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What starts as a simple fishing trip becomes a cathartic experience in the untamed wilderness of Ontario’s northwestern canoe country. A nine-day fishing trip turns into a profound life-altering event and marks the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the untamed wilderness of Canoe Country in northwestern Ontario.

As well as fun and relaxation, cottage living throughout the seasons is a reminder that all of us, even the most urbanized individual, are part of the natural world. Listen carefully and you will hear cottage country whispering lessons that can make our lives less frenetic, less complicated. The mournful call of the loon, the wind sighing in the trees, the hammering of the pileated woodpecker remind us that we are a part of a more natural world too often lost in our urban societies.

One hundred and twenty-five years of steamboating in Muskoka come alive with the anniversary celebration of the RMS Segwun. The Royal Mail Ship Segwun is the oldest operating steamship in North America, a Muskoka icon, and one of Ontario’s best-known tourist attractions. Built as a paddlewheeler in 1887, the RMS Segwun saw her initial career suspended in the 1950s when the ship ceased operations. Fortunately, she began a new chapter in 1974 when she was lovingly restored and magnificent sightseeing cruises were offered.

My feet are practising their steps, gauging the slipperiness of wet lichen on rock and sounding each landing. As my stride shifts to a swing I realize I have a sharper sense of my place in the woods now. I am as taut and limber as a bow-string. I sense bears in the woods, weigh their threat and move on, glorying in the mosses beneath my feet ... We in the woods share fear. By grace of my fear, I am closer to predators and prey. The View From Foley Mountain is a celebration of the joy of living in harmony with the natural world.

Short-listed for the 2010 National Business Book Award Renowned author and journalist Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos uses her talent for investigative reporting to take us deep into the poorest villages in India. Yet, far from being passive victims of their circumstances, the women who live there have joined forces and are making astute use of microcredit to break the cycle of poverty. Microcredit was made famous by Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and consists of very small loans made primarily to women for the production of essential commodities or to start small businesses.

Manitoba's Hayes River runs over six hundred kilometers from near Norway House to Hudson Bay. On its rush to the sea, the Hayes races over forty-five rapids and waterfalls as it drops down from the Precambrian Shield to the Hudson Bay Lowlands. This great waterway, the largest naturally flowing river in Manitoba, served as the highway for settlers bound for the Red River colony, ferrying their worldly goods in York boats and canoes, struggling against the mighty currents.

What do experienced field naturalists discover when they explore the heavily populated Lake Ontario shoreline as if they were surveying a wilderness for the first time? In this beautifully illustrated book, Aleta Karstad takes you on a journey of discovery along the route of the Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail. Listening for calling frogs in spring, turning stones, sampling shoreline drift, identifying plants and animals, Karstad and her husband, herpetologist Frederick W. Schueler, discover a wealth of natural life, sometimes in unexpected places.

"I remember them as though they had happened yesterday." So writes author-naturalist Charles Sauriol in reference to his many memorable experiences within Toronto’s Don River Valley. From Scout outings in 1920 to pioneer cottaging, train excursions, maple syrup making, beekeeping and countless other activities, the author’s long association with the Don makes for fascinating reading in this sequel to his earlier book, Remembering the Don. Tales of the Don provides for Toronto residents and visitors alike a picture window through which they may see the valley as it was years ago.

Bustling station platforms, with quaint steamers nearby, often appear on early Sparrow Lake postcards. It was at the station that rail passengers were met and taken by boat to one of the over 20 hotels that once flourished in this holiday area. Such a trip could take about three hours on this roughly three-mile lake, bordering the southern Muskoka arm of the Canadian Shield.

Breakfast at the Hoito brings together a collection of stories and essays on the dreamlike world of Lake Superior’s north shore … on wilds and wildlife, people and places.Spend a day in the kitchen of the famed Hoito Restaurant in Thunder Bay. Discover the secret life of ravens; the passions of the blueberry picker; the thrills and fears of the novice ice climber.