Being Chinese in Canada
After the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885—construction of the western stretch was largely built by Chinese workers—the Canadian government imposed a punitive head tax to deter Chinese citizens from coming to Canada. The exorbitant tax strongly discouraged those who had already emigrated from sending for wives and children left in …
Mamaskatch
Growing up in the tiny village of Smith, Alberta, Darrel J. McLeod was surrounded by his Cree family’s history. In shifting and unpredictable stories, his mother, Bertha, shared narratives of their culture, their family and the cruelty that she and her sisters endured in residential school. McLeod was comforted by her presence and that of his man …
The Cowkeeper's Wish
In the 1840s, a young cowkeeper and his wife arrive in London, England, having walked from coastal Wales with their cattle. They hope to escape poverty, but instead they plunge deeper into it, and the family, ensconced in one of London’s “black holes,” remains mired there for generations. The Cowkeeper’s Wish follows the couple’s descenda …
Excessive Force
Alok Mukherjee was the civilian overseer of the Toronto police between 2005 and 2015, during the most tumultuous decade the force had ever faced. In this provocative and highly readable collaboration with Tim Harper, former Toronto Star national affairs columnist, Mukherjee reveals how Police Chief Bill Blair changed the channel after the police-ki …
The Unceasing Storm
Just over fifty years ago, China’s Cultural Revolution began. The movement was intended to bring about a return to revolutionary Maoist beliefs and resulted in attacks on intellectuals and those believed to be counter-revolutionaries, capitalists and rightists; a large-scale purge in government posts; the appearance of a personality cult around M …
The World's Most Travelled Man
"This is the account of twenty-three years of wilderness wandering, sea voyages and overland treks to survey the earth, with no home or possessions other than what fit in my trusty backpack. There was no specific destination in mind except to visit countries, not the airports and luxury hotels but the country itself, to experience local culture and …
True Confessions from the Ninth Concession
Author and playwright Dan Needles has long delighted readers and audiences alike with his insightful and laugh-out-loud perspective on small-town life, published in such bestselling books as Wingfield's World (Random House, 2011), Wingfield's Hope (Key Porter, 2005), With Axe and Flask (McFarlane, Walter and Ross, 2002) and Letters From Wingfield F …
Dirty Windshields
Dirty Windshields is the long-awaited memoir from CBC host and award-winning author Grant Lawrence, baring all the salacious and hilarious details from his touring days as the lead singer of Vancouver-based rock and roll band The Smugglers.
Formed when most of the members were still in high school, The Smugglers came of age during the height of the …
My Father's Son
A classic wartime memoir from one of Canada’s most treasured writers.
The follow-up to And No Birds Sang, Farley Mowat’s memoir My Father’s Son charts the course of a family relationship in the midst of extreme trial. Taking place during Mowat’s years in the Italian Campaign, the memoir is mostly told through original letters between Mowat a …
One Story, One Song
"The short pieces in One Story, One Song remind us of human beings� place in the world: We are a part of it, not masters of it. And by sharing our stories we share ourselves. By listening to others� stories, we share their lives and perhaps gain connections. One Story, One Song is all about connections, something we all need."
—Globe an …
Stars Between the Sun and Moon
Born in the seventies in North Korea, Lucia Jang grew up in a typical household -- her parents worked in the factories, and the family scraped by on government rations of rice and what little food they could grow in their small garden. Every night before bed, Jang dusted the frame around the portrait of Kim Il-sung, as her little sister looked on. …
The Elusive Mr. Pond
Sir Alexander Mackenzie is known to schoolchildren as a great Canadian explorer who gave his name to the country's longest river, but hardly anyone could name the man who mentored Mackenzie and mapped much of northwestern Canada before him. Soldier,fur trader and explorer Peter Pond, the subject of this long overdue book, is a man whose legend has …
Writing with Grace
"I don’t know how to describe me as a real person." -- From "My Real Truth," a poem by Grace Chen
"Put her away and forget about her." This was the blunt advice Grace Chen's grandfather gave Grace's parents when she was born with Down Syndrome.
Twenty-four years later, Grace writes, "I always dream to be a famous writer." When Judy McFarlane is ask …
Come Fly with Me
A behind-the-scenes story of a global superstar's rise to fame.
In 1993, Beverly Delich discovered an 18-year-old singer named Michael Bubl� in a Vancouver talent contest, became his manager, and moved with him to Toronto, and then L.A., as he tried to break into a tough, unforgiving business. This book is her vivid, behind-the-scenes story of …
The Lonely End of the Rink
Winner of the Bill Duthie's Booksellers Award!
In addition to being a CBC host, an eminent indie-rock alumnus, and the award-winning author of the bestselling book Adventures in Solitude, Grant Lawrence has another claim to fame: as a toddler, he spent the majority of a plane ride from Toronto to Winnipeg on Bobby Orr's lap. Grant, his parents, Bobb …
The Oil Man and the Sea
Short-listed for the Governor General's Literary Award and the Banff Mountain Book Award and winner of the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction.
With Enbridge Inc.'s Northern Gateway proposal nearing approval, supertankers loaded with two million barrels of bitumen each may soon join herring, humpbacks and salmon on their annual migration th …
Born Naked
Farley Mowat's outrageous memoir begins with his unlikely conception in a canoe and follows a childhood full of adventure.
Piloted by a father with itchy feet and adventurous whims, the Mowats move frequently, finally leaving Ontario for Saskatoon. Small, bookish, and ill at ease in a hockey rink, Farley is most at home in the natural world. Whereve …
People of the Deer
"People of the Deer was...a wake-up call, the spark that struck the tinder that ignited the fire from which many subsequent generations of writers and activists have lit their torches, often ignorant of where that spark came from in the first place." -- Margaret Atwood
In 1886, the Ihalmiut of northern Canada numbered 7,000 souls; by 1946, when 25-y …
Sea of Slaughter
The northeastern seaboard of Canada and the United States, extending from Labrador to Cape Cod, was the first region of North America to suffer from human exploitation. Farley Mowat informs extensive historical and biological research with his direct experience living in and observing this region. When it was first published more than 20 years ago, …
Back to the Front
This print-on-demand title is available by request from most booksellers.
—
The Western Front, the sinuous, deadly line of trenches that stretched from the English Channel to Switzerland during the First World War, also formed a scar on the imaginative landscape of our century.
On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, armed only with a backpack, a com …
And No Birds Sang
Feisty icon; passionate Canadian; unrelenting foe of all pretension; energetic provocateur-at-large and most importantly, superb and dedicated writer, there cannot be a Canadian alive who is unaware of the legacy that is Farley Mowat. And No Bird Sang and A Whale for the Killing are the first books in a new Douglas & McIntyre library of handsomely …
A Whale for the Killing
Feisty icon; passionate Canadian; unrelenting foe of all pretension; energetic provocateur-at-large and most importantly, superb and dedicated writer, there cannot be a Canadian alive who is unaware of the legacy that is Farley Mowat. And No Bird Sang and A Whale for the Killing are the first books in a new Douglas & McIntyre library of handsomely …
Tower of Babble, The
"So, while a tell-all -- the circumstances and atmosphere surrounding his end at CBC loom mysteriously over the book until the final chapter -- Stursberg doesn't come off vindictive. With his memoir, he's still trying to help save the CBC." -- Telegraph Journal
"Richard Stursberg's rage dominates his crackling autobiography -- as does his grief for …
The Tower of Babble
A Globe and Mail top 100 book of 2012
The ultimate CBC insider exposes the controversies, successes and dead ends of his time at the top.
In 2004, CBC television had sunk to its lowest audience share in its history. That same year, Richard Stursberg, an avowed popularizer with a reputation for radical action, was hired to run English services. With …
Last Train to Toronto
Crossing Canada by rail has long been among the travel wonders of the world, but in 1990 government cutbacks forced the remarkable Canadian to make its last run from Vancouver to Toronto. Amid the political controversy that raged during the last years of the route's existence, Terry Pindell covered 18,000 miles of Canadian rails. In this fascinatin …
Letters to My Daughters
Now available in paperback, in this courageous memoir, Fawzia Koofi, Afghanistan's most popular female politician, gives us her first-hand account of Afghan history through the rule of the Mujahedeen and Taliban, her experiences of the Afghanistan War, and the effects of these events on the lives of women in Afghanistan. In writing Letters to My Da …
Soldiers Made Me Look Good
"To see the peacekeeper myth ably demolished...one must pick up Lewis MacKenzie's own memoir, Soldiers Made Me Look Good. Loaded with anecdotes, and delivered in MacKenzie's suffer-fools-badly style, it's easily the speed-read of the bunch." -- Calgary Herald
A riveting follow-up to the best-selling Peacekeeper, including MacKenzie's provocative vie …
Passionate Gardener, The
The 13 short pieces featured in Passionate Gardener roam widely and wildly, examining, among other things, common idiosyncrasies and the collective chaos of garden clubs, the host of psychopathologies that afflict "plants people," and obsessive-compulsive behavior such as the chronic moving of plants. This is an irreverent exploration of the fierce …
Empty Casing
"A soldier's story told from the inside, passionate, riveting and extremely necessary." -- David Adams Richards, Giller Prize-winning novelist
"Gut-wrenching, wryly humorous and well-written." -- Atlantic Books Today
When Canadian soldier Fred Doucette was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina as a UN peacekeeper in 1995, he had a premonition that this tour …
Virgin Spy, The
"With her debut, Krista Bridge has created a book that will rock you to your knees...Krista Bridge is a master. Her stories are so realistic that it is hard to believe they are fiction. I kept reading The Virgin Spy as if it was a memoir -- it was that compelling, that believable." -- Event
A stunning debut short-story collection from an award-winni …
One Family's Journey
One of Canada's most accomplished business leaders reflects on his influential role in the industry that built British Columbia.
From a privileged early childhood in Vienna to an overnight escape from Hitler's grasp, to the seven decades spent building Canadian Forest Products with his father and uncle, Peter Bentley's life story is one of great ch …
Drink the Bitter Root
Set across Africa, this is a deeply engaging investigation of trauma, justice and the redemptive powers of imagination from an internationally acclaimed author.
Drink the Bitter Root is a provocative, emotionally charged account of one writer's travels in sub-Saharan Africa. Haunted by the 1993 murder of a Somali teenager by Canadian soldiers in wh …
Tiger, Tiger
Chosen as a Globe 100 Best Book of the year in 2011! Chosen as the Best Memoir of 2011 by Library Journal! Chosen as a Best Book (non-fiction) for 2011 by Publishers Weekly!
"With Tiger, Tiger, Fragoso has created from the ashes of her childhood a stunning, brave, personal book." -- Edmonton Journal
"It is at once beautiful and appalling, a true-life …
A Year of Living Generously
A Year of Living Generously follows award-winning journalist Lawrence Scanlan as he volunteers with 12 different charities, among them well-known institutions Habitat for Humanity, the St. Vincent de Paul Society and Canadian Crossroads.
Drawing from first-hand experiences -- serving in a soup kitchen at "Vinnie's," the St. Vincent de Paul drop-in …
Patriot Hearts
"[Patriot Hearts] is a story about sticking to one's vision, no matter what other people say...by the end, it is clear Furlong's particular brand of zeal, perseverance, and focus is required to put on such a complicated and successful spectacle." -- Quill & Quire
"Patriot Hearts is a gossipy gallop across the emotional arc of the Games, from heroics …
Legacy, The
Now available in paperback, The Legacy represents the culmination of David Suzuki's knowledge and wisdom and his legacy for generations to come.
If he had to sum up all that he has learned in one last lecture, what would David Suzuki say? In this expanded version of the lecture that he delivered in December 2009 and that will be released as a film i …
Year of Living Generously, A
A Globe 100 Book of the Year for 2010.
"An ingenious, richly executed book...a mix of the 'important' and the 'great read.'" -- National Post
A Year of Living Generously follows award-winning journalist Lawrence Scanlan as he volunteers with 12 different charities, among them well-known institutions Habitat for Humanity, the St. Vincent de Paul Socie …
