I am often asked how a person comes to know their totem. When I am, I answer by asking this question: "If at night, before you close your eyes to travel to your dream time, if then you picture one of your wild cousins to whom you might ask guidance or give thanks, what would it be?" More often than not, your totem will be there, right before your e …

Bill and Julie live in thrifty middle-class wedded bliss with their 12-year-old son Sean. Julie brings home the bacon while Bill keeps house and frets over his never-ending PhD thesis: an anthropological study of the role of men in society. All is relatively well until Julie's ex-fianc?, the dashing and successful Blake Morgan, returns to Winnipeg …

A laugh-out-loud travel memoir that reveals backpacking’s awkward side.

Sue, a disenchanted waitress, embarks upon a year-long quest around the world with her friend, Sara—who’s exasperatingly perfect. Expecting a whimsical jaunt of self-discovery, Sue instead encounters an absurd series of misadventures that render her embarrassed, terrified, …

When Canadians think of Saskatchewan—if they think of it at all—they think "flat and boring," a place to drive through or fly over, a gap between the bigger cities to the east and west.

Yet thanks to its damn-the-critics spirit, Saskatchewan is the birthplace of socialism, Medicare, and public funding for the arts—all essential to the national …

One Friday morning in the spring of 1972, an ad in the Vancouver Sun caught Nick Marach’s eye: GILLNETTER FOR SALE. A young architect who had just returned to the west coast from a yearlong motorcycle trip abroad, Marach was not looking for a change of career—but he was looking for a boat to live on, and the price of the old gillnetter was chea …

“This is the story of how you were loved,” Penelope MacLaughlin whispers to her granddaughter.

Penelope MacLaughlin marries a miller and gradually discovers he is not as she imagined. Nonetheless she remains determined to make the best of life at the lonely mill up the Gunn Brook as she struggles to build a home around her husband’s eccentri …

Listed as one of the Best Children's Books of 2012 by Kirkus, honored with the Horn Book Fanfare, and selected for the School Library Journal's 100 Magnificent Children's Books of 2012

Jimmy lives in a small town by the sea where there is just one tiny gym. The owner of the gym suggests that Jimmy start training, and to inspire him, he gives Jimmy a …

Adults in their 20s share their real experiences living with disability. This collection of first-person narratives and dialogues is grouped into sections pertaining to different aspects of the writers’ lives, including education and work, family and relationships, health and wellness, self-image and sexual relations. Between Myself and Them is a …

Canadians have always been obsessed with the idea of their own identities. Stories that tell us who we are provide a reassuring sense of identity for the individual and the nation. Hockey. Maple Leaves. Beavers. But collective stories tend to be haunted by a fear that a shared narrative might be nothing more than an elaborate artifice. This fear ha …

This practical and evidence-based guide on postpartum depression (PPD) includes the best and most current studies to date on PPD as well as practical experience from the field.

Postpartum Depression was specifically developed to meet the needs of front-line health and social service providers who work with women during pregnancy and the postpartum p …

Rédigé en langage simple, Traitement de maintien à la méthadone : Manuel du client donne aux clients un aperçu du traitement de maintien à la méthadone. Il contient de précieux renseignements pour les personnes qui envisagent un traitement, commencent leur traitement ou le suivent à long terme, ainsi que pour leur famille et leurs amis. Ce …

Written in plain language, Methadone Maintenance Treatment: Client Handbook gives clients an overview of methadone maintenance treatment. There is valuable information here for those thinking about methadone treatment, for the new client and the long-term client, and for families and friends. This handbook sets the record straight on length of trea …

Faten’s happy life in her village comes to an abrupt end when her father arranges for her to work as a servant for a wealthy Beirut family with two spoiled daughters. What does a bright, ambitious seventeen-year-old do when she is suddenly deprived of her friends, family, education and freedom? Could the mysterious, wealthy young man who lives in …

This book isn’t about perfect moments with your infant. It doesn’t dispense sensible advice or proscribe schedules to manage the lawless days and nights of early maternity. Instead, this literary think piece, an Eat, Pray Love for the smarter mommy crowd, seesaws from disaster to delight, horror to grim resignation, much like motherhood it- sel …

The debut poetry collection by the actor, director, and writer James Franco

I’m a nocturnal creature,
And I’m here to cheat time.
You can see time and exhaustion
Taking pay from my face—
In fifty years
My sleep will be death,
I’ll go like the rest,
But I’ll have played
All the games and all the roles.
—from “Nocturnal”

“There’s n …

“If you could photograph the exact moment between innocence and experience, what would it look like?” Why is desire so irresistible? This is the question that faces Grace, a rebellious young dreamer who takes a long-awaited leap of faith when she meets a charismatic stranger. Told through the eyes of the central character,Grace illustrates a tr …

Issues of sexuality, censorship, and self-censorship in the formation of national and cultural identities are a focus of great interest in contemporary literary research. This is the first work of its kind to study these combined issues in the context of translated and original Hebrew literature.

Rachel Milbauer, a vivacious and outgoing music lover, hid silently in an underground bunker in Nazi-occupied Poland for nearly two years. After the war, a recovered violin, case and photos hidden away by Rachel’s beloved Uncle Velvel became cherished symbols of survival and continuity. Saved by inner fortitude, luck and the courage and caring of …

There was a time when it was common to have a company pension to live on after you stopped working. These days, company pensions are rare and a large percentage of the workforce needs to rely on their own savings to fund their retirement years. How do you figure out how much you need to retire, and how many years that money will last? Do you dream …

"In the pages of this book, you will read of the efforts of many to fearlessly audit the state of education in Nunavik. To diligently seek improvement of an already good system. To fix what is not necessarily broken so that those who come after us will have it even better than we did. The various tensions and differences of opinion are, to me, not …

Ever wonder how to best dress your apple-shaped figure? Do you know the top twelve rules on how to properly (and discreetly) conduct an affair? The Book for Dangerous Women is a sly, elegant encyclopedia of practicalwisdom by three women who know a bit about life and bring their myriad of experiences of bear on topics such as marriage, infidelity, …

Can Rebecca turn her new stepbrother into her new love? When Rebecca's mother marries Pres's father, Rebecca is sure that living in the same house with the guy of her dreams will have its perks and it will be just a matter of time before Pres sees her as more than a kid sister. Even though her best friend, Celeste, warns her to face reality, Rebecc …

Exciting music, delicious ironies, radiant self-awareness.

With imagination, wit and scrupulous candour, Chris Hutchinson’s poems negotiate and renegotiate the shifting no-man’s-land between self and others, introspection and public life. Here are poems carrying unflinching perceptions on their own innovative, edgy music, refusing inflations of …

This compelling coming of age story will leave older teenage boys alternatively snorting with laughter and silently shivering in recognition at the strength and power of bullies. Dak Sifter grows from a bright, 12-year-old beginning to notice how men treat their sons and wives, through the suicide of an abused friend, to buying his first car, writi …

"This novel is every high school boy's wet dream: drummer Dak Sifter's adventures forming the rock and roll band Featherless Bipeds, touring, drinking beer, being discovered by the Big Plastic Record Co. and Billy VandenHammer, cutting an album and becoming famous, not to mention dealing with groupies and girlfriends. Did I mention drinking beer? D …

A passionate argument for the geopolitical autonomy of Latin America, Carlos Fuentes's 1984 CBC Massey lectures trace the region's unique historical and cultural tensions and call upon foreign powers to cease interference in a sphere of influence they rarely fully understand.

Fuentes sees the turbulence in Latin America ending not with political sol …

Acclaimed literary critic Hugh Kenner examines Western culture's insatiable need for stimulation encountered elsewhere - from the eighteenth century's Grand Tour, to the self-imposed exile of modernist writers, to the disembodied global journeys the Internet avails us today. Kenner brings to this fascinating study knowledge of a wide array of disci …

In his 1968 CBC Massey Lectures R. D. Laing discusses how and why we value society's notions of family over our own.

Using concepts of schizophrenia, R.D. Laing demonstrates that we tend to invalidate the subjective and experiential and accept the proper societal view of what should occur within the family.

A psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, Laing wor …

A mesmerizing and moving first collection, Model Disciple gives us a poetry of two minds. Confounded by Japanese-Canadian legacies too painful to fully embrace, Michael Prior’s split speakers struggle to understand themselves as they submit to their reinvention: “I am all that is wrong with the Old World, / and half of what troubles the New.” …

Queer Monologues: Stories of LBGT Youth, produced by For the Love of Learning (FTLOL), offers queer youth a safe, creative outlet to share their concerns, hopes, and personal stories with the community-at-large. If an individual is unable to be themselves, the consequences can be emotional, physical, and mental harm. When feelings are shared within …

"Stitched Up delves into the exclusive and alluring world of fashion to expose class division, gender stereotyping and wasteful consumption. Tansy E. Hoskins illuminates the political and sociological dimensions of an industry that promotes and supports the dominant values of our age: image, glamour, money and sex. Hoskins also provides a fascinati …

The 2007 death by self-induced strangulation in prison of nineteen year old inmate Ashley Smith drew a great deal of public attention. The case gave rise to a shocking verdict of homicide in the 2013 inquest into the cause of her death. In this book, I inquire into questions about of what social problem or phenomenon Ashley Smith is a “case,” a …

Aboriginal People and Other Canadians discusses a wide variety of issues in Native studies including social exclusion, marginalization and identity; justice, equality and gender; self-help and empowerment in Aboriginal communities and in the cities; and, methodological and historiographical representations of social relationships. The contributors …

Postmodernism is sometimes characterized as a loss of faith in reason, a loss of self, and an exaggerated relativism. W.H. Bossart discusses these alleged losses in the light of the "triumph" and subsequent decline of the transcendental turn in philosophy initiated by Kant.

Nein. A Manifesto is the brainchild of Eric Jarosinski, the self-described “failed intellectual” behind @NeinQuarterly, a “Compendium of Utopian Negation” that uses the aphoristic potential of Twitter to plumb the existential abyss of modern life — and finds it bottomless.

Nein is not no. Nein is not yes. Nein is nein.
Nein believes in no …

In his 2015 Garnett Sedgewick lecture, award-winning poet and literary critic Stephen Burt discusses the relation of poetry to time, space and place. He examines the widespread and popular view of contemporary critics who claim that modern lyric poetry is supposed to have a speaking self who resides outside of space and time, and addresses readers …

People who have extreme mood swings may have bipolar disorder, or manic-depressive illness. Their moods may have nothing to do with things going on in their lives. The symptoms of bipolar disorder affect not only mood, but also how people think, behave and function.

This guide discusses:

• what bipolar disorder is

?

• the symptoms, patterns and cau …

The latest from Ian Leslie, the author of Born Liars, a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book, is a fascinating look at the human characteristic of curiosity — our extraordinary capacity to take pleasure in discovering, learning, and understanding.

Curious shows how the practice of “deep curiosity” — persistent, self-reflective seeking of knowledge an …

When the Nazis invaded her small town of Zdun´ska Wola, Poland, in 1939, sixteen-year-old Basia Kohn (later Betty Rich) escaped into Soviet-occupied Poland. Over the next five years, her journey took her thousands of kilometres from a forced labour camp in the far north of the USSR to the subtropical Soviet Georgian region and back to Poland. Afte …

When we meet Sebastian (Seb) he is already taking risks and putting himself in harm’s way as he and a couple of his friends carry out a failed break and enter and are arrested. As we get to know Seb we discover his life has been a series of bad foster experiences that have left him numb to the memories of his dead parents, and poor in his judgeme …

Long-listed for the Green Carnation Prize and The Sunday Times' selection for Memoir of the Year.

"This amazing book tells the story of an appalling childhood with truth and clarity unsmudged by self-pity. It grips from beginning to end.” — Diana Athill, Costa Book Award–winning author of Somewhere Towards the End

Frank McCourt’s Angela’s …

Amir Radi hates washing dishes. When he left Beirut, with a tightly grasped suitcase, he hadn’t expected he’d end up at a Middle-Eastern restaurant with old cooks and dirty dishes. Amir knows his immigrant dream has somehow drowned in foamy dishwater. But one night, he meets Rami and begins to feel less isolated, more hopeful, and closer to ove …

In the tradition of Kafka’s Parables and Paradoxes and The Book of Embraces by Eduardo Galeano, this collection of short essays and “alternative versions” is a vivid, perhaps even shocking, reminder that language, self, and reality are based on social consensus, an unspoken agreement to see the world in a particular, limited way. By breaking …

Agony is the first in a trilogy of long confessional poems. It uses semi-rigorous mathematical and logical constraints to view the author's life and body, telescopically, as little bits of time and space. Everything written here is as true as possible – that is to say, pretty true. It attempts autobiography as a refutation of autobiography, and a …

Images of Canadianness offers backgrounds and explanations for a series of relevant--if relatively new--features of Canada, from political, cultural, and economic angles. Each of its four sections contains articles written by Canadian and European experts that offer original perspectives on a variety of issues: voting patterns in English-speaking C …

These essays make a single central claim: that human beings can still make sense of their lives and still have a humane morality, even if their worldview is utterly secular and even if they have lost the last vestige of belief in God. "Even in a self-consciously Godless world life can be fully meaningful," Nielsen contends.

Two brothers decide to change their lives. They will become cool. But how? With sunglasses? By watching monster and vampire movies and not being scared? By drinking as much soda pop as they can? By listening to loud music with headphones? By being rude to relatives? By having bad table manners? Or maybe not.

Perhaps being cool is something else alto …

Stephen Rowe’s geo•logics—his highly anticipated follow-up to Never More There—binds the impermanent to the permanent. With sustained inquiries into loss and reason, Rowe seeks a motivation capable of accepting pain, and reveals the outlines of our temporary lives backlit by a radiant sense of time’s passage. These poems quietly unearth t …

Acclaimed as a man "who inspires the world" (Maclean's) and a "nation builder" (Globe and Mail), Jean Vanier has made a difference in the lives of countless people -- including those with disabilities and the many young people who have been moved by his life's work.

Becoming Human is a modern classic that continues to resonate among the generations …

Shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General's Award for Fiction, and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize

In 1968, into the beautiful, spare environment of remote coastal Labrador, a mysterious child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor girl, but both at once.

Only three people are privy to the secret — t …