Dundurn Press

• A dramatic coming-of-age story about a girl grappling with issues such as domestic abuse, sexism, and the disconnect between modern youth and traditional parents.
• Debut novel for readers of Butter Honey Pig Bread and The Son of the House.
• Commercial women's fiction from Nigeria, originally published in 2021 by Penguin South Africa.

“A brave and lyrical exploration of motherhood and mental health … as terrifying as it is riveting.” — Susannah Cahalan, NYT bestselling author of Brain on Fire

Early motherhood is supposed to be joyous, but for Aaisha Alvi, those early days were ruined by terrifying, delusional thoughts about her baby and family. Far beyond the trials of breastfeeding and getting her baby to sleep, Aaisha’s experience was the antithesis of everything she had ever been told about motherhood.

When her second pregnancy ended in miscarriage, Aaisha’s psychosis returned. This time, however, she was blindsided by the unimaginable: voices urging her to stab her daughter and to harm innocent people. Aaisha felt evil, worthy of taking her own life. But each time she sought medical help, she was turned away.

With unflinching honesty, Aaisha takes readers beyond the vitriol and blame flung at women — particularly women of colour — suffering from postpartum psychosis. Her story is a clarion call to increase awareness of a condition that need never result in tragedy and to build support for those affected by it.

Tiga’s Tale chronicles the remarkable life of world champion boxer Barrington “Tiga” Francis, who survived crushing poverty and violence in Jamaica’s notorious ghettos and the insidious racism of 1980s Montreal to emerge as one of Canada’s most successful professional fighters.

This riveting narrative is told in the twelve rounds of Barrington’s fight for the coveted British Commonwealth title, coupled with twelve vignettes that capture his exceptional story of perseverance, faith, and, ultimately, triumph.

In the seventh book in the award-winning Inspector Green series, an old man is found beaten to death on a street corner in Ottawa’s Byward Market in what initially appears to be a mugging gone wrong. The victim is identified as Dr. Samuel Rosenthal, a retired psychiatrist with a contentious approach to life and treatment. When Green discovers that the doctor recently changed his will, disinheriting his estranged son and benefiting several former patients whom he believed he had failed, the mystery only deepens.

But who is the young mystery woman seen visiting Rosenthal every Saturday night? And more importantly, what does she know about the doctor’s death? Green races to track down the young visitor, but he is unprepared for the final resolution that leaves him grappling with the ultimate meaning of justice.

Time to hit the road: the minivan is packed, the cooler is chock full, and the lake beckons. Summer is the perfect setting for sharing short stories at the cottage, around the campfire, in the tent, or on the long ride to camp.

The Death Swing at Falcon Lake has a story for every occasion. There are epic tales of neighbourhood battles over the best fort, harrowing myths of the bravery it takes to walk to the outhouse in the dark, embarrassing accounts of first love at summer camp, and maybe even a legend about the monster watching you from the shadows while you read this very book.

Raconteur Jeremy John delivers another hilarious, heartwarming, and sometimes bone-chilling collection of short stories ideal for summer reading.

The Essence of Invention tells the story of medical inventors who have laid the foundation for modern patient care, from the development of anaesthesia and safe surgery to the advent of vaccines against smallpox, polio, and Covid-19, and how, through creativity and persistence, they have changed the world.

The same kind of energy that drove Van Gogh or the Beatles can manifest itself in medicine as inventiveness and the creation of new medical devices. The field may feel very different from what is traditionally considered a creative industry, but the fundamental motivation and aspiration to create and the conviction and resilience needed to do so are the same.

Dr. Murphy celebrates the creative energy of courageous men and women, honours their unique gifts, and explains how a culture of creativity and collaboration can and must be established around them to allow their talents to take flight.

Having reported from over 115 countries on seven continents, Robin Esrock has spent decades chasing the extraordinary. Travelling across British Columbia and Alberta, he’s discovered a wild variety of experiences that you simply cannot find anywhere else on the planet. With his renowned storytelling, trademark wit, curiosity, and eye-popping photos, Robin takes us on a personal journey to exceptional destinations and activities that are instantly memorable, absolutely fascinating, and waiting to be discovered.

Get ready to:

• sail among whales in the Galápagos of the North
• backcountry horse ride in the Rockies
• heli-fish in streams roiling with salmon
• drive the world’s most beautiful stretch of road
• houseboat under the stars
• go medieval glamping in the Prairies
• alpine ski by torchlight on New Year’s Eve
• and much more …

• Is it time for your aging father to stop driving?
• How can you balance your career opportunities with your mother’s care needs?
• Can your parents cope on their own?
• Is it time for long-term care? Given their reluctance, is that even an option?

Millions of people are dealing with aging parents and are stunned by the complexities and demands of their care. As demographics change and societies adapt, that caring — that parenting — isn’t getting any simpler. In the fourth edition of this eldercare classic, advocate Bart J. Mindszenthy and geriatrician Dr. Michael Gordon present twenty-four case studies of families working through the eldercare puzzle. With new scenarios, such as legalized marijuana and medical assistance in dying, this revised and updated edition makes the case for good planning, family unity, and being aware of your loved ones’ health.

With the help of Gordon and Mindszenthy’s expert advice, care providers are able to shed guilt and worry and become confident that they have done all they can to make their parents’ latter years as fulfilling and comfortable as possible.

An anarchist online group sets out to assassinate the corporate elites they believe have turned culture into a digital nightmare.

Don Barton is the visionary creator of Greenhouse, a popular immersive game where millions play at “saving the environment” in the surreal digital landscapes of the metaverse. Now retired to his plutocratic wealth, he learns his teen son, a gifted gamer, has suddenly gone missing, having joined a terrorist group led by a mysterious young woman, Eris, a former cryptocurrency trader. She’s on a mission to destroy the world’s entertainment and social media platforms and assassinate the corporate elites who run them.

In desperation, Barton roams Greenhouse, the only place his radicalized son will talk to him, learning that the game — his life’s work — is on the terrorist hit list. And both his life and his son’s are in danger.

A RARE MACHINES BOOK

Teo’s life as a Paris brasserie apprentice is filled with challenges and triumphs, as well as all the regular abuses of slammed commercial kitchens. Still, he rises through the ranks, eventually returning to his hometown of Vancouver to open Rue Véron, a French restaurant that goes on to become a sensation. His second restaurant, Orinoco, is also successful. But on the cusp of opening his third, a news story breaks filled with troubling accusations against Rue Véron’s popular executive chef, Frankie.

The media firestorm and subsequent public relations disaster threaten to destroy Teo’s empire, as well as his own personal life. And when the compounding consequences lead to unimaginable tragedy, Teo is left to question the impact of both individual action and people acting in great numbers.

Luisa Abrego, an enslaved woman in Seville, is impregnated by her master, then set free upon his death. With limited options for her future, Luisa agrees to marry a white man who wants to take her with him to Mexico, even though it means leaving her infant son behind in the care of nuns. The couple set off on a dangerous sea voyage and a perilous trek across unconquered territory, and when the settlers’ caravan is attacked by Indigenous warriors, Luisa is forced to kill a man in self-defence. Years later, still wracked with guilt and convinced she must atone for her sin, Luisa confesses to having made a promise of marriage to another man long before, in Spain. By the laws of the church this makes her a bigamist, a criminal who must be tried by the fearsome Inquisition.

Based on sixteenth-century trial records of the real Luisa, this novel is not just one woman’s life in fragments but a carefully researched imagining, told in the vivid, distinct voices of the Europeans who came into contact with her.

On the morning of March 10, 1988, in Orillia, Ontario, a house fire engulfed fourteen-year old Joey Philion in flames. He suffered third-degree burns on 95 percent of his body. Doctors didn’t think he would make it through the night.

After the Flames is the story of one of the world’s most famous burn victims: his incredible survival, his nightmarish path to recovery that helped revolutionize medical treatment for burn victims worldwide, the fame thrust upon him after he was declared a hero by the media, and the tumultuous years that followed, most of which were spent under the microscope of an unforgiving public eye.

Intertwined with Joey’s story are those of his family, including his mother, Linda; stepfather, Mike; and younger brother, Danny, all of whom endured their own tremendous hardships in the wake of a fire that changed their lives forever

In this powerful and deeply personal essay collection, Gloria Blizzard, in an international diasporic quest, moves up and down an urban subway line; between Canada and Trinidad; to and from a hospital emergency room; back and forth in time — and as a descendent of Africa living in the Americas, negotiates the complexities of culture, geography, race, and language. Through food, music, dance, and family history, Blizzard explores the art of belonging — to a family, a neighbourhood, a group, or a country. Using traditional narrative and the tools of poetry, Blizzard’s essays hover at the crossroads, in the spaces where art, science, and spirit collide. The intimate becomes universal, the questions are all relevant, and the answers of our times require a sleight of hand — the holding of simultaneous and overlapping worlds.

One of the most bizarre stories to emerge at the end of the Second World War was that of Kanao Inouye. Born in Kamloops, B.C., in 1916, he had relocated to his ancestral homeland of Japan, and by 1942 was a translator for the Japanese army. He was assigned to the prisoner of war camp in Hong Kong where he became infamous as one of the “most sadistic guards” of the Canadian survivors of the Battle of Hong Kong. Scores of prisoners would attest to his brutality administered in revenge for the treatment he had received growing up in Canada.

His reputation was such that he was quickly apprehended after the war and faced charges of war crimes. But his subsequent trials became mired in questions as to who he really was. Was he a Canadian forced to serve in the Japanese military machine? Or was he a devoted soldier of his emperor obeying his superiors?

Canada’s official model for integrating newcomers, the cultural mosaic, is based on false assumptions and fails to meet immigrants’ new social and cultural needs.

Canada’s government delivered its official policy on multiculturalism in 1971, adopting a model called the cultural mosaic. While on the surface the policy and model seemed benign, they were based on false assumptions. The Mosaic Myth deconstructs the theory of the cultural mosaic to expose those flaws and warn how its implementation will be at best useless and at worst harmful.

Author Domenic Diamante, himself an immigrant from Italy, was skeptical from the start. After studying the evidence, he drafted this book, now forty years ago. Today, with the mosaic model having failed, Diamante brings his work to the public stage in its original form to show what was wrong with the mosaic and why it matters.

You can’t have a healthy economy with an unhealthy work force. Work Less proposes ways to reduce work hours and keep workers happier, healthier, and more productive.

Recent years have revealed just how stressed out many workers are. While the trend to longer hours has been developing for several decades, the trend’s effects have been aggravated during the pandemic by the growing use of Zoom and other new technologies for meetings with clients, customers, and co-workers.

Exhausted and fed up, today’s workers are starting to insist on shorter hours and greater flexibility as to where they do their work. There is growing consensus that the forty-hour week, the norm since the 1940s, has outlived its usefulness. And there is an urgent need for new work schedules that adequately reflect the far greater intensity of work today, as well as the greater family demands on a labour force made up of almost fifty percent women, who bear the brunt of domestic duties.

Work Less offers practical scheduling suggestions to employers and workers and numerous policy options for government policy-makers to improve working conditions.

Winner of the 2002 North American Guild of Beer Writers' Quill & Tankard Annual Writing Award

The Canadian brewing industry predates Confederation by two hundred years; Canada boasts the oldest, continuously operating brewery in North America. Canadian brewers have survived the persecution of the Temperance Movement and Prohibition, the Great Depression, two World Wars and the challenge of Free Trade. Today, brewing in Canada is a 10 billion dollar business whose one constant is change.

From its colonial past to the microbrewery renaissance, Brewed in Canada is a passionate narrative of individual power, colourful characters, family rivalries and foreign ownership. Individual stories tell of personal success and failure, bankruptcies, takeovers, consolidation and rationalization. As men of influence, these brewers made significant contributions to their local communities and the country. Beyond the day-to-day operation of their brewing business, some would make their mark in politics, while others built churches, hospitals and helped establish universities. A commitment to community service - and to brewing excellence - continues today.

Following the extraordinary and ongoing success of his 2004 book The Pagan Christ, scholar and author Tom Harpur was deluged with readers’ requests to go more deeply into the mythological, allegorical approach to the story of Jesus he took in that bestselling book. In Water Into Wine, Harpur sets out the powerful and transforming message that emerges when the Gospels are finally read as they were originally intended to be and as they were understood by the first Christians, such as Origen and Clement. Seen in their true mythological and symbolical meaning, the stories in the drama of Jesus’ life come alive in a totally fresh way – not as the account of a single, distant god-man working strange miracle like Superman or some other fictional magician, but as a description of the evolution of the soul in everyone of us.

The theme of the Gospels parallels exactly the theme of the Old Testament, as well as every ancient sacred text, which is that a spark of the divine spirit incarnates in each and every human being. Tom Harpur shows how "the old, old story" is at the heart of every religion and how it is really our own personal story too. Water Into Wine is a tour de force written by a skilled and learned communicator that should excite and nourish every true seeker after spiritual fulfillment. As well, it has the enormous potential for furthering the goal of global understanding and peace.

The Scandinavian presence has been felt in many parts of Canada, including the Windsor-Detroit border region. A Scandinavian Heritage surveys the numerous conributions made in this area by the people of 5 nations: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The history of these people, from the first settlers to the present is explored in detail. The experiences common to each of the nationalities are shown and contrasted to the unique perspective brought by each group to this country. Included is a survey reflecting the experiences of the present-day Scandinavian community.

To highlight this special history, Joan Magee has included an ample selection of photographs and illustrations.

La création de la Marine royale du Canada (MRC) en 1910 et ses premières années d’existence ont été marquées par un débat politique quant à la nécessité d’un service naval au Canada. Du littoral à la mer, le premier d’une série de trois volumes relatant l’histoire officielle de la MRC, retrace les trois premières décennies de la Marine, de ses débuts comme marine de pacotille établie par le Premier ministre sir Wilfrid Laurier et constituée de deux croiseurs britanniques obsolètes jusqu’ à son entrée dans la Seconde Guerre mondiale, en tant que force composée de six destroyers modernes et de quatre dragueurs de mines. L’histoire de la MRC au cours du conflit de 1939-1945 a déjà été raconté dans la partie 1, Rien de plus noble, et la partie 2, Parmi les puissances navales, du volume II de la série, publié précédemment. Fondé sur des recherches archivistiques approfondies, l’ouvrage Du littoral à la mer relate les âpres débats qui ont finalement mené à l’établissement de la MRC en 1910, son existence précaire après le remplacement soudain du gouvernement de Laurier par celui de Robert Borden un an plus tard, ainsi que les difficultés de la Marine au cours de la Première Guerre mondiale lorsqu’elle a dû défendre les eaux canadiennes avec très peu de ressources. Des conséquences désastreuses de la terrible explosion survenue Halifax en décembre 1917 jusqu’à la campagne menée par les sous-marins allemands au large de la côte Est du Canada en 1918, le volume I examine dans quelle mesure les conseils souvent incohérents qu’Ottawa recevait de l’Amirauté britannique, à Londres, ont compliqué la tâche de la MRC. La dernière section de cet important ouvrage historique bien illustré traite de l’expérience de la MRC pendant l’entre-deux-guerres, alors que le sentiment antiguerre et une dépression économique menaçaient sa survie même.

A trip with his estranged father changes Nate forever.

Commended for the Popular Paperback Young Adults Pick, 2014 and short-listed for the Forest of Reading - White Pine Award for Fiction, 2014

Just as summer vacation is about to arrive, Nate Huffman’s plans are unexpectedly shelved for the most unlikely of reasons: the reappearance of his estranged father. Not only is the old man back, he’s got this goofy idea about a road trip the two of them will take.

Nate finds himself in a pickup with a man he can’t stand. His father wants to reconnect, and he wants Nate to really understand him. Larry Huffman has chosen to make this happen by taking his son into his own past, which has the Vietnam War as its centrepiece.

As the two struggle their way through the jungle of the Ashau Valley, the old man relives the horror of the battle that changed him forever, and Nate undergoes changes of his own – and they experience something that goes far beyond what either of them expected.

This is a long-awaited history of one of Metro Toronto’s most historic churches, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Scarborough, founded in 1818. This publication records the many memorable individuals to fill its pulpits and pews as well as stories of its associations, buildings and community anecdotes.

The story of St. Andrew’s is also very much a history of Scarborough and of the pioneer families who settled the area. The church has figured prominently in the development of Scarborough since David Thompson made available a generous gift of land for a "Scotch Kirk." Today the remains of many of the original builders of Scarborough rest in graves marked by ancient monuments in the well-maintained "Kirkyard."

Freshwater Heritage: A History of Sail on the Great Lakes, 1670-1918 represents the culmination of a lifelong passion for sailing and for the history of sail as it applies to Canada. Author/sailor/boat builder Don Bamford takes us deep into the psyche of sailing as it applies to historical events on the Great Lakes and to stories of the people and places there at the time.

His extensive historical research takes us back to the time of European contact, through the fate of the luckless Griffon and the achievements of the French in the era of sail. From the 1760s through to 1815, Bamford chronicles the glory years of the brigs, the schooners, the snows and the warships that dominated the lakes during the war years, with a particular emphasis on the War of 1812 and the race for naval domination of the Great Lakes.

Much deserving attention is given to the shipbuilders and to the challenges of constructing these vessels in the wilderness of the colonies, all supported by carefully researched detail. Bamford also documents the critical role played by sailing vessels in the settlement process as newly arrived immigrants struggled to establish a home in a new land.

The commercial role of sail on the Great Lakes is captured through the refinements to the schooners, the place of ships in the fur trade, the early days of fishing the lakes as an industry, the role of the timber droghers, the stone hookers and the first ore carriers of the first part of the 20th century. Never before has the place of sailing vessels in the early history of Canada’s Great Lakes been so inclusive, and made so accessible to the general reader.

Richly illustrated with archival visuals and photographs of significant works of art, and supported by a full index and extensive end matter, Freshwater Heritage is a must for both the armchair historian and those who love to sail.

Capturing the French River introduces a rare collection of exceptional photographs taken along the river between 1910 and 1927 by Doctors J. Ernest Rushbrook and Frank Sherman, whose lifelong friendship was based in part around their mutual love of photography, of nature, of the Canadian wilderness and of the canoe. The collection was a serendipitous discovery by author Wayne Kelly, who immediately recognized the uniqueness of these incredible images. The two Rushbrook sisters, Ida and Bertha, also photographers, play a significant role in this book on the amazing, historically significant French River and the once-thriving original village of French River, which ceased to exist circa 1924. The sisters are remembered as well for their fearless running of whitewater rapids and remote camping adventures, often including Bertha’s son, Max, who was still a babe in arms.

The author’s historical research on this area and the era has led to an informative text that will delight history buffs and also serve as the ideal companion for those interested canoeists and travellers venturing into French River country. Present-day photographers will also be intrigued by the many images selected from a collection of 634 photographs. Capturing the French River is destined to become a Canadian treasure in print.

Zahava Hanan's struggle to save her ranch in Alberta from the threat of industrial pollution makes Heading for Home a modern tale on an epic scale. For twenty years she fought for her rights in Western Canada. Heading for Home gives a very warm account of her companions throughout those years from cowhands to lovable animals; from concerned neighbours to the formality of the company man, some of whom too, eventually became firm friends. Aided at times in her struggle by her friend the author and tracker Andy Russell, Heading for Home tells the tale of how one woman's strength and willpower contributed to our heightened sense of mutual awareness.

In the course of her long struggle to save everything she held most dear, Zahava Hanan stood squarely up to a "David and Goliath" confrontation with the corporations. During that time, however, she came to understand that by daring to care for our environment we inherit a common ground, goal and home. This book is also the story of that spiritual quest and challenge. And it is in this sense that Zahava Hanan has been "heading for home," and helping others get there, ever since.

This is a masterpiece of its kind, and truly original, since nobody of her sensibility has written on the subject at all. There are countless travel books about wild places and countless cozy books about life in the town. This happens to be unique both in the handling of her environment and in her ability to feel and write about it.

"Writing with uncanny skill, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence leads us gently into the world of birds. Her perception, intuition and experience give her insights that she here freely shares with us all.

"I knew this remarkable lady for years, and had previously read her Mar, but on re-reading it, I was struck with the sensitive, magical way she reveals the behaviour of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers.

"At her doorstep, at almost everyone's doorstep, there is a wondrous, beautiful world, if we will only be patient and observant. In Mar, Mrs. Lawrence shows us the way.

"Naturalists, birders, aspiring ornithologists, scientists, all should take time to read Mar." - Robert W. Nero, Author of The Great Gray Owl and Redwings

"Mar is a glimpse into the natural life of a woodpecker -- a yellow-bellied sapsucker -- in two nesting seasons, as it interacts with its mate and other forest creatures.

"The narrative, deceptively simple, consolidates a lifetime of careful observation and imaginative research. It should appeal to all birdwatchers, novice or expert."
- Maureen Johnson, The Ottawa Citizen

Short-listed for the 2012 Silver Birch Express Award

What if your best friend was a naughty 400-year-old gargoyle? And what if he just happened to be in terrible danger? It’s not always easy, but thirteen-year-old Katherine Newberry is friends with a gargoyle. His name is Gargoth of Tallus, and he lives in her backyard. Gargoth has lost the only creature on the planet who can help him. Her name is Ambergine, and she’s been his greatest friend for hundreds of years. What Katherine and Gargoth dont know is that Ambergine is searching for him too. But she is not alone. Gargoths greatest enemy is prowling the city, and it’s a race against time to find him first! In this sequel to The Gargoyle in My Yard (2009), The Gargoyle Overhead provides the historical backstory to Gargoths life, and further explores themes of friendship, courage and loneliness.

After being outcast to a small community, 10-year-old Michiko’s life gets better when a former baseball star becomes her teacher. Second book in the Cherry Blossom Books series.

Ten-year-old Michiko wants to be proud of her Japanese heritage but can’t be. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, her family’s possessions are confiscated and they are forced into deprivation in a small, insular community. The men are sent to work on the railway, so the women and children are left to make the trip on their own.

After a former Asahi baseball star becomes her new teacher, life gets better. Baseball fever hits town, and when Michiko challenges the adults to a game with her class, the whole town turns out.

Then the government announces that they must move once again. But they can’t think of relocating with a new baby coming, even with the offer of free passage to Japan. Michiko pretends to be her mother and writes to get a job for her father on a farm in Ontario. When he is accepted, they again pack their belongings and head to a new life in Ontario.

Commended for the 2009 Resource Links Best Books and for the 2010 Best Books for Kids and Teens, short-listed for the 2012 Diamond Willow Award 

Chosen for the Toronto Public Library's 2015 Great Reads for Kids collection

What do you do when a 400-year-old gargoyle moves into your backyard? Especially when no one else but you knows he’s ALIVE? Twelve-year-old Katherine Newberry can tell you all about life with a gargoyle. Hes naughty. He gets people into trouble. He howls at the moon, breaks statues and tramples flowers to bits, all the while making it look like you did it! He likes to throw apple cores and stick his tongue out at people when they aren’t looking. How do you get rid of a gargoyle? Do they help the gargoyle leave for good? If you’re like Katherine and her parents, after getting to know him, you might really want him to stay.

King's Men is the story of the Loyalist regiments who became the soldier founders of the Province of Ontario, the Loyal Colonials who joined the Provincial Corps of the British Army, Canadian Command, during the American revolution.

Mythology on the United Empire Loyalists who founded two Canadian provinces is ingrained. We often envisage loyal families marching out of the victorious United States at the close of the American Revolution. But these myths lead us to overlook a fascinating period in the lives of one group of Loyalists – the soldiers who became Ontario's founders.

By the time the Treaty of Separation was signed in 1783, four full strength corps were serving in Canada. These were the Royal Highland Emigrants (placed on the regular establishment in 1778, as the 84th Foot), the King's Royal Regiment of New York, Butler's Rangers, and the Loyal Rangers. A fifth corps, the King's rangers amounted to three full companies.

A detailed study on what these Provincials achieved is long overdue. King's Men fills a gap in tracing the lives of these United Empire Loyalists who first fought under British command, and spent a difficult period as displaced persons in Canada (people whose only desire was to return to their homes in Britain's older colonies) till the time when they accepted Canada as a new homeland.

Cairine Wilson, Canada's first female senator, was one of nine children raised in an atmosphere of rugged Scots liberalism and strict presbyterianism by affluent Montreal parents in the late nineteenth century. She displayed an interest in politics early in life and through her father's position in the Senate, was befriended by many notable politicians of the period, including Sir Wilfrid Laurier, an experience that left a permanent mark on her. Her appointment to the Senate in 1930 was a historic and controversial event, and launched a political career rife with passion, commitment, and reform. Wilson, whose work on behalf of refugees and the world's needy was legendary, served in the Senate through some of the stormiest years in Canadian government history. First Person is an engaging account of a colourful and powerful politician; a fighter whose efforts were recognized by the highest officials in the land, and whose sculpted image adorns the foyer of the Canadian Senate.

Adelaide Hunter Hoodless, lifelong crusader for the recognition of the domestic sciences (cooking, sewing, childcare and housework) and an early proponent of home economics in Canada, was considered one of the radical new woman of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She helped turn the Canadian YWCA into a national organization. She founded the Women's Institute, assisted in the founding of the Victorian Order of Nurses and represented Canada on numerous International Councils of Women, as well as establishing the first school for the training of domestic science teachers in Canada and putting together the first Canadian domestic science textbook, popularly known as the Little Red Book.

Born with Down syndrome, Ruby Jean Sharp comes from a time when being a developmentally disabled person could mean growing up behind locked doors and barred windows and being called names like "retard" and "moron." When Ruby Jean's caregiver and loving grandmother dies, her mother takes her to Woodlands School in New Westminster, British Columbia, and rarely visits.

As Ruby Jean herself says: "Can't say why they called it a school -- a school's a place you go for learnin an then after you get to go home. I never learnt much bout ledders and numbers, an I sure never got to go home."

It's here in an institution that opened in 1878 and was originally called the Provincial Lunatic Asylum that Ruby Jean learns to survive isolation, boredom, and every kind of abuse. Just when she can hardly remember if she's ever been happy, she learns a lesson about patience and perseverance from an old crow.

Artist Frances Gage, born in 1924 in Windsor, experienced both artistic recognition and acute despair in her life, yet she flourished in her work and as part of the contemporary Toronto art scene. A friend of Frances Loring and Florence Wyle, she developed a greater connection with the Group of Seven, working closely with Frederick Varley and producing reliefs of both him and A.Y. Jackson while working in Tom Thomson's shack.

Frances remained focused and positive and became a successful sculptor, creating more than five hundred works of art. Still, even though she achieved the dream she strove toward during all the years of struggle, she discovered that the Dante-like Paradise she had sought and gained was instead the poet's Inferno in disguise. Her correspondence, as referenced in this remarkable biography, bears out this insight in a life often marked by unsatisfying triumph over tragedy. It presents a candid view of one of Canada's most fascinating artists of the twentieth century.

Leonard Budgell saw the Canadian North like nobody else. He put his observations into words as few others ever could.

As a "Servant of the Bay" Budgell ran Hudson’s Bay Company trading posts for decades in isolated communities up the Labrador coast and across the Arctic. Living among aboriginal Canadians he witnessed episodes and heard stories that would never again be repeated - except he wrote them down. His pen memorably portrays everything from dancing northern lights and hunting practices of birds to astonishing human adventures and predicaments.

Northern ways intact for centuries changed with rifles and motorboats, radios and electric generators, new foods and different medicines. Most often, it was Budgell who bridged the aboriginal and southern cultures, building and operating remote radio stations at places like Hebron, taking an RCMP officer into a settlement where a choice had to be made between two different codes of law and behaviour in a murder case. In Arctic Twilight, Budgell chronicles, in an outpouring of letters to a much younger female friend, a traditional way of life that was changing forever.

Claudia Coutu Radmore, a teacher, writer, and artist, first met Len Budgell in Winnipeg when she was a fine arts student and he had retired from the Company. Their friendship grew stronger when he began writing remarkable letters after she returned to Queen’s University. Now edited and organized by her, this unique memoir is available to the public for the first time.

Kingston writer Richard Cumyn's second book of short stories is a remarkable collection of fiction about the curse of modernity--displacement. In striking scenes Cumyn subtly explores our own sense of abandonment and loneliness in the face of change, movement and loss. Cumyn's prose is sparse and direct, the violence supressed beneath the surface casual and foreboding. His characters are at once familiar and eerily distinct, their relationships a tender blend of heartbreak and affection. Separations achieved through illness, betrayal, aging, necessity, choice or dismissal represent an emotional x-ray of a society looking for permanence in an increasingly fluid and precarious world. This collection will haunt you like a shadow creeping over a suburban street-- all the landmarks appear familiar but each door leads to unimagined worlds. Great stories await there.

A local library, passport to a larger world for its individual patrons, is also a democratic institution whose contribution to the strength of a community is out of all proportion to its size or membership.

Several thousand Carnegie libraries were built a century ago when Andrew Carnegie, who had risen from poverty to become "the richest man in the world" vowed to donate all his money before he died and set about giving millions of people around the world the same "gift of reading" he had with access to a library as a factory working boy. Across the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and other corners of the English-speaking world, he created "the free republic" of libraries. This is the story of one of them.

By tracing evolution of library service in the Canadian town of Bracebridge from 1874 to the present day within the broad sweep of larger cultural and economic patterns, Boyer’s engaging book provides a specific example of the universal transformation of books and information technologies and the libraries that house them from the 19^th to 21^st centuries. Most readers will find endearing and tantalizing parallels with their own library experience, wherever they live.

Written to coincide with the 100^th anniversary of the Andrew Carnegie Library in Bracebridge in 2008, Boyer’s book is an inspired and engaging effort to show patterns and perils that probably hold true for most local libraries although some of the dramatic and comedic episodes here are surely unique. This story is so rich it could be a feature movie.

Johanne Durocher fights to free her daughter and four grandchildren from a nightmarish life of abuse and poverty in Saudi Arabia.

In 2001, Nathalie Morin was just seventeen when she met Saeed, a Saudi man who claimed to be studying in Montreal. She fell in love with him, but soon after she gave birth to their son, Saeed was deported back to his country of origin. Struggling as a single mother and wanting Samir to know his father, Nathalie travelled to Saudi Arabia to reunite her family, confident that she would be able to return to Canada whenever she wanted. But a trap was closing around her — her partner turned out to be authoritarian and violent, the abuse continuing until their last child was born.

According to Saudi law, Nathalie was considered married and under Saeed’s legal authority. All too often she was shut away in her own house, a place of hellish poverty. In 2005, Johanne Durocher, Nathalie’s mother, began her decades-long struggle to get Nathalie back home to Canada with her four children: Samir, Abdullah, Sarah, and Fowaz. While Nathalie is allowed to return on her own, her children cannot leave because of a travel ban imposed by the Saudi government. And Nathalie will not leave without them.

Johanne’s relentless fight for her family has garnered the support of several members of the provincial and federal governments, activists, and NGOs, including Amnesty International, who considers Nathalie to be a survivor of gender-based violence.

A dark, satiric novel about a woman whose attempt to escape crises in her health and marriage ends up causing more chaos.

Cat's career has stalled, her marriage has gone flat, and being a stay-at-home mom for two young kids has become a grind. When she finds out, all within a few days, that she is pregnant, that a lump in her breast is the worst thing it could be, and that her husband has done something unforgivably repulsive, she responds by running away from her marriage and her life — a life that, on the outside, looks like middle-class success. Her actions send waves of chaos through the lives of multiple characters, including a struggling house cleaner, a rich and charismatic yoga guru, and even an ailing dog. What follows is a dark comedy about marriage, motherhood, privilege, and power.

A RARE MACHINES BOOK

Against a backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance and Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia, a young man tails Hubert Julian — a pilot, inventor, adventurer, charlatan, and possible threat to America.

Facing an attempted murder charge, seventeen-year-old Arthur Tormes is in no position to refuse when a federal agent named Riley Triggs offers him a deal: all charges get dropped and Arthur goes free if he agrees to help the Bureau with a problem.

That problem is Hubert Julian, a.k.a. the Black Eagle of Harlem: inventor, pilot, parachutist, daredevil, charlatan, and one of the most extraordinary and popular figures of the Harlem Renaissance. For Triggs, it’s the popularity that makes Julian a serious threat to the well-being of America.

To win his freedom, Arthur begins a spying mission that will occupy the next thirteen years of his life, taking him from 1920s New York City to Ethiopia on the verge of war — often at great personal cost. In the end, while America remains safe, Arthur Tormes’s fate is less certain.

The essential guide for Canadian writers seeking to have their work published today.

How do you get your writing published in Canada? What are the industry standards for publishable work and how do you reach them? This lively, practical guide shows you how to think more creatively, cultivate a strong writing voice, and make your sentences powerful. It explains the elements of style and offers writing prompts to help you apply what you learn. It gives strategies for finding critique partners and beta readers and for getting useful feedback before you send your drafts to agents or editors. The chapters are packed with up-to-date information about the publishing industry, including how to find an agent, how to submit manuscripts to literary journals, how to query independent presses, and how to apply for writing grants. The Canadian Guide to Creative Writing & Publishing confidently leads you through the process of polishing your writing and finding an audience for your work.

A fresh take on the Manitoba schools question and the Conservative Coup that toppled Canada’s fifth prime minister.

When Mackenzie Bowell became Canada’s fifth prime minister in December 1894, everyone — including Bowell — expected the job would involve nothing more than keeping the wheels on the Conservative wagon until a spring election.

Plans for a quiet caretakership were dashed in January 1895 when the courts ruled that the Manitoba government had violated Roman Catholics’ constitutional rights by abolishing the provincial separate school system. Catholics in Quebec demanded that Bowell force Manitoba to restore the schools, while Ontario Protestants warned him to keep his hands off.

Backed into a corner, Bowell tried three times to negotiate a compromise with the Manitoba government over the course of 1895, but to no avail. By January 1896, seven of Bowell’s cabinet ministers had had enough. Convinced that Bowell had tarnished the Conservative brand, the caballers forced the prime minister to resign and make way for a new leader, who they believed could revive party fortunes in time for the coming election—the old Warhorse of Cumberland, Sir Charles Tupper.

Ultimately, the coup didn’t matter. Tupper and his conspirators pleaded their case in Parliament and on the hustings, but nothing could stand in the way of Wilfrid Laurier and his Liberals’ historic rise to power in the June 1896 election.

A Very Canadian Coup brings fresh sources and new perspectives to bear on the life and times of Canada’s fifth prime minister and his Sixth Ministry.

The first-ever look at all 65 Toronto mayors — the good, the bad, the colourful, the rogues, and the leaders — who have shaped the city.

Toronto’s mayoral history is both rich and colourful. Spanning 19 decades and the growth of Toronto, from its origins as a dusty colonial outpost of just 9,200 residents to a global business centre and metropolis of some three million, this compendium provides fascinating biographical detail on each of the city’s mayors.

Toronto’s mayors have been curious, eccentric, or offbeat; others have been rebellious, swaggering, or alcoholic. Some were bigots, bullies, refugees, war heroes, social crusaders, or bon vivants; still others were inspiring, forward looking, or well ahead of their time.

One Toronto mayor attempted to kill a predecessor, but his pistol jammed. Another simply beat up the councillors he didn’t like. One committed murder, while another carried out a home invasion. And under the threat of capture and certain death, two mayors were forced to escape the city and live for years in exile, while another had 18 kids and cried poor, yet died on a luxury European vacation (minus the kids). One mayor was involved in the brutal torture of an opposition candidate. Another went insane while in office due to acute third stage syphilis.

Each mayor is the inheritor of a rich legacy of hopes and dreams, ambitions and efforts, successes and failures. From the first mayor in 1834 — the firebrand rebel William Lyon Mackenzie — to those of the 21st century — Mel Lastman, David Miller, Rob Ford, and John Tory — Toronto Mayors looks at where each came from, how they came to lead the city, what issues they dealt with, and how they steered Toronto’s City Council.

Reclaim control of your workday with a proven time-saving method.

Life is busier than ever before. We are working longer hours to keep up with longer to-do lists. Yet we’re experiencing more stress and seem to fall further and further behind. Our so-called leisure time is punctuated with interruptions, constantly pulling us back to work. We are led to believe we can prioritize our way out of this, but prioritization is broken.

In Workday Warrior, productivity expert Ann Gomez presents a fresh approach that smashes today’s time challenges: too many priorities, too many interruptions, and too much complexity. We don’t need more willpower, discipline, or hours in our day. Instead, we need a straightforward approach to help us reclaim our time and upgrade our work habits. We need to concentrate our priori ties, protect our time, and simplify our work to amplify our results.

This book will help you become a Workday Warrior. Find more time in your day, play at a higher level, and feel more in control of your time. Your work (and life!) will never be the same.

The diary of a woman longing for community in a crowded downtown in pandemic times, when casual intimacies are forbidden.

Novelist Rebecca Rosenblum lives in St. James Town, Toronto — the most densely populated square kilometre in all of Canada. When the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns arrive, she’s cut off from colleagues, friends, and family, and not allowed to go near neighbours. As the world constricts, Rebecca keeps a weird and worried diary online — a love letter both to the outside world that she misses so desperately, and the little world inside St. James Town that she can see from home.

As Rebecca watches and wonders from inside her box in the sky, her diary entries mix an account of a tough time in a tough place with joyful goofiness and moments of unexpected compassion.

An investigation into the scale and costs of transitioning our energy systems to achieve net-zero emissions.

Canada and the rest of the developed world have committed to decarbonizing basic energy systems, but do this country’s citizens and governments truly understand the sacrifices ahead and are we willing to accept those sacrifices in the name of reducing the impact of climate change? Will the rest of the developed world take on the necessary costs, and will Canada forge ahead with decarbonization, even if other countries do not?

Carbon Change explores this most visceral of public policy choices for Canada, with a deep dive into recent North American energy and climate policy, the enduring impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and political processes across the developed world with respect to dealing with climate change risks. It offers a dispassionate analysis of the scale and cost of trying to realize the aspiration of decarbonization. Dennis McConaghy asks if a more balanced and nuanced approach is possible to mitigate the effects of climate change, while still optimally using hydrocarbons to maximize global human welfare.