National Network for Equitable Library Service

On the morning of July 12, 2012, Mandy Bath left her picturesque home and garden in Johnson's Landing, BC, for a day trip to nearby Kaslo. She had no forewarning of what the placid summer day would bring. But just over an hour later, a massive landslide tore into the community, destroying her home and killing four people—Valentine Webber, aged 60, and his daughters, 22-year-old Diana and 17-year-old Rachel—along with 64-year-old Petra Frehse. Returning the next day to search for her cat, Mandy narrowly avoided being buried beneath a second slide.

An unstintingly honest and surprisingly humorous memoir that charts a couple's parallel diagnoses of Parkinson's and Lewy body dementia. In 2011, Leslie Davidson and her husband Lincoln Ford were enjoying retired life to the fullest as ardent outdoor enthusiasts, energetic travellers, and soon-to-be grandparents. But when Lincoln's confusion became a concern and Leslie began to experience a hesitant leg and uncontrollable tremors in one arm, a devastating double diagnosis completely changed their life.

After the extraordinary success of Gumboot Girls comes the sequel anthology, Dancing in Gumboots. Having relocated to Comox, Jane encountered a new group of women who travelled to the Comox Valley in the 1970s. Fascinated by their stories, Lou Allison and Jane Wilde return to their dynamic partnership to bring us an anthology that shines a light on these trailblazing women and their unique stories. The 1970s was a time of intense cultural shifts for women all over North America.

An entertaining biography of cattle baron and land magnate Cornelius O'Keefe, founder of the Historic O'Keefe Ranch. From humble beginnings to a life of prosperity in the heart of the Okanagan Valley, Cornelius O'Keefe is best known today through the historic ranch in Vernon, BC, that still bears his name. Established in 1867, the O'Keefe Ranch was at one time the largest cattle ranch in the region, with thousands of head of cattle grazing in the vast open ranges.

"At first I'm calm as the trees fall. But suddenly a rat's nest of wood, bent horizontal and cribbed into the trees above us, comes down in a rush of a hundred machine gun snaps. Trees caught in the nest flail around before hitting the ground. Our eyes dart everywhere, trying to keep track of every moment. Trees break free and swing themselves like catapults. Splintered chunks of wood slash through the air like propellers... Falling trees is the most dangerous job in North America."—Aaron Williams.

In the summer of 2017, wildfires dominated the headlines in British Columbia. As a low pressure weather system continued to cause lightning strikes, starting new fires, strong winds fanned the existing ones. Over two hundred fires burned in the province and nearly ten thousand people in or around the towns of 100 Mile House, Ashcroft, Cache Creek, Princeton, and Williams Lake received the instruction—you must evacuate now. But not everyone left.

A celebration of fifty talented, creative, passionate people (forty-nine women and one nonbinary person) working in the fields of visual art, dance, photography, music, design, comedy, storytelling, food, fashion, beauty, wellness, and advocacy. Bloom Where You Are Planted is a collection of interviews and photography that honours a group of innovative, hard-working, diverse people, whose creative and business ventures inspire, support, and infuse others' lives with purpose and positivity. These are people who are passionate about work, community, and giving back.

An award-winning historian and mariner takes readers on an engrossing international journey of self-discovery that explores timely themes of human conflict, ethics, and reconciliation. A member of the so-called Silent Generation, Michael Hadley has a great deal to say in his twilight years. Opening with his Depression-era childhood on a lonely lighthouse on the west coast of Vancouver Island, this remarkably nuanced memoir spans decades, countries, and oceans.

As the daughter of Mormon leader Winston Blackmore, Mary Jayne Blackmore grew up within the closed-off polygamist community of Bountiful, BC. She spent her younger years riding ponies, raising pet lambs and playing in the hay in the Old Barn. Her family's staunch Fundamentalist Mormon faith imposed fanatical doomsday preparation and carried an instilled fear of the world outside her community. The church community split in 2002 when her father was revoked of his leadership position by Prophet Warren Jeffs.

Arthur Erickson, Canada's pre-eminent philosopher architect, was renowned internationally for his innovative approach to landscape, his genius for spatial composition, and his epic vision of architecture for people. Among his most celebrated large-scale works are three that helped to define Vancouver's urban landscape: Simon Fraser University, on Burnaby Mountain; the Robson Square complex at the heart of the city; and the exquisite Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.