After falling in love with and marrying a man two lifetimes older than her, Irving Layton’s last wife shares the story of her life with the acclaimed poet.While a student at Dalhousie University, Anna Pottier attended a poetry reading featuring Irving Layton. Walking out of the auditorium that night, she knew two things: she wanted more than ever to be a writer, and she wanted to be with Layton.At the age of twenty-three she became Layton’s fifth and final ...

CCBC's Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2015) - CommendedThe life story of a painted mustang set against the backdrop of America’s Great Plains in the late 1800s.It’s the late 1800s. A Lakota boy finds an orphaned mustang foal and brings her back to his family’s camp, naming her Paint for her black-and-white markings. Boy and horse soon become inseparable. Together they learn to hunt buffalo, their fear of the massive beasts tempered by a growing ...

For the fifty years following the Second World War, Canada enjoyed a period of spectacular economic growth — the economy quadruple in size and the living standard of most Canadians steadily improved.However, in the years since, Canada has suffered from economic stagnation. Businesses keep closing, and Canadians find it harder to get and keep a good job. Increasingly, Canadians have relied on consumer debt to help mask the underlying problems, but for many even that temporary form o...

CCBC's Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2015) — CommendedWhen Dani sets out to uncover her father’s past, she also discovers her own future.Raised by her mother, eighteen-year-old Dani Lancaster only had six weeks to get to know her father, Sam, before he lost his battle with cancer. It was long enough to love him, but not long enough to get to know him — especially since Sam didn't even know himself.Left on the doorstep of an elderly coup...

Dan Sharp, a gay father and missing persons investigator, accepts an invitation to a wedding on a yacht in Ontario's Prince Edward County. It seems just the thing to bring Dan closer to his noncommittal partner, Bill, a respected medical professional with a penchant for sleazy after-hours clubs, cheap drugs, and rough sex. But the event doesn't go exactly as planned.When a member of the wedding party is swept overboard, a case of mistaken identity leads to confusion as the wrong pe...

CCBC’s Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2015) - CommendedFifteen-year-old Edie Fraser searches for her mother, who has gone missing shortly after the two moved to London, England, to escape Edie’s abusive father.Is it possible to outrun your past? Fifteen-year-old Edie Fraser and her mother, Sydney, have been trying to do just that for five years. Now, things have gone from bad to worse. Not only has Edie had to move to another new school — she’s ...

2016 Young Author's Award — ShortlistedCCBC's Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2015) - CommendedInstead of writing in a diary, twelve-year-old Jo Waller secretly edits Wikipedia entries to cope with the worst year of her life.Jo Waller has three brainy friends, two mostly harmless parents, and one deep, dark secret: she edits Wikipedia for fun. But when her twenty-four-year-old brother moves back home with his pregnant girlfriend, Jo is for...

Undeniably, the 1990s were a period of crisis for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). Drastic budget reductions and a series of endless scandals all collided to form the perfect storm. The outcome of this was nothing short of the implosion of the Canadian Armed Forces Officer Corps.Stripped by the government of the right to regulate itself, the Officer Corps, which represented the nation’s stewards of the profession of arms, was forced to reform itself. Key to this transformation was ...

Nik is an eccentric art student obsessed with painting his dancer girlfriend, Jennifer. When one day she inexplicably disappears, Nik’s world is shattered. Determined to find her, he embarks on a cross-country journey following a scant trail of clues. He doesn’t anticipate how far he’ll have to travel, what he’ll do when he runs out of money, or the fact that an intimidating stranger is looking for Jennifer, too.Nik and Jennifer fade into the background of their own tale, surfacing...

Dani's mother is getting married -- again -- because that's what she does, and while she and her new husband jet around Europe for six weeks, 17-year-old Dani is sent to stay with an uncle she didn't know she had in a small community in Cariboo country she didn't know existed. It promises to be the summer from hell. But Dani's uncle turns out to be an okay guy. In fact, Dani really likes him. And she finds romance, too.Suddenly, a summer that had doom written all over it turns into...

A seemingly casual encounter in a downtown bar sends missing persons investigator Dan Sharp in search of a woman presumed dead in the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Twenty years after her disappearance, her brother believes that a woman he glimpsed on the Internet is his sister, now living in Toronto. The closer Dan gets to finding her, however, the less sense things make. Just when he thinks he knows what’s driving his client, an unexpected revelation forces him to choose between what he’s be...

When damaged, brilliant detective Kala Stonechild and workaholic staff sergeant Jacques Rouleau end up paired together, pieces start falling into place.The series has been called "deeply atmospheric and tightly plotted," and praised for its grit and promise. Now, the first two mysteries are available together in an ebook-exclusive bundle at a special price.IncludesCold MourningA week before Christmas, wealthy businessman Tom Underwood...