National Network for Equitable Library Service

The women in these stories did the unthinkable for their time: they followed their own paths, flouting convention and daring to break from the traditions of family and marriage. They chose a life outside the norm, a decision for which most paid dearly. Nell Shipman was overlooked because she was not as acquiescent as required; she opened an independent production company just when the major Hollywood studios began exerting their power. Isobel Gunn, once revealed to be a woman, lost her livelihood and her respectability. And almost everyone scorned Mother Caroline Fulham.

Fifteen years before the 1858 Fraser River gold rush, a Hudson’s Bay Company clerk named Alexander Caulfield Anderson threaded his way through mountain passes and down rapids-filled rivers in search of a safe all-British route through the mountains that separated the HBC fort at Kamloops from Fort Langley on the Pacific coast. Eventually, Anderson discovered four routes, succeeding where Alexander Mackenzie and Simon Fraser before him had failed.

Although her name today is synonymous with the women’s suffrage movement in Canada, Nellie McClung’s long and varied career covered several fields—from social activist to elected politician, from novelist to journalist. McClung was instrumental in Canadian women gaining the right to vote before their British and American counterparts—2016 marks the one-hundred-year anniversary of women’s suffrage in Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan—and in women being recognized as persons eligible to sit in the Senate.

"Merve Wilkinson and Wildwood, his small patch of forest, provide powerful evidence that a forest can be logged while its integrity is maintained in perpetuity. In speaking out against current industrial clear-cut logging practices, Merve has become a genuine Canadian hero. Uncompromising, tough, fearless and with a wonderful sense of humour, he is now an elder who inspires young people, who refer to his home as "Mervana." This is a story that should be read by all who care about the future and seek alternatives to our destructive ways." -David Suzuki.

A former Olympic rower reflects on his evolution from ultra-competitive athlete to supportive coach and offers his game-changing thoughts on achieving success. Once the embodiment of an aggressive athlete, Jason Dorland used to identify himself according to the results of his competitions—winner or loser. The elite rower was raised with an “in-it-to-win-it” attitude and was trained to think of every competitor as an enemy.

It’s 1981, and Sylvia Taylor has signed on as rookie deckhand on a wallowy 40-foot salmon troller. Looking forward to making money for university, she is determined to master the ins and outs of fishing some of the most dangerous waters in the world: the Graveyard of the Pacific.

A finalist for the 1995 Governor General's Literary Award for English-language non-fiction. Winner of the Mountain Environment and Culture Award at the 1995 Banff Mountain Book Festival. Leaning on the Wind is a love song of the west, sung to the tune of the wild chinook wind. Sid Marty skilfully weaves together the prehistory of Alberta with the experiences of First Nations, miners, early homesteaders and his own family. At the centre of his tale is the Marty homestead, located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Shortlisted for the 2009 George Ryga Award. This is the story of an average family that has never been the same . . . since its eldest child was swarmed and killed by her peers on a moonlit night, November 14, 1997 . . . It is the story of what sudden and horrific violence can do to a family, and how a family somehow remains intact in the face of such events. —from the prologue by Lynne Van Luven At the time of their 14-year-old daughter Reena’s murder, Manjit and Suman Virk had already been let down by both social-services and law-enforcement authorities.

Most Canadians are familiar with John McCrae through his iconic poem “In Flanders Fields,” which was penned on the battlefields of the First World War and remains a symbol of remembrance to this day. Although he will always be remembered as a war poet, the Guelph, Ontario, native was a physician, a university professor, and a veteran of the Second Boer War before he ever laid eyes on the carnage at Flanders Fields.

A rich and diverse tapestry weaving together the many voices, narratives, skills, and talents of women up and down the coastal Pacific Northwest who devote their lives and careers to the sea. Beckoned by the Sea celebrates coastal women from northern BC to northern California who work on or with the sea. The twenty-four women featured in this inspiring and fascinating book represent a variety of industries—from conservation, commercial fishing, and marine biology to safety and rescue, tourism, and the arts.