In Purity of Absence, Dave Margoshes explores love in its waxing and waning, the extravagance of its fullness, the agony of its departure. Like an explorer charting new territory, he casts his eye on the rhythms and syntax of love, observing its aspects both quotidian and rare. The poems in this new collection, Margoshes’s first in a decade, chart the ekg patterns of love, not just the mature love between a man and a woman but love for a parent, friends, knowledge, place and, ultimately, life itself.
The psalms are among the most sublime poetry in the world, offering us inexhaustible wells of meaning. Herbert O'Driscoll adeptly dips into their sacred depths and draws up sparkling insights to refresh the soul. Our contemporary spirits can feel at home in the world of psalms. All of human experience is there – joy and sadness, love and anger, trust and despair. The gift of the psalms lies in their challenge to us; they invite us into dialogue with them and with the God who inspired them. The psalms guide us to express our deepest feelings to God, and their response floods the soul with assurance. Justice is done. Healing takes place. Grace is given. Praise for God with Us: The Companionship of Jesus in the Challenges of Life : "God with Us, approached in a spirit of openness and honesty, can be transforming. Its thought is deep but its language is accessible – written with sensitivity and spirituality." - Montreal Anglican
David, an Anglican parish priest, has no way of knowing that his place in the world is about to be shaken irrevocably. He will be flung headlong into a journey of discovery that leads him to Canada’s rugged West Coast, a journey of loss and deliverance long overdue. There, in the midst of a spirited pioneer people, David veers into the tangled realms of love and passion, and stares even into the jaws of death. This unpredictable pilgrimage of the soul makes no guarantees and offers no safe haven. He will never be the same again.
The boreal forest of Quebec/Labrador – some of the most rugged and isolated land in Canada – has captivated avid canoeists for generations. In the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, the intrepid A.P. Low of the Geological Survey of Canada spent, in total, more than ten years of his working life surveying the area. Employing Aboriginal canoemen and guides, he travelled by canoe, snowshoe and sailing vessel to map and document much of this vast territory. Challenged by the mystique of this extraordinary Canadian, canoeists Max Finkelstein and James Stone retraced Low’s routes – by their admission, their toughest canoe trip ever! Using archival sources, oral history and personal experience, they tell the story of A.P. Low and, in the process, reveal the environmental issues now facing this much threatened Canadian wilderness. "Once again Max Finkelstein has blessed us with his incredible ability to make history of exploration come alive. Rather than sit behind a desk and try to imagine the ’misadventures’ Low would have had, he goes out and duplicates them, and along the way creates a few tales of his own. This is one great read and we should be thankful that people like Max and Jim Stone exist in this world of ours." – Kevin Callan, well-known author and canoeist "From A.P. Low’s logs and reports, Max Finkelstein and Jim Stone give vitality to that great geological surveyor. Interspersed are vivid accounts of their own challenging canoe voyages on the same rivers and portages of the boreal forest and rock in the James Bay/Ungava/Labrador country of the Cree, Innu and Inuit. What emerges is an eloquent testimonial for the wilderness canoe trip in the Canadian experience." Bruce W. Hodgins, Emeritus Professor of History, Trent University; President, Camp Wanapitei; Member, Advisory Council, Canadian Canoe Museum
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. Later that same year he journeyed to Taiwan, then in its final days as a dictatorship. He returned there mid-decade when the «Other China» had become a democracy, in order to note the differences – and similarities. This is old-fashioned travel writing, with vivid prose, bizarre characters, and crystallizing descriptions. But its also a valuable document that freezes some important world events for close inspection.
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. Throughout his extensive outdoor reminiscences are many insights into fish habitats, fishing «how tos» and general insider tips on lures and casting techniques. Deval’s fishing adventures of over fifty years take the reader to such exceptional trout waters as the Ganaraska River in Ontario, the Broadback River in Quebec, Lake Simcoe and many almost inaccessible waters within Ontario’s Land O’ Lakes, Haliburton, Muskoka and the Kawarthas, and streams closer to urban centres. His experiences include ice fishing and stream fishing, as well as fishing on open waters. As an angler, he has «wet a line» with a veritable «who’s who» of fishermen past and present.
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 couldnt 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. Robbed of her childhood years but buoyed by an inner resolve and an indomitable spirit, Mary Janeway reveals the tragic events surrounding this period of Canadian history – the Home Children. Mary Janeway was godmother to author Mary Pettit.
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.»
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.