Stephen Henighan, a Romanian grammar book and hours of language tapes under his belt, billets with a family as an English teacher in Moldova, a country born from the dismantling of Romania during World War II. As a Westerner in this «lost province» and former Soviet republic, Henighan feels he’s an unnerving disappointment for many Moldovans, especially to the MTV-addicted, twenty-year-old Andrei.
I was only six when I suspected my skin might be the wrong colour… Born female on the wrong side of the tracks, Eve Mills Nash, with the help of co-author Kenneth J. Harvey, tells a hard-hitting tale of a lifelong fascination with men of a darker hue. From early childhood, Nash knew it was «something to do with what was inside the bottles» that encouraged the groping male fingers that casually abused her during her parents’ drunken parties. She soon discovered that the wine remnants in the revellers’ discarded cups would numb her pain. Nash’s fortuneteller grandmother predicted a future of violence for her, starting as a teenager with her marriage to first husband Stan, an Ontario Mohawk. What Nash’s grandmother didn’t prophesize was the drunken binges and revolving door of unstable partners that traumatized her children, left her suicidal, and convinced her she was a failure as a mother after her eldest daughter became a cocaine addict. Harrowing yet life-affirming, this blistering account of life on the cusp of New Brunswick’s Native community sees the Little White Squaw and her children balance precariously between two seemingly irreconcilable cultures and colours.
Leaside is a most comprehensive look at the people, significant events and built heritage, all of which contributed to the creation of this distinctive community. Named after John Lea, a successful farmer, whose house, built in 1829, is believed to be the first brick house in York County, Leaside grew from a railway settlement into a prosperous urban town. With its roots embedded in the history of three railways, Leaside has a unique industrial heritage that played a key role in the war effort during both World Wars, including its being the site of munitions plants, a wooden plane factory, and a base for the Royal Flying Corps. Leaside was also home to the Durant Motors of Canada, and later the Nash cars, Canada Wire and Cable, and the popular Thorncliffe Race Track. Did you know that Canada’s first airmail delivery touched down in Leaside and that an Olympic calibre ski jump once operated in the Don Valley? Jane Pitfield’s Leaside represent a nostalgic journey into the heritage of a most remarkable neighbourhood, still proudly retaining its identity as part of Toronto.
At the age of nine, John Diefenbaker announced, «I'm going to be prime minister when I grow up.» He never lost sight of his goal. Diefenbaker was prime minister of Canada from 1957-1963. He believed in social justice, opening up the North, and making things better for western farmers. Canadians responded to his campaign call to «Follow John.» This compelling book recreates the tensions of the Diefenbaker era – the time of the Cold War, spy scandals, and the Cuban Missile Crisis – when the world seemed on the brink of nuclear war.
Actress Mae West once said «I've been things and seen places.» Poet Douglas Burnet Smith might well be able to lay claim to the same boast. In his latest collection of verse he takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic journey through Amsterdam's antique streets and canals, Tuscany's sun-soaked landscapes, Paris's Gallic gabble of monuments and madcaps, and the title poem's Finnish auditory and aural delights. In one poem we play Scrabble with Dadaist Tristan Tzara. In another work, «Sophia,» we encounter «the mangy wisdom of wild dogs on every street,/skulking, pawing rabid piles of garbage/choking gutters, begging at the front doors of restaurants/like reeducated ideologues.» In still another verse the poet's persona contemplates Italian artist Giotto in Colorado, citing «the copper hogbacks» in which «he sees layered/trecento shale-engraved depictions of Egypt and the Exodus.» And everywhere his Muse takes him, Smith injects his stopovers with fresh perspectives, lending credence to seventeenth- century English essayist Sir Thomas Browne's dictum: «Ready to be anything in the ecstasy of being ever.»
Naturalist, ornithologist, avocational archaeologist and poet, Winnipeg’s Dr. Robert W. Nero has authored nine books dealing with his amazing spectrum of interests. Growing Old Together is the newest collection of poetry by this gifted writer, revealing his sensitivity and keen observation of the natural world. In his frequently passionate poetry Nero pays tribute to his wife, Ruth, who has, over many years, encouraged Bob to write and to pursue his outdoor interests – all the while sharing him with «Lady Grayl,» the great gray owl he found injured and starving in 1984. From that time on, Lady Grayl toured with Bob Nero to raise funds for numerous environmental projects and to educate thousands of children and adults about conservation. This remarkable association ended in October of 2005 with the passing of Lady Grayl at age 21.5. It is fitting that Manitoba Day 2005 honoured the Great Gray Owl, the official provincial bird – and, yes, Lady Grayl was involved.
George Grants Lament for a Nation led some to call him a Red Tory and the dominant force behind the Canadian nationalist movement of the 1970s. Today, reading George Grants books helps us to understand the full implications of American-led, technology-driven globalization on everyday life.
When Marjorie Hill graduated in 1920 as Canada's «first girl architect,» she was entering a profession that had been established in Canada just 30 years earlier. For the Record, the first history of women architects in Canada, provides a fascinating introduction to early women architects, presented within the context of developments in both Europe and North America. Profiles of the women who graduated from the School of Architecture at the University of Toronto between 1920 and 1960 are illustrated with photographs of their work and include archival material that has never before been published. The final chapter on contemporary women in architecture showcases contributions by leading women architects across the country, from Halifax to Vancouver to Iqaluit. For the Record also provides current information on schools of architecture in Canada and includes a list of other resources to encourage young women who are thinking of pursuing careers in architecture.
Across North America in 2007-2009, communities will celebrate the David Thompson Bicentennials. For 34 years the great explorer, surveyor, and fur trader travelled across the continent, finding and mapping the routes between the St. Lawrence and the Pacific. Trusting the stars and his sextant, he surveyed a continental area so vast it remains a mapping achievement unequalled in human history. This is the story of David Thompson’s epic journey – his trail by stars.
The Marks Brothers may well have been the most remarkable theatrical family in Canadian history. A phenomenon on the vaudeville circuit, the seven brothers left the farm and took to the boards and the footlights throughout the latter part of the 19th century and into the 1920s. The brothers from Christie Lake, near Perth in Eastern Ontario, played to an estimated eight million Canadians, as well as to sizeable audiences in the United States. Their road shows, largely melodramas and comedy, kept audiences crying, booing, laughing and cheering until movies sounded the death knell for touring repertory companies. The publication of The Canadian Kings of Repertoire brings back for one more curtain call the seven Marks boys, top hats, diamond rings and all. Joining them in a farewell performance are their glamorous leading ladies and a superb cast of supporting players. So clear the aisles and up with the curtain. It's showtime once more.