National Network for Equitable Library Service

Before she became a psychiatric nurse at "The Mental" in the 1950s, Kay Parley was a patient there, as were the father she barely remembered and the grandfather she'd never met. Part memoir, part history, and beautifully written, Inside The Mental offers an episodic journey into the stigma, horror, and redemption that she found within the institution's walls. Now in her nineties, Parley looks back at the emerging use of group therapy, the advent of patients' rights, evolving ethics in psychiatry, and the amazing cast of characters she met there.

A Brush Full of Colour is the story of a boy whose passion for learning would save him from a life in the coalmines. The books by the American writer Jack London and Canadian poet Robert Service fired his imagination with scenes of the wilderness and the Klondike Gold Rush. He trained as an artist, and a stint in the British Intelligence Service allowed him to travel. But Ted never stopped dreaming of the North, and when he saw an advertisement for teachers in Northern Alberta, he jumped at the chance to emigrate to Canada, where the biggest adventure of his life would begin.

Covers the highlights of 26 years in the career of Judge Glen McDonald, who was the colorful and often controversial Vancouver Coroner from 1954 to 1980 and supervisory coroner for the province of British Columbia from 1969 to 1980.

Three cowhands with a dream of owning a cattle ranch make a heroic pioneer trek across uncharted mountain ranges to open up the frontier grasslands in northern British Columbia during the early 1930s.

These are twenty-two personal stories, told by women from practically all backgrounds and persuasions--devout and not-so devout, professionals and housewives, westernized and traditional, wearing jeans, hijab, or niqab, and originally from Africa to North America to Pakistan to the Middle East--revealing in their own ways what it means to them to be a Muslim woman (a "Muslimah"). What we get is a complex of stories, all united by two simple ideas--faith and nationality (Canadian).

Max Braithwaite has the unique capacity to be both tender and caustic – both nostalgic and uncompromisingly honest. He is also one of Canada’s few original humorists. All these qualities are present in his latest bittersweet recollections of life on the Prairies during the early Thirties. It was a time of depression and drought; but for Max, a young schoolteacher, it was also a time for courtship and marriage, for those hilarious episodes in Wannego, Saskatchewan, which did much to belie the grimness of the era.

"The story of Wolfe and Montcalm and the Plains of Abraham. In September 1759, a small band of British troops led by James Wolfe scaled the tall cliff overlooking a farmer's field owned by Abraham Martin and overpowered the French garrison that protected the area, allowing the bulk of the British army to ascend the cliff behind and attack the French who, led by Louis-Joseph Montcalm, were largely unaware of Wolfe's tactics. The battle that ensued on what would become known as the Plains of Abraham would forever shape the geography and politics of Canada.

Brook Benton was a magnificent singer who could handle handle anything from blues, jazz and soul to country, pop and standards.  His version of Tony Joe White’s ‘Rainy Night In Georgia’ - an international smash in 1970 - remains a timeless classic.

A political insider takes a revealing look at the public and private life of BC's controversial premier. In the blood-sport arena of provincial politics, BC's enigmatic premier, Christy Clark, has defied the pundits to win both party leadership and an upset election victory against all odds. Made deputy premier in 2001 shortly after her first foray into public life, she shunned Gordon Campbell's cabinet solidarity to return to private life in 2004. After a bold run at becoming Vancouver's mayor, she launched a successful media career as a CKNW talk show host.

This is the story of the formative years of Canada’s most famous newspaper editor, John Wesley Dafoe. Written by his grandson, it is an honest account of the man that his family and his friends knew, from his unpromising beginnings in the backwoods of pre-Confederation Ontario to his early and unexpected success in nineteenth century Canadian journalism. It includes an examination of Dafoe’s family background, his education, his early career, his rise as a national and international figure and his lifelong search for a true Canadian identity.