New Canadian Books
and other good books
A non-commercial Web site posted on
Flora by Rosaleen Dickson
Amazing Literary Links ~ Click anywhere to explore these sources
Sometimes links to other Web sites fail without notice. If you draw a blank, just send me E-mail HERE and I'll fix it.
National Library of Canada's electronic showcase for
new Canadian publications. Audio books
Canadian Books for Children
- list from Calgary University
More books for Young People,
Canadian authors and other well known Canadians
French books: Librairie Gallimard, Montreal
Books of Ireland,
Books of Scotland.
Australian, Australia-New Zealand Literary and Performing Arts
Comic Books, New and Back Issues, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image
Floricanto Press: Latino, Mexican American. Hispanics. Sephardic, Chicano, History, NEW TITLES.
Mexico Vacations (Travel information for visitors interested in Mexico)
Porcupine Books, Used Science Fiction, Catalogues, Rare, Curious
Keep Scrolling Down for interesting books you may not have heard about.
Don't miss: "Once Upon a Story" by Elliot Marshall. It's all about small town, Canada, and the people who lived there in the last century. You will love it, and $5 from the sale of each book goes to the Cancer Society.
$19.95, ask for ISBN 978-1-897508-06-0.
"Eclipse" by K. A. Bedford a taut psychological science fiction thriller that's set in the claustrophobic
confines of a starship where nothing is so terrifyingly alien as humanity itself. You will be surprised by the unexpected twists and turns in this book. Not
only does the main character's journey reflect his state of mind but it also acts as a mirror
that reflects those desires and challenges we all experience during our own journey for
personal freedom.
What is Tesseracts Nine?
Each year the Tesseract Books people in Calgary, choose a team
of editors from among the best of Canada's
writers, publishers and critics to select
innovative and futuristic fiction and poetry
from the leaders and emerging voices in
Canadian speculative fiction.
This volume contains the works of 23
contributors edited by Nalo Hopkinson and
Geof Ryman. Tesseract Books are distributed by Fitzhenry and Whiteside
Not Canadian but this revealing book is worth reading because the U.S. and the Bush administration are so close to us and so influential among our own leaders.
"The Neoconomists; The Bush Administration and Other Revolutionaries" by Danial Altman. Barnes and Noble.
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"Reflections" by Leslie John Maiden
This interesting memoir was transcribed from tapes by his daughter, Sandra Corey, and edited by Rosaleen Dickson. The book takes his fascinating life up to 1982, leaving his last 20 years of adventures still untold.
Born and educated in Montreal, Leslie Maiden joined the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps and was transferred to Ottawa in 1940 where he still lives.
The descriptions of his childhood in the early years of the past century will startle younger readers and bring waves of nostalgia to his peers who are lucky enough to find a copy of this little book.
Maiden held numerous positions, tried business, sold advertising for CJOH, and engaged in other enterprises, before being appointed Head of Transport and Acting Aide-de-Camp to Canadian heads of State and other dignitaries. In this role he was in charge of organizing the physical aspects of transport, supplies and personnel for all the major delegations, national and international conferences, visits and tours.
In this capacity he met and worked closely with presidents, prime ministers, and other potentates. When he dined with Queen Elizabeth he was seated at her right. The book contains photos of his most illustrious companions on the many tours, of which he was always in charge of itinerary. Maiden's favourites are the one of Field Marshal Montgomery and the companion photo of himself, Leslie John Maiden, wearing Montgomery's famous beret. As you read the book you will remember the occasions, and share the fun that Malden had taking part in them all.
The book is available from Sandra Corey, at 613-235-2888.
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Looking for something really different? Here are two timely philosophical novels to challenge your mind. Read about them HERE.
Proud City: The Unaware Revolution - Picasso Publications, Inc., Edmonton, Canada, 2002. (Fiction about social reality and
responsibility, etc.) Reprint: Iuniverse, inc. Nov. 2002. ISBN 0-595-25784-4
The Timeman - PublishAmerica. Inc. Baltimore, USA, July 2003. ISBN: 1-59286-800-2. A fiction about life, death, and soul. The theme about collectivism
vs individualism is obvious with respect to social reality...etc.
The author, Amo Sulaiman, was born in Guyana, received a B.A. Degree in Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Guelph, Ontario, a Master's Degree in Philosophy in Montreal, a Doctorate in Philosophy at the
University of Bern, Switzerland. He now teaches English at the University of Applied Sciences in Biel, Switzerland. E-mail him HERE.
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"The Town that Forgot How to Breathe" by Newfoundland author, Kenneth J. Harvey.
Raincoast Books Canada, Secker & Warburg UK edition, Spring 2004.
This Canadan novel has made it onto five 'best of' lists for 2003.
Best of 2003 by all the following: Top 25 Fiction, Amazon.ca,
CBC's Hot Type,
Harrowsmith Magazine, January Magazine, and Halifax Herald.
"Both a contemporary and an historical novel, The Town that Forgot How
to Breathe is a tour de force! It speaks of the sea: of those who are
upon it, beside it, beneath it. Kenneth J. Harvey, a writer like no
other, is as knowledgeable as he is adventurous. A very exceptional
novel, extraordinary in its power."
-- Alistair MacLeod
James Sherrett's "Up in Ontario" is SUCH a lovely book, a first novel, and an absolutely captivating one. Read it. You'll love it.
Even if you aren't familiar with the territory, you will relate to the people.
"A search for the cure to heart disease leads to the discovery . . . "Diet & Exercise is a Crodk" by Doug Henderson. A funny, funny, and yet wise, wise book. Read it.
Publised by Bilberry Books, Smiths Falls, Ontario. Two editions and another on the way.
These too are good Canadian books:
Crumbs! by John Ough
Inside the Tent - Forty-Five Years on Parliament Hill by Tom Van Dusen with Susan Code
The Passionate Politics of Shaughnessy Cohen by Susan Delacourt
The Friendly Dictatorship by Jeff Simpson Granddaddy of the Peace, the Life and Times of Tom Kerr by Les McLaughlin
Women Can't Merge... ...Men won't Yield! by Ray Stone.
Quebec Off the Beaten Path
by Eric and Katharine Fletcher
Globe Pequot Press, Connecticut - 1999
A guide to the backroads of Quebec, targetted at the US market, this is the first Quebec guide book to cover the Ottawa Valley's Pontiac region thoroughly.
"Quebec Off the Beaten Path", brand new this year and written by two Pontiac County authors, is selling extremely well and has received great reviews across
the US, and in Explore Magazine, Calgary
In addition, Katharine Fletcher's "Historical Walks: The Gatineau Park Story" has been published in a French language edition, ten years after it came out in English, with over 10,000 copies sold.
The School Car, Bringing the Three R's to Newfoundland's
Remote Railway Settlements by Randy P. Noseworthy
R.P.N. Publishing
During the 1930s, children far removed from regular schools, in a number of small, isolated settlements scattered along the main line of the Newfoundland Railway from St. John's to Port aux Basques, attended a School on Wheels which travelled back and forth along the main line. This book details the School on Wheels program, the teachers, former students, retired railroaders, their thoughts and recollections in their own words and 125 photographs, mostly never previously published.
Fragrant Herbal by Lesley Bremness,
Little, Brown and Company
Enhancing your life with aromatic herbs and essential oils is the mission of garden designer, broadcaster, best selling author Lesley Bremness who keeps her own herb garden in Suffolk. "Fragrant Herbal" includes every possible use for herbs, histories of their origins, instructions for the successful growing of them, and superb photographs show old and new herb gardens, both ornate and simple. If you've ever wondered which herbs will freshen your breath in the morning, add allure to your linen, relax your mind, enliven your spirit and do wonders for your kitchen skills, it's all in this big coffee-table book.
The Butterflies of Canada by Layberry, Hall, and Lafontaine,
University of Toronto Press
"The Butterflies of Canada" is another beautiful, large sized book, with colour plates of every one of the species found in this country - at every metamorphal stage - with maps to chart all their migrating habits. The authors, Ross Layberry, Peter Hall and Donald Lafontaine, experts working in cooperation with the National Research Council, also provide exact instructions for anyone wanting to build and maintain a butterfly garden of their own. When you have read the story of the butterfly in Canada, you will understand our geography with a whole new perspective. This is not a book for children, but precocious youngsters will love it.
Other People's Children by Joanna Trollope,
Little, Brown, Canada
With today's children falling into his, hers, and ours categories, parents may spend years living with other people's children. The kids often spend a lifetime wondering where they really do belong. Joanna Trollope, popular author of both historic and contemporary fiction, has built her most recent novel, "Other People's Children," on this theme. This gripping tale holds an unforgiving mirror to reality of family life today. So many readers will relate to the dilemmas of every character in the book. Without moralizing, Ms Trollope manages to build a good story around this modern age phenomenon.
1867: How the Fathers Made a Deal by Christopher Moore,
McLelland & Stewart
Canada is in for an exhaustive constitutional - again. Guidelines may seem to be missing - but not so. The fathers may provide some of the answers - and that would be the fathers of confederation, of course.
"In the 1860s, western alienation began at Yonge Street, and George Brown was the Preston Manning of the day," is the way Canada's versatile prize-winning historian Christopher Moore starts his book, "1867: How the Fathers Made a Deal." After 250 plus pages describing the nitty gritty of constitutional deal making that brought Canada into being, the book provides sage advice, based on the realities of today. 
Bringing the War Home by William Thomas,
Earth Pulse Press Inc.
Canada will be asked, again, to send troops to the desert and pressure on our Members of Parliament to approve such action will be strong. Knowing as much as possible about the background and repercussions of desert warfare will help them make the right decisions.
British Columbia environmental writer William Thomas provides documented home truths about the Gulf War in his book "Bringing the War Home." Thomas tells his first hand experiences in the war area as a correspondent, reveals Pentagon complicity in supplying chemical and biological weaponry to Iraq, and explains how the syndrome called "Gulf War Illness" affected and still affects spouses and children of returned personnel.
Warriors and the Battle Within
by Terry Thompson - Trafford Publishing
Terry Thompson was a Canadian fighter pilot whose operational flying career ended with his introduction to a headquarters staff job. He was engaged in the Cold War from his youth through an ever-changing career path. His military account begins as a raw recruit and the most junior member of the air force. As the story unfolds, the reader is taken through the author's career progression as a radar technician, his remuster to commissioned officer status and his training as a pilot in the air force. His experiences as a fighter pilot provide the layman an inside look at "the right stuff" and the thrills of operational flying combined with a complete season of formation aerobatics in a Mach 2 fighter aircraft.
The author leads us through his uneasy transition to staff officer and his development in that role. He relates his three-year posting into the pilot training establishment and his participation in the eventual formation of the Snowbirds aerobatic team.
In his final tour at National Defence Headquarters the author was in a position to witness first hand the deterioration of the military culture at the highest levels. He relates his struggles to maintain some semblance of military ethic in the routine conduct of his duties under ever deteriorating circumstances.
This book puts the Cold War into a perspective as seen by those who lived through it. It identifies the 9/11 tragedy as the beginning of a new and frightening era. It recognises the World Trade Centre act of terrorism as a wake up call for a country that has allowed it's politicians while looking inward, to savage defence budgets over the past thirty years all the while watching it's once proud military services atrophy.
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