Featured Books

Now almost exclusively known as the author of the bestselling Millennium Trilogy, as a professional journalist Stieg Larsson was an untiring crusader for democracy and equality. As a reporter and editor-in-chief on the journal Expo he researched the extreme right both in Sweden and at an international level. Collected here for the first time are essays and articles on right-wing extremism and racism, on violence against women and women’s rights, on homophobia, and honour killings.

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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 incisive wit, Stursberg tells the story of the struggle that resulted -- a struggle that lasted for six turbulent and controversial years.

Shortly after Stursberg arrived, the corporation locked out its employees for two months. Four years later, he signed the most harmonious labour contract to date. He had terrible flops. He enjoyed the best radio, television and online ratings in CBC's history. He fought endless wars with the CBC president and board about the direction of the corporation and ultimately was dismissed.

This is the story of our most loved and reviled cultural institution during its most convulsive and far-reaching period of change.

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Scientific studies have shown that natural environments can have remarkable benefits for human health. Natural environments are more likely to promote positive emotions; and viewing and walking in nature have been associated with heightened physical and mental energy. Nature has also been found to have a positive impact on children who have been diagnosed with impulsivity, hyperactivity, and attention deficit disorder. A powerful wake-up call for our tech-immersed society, Your Brain on Nature examines the fascinating effects that exposure to nature can have on the brain

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Prince George-based outdoors expert, Mike Nash, shares what he has learned about outdoor safety and survival during more than thirty years of year-round treks into the rugged backcountry of western Canada. This dynamic and up-to-date handbook discusses ways to prepare for and deal with any number of critical situations that may arise in remote and mountainous terrain and is packed with information. Interspersed with "reality checks," the book aims to keep outdoor enthusiasts safe when traveling in the outdoors, all the while ensuring an appreciation of the many splendors that outdoor adventuring has to offer.

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When New York Times journalist Jim Robbins came upon Milarch’s story, he was fascinated but had his doubts. Yet over several years, listening to Milarch and talking to scientists, he came to realize that there is so much we do not yet know about trees: how they die, how they communicate, the myriad crucial ways they filter water and air and otherwise support life on Earth. It became clear that as the planet changes, trees and forest are essential to assuring its survival. The Man Who Planted Trees is both a fascinating investigation into the world of trees and the inspiring story of one man’s quest to help save the planet. This book’s hopeful message of what one man can accomplish against all odds is also a lesson about how each of us has the ability to make a difference.

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Leonard Mlodinow, gives us a startling and eye-opening examination of how the unconscious mind shapes our experience of the world and how, for instance, we often misperceive our relationships with family, friends, and business associates, misunderstand the reasons for our investment decisions, and misremember important events.

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On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake occurred off the northeastern coast of Japan, triggering a 50-foot tsunami that crushed everything in its path—highways, airports, villages, trains, and buses—leaving death and destruction behind, and causing a major radiation leak from five nuclear plants. Here eighteen writers give us their trenchant observations and emotional responses to such a tragedy, in what is a fascinating, enigmatic and poignant collection.

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Adria Vasil, Canada’s straight-shooting green living expert, is back, and this time it’s personal . . . care, that is. Her latest eco bible delivers the lowdown on virtually every product that comes into contact with our bodies. From the pollutants clogging your sinus meds all the way to the outlaw toxins leaching from your sandals, ECOHOLIC BODY has you covered, head to toe. Never shy to blow the whistle, Adria calls out supplement and shampoo makers that exaggerate their green cred. This witty, indispensable guide will arm you with the knowledge you need to keep you and your family healthy, happy and green, all while detoxing the planet.

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by Helen Dunmore

In the winter of 1952, Isabel Carey moves to the East Riding of Yorkshire with her husband Philip, a GP. With Philip spending long hours on call, Isabel finds herself isolated and lonely as she strives to adjust to the realities of married life.

Woken by intense cold one night, she discovers an old RAF greatcoat hidden in the back of a cupboard. Sleeping under it for warmth, she starts to dream. And not long afterwards, while her husband is out, she is startled by a knock at her window.

Outside is a young RAF pilot, waiting to come in.

His name is Alec, and his powerful presence both disturbs and excites her. Her initial alarm soon fades, and they begin an intense affair. But nothing has prepared her for the truth about Alec's life, nor the impact it will have on hers...

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by Sandra Dallas

In 1856, Mormon converts, encouraged by Brigham Young himself, and outfitted with two-wheeled handcarts, set out on foot from Iowa City to Salt Lake City, the promised land. The Martin Handcart Company, a ragtag group of weary families headed for Zion, is the last to leave on this 1,300-mile journey. Three companies that left earlier in the year have completed their trek successfully, but for the Martin Company the trip proves disastrous.

True Sisters tells the story of four women from the British Isles traveling in this group. Four women whose lives will become inextricably linked as they endure unimaginable hardships, each one testing the boundaries of her faith and learning the true meaning of survival and friendship along the way.

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by Vincent Lam

Percival Chen is the headmaster of the most respected English school in Saigon. He is also a bon vivant, a compulsive gambler and an incorrigible womanizer. He is well accustomed to bribing a forever-changing list of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of the Chen Academy. He is fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, and quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country. He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him, choosing instead to read the faces of his opponents at high-stakes mahjong tables.

But when his only son gets in trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival faces the limits of his connections and wealth and is forced to send him away. In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage, and Laing Jai, a son born to them on the eve of the Tet offensive. Percival's new-found happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further and further into his world, he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see.

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by Allison Winn Scotch

One of only two survivors of a plane crash, Nell Slattery wakes in the hospital with no memory of it - or who she is, or was. Now she must piece together both body and mind - with the help of family and friends, who all have their own agendas. Her husband, Peter, is trying to erase his recent affair and pending divorce from their marital history.  Her mother is trying to sweep the real story of Nell's long-lost father under the rug.  And Rory, her sister and business partner, is trying to protect their relationship with stories of her own.  Although Nell can't remember all that came before, something just doesn't sit right with their version of her history...

Desperate for a key to unlock her past, Nell filters through photos, art, and music- anything to puzzle through the woman she truely was.  The woman she is.

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The future is here, with couples today debating who must assume the responsibility of primary earner and who gets the freedom of being the slow track partner. With more men choosing to stay home, Mundy shows how that lifestyle has achieved a higher status and all the ways males have found to recover their masculinity. And the revolution is global: Mundy takes us from Japan to Denmark to show how both sexes are adapting as the marriage market has turned into a giant free-for-all, with men and women at different stages of this transformation finding partners in other countries who match their expectations.

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Reading Lolita in Tehran is a moving testament to the power of art and its ability to change and improve people's lives. In 1995, after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government, the women were forced to meet in secret.  For two years they met to talk, share, and "shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color." Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first, they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural, and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. 

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The year was 1765. Eminent botanist Philibert Commerson had just been appointed to a grand new expedition: the first French circumnavigation of the world. As the ships’ official naturalist, Commerson would seek out resources—medicines, spices, timber, food—that could give the French an edge in the ever-accelerating race for empire.

Jeanne Baret, Commerson’s young mistress and collaborator, was desperate not to be left behind. She disguised herself as a teenage boy and signed on as his assistant. The journey made the twenty-six-year-old, known to her shipmates as “Jean” rather than “Jeanne,” the first woman to ever sail around the globe. Yet so little is known about this extraordinary woman, whose accomplishments were considered to be subversive, even impossible for someone of her sex and class.

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A newsmaking exposé about why Canada's financial industry is a haven for fraud.

Beneath the veneer of stability that saw Canada's banking sector through the financial crash of 2008, investigative reporter Bruce Livesey has uncovered a rampant failure of epidemic proportions. Though no large financial institution has recently gone bust in this country, white-collar criminals, scam artists, Ponzi schemers and organized crime, from the Hells Angels to the Russian mafia, know that Canada is the place in the Western world to rip off investors. And the fraudsters do so with little fear of being caught and punished.

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by Lucille LaBossiere

AFTER ENDURING A DIFFICULT LIFE, Evelyn Parker seems to have it all-a marriage proposal from her soul mate and a beautiful eight-year-old daughter. But after her car plunges over a cliff, her life is abruptly snuffed out; her daughter, Kimberley, is sent to live with her widowed aunt. At such a young age, Kimberley has no idea how the events that soon begin unfolding will shape her future.

Aunt Beatrice, who at just thirty years old is already sporting gray hair after the death of both her husband and her sister, is forced back to work to support her niece. As she grows into a young adult, Kimberley never forgets her aunt's act of kindness and is determined to repay her. Just as she is ready to begin her career, an opportune moment not only offers Kimberley the chance to fulfill her long-held dream to show her gratitude to Aunt Beatrice, but also propels her into a relationship that will change her life forever.

In this romantic tale, a young girl begins a coming-of-age journey that eventually leads her to discover the meaning of true love.

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by David Heinimann

"Turning about to head back, we saw a launch heading toward us, fast, another from behind.  Ruperta flung down the binoculars and went below, returned with her ringing phone and a pistol.  The second launch was here: the first unknown, but considered dangerous and to be intercepted.  Through the binoculars, we could see a man with a machine gun. 

We tossed smoke flares for a screen and scrambled into survival suits.  Bullets splashed the water and smashed into the hull, whizzed all around us.  Ruperta shouted to jump into the water on the opposite side and swim away.

I thought she would follow me, but she remained, low in the cockpit, aiming carefully through the smoke.  I turned back, bullets striking the hull and flying over me.  Ruperta fired repeatedly, and gun empty, she jumped into the water." 

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by Kurt Palka

"Inspired by a true story and based on a wealth of family documents, this elegant and compelling novel chronicles the lives of two families from the 1930s through the coming of the Nazis and World War II, and the long, difficult post-War period to the present. This vividly realized, masterfully executed novel is a window into a little-explored corner of history. Patient Number 7 is a story of love between an aristocratic young woman and the cavalry officer -- later Panzer officer in the German army -- she marries; between friends who help each other through the Nazi takeover of Austria, the war, and what was sometimes worse, the "liberation"; between a mother and her two very different daughters. But it is also the story of a nation's darkest days, and its slow recovery during one of the most convulsive, violent periods of human history. Beautifully written, haunting, and ultimately redemptive, it is a work of great skill and great compassion."--Publisher.

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by Robert J. Sawyer

On the eve of a secret military operation, an assassin's bullet strikes U.S. President Seth Jerrison. He is rushed to hospital, where surgeons struggle to save his life. At the same hospital, Canadian researcher Dr. Ranjip Singh is experimenting with a device that can erase traumatic memories. Then a terrorist bomb detonates. In the operating room, the president suffers cardiac arrest. He has a near-death experience, but the memories that flash through Jerrison's mind are not his memories.It quickly becomes clear that the electromagnetic pulse generated by the bomb amplified and scrambled Dr. Singh's equipment, allowing a random group of people to access one another's minds. And now one of those people has access to the president's memories - including classified information regarding an upcoming military mission, which, if revealed, could cost countless lives. But the task of determining who has switched memories with whom is a daunting one, particularly when some of the people involved have reasons to lie ...

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Moneyball meets the documentary "The Union: The Business Behind Getting High" in this non-fiction book that explores the culture of cannabis, from its humble beginnings as a textile fiber in 2727 BC, to its illegalization during the Great Depression, to its increasing use as medicinal treatment -- all culminating in the annual event for marijuana aficionados everywhere: the Cannabis Cup.

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by Will Ferguson

A car tumbles through darkness down a snowy ravine.

A woman walks out of a sandstorm in sub-Saharan Africa.

And in the seething heat of Lagos City, a criminal cartel scours the internet looking for victims.

Lives intersect, worlds collide, a family falls apart.  And it all begins with a single email: "Dear Sir, I am the daughter of an exiled Nigerian diplomat, and I need your help ..."

When Laura Curtis, a lonely editor in a cold northern city, discovers her father has died because of one such swindle, she sets out to track down  - and corner - her father's killer.  It is adangerous game she is playing, however, and the stakes are higher than she can ever imagine.

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by Alexander McCall Smith

Number fifteen in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novels

Precious Ramotswe is haunted by a repeated dream: a vision of a tall, strange man who waits for her beneath an acacia tree. Odd as this is, she’s far too busy to worry about it. The best apprentice at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors is in trouble with the law and stuck with the worst lawyer in Gaborone. Grace Makutsi and Phuti Radiphuti are building the house of their dreams, but their builder is not completely on the up and up. And, most shockingly, Mma Potokwane, defender of Botswana’s weak and downtrodden, has been dismissed from her post as matron at the orphan farm. Can the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency help restore the beloved matron to her rightful position?

As wealthy and powerful influences at the orphan farm become allied against their friend, help arrives from an unexpected visitor: the tall stranger from Mma Ramotswe’s dreams, who turns out to be none other than the estimable Clovis Andersen, author of the No. 1 Ladies’ prized manual, The Principles of Private Detection. Together, Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi, and their teacher-turned-colleague help right this injustice and in the process discover something new about being a good detective.

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by Patrick Flanery

A devastating and intimate portrait of post-apartheid South Africa, and the perils of taking sides when the sides are changing around you. Told in shifting perspectives, ABSOLUTION is centred on the mysterious character of Clare Wald, a controversial writer of great fame, haunted by the memories of a sister she fears she betrayed to her death and a daughter she fears she abandoned. Clare comes to learn that in this conflict the dead do not stay buried, and the missing return in other forms - such as the small child present in her daughter's last days who has reappeared, posing as Clare's official biographer.

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by Nancy Richler

When a young, enigmatic woman arrives in post-war Montreal, it is immediately clear that she is not who she claims to be. Her attempt to live out her life as Lily Azerov shatters as she disappears, leaving a new husband and baby daughter, and a host of unanswered questions. Who is she really and what happened to the young woman whose identity she has stolen? It is left to the daughter she abandoned to find the answers to these questions as she searches for the mother she may never find or really know.

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