National Network for Equitable Library Service

A travel narrative written over the course of ten years, One Russia, Two Chinas is about change and resistance to change in the postmodern world. In 1991, when the Soviet Union was about to morph into the Russian Federation, George Fetherling found himself in Moscow. He both marched with the workers in the last-ever Communist May Day parade and observed, at ground level, the new Russia’s love of the marketplace. Fetherling then went overland to China. His entry point was Beijing, which at that moment was girding itself for the first anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Born in Montreal, Oliver Jones performed his first piano concert at five years old. He has become one of the most celebrated representatives of the Montreal Jazz Festival and a worldwide musical ambassador for Canada on many international tours. This exclusive authorized biography begins with his roots – the enslavement of his African ancestors and immigration of his parents to Canada from Barbados – and takes us to the present.

Margaret Macpherson holds a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and has worked as a teacher and journalist in Halifax, Bermuda, and Vancouver. She currently lives in Edmonton with her husband and four children.

Author Gord Deval is the grand "old guy" of sport fishing in Canada. Few anglers can match him when it comes to his familiarity with trout and fly fishing. Internationally known, he holds countless bait and fly casting records. Canadian and North American champion, he has represented Canada 32 times in North American and World competitions. Memories of Magical Waters contains a richness of fishing lore related to Deval's experiences on numerous streams, rivers and lakes in Ontario and Quebec.

In 1927, Mazo de la Roche was an impoverished writer in Toronto when she won a $10,000 prize from the American magazine Atlantic Monthly for her novel Jalna. The book became an immediate bestseller. In 1929, the sequel Whiteoaks also went to the top of bestseller lists. Mazo went on to publish 16 novels in the popular series about a Canadian family named Whiteoak, living in a house called Jalna. Her success allowed her to travel the world and to live in a mansion near Windsor Castle.

During his 18-year reign as premier of Quebec, Maurice Duplessis dominated the province and shaped it to his image. A brilliant orator and a scathing wit, Duplessis exercised complete control over his caucus and the Cabinet. If he couldn’t get a vote, he bought it. Politics was the fuel that drove his life. He died on the job.

Mary Janeway, born in Scotland in 1887, came to Canada as a "home child" at a very young age. Separated from her brothers and sisters, the "tiny" Mary was sent as a domestic to a farm near Innerkip, Ontario. This is Mary’s story – a recreation of her life set in Victorian rural Ontario, from the time of the tragedy that split her family to her eventual escape from a life of drudgery.

Communications theorist Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) predicted the effects of electronic media on modern culture as early as 1964. McLuhan published several breakthrough books and coined terms like "hot" and "cool" media, "the global village," and "the medium is the message."

Robert Boyer was a consummate Canadian, whose long career can be measured by words. An author, journalist, researcher, editor, printer, and public speaker, Boyer’s professional life began at the age of 19 when he became a newspaper editor, and continued through the publication of his twelfth book at the age of 88. He was also a church organist, a member of the Ontario Legislature for seventeen years, and the first vice-chairman of Ontario Hydro. A Canadian Shield Book Published by Dundurn in partnership with Canadian Shield Communications Corporation.

Canadian surgeon Lucille Teasdale and her husband founded Lacor Hospital in northern Uganda in 1961. For 35 years the two doctors treated such contagious diseases as malaria, TB, and AIDS, and Teasdale performed thousands of operations under difficult conditions. They lived through civil war, hostage takings, and epidemics. Teasdale received the highest humanitarian awards from the U.N. for her lifes work in Africa.