Who knew? In the fall of 1914, Canadians had earned a reputation as hard-drinking and poorly disciplined troops. No one expected much from them. Certainly not the British! All they wanted was a sharp salute as the men did what they were told.Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden and his Minister of Militia and Defence, Colonel Sam Hughes, had different ideas. Borden had no choice! When England declared war, Canada was automatically at war too. Hughes, however, was eager to get his boys ...

What really happened on the night of February 3, 1916, when a fire destroyed the centre block of the Canadian Parliament buildings?Inspector Andrew MacNutt of the Dominion Police’s Secret Service, his wife Katherine, and Count Jaggi know, since they were there in the reading room when the fire started.Ever since the war began MacNutt has been struggling to secure Canada’s borders against acts of sabotage organized by German military attachés based in New York City. The good...

On November 11, 1918, at the 11th hour, the sword is finally sheathed.As 1918 starts, the October Revolution has finally taken the Russians out of the war. Spring would be a bloody one as the German divisions from the Russian Front arrive in France.Brigadier-General Llewellyn and Captain Ryan rested their blades during the German spring offensive. But during the hot summer and the last hundred days, they would be in the thick of battle.Matron Samantha Lonsdale is ba...

In 1916 the Canadians’ rough edges were being honed off.First, in February, there is the tragic loss of the Parliament Buildings’ Centre Block by a suspicious fire. Then, in May, Lieutenant-General Alderson’s leaked memo damning the Ross Rifle ignites a political firestorm. After the Canadian Corps’ disaster at the St. Eloi carters, it doesn’t take long for Major-General Sam Hughes to replace Alderson with Lieutenant-General Julian Byng. Within days, the Corps is struck by a devast...

The Canadians are being hammered on two fronts.On the home front, Sir Robert Borden’s government is being rocked by scandals. First it was the soldiers’ bad boots, then charges of graft and corruption in the militia department’s contracts, followed by the shell crisis. With an election in the air and the opposition pounding his minister of Militia and Defence, Major-General Sam Hughes, Borden is fighting desperately to save his government.On the western front, after six mon...

By 1917, the Canadians have been honed to a sharp edge, but a brittle blade can break.In Russia, Matron Samantha Lonsdale finds herself in the middle of the Bolshevik revolution. She and her patients at the Anglo- Russian Hospital in Petrograd are caught in the crossfire as they dodge machine gun fire. When Russia is knocked out of the war, the hard choice is to leave her patients behind when she is evacuated to England.In France, infantry officer Lieutenant-Colonel Llewell...

The terrorist threat has long been eliminated, but a far more sinister and dangerous threat looms. In the world of 2107 two brothers must find one another and navigate the ravages of war and the dangers of politics to create a new world that is not only safe but human.

Since opening in 1931, the George Washington Bridge, linking New York and New Jersey, has become the busiest bridge in the world, with 103 million vehicles crossing it in 2016. Many people also consider it the most beautiful bridge in the world, yet remarkably little has been written about this majestic structure.Intimate and engaging, this revised and expanded edition of Michael Rockland's rich narrative presents perspectives on the GWB, as it is often called, that span history, a...

River otters, black bears, and red foxes drink from its clear waters. Prickly pear cacti grow from the red shale cliffs that overlook it, while on the river near Bordentown lies the archeological remnants of a sprawling estate built by the former King of Spain, Napoleon’s brother, who lived there for almost twenty years. You might imagine this magical and majestic waterway is located in some faraway land. But in fact, it’s the backbone and lifeblood of the Garden State: the Delaware River....

A twelve-lane behemoth cutting through the least scenic parts of the Garden State, the New Jersey Turnpike may lack the romantic allure of highways like Route 66, but it might just be a more accurate symbol of American life, representing the nation at both its best and its worst.When Angus Gillespie and Michael Rockland wrote Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1989, they simply wanted to express their fascination with a road that many commuters regarded with...

Container shipping is a vital part of the global economy. Goods from all around the world, from vegetables to automobiles, are placed in large metal containers which are transported across the ocean in ships, then loaded onto tractor-trailers and railroad flatbeds. But when and where did this world-changing invention get started?This fascinating study traces the birth of containerization to Port Newark, New Jersey, in 1956 when trucker Malcom McLean thought of a brilliant new way t...

"Comedic, sassy and full of a rare sense of honesty. The perfect novel for women of all sizes; to enjoy with a cupcake or on the stairmaster!" —Lisa Patton, bestselling author of RushIn the fast-paced life of blogging, two women stand out: Alexis Allbright, of Skinny Chick, and Shoshana Weiner, who writes Fat and Fabulous. Both have over five million loyal readers. Both are hungry for success. But the similarities stop there.With ov...