National Network for Equitable Library Service

A history of the Mariposa Folk Festival, from its humble roots in Orillia in 1961 to international acclaim and legendary status as a premier folk music gathering. Mariposa began in the heyday of the early 60s “folk boom.” In its more than fifty-five years, it has seen many of the world’s greatest performers grace its stages: Pete Seeger, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jann Arden, and Serena Ryder. The festival has long held a musical mirror to popular culture in Canada.

Shining a light on the dark history of hangings in Canada. Take a journey through notable cases in Canada’s criminal justice history, featuring well-known and some less-well-known figures from the past. You'll meet Arthur Ellis, Canada’s most famous hangman, whose work outfit was a frock coat and striped trousers, often with a flower pinned to his lapel. And you will also encounter other memorable characters, including the man who was hanged twice and the gun-toting bootlegger who was the only woman every executed in Alberta.

A Globe and Mail Bestseller! A guide for Canadians on how to use real estate as an investment and retirement solution. Leveraging equity in a principal residence and using it wisely to purchase rental property is the solution to a safe, secure retirement for millions of Canadians. Many Canadians who own their home have never considered buying a second property. And nearly one-third of retirees are worried about running out of money.

Read between the front lines: The stories of three Canadian female journalists stationed in England and France during the First World War. Europe: 1914–18. Mary MacLeod Moore, a writer for Saturday Night Magazine, covered the war’s impact on women, from the munitions factories to the kitchens of London’s tenements. Beatrice Nasmyth, a writer for the Vancouver Province, managed the successful wartime political campaign of Canadian Roberta MacAdams and attended the Versailles Peace Conference as Premier Arthur Sifton’s press secretary.

Military historian Carl Benn explores the rich history of our nation with two absorbing stories of bravery in this special two-book bundle. Mohawks on the Nile: Natives Among the Canadian Voyageurs in Egypt, 1884-1885 Mohawks on the Nile explores the absorbing history of sixty Aboriginal men who left their occupations in the Ottawa River timber industry to participate in a military expedition on the Nile River in 1884-1885.

The Hill Times: Best Books of 2017 What if it is not our political system that is broken, but our understanding of it? Everybody thinks that it’s the system that’s broken in politics; but what if it’s not the system that’s broken but rather our understanding of it? What if everyone’s proposals to make the system “more democratic” only wind up making things worse, and weaken our systems of accountability so much as to make them meaningless? What if it’s our own ignorance that is killing democracy in this country?

A hilarious self-help book for recovering Leafs fans everywhere. We’ve all heard it. The sound of one team sucking. Our team. The Leafs. It starts as an almost imperceptible hum, a month or so after the home opener, once the shine of the new season wears off, building in intensity with each defeat until the sound explodes like the noise a star might make if you ripped its heart out. Fact is, being a Maple Leafs fan is a kind of addiction: irrational, compulsive, dependent. You can’t just quit cold turkey. You need help … And that’s where The Sound of One Team Sucking comes in.

A unique perspective on Ontario's most powerful political leaders from one of Canada's most astute and respected journalists. Includes: Bill Davis: Nation Builder, and Not So Bland After All A biography of perhaps Ontario’s most important premier, who, despite having been out of public life for thirty years, is remembered fondly by many as the head of one of Ontario’s most progressive, yet conservative, governments.

Hamilton Spectator columnist Paul Benedetti’s essays paint a wonderfully funny portrait of family life today. Paul Benedetti has a good job, a great family, and successful neighbours — but that doesn’t stop him from using it all as grist for a series of funny, real, and touching essays about a world he can’t quite navigate. Benedetti misses his son, who is travelling in Europe, misplaces his groceries, and forgets to pick up his daughter at school. He endures a colonoscopy and vainly attempts to lower his Body Mass Index — all with mixed results.

Diana Bishop recounts growing up in the shadow of her famous grandfather, Canadian First World War flying ace Billy Bishop. As a child, Diana Bishop showed up one day at school with a brown paper bag. Inside was a large breastplate of some of the most precious war medals on the planet, including the Victoria Cross. They belonged to Canada’s most celebrated First World War pilot, Billy Bishop, and until her family donated them to the Canadian War Museum, they had been kept in her father’s underwear drawer.