National Network for Equitable Library Service

Ivan Coyote is a celebrated storyteller and the author of ten previous books, including Gender Failure (with Rae Spoon) and One in Every Crowd, a collection for LGBT youth. Tomboy Survival Guide is a funny and moving memoir told in stories, about how they learned to embrace their tomboy past while carving out a space for those of us who don't fit neatly into boxes or identities or labels.

In this jaw-dropping, darkly comedic memoir, a young woman comes of age in a dysfunctional Asian family whose members blamed their woes on ghosts and demons when in fact they should have been on anti-psychotic meds. Lindsay Wong grew up with a paranoid schizophrenic grandmother and a mother who was deeply afraid of the "woo-woo"--Chinese ghosts who come to visit in times of personal turmoil.

Decades before Vancouver's sensational drug wars resulting from organized crime, street gangs--many associated with individual city parks--held sway over Vancouver's unruly east side. None was considered tougher or more feared than the Clark Park Gang. In contrast to the peace-and-love hippies and be-ins of the city's west side, this was a tough, wild, two-fisted crew of characters from Vancouver's post-1960s counterculture.

Eve Lazarus peels back the layers of Vancouver's history to reveal its surprising hidden depths. As the author of such BC bestsellers as Cold Case Vancouver, Murder by Milkshake, and Sensational Vancouver, Australian-born Eve Lazarus has become adept at combining her well-honed investigative skills with an abiding love for her adopted city. These qualities are on full display in her latest book, an exploration of Vancouver's hidden past through the city's neighbourhoods, institutions, people, and events.

In 1996, poet Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, carrying only two backpacks, caught a Greyhound bus in America and ran away to Canada. She ended up in Toronto, where she was welcomed by a community of queer punks of color offering promises of love and revolution, yet she remained haunted by the reasons she left home in the first place.

Ivan E. Coyote and Rae Spoon are accomplished, award-winning writers, musicians, and performers; they are also both admitted "gender failures." In their first collaborative book, a poignant collection of autobiographical essays, lyrics, and images, Ivan and Rae explore and expose their failed attempts at fitting into the gender binary, and how ultimately our expectations and assumptions around traditional gender roles fail us all.

Tells the story of a grassroots group of addicts in downtown Vancouver who throughout the 1990s and 2000s demanded that they be given the same rights as other citizens.

The Juno award-winning Wooden Stars both epitomized and transcended the sound of mid-90s indie rock. One of Canada’s greatest bands, they helped build a scene whose members would go on to be associated with some of the country’s most revered acts including Julie Doiron, Islands and Arcade Fire. With Wooden Stars: Innocent Gears, Malcolm Fraser tracks the highs and lows of this totally unique and influential band.

Jim Guthrie: Who needs what tells the story of a musician whose twenty-year career has been spent either at the forefront of Canada's indie rock renaissance or in the backfround of some of the most popular inde games, films, and ad campaigns of the past decade. Through interviews with Jim, his collaboratiors, and fans, this book explores how a self-describes "Seabiscuit" earned a cult following and become a major infleunce to musicians at home and abroad - all without really having to leave his basement.

The Deadly Snakes: Real Rock and Roll Tonight charts the rise and gentle fall of Canada's greatest band. Unwilling to bow to industry demands, the Deadly Snakes instead made records they were proud of and played music by their own rules. From their chaotic teenage beginnings to the band's exquisite final act, the story of the Deadly Snakes is both the story of angry young men growing up and a microcosm of Canadian independent music.