was stolen by evil spirits. Amusingly retold for ages six to adult by the well-known Canadian poet and novelist.
What Are Uncles For?
Through Michael's eyes he could see the familiar world reflected as a fantastic, often hilariously distorted place, and fortunately he had the time and sensitivity to capture the magic of these childhood perceptions in a heartwarming series of poems. Illustrated in kindred spirit by two small boys, What Are Uncles For? will prove equally entertaini …
Orwell's Message
The Crystal Spirit, George Woodcock's intellectual biography of George Orwell, won the 1966 Governor General's Award for non-fiction. In this book he turns his attention to 1984, the novel which expresses Orwell's fears for the future, and his exhortations against totalitarianism.
First-hand experience with twentieth-century politics combines with e …
Women and Words
With 81 contributors, Women & Words was the most ambitious collection of writing published during the rise of Canada women's writing in the 1980s, and the first one to be published in both French and English. It includes short fiction, poetry and dramatic pieces by well-known writers like Marian Engel, Nicole Brossard, Jane Rule, Louky Bersaniuk an …
A to Z of Absolute Zaniness
Kids will love The A to Z of Absolute Zaniness. While their parents read the six-line alliterative captions, children will be dazzled by the bold, colourful drawings illustrating each letter with objects, animals, and people.
Carol Mills wrote the short stories that describe the bizarre feats of people and animals, real and ridiculous. Susanne Ferri …
One Union in Wood
This outspoken, thoroughly documented study covers the development of one of North America's most important industrial unions from its beginnings to the present. Personalities, issues, and conflicts are analysed with meticulous care.
"The two authors of this book, Wm. Tattam and Dr. Jerry Lembcke are to be congratulated for a job well done. They ha …
Affaires of the Heart
A book of long poems about being on the edge, the cost of life and death, and loving.
Inside Job
One powerful taboo that still remains in our literature today is the taboo against discussing our most central daily experience: working for a living.
Poet and editor Tom Wayman believes that with the recent appearance of a new kind of work writing we have begun at last to see the end of this limitation. In his essays gathered in Inside Job Wayman c …
Raincoast Chronicles Six/Ten
The second five issues of the west coast's own journal Raincoast Chronicles collected in one fascinating volume.
PLUS... a spectacular full-colour selection featuring paintings of the BC coast by world-renowned artist E.J. Hughes.
Over thirty historical articles along with fiction, poetry, reviews, remarkable photographs and beautiful line drawings. …
Goosequill Snags
Peter Trower is a poet known for what he writes about: the lives of west coast loggers, the rural culture of the B.C. Coast, skidroad life in Vancouver, and his personal love of the western landscape. He has established himself as a unique voice, lyircal and regional, a Canadian original. Goosequill Snags is the first major collection of poems sinc …
Selected Poems
This volume includes work selected from each of Phyllis Webb’s books of poetry published prior to 1982, including: Trio, Even Your Right Eye, The Sea Is Also a Garden, Naked Poems, Selected Poems 1954-1965, Wilson’s Bowl, Sunday Water, Thirteen Anti Ghazals and Talking.
Flash Harry and the Daughters of Divine Light
An exciting first collection of stories by the author of Deep Line, West Country and S'neymous that mixes crisp social realism with long fanciful rambles and terse tales full of poetic symbolism:
"Listen. Hear that tahonk tahonk tahonk out there in the dusk. That sound's Flash Harry's 10-14 Easthope. Timing's out. That's how Flash Harry he run the M …
Seven Stones
Time magazine (US) has described Canada's Erickson as a superstar in his field. Iglauer, in her best New Yorker tradition, provides a biographical portrait and a complete survey of Erickson's pioneering projects. There is a 9" x 10.5" format with 138 photographs and 32 pages in full colour. The photos are accompanied by brilliant biographical text …
Pioneer Days in British Columbia
Pioneer Days is a blend of words and photos that proves British Columbia's history is as interesting as that recorded anywhere else in North America. Every article is true, many written or narrated by those who, 100 or more years ago, lived the experiences they relate. Each volume contains 160 pages, plus some 60,000 words of text and over 200 his …
O Time in Your Flight
This is the memoir/novel that so astonished reviewers in 1979. In it Evans faithfully records his own turn-of-the-century Ontario boyhood through the eyes of a nine year old fictional protagonist, Gilbert Egan.
As one of the most remarkable literary feats by a Canadian, O Time In Your Flight delights more and more readers each year with its technica …
The Salish People: Volume IV
Charles Hill-Tout was born in England in 1858 and came to British Columbia in 1891. He was a pioneer settler at Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley, where he raised his family in a log cabin. He devoted many years of field work to his studies of the Salish and published in the scholarly periodicals of the day. He was honoured as president of the Anthro …
The Salish People: Volume I
Charles Hill-Tout was born in England in 1858 and came to British Columbia in 1891. A pioneer settler at Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley, he devoted many years of fieldwork to his studies of the Salish and published in the scholarly periodicals of the day. He was honoured as president of the Anthropological Section of the Royal Society of Canada an …
The Salish People: Volume II
Charles Hill-Tout was born in England in 1858 and came to British Columbia in 1891. A pioneer settler at Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley, he devoted many years studying the Salish and publishing in the scholarly periodicals of the day. He was honoured as president of the Anthropological Section of the Royal Society of Canada and as a fellow of the …
The Salish People: Volume III
Charles Hill-Tout was born in England in 1858 and came to British Columbia in 1891. A pioneer settler at Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley, he devoted many years of fieldwork to his studies of the Salish and published in the scholarly periodicals of the day. He was honoured as president of the Anthropological Section of the Royal Society of Canada an …
Green Water Blues
First John Skapski was a commercial gillnet fisherman, then he got an MA in creative writing, then he became a lawyer. But he's still a fisherman. One of the finest books to come out of the workplace - piercing, memorable, authentic.
How It All Began
How It All Began is the personal testimony of Michael "Bommi" Baumann, a man who, in the late 1960s and early '70s, was a member of the June 2nd Movement, one of the most spectacular urban guerrilla organizations in West Berlin.Of this book, Baumann said: "Others should understand why people take the road of armed struggle, how they come to it, ho …
Eskimo Life of Yesterday
Detailed account of life as an Eskimo.This book was first published as a tribute to the Eskimo peoples. It presents a simple and classic view of Eskimo life from Labrador, the Canadian Arctic, Alaska and Siberia at the turn of the Century.
Raincoast Chronicles First Five
A book that has become a west coast institution - articles, stories, poems, drawings covering every imaginable aspect of northwest history and folklore. The first five issues of Raincoast Chronicles, dating back to 1972.
Winner of the first Eaton's British Columbia Book Award, this is the innovative institution at the heart of BC regional publishing …
Alan Crawley and Contemporary Verse
Little magazines like Alan Crawley's Contemporary Verse are the life blood of literary culture. They provide an ongoing forum in which both well established and new poets can experiment and present their latest work, and it is often with the little magazines, therefore, that litearary change and oringiality have their beginnings. In this book Joan …
Theme for Diverse Instruments
Jane Rule’s first collection of short stories, some of which were first published in The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the United States. Jane Rule is also the author of Desert of the Heart and Memory Board.
In the sensual and tender “Middle Children,” two closeted young lesbians radiate the joy of their love …