Browse Books for Adults

Slash is Jeannette Armstrong's first novel. It poignantly traces the struggles, pain and alienation of a young Okanagan man who searches for truth and meaning in his life. Recognized as an important work of literature, Slash is used in high schools, colleges and universities.

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252 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

That tongued belonging, the newest book from award-winning Métis poet Marilyn Dumont, is a collection of poems which search for acceptance in language, culture, love and geographical landscapes. These poems celebrate the humour and tenacity of Aboriginal women, lament the death of a mother, deride the political correctness of those ignorant of Aboriginal issues, and chide the writer against the seduction of pop stardom, while challenging accepted ideas of love, age and femininity.

Renowned ethnobotanist Nancy Turner brings together decades of experience working with First Nations in the Pacific Northwest. In The Earth's Blanket, she explores the wealth of ecological knowledge and the deep personal connection to the land and its history that is encoded in indigenous stories and lifeways, and asks what they can teach all of us about living in harmony with our surroundings.

Scholarly in its thinking but accessible in its writing, The Earth's Blanket combines first-person research with insightful critiques of Western concepts of environmental management and scientific ecology to propose how systems of traditional ecological knowledge can be recognized and enhanced. It is an important book, a magnum opus with the power to transform our way of thinking about the Earth and our place within it.

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176 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Kiciwamanawak, my cousin: that is what my Elders said to call you. You have a treaty right to occupy and use this territory. You received that right when my family adopted yours.

So begins Harold Johnson's narrative on the relationship between First Nations, governments, and society in general. Writing in response to a student asking him what the treaties mean, Johnson presents a different view of the treaty relationship. Treaties were the instruments that gave Europeans the right to settle here, share resources, and build a relationship of equality with those who were here before. Johnson's ancestors did not intend the treaties to allow the subjugation and impoverishment of First Nations, or give settler governments the right to legislate every aspect of First Nations activities.

In an easy to read style, the author presents his eloquent view, on behalf of a people, on what treaties between First Nations and governments represent. Topics discussed include the justice system, reconciliation of laws, political divisions, resources, taxation, assimilation, leadership, sovereignty, the Constitution, youth, and relations between next generations. Two Families is a passionate plea for the restoration of harmony and equality between First Nations and the rest of Canadian society. It is a must read for everyone seeking to understand an Aboriginal perspective on treaties.

Harold Johnson practices law in La Ronge, northern Saskatchewan, and balances this with operating his family's traditional trap line using a dog team. He has served in the Canadian Navy, and worked in mining and logging before returning to school. He holds a law degree from the University of Saskatchewan and a master's degree in law from Harvard. He is also the author of two novels, Billy Tinker and Backtrack, both set in northern Saskatchewan against a background of traditional Cree mythology.

Two Trails Narrow follows the lives of two Algonquin half-breeds, Ryman McGregor and Abraham Scott, who united as wannabe escapees from the harsh hands of the Jesuit priests at St. Xavier's Residential School outside Spaniards Bay on Lake Ontario. With the help of a kind man and Ryman's sister, they are successful in their escape from the priests and their RCMP trackers. Arriving home on the reserve had its good fortunes but also marked their partition. Their reunion takes place years later, when they are selected to serve as valuable Corporals of one of the best Canadian commando units in WWII. Set against the residential school experience for Native children and the looming shadow of the Second World War, Two Trails Narrow recounts the pain of a young generation of Natives who were pulled into the vortex of forced battle at home and overseas. Through the eyes of two Native soldiers, Ryman McGregor and Abraham Scott, Two Trails Narrow is a remembrance to the courage and depth of the human spirit in an era of hostilities.

Learn answers to all the bird questions you've always wanted to ask in this beginner's guide, filled with wisdom and humour.

In 1983, Mike O'Connor opened the Bird Watcher's General Store, which might well have been the first store devoted solely to birding in North America. Since that time he has answered thousands of questions about birds, both at his store and while walking down the aisles of the supermarket.

The questions have ranged from:

- inquiries about individual species (Are flamingos really real?")
to
- what and when to feed birds ("Should I bring in my feeders for the summer?")
to
- the down-and-dirty specifics of backyard birding ("Why are the birds dropping poop in my pool?").

Answering the questions has been easy; keeping a straight face has been hard.

Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches? is the solution for the beginning birder who already has a book that explains the slight plumage variations between doves, but who is really much more interested in why birds sing at 4:30 a.m. instead of 7:00 a.m., or whether it's okay to feed bread to birds, or how birds rediscover your feeders so quickly when you've just filled them after a long vacation. Or, for that matter, whether flamingos are really real.

Reviews
"Mike O'Connor knows birds - I mean, REALLY knows them. He has been answering questions about birds for years, and he can deliver the straight scoop with a hilarious twist that makes it unforgettable. Reading this book is almost as much fun as bird watching, and that's saying a lot!" — Kenn Kaufman, author of the Kaufman Field Guide to the Birds of North America

"This is quite possibly the funniest bird book ever written. O'Connor has broken the mold of straight-laced bird books." — WildBird Magazine

"While O'Connor's detailed responses are full of ornithological facts, it's their humor and irreverence that make the book so entertaining." — Audubon Magazine

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224 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Have you ever been walking at the beach and wondered what that pebble or rock is, or do you ever wonder what stories rocks tell? If so, then this is the guide for you.
The Field Guide to the Identification of Pebbles is a full colour, laminated, accordion folded, easy-to-use guide with over 80 beautiful photographs of pebbles from beaches and rivers. Use the photos to identify over 28 different types of rocks and minerals. A great resource for Earth Science curriculum units in schools, the short text deals with how rocks form and how to tell if a rock is igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic. It also provides some fun facts about minerals in our daily lives.

Educator Information
This field guide is available in French: Guide pratique d'identification des cailloux

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2 pages | 4.40" x 9.00" | colour photos

The great Native American Novel of a battered veteran returning home to heal his mind and spirit

More than thirty-five years since its original publication, Ceremony remains one of the most profound and moving works of Native American literature, a novel that is itself a ceremony of healing. Tayo, a World War II veteran of mixed ancestry, returns to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. He is deeply scarred by his experience as a prisoner of the Japanese and further wounded by the rejection he encounters from his people. Only by immersing himself in the Indian past can he begin to regain the peace that was taken from him. Masterfully written, filled with the somber majesty of Pueblo myth, Ceremony is a work of enduring power.

Reviews
"Ceremony is the greatest novel in Native American literature. It is one of the greatest novels of any time and place. I have read this book so many times that I probably have it memorized. I teach it and I learn from it and I am continually in awe of its power, beauty, rage, vision, and violence." —Sherman Alexie

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272 pages | 5.65" x 8.40"

As a Crown Attorney working with First Nations in remote northwestern Ontario, Rupert Ross learned that he was routinely misinterpreting the behaviour of Aboriginal victims, witnesses, and offenders, both in and out of court. He discovered that he regularly drew wrong conclusions when he encountered witnesses who wouldn’t make eye contact, victims who wouldn’t testify in the presence of the accused, and parents who showed great reluctance to interfere in their children’s offending behaviour. With the assistance of Aboriginal teachers, he began to see that behind such behaviour lay a complex web of coherent cultural commandments that he had never suspected, much less understood.

As his awareness of traditional Native teachings grew, he found that the areas of miscommunication extended well beyond the courtroom, causing cross-cultural misunderstanding—and ill-informed condemnation.

Dancing with a Ghost is Ross’s attempt to give some definition to the cultural gap that bedevils the relationships and distorts the communications between Native peoples and the dominant white Canadian society—and to encourage others to begin their own respectful cross-cultural explorations. As Ross discovered, traditional perspectives have a great deal to offer modern-day Canada, not only in the context of justice but also in terms of the broader concepts of peaceful social organization and personal fulfilment.

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The first three editions of NightWatch sold more than 600,000 copies, making it the top-selling stargazing guide in the world for the last 20 years. The key feature of this classic title is the section of star charts that are cherished by backyard astronomers everywhere. Each new edition has outsold the previous one because of thorough revisions and additional new material.

NightWatch has been acclaimed as the best general interest introduction to astronomy. The fourth edition has improvements over the 3rd edition in every chapter, including:

- The famous charts, ideal for stargazers using a small telescope or binoculars
- A complete update of the equipment section, including computerized telescopes
- An enlarged photography section, including how-to instructions for using the new generation of digital cameras for astronomical photography, both with and without a telescope
- The tables of future solar and lunar eclipses, planetary conjunctions and planet locations, updated through 2025.

This edition includes star charts for use in the southern hemisphere. There are also dozens of new photographs throughout the book that show the latest thrilling discoveries made by current space observatories and probes.

THE BLOOD RESERVE (Canada's largest native reserve) is a land of wind, prairie, mountains, and rivers, a land of dramatic physical beauty. It is the setting for George Webber's stunning collection of black-and-white photographs, People of the Blood. From the spring of 1992 until the late summer of 2005, Webber journeyed to the reserve from his home in Calgary, documenting his experiences on film and with pen and paper.

People of the Blood is an intimate and compelling story of the reserve's people and stark, sweeping landscape told in black and white. In his quest to photograph and document hope and darkness in the western Canadian landscape, Webber has ceaselessly photographed the people, small communities, and the land for a quarter century. People of the Blood documents a photographic journey spanning over a decade, one that put Webber in contact with the strong people of the Blood, their spiritual practices, their hopes, their challenges, wins and losses.

With grace and compassion, Webber shows us the sweat lodge and the sun dance, the faces of hope and despair, rodeos and funerals, quiet kitchen conversations and heartbreaking devastation.

Never an interloper, Webber's quiet presence is that of a documentary photographer of the first order, which seeks to tell the stories of the people and the land in which they live. As it moves between the realms of the spiritual world and harsh reality, interspersed with the incredible beauty of the landscape, People of the Blood captures the light in the darkness, the hope that exists in the Blood people, who live in unforgiving landscapes and social circumstances. In his grainy, dark imagery, Webber continues to capture these sparks in what might seem to be barren surroundings.

In his bestselling book Dancing with a Ghost, Rupert Ross began his exploration of Aboriginal approaches to justice and the visions of life that shape them. Returning to the Teachings takes this exploration further still.

During a three-year secondment with Justice Canada, Ross travelled from the Yukon to Cape Breton Island, examining”and experiencing”the widespread Aboriginal preference for peacemaker justice. In this remarkable book, he invites us to accompany him as he moves past the pain and suffering that grip so many communities and into the exceptional promise of individual, family and community healing that traditional teachings are now restoring to Aboriginal Canada. He shares his confusion, frustrations and delights as Elders and other teachers guide him, in their unique and often puzzling ways, into ancient visions of Creation and our role with it.

Returning to the Teachings is about Aboriginal justice and much more, speaking not only to our minds, but also to our hearts and spirits. Above all, it stands as a search for the values and visions that give life its significance and that any justice system, Aboriginal or otherwise, must serve and respect.

Before discovering native healing methods, Herb Nabigon could not imagine a life without alcohol. His powerful autobiography, The Hollow Tree, tells the story of his struggle to overcome addiction with the help of the spiritual teachings and brotherly love of his elders.

Nabigon had spent much of his life wrestling with self-destructive impulses, feelings of inferiority and resentment, and alcohol abuse when Eddie Bellerose, an Elder, introduced him to the ancient Cree teachings. With the help of healing methods drawn from the Four Sacred Directions, the refuge and revitalization offered by the sweat lodge, and native cultural practices such as the use of the pipe Nabigon was able to find sobriety.

The Hollow Tree is one person's testament to the power of indigenous culture to heal. Herb Nabigon's healing journey guided him to a life of kindness, honesty, courage, and humility.

When teens consider suicide, they often tell other teens-if not always directly, then in other ways. Updated with new facts, statistics, and resources, this book gives teens the information and insight they need to recognize the risk and respond appropriately. It spells out the warning signs, guides teens through the steps of reaching out to a friend, and explains when and how to seek help. It also suggests ways for teens to help themselves when they're feeling stressed or depressed.

From the bestselling author of The Back of the Turtle and The Inconvenient Indian comes a wry and irreverent mystery.

Thumps DreadfulWater has never liked surprises—even the good ones are annoying. So it’s no shock that a string of seemingly random occurrences is causing Thumps some real discomfort. First Noah Ridge, the Red Power Native activist, arrives in Thumps’ sleepy town of Chinook. Then the body of a retired FBI agent turns up at the local Holiday Inn. In the background hovers the ghostly presence of Lucy Kettle, second-in-charge of the Red Power movement, a tough woman in a tough place until her disappearance years ago. Now the sheriff wants Thumps to trade in his photography gig for a temporary cop beat. And it won’t be over, Thumps soon realizes, until everyone’s dead—or famous.

Hailed by critics in his first appearance, Cherokee ex-cop Thumps DreadfulWater is back in rumpled but razor-sharp form, doing his laconic, comic best to avoid trouble—and catch the bad guys. Bestselling writer Thomas King has penned a second entertaining DreadfulWater mystery, injected with the author’s characteristic dry wit and biting social commentary.

Series Information
This novel is from the DreadfulWater Mystery series from Thomas King.

Books in this series include:
- Dreadful Water
- The Red Power Murders
- Cold Skies
- A Matter of Malice
- The Obsidian Murders
- Deep House 
- Double Eagle
- Black Ice

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