The comfort food of cottage life books ― satisfying, unforgettable, and inevitably nostalgic. 
Cottage Daze celebrates life at the cottage where the cottage is the main character, and family, friends, pets, and fellow cottagers are the supporting cast. Whether writing about cottage routine ("First Ski," "Of Mice and Men," "Cottage Guests"), cottage tasks ("Splitting Wood," "Boat Launch"), nature ("A Gathering of Loons," "The Sting," "Autumn Spell"), cottage fun ("The Cottage Duel"), or cottage touchstones ("Start the Day," "Bonfire," "The Perfect Storm"), the stories are told with humour, compassion, insight, and nostalgia. 
Who doesn’t remember sitting in a frigid lake, trying to help a youngster get up on water skis for the first time, launching a boat while the whole world seems to be watching, or getting caught up in a nest of wasps? This collection of stories, elegantly organized into four seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter), will make readers laugh, cry, and long to be at the cottage a "must have" for every cottage bookshelf.

Cottage Daze

Humor & Entertainment

ROSS, JAMES

Humor

A J. Patrick Boyer Book

Winston Churchill and Mackenzie King: So Similar, So Different

The story of the complex relationship between two world leaders during one of the greatest crises in human history. Born just two weeks apart in 1874, Winston Churchill and William Lyon Mackenzie King had much in common. Both forged long parliamentary careers, and each led his country to victory in World War II. A BBC poll deemed Winston Churchill the greatest Briton of all time, and Mackenzie King has been judged by a group of historians as the greatest Canadian prime minister. Their parallel careers fostered a working relationship that lasted almost fifty years. It was not always an easy relationship, however. Churchill, famous for his drink and cigars, was impetuous and charismatic, an extrovert; King, a teetotaller during WWII, was noted for considering all options before cautiously proceeding. Fate threw this ill-matched pair together. For the first time, the vital relationship between these two very different men is explored in depth. It is the story not just of two extraordinary leaders, but also of the changing bonds between Britain and Canada.

Biographies & Memoirs

Reardon, Terry

Leaders & Notable People

A dramatic, heart-warming a tale of life on the sea. 
Set in 1813, Second Summer of War is a sequel to Come Looking for Me. With the British traitor Captain Thomas Trevelyan incarcerated on a prison hulk in Portsmouth Harbour, Princess Emeline "Emily" Louisa sails back to England and is summarily dispatched to Hartwood Hall, home of the disagreeable Duke and Duchess of Belmont. There she endures weeks awaiting Trevelyan’s trial, unable to leave the estate or find useful occupation. Relations with her guardians, chilly at best, soon escalate into a battle of wills when they attempt to marry her off in order to secure favour with her uncle, the Prince Regent. Meanwhile, England’s naval war with the United States continues to rage on the Atlantic. When Fly Austen and his friend, Dr. Leander Braden, are given Admiralty Orders to testify at the trial, they return home with the hope of seeing Emily one last time. Their journey is anything but uneventful as they encounter devastating storms, menacing ships, and a spectre that proclaims their impending doom.

Second Summer of War (Seasons of War, 2)

Literature & Fiction

Cooper, Cheryl

Literary

How emigrants were lured to Ontario’s Muskoka in the 1870s in a vain attempt to farm the Canadian Shield. 
When the Free Grants and Homestead Act was first introduced in 1868, fierce debates erupted in Ontario’s Legislature over whether land in the Muskoka region should be opened to settlement or reserved for the Aboriginal population. From the beginning, many people vented serious doubts about the free grant scheme, citing the district’s poor agricultural prospects. In the end, such caution was ignored by overeager boosters. The story in Hardscrabble also takes readers to Britain, where emigration philanthropists urged their government to send the country’s poor to Canada, then follows these emigrants as they left the familiar behind to make a new life in the Canadian wilderness. The initial romance of living off the land was soon dispelled as these hapless souls faced clearing the land, building shelters, and sowing crops in desolate, remote locations. Donna Williams’s extensive research leads her to conclude that Muskoka’s experience epitomizes the wrongheadedness of placing already poor people on remote land unsuited for farming.

Hardscrabble: The High Cost of Free Land

History

Williams, Donna E.

Americas

A unique perspective on Ontario’s most powerful political leaders. 
Ontario’s fortunes and fates increasingly rest in the hands of the province’s premier. Critics say the role of premier concentrates too much power in one person, but at least that points to the one person Ontarians, and others beyond the province’s borders, ought to know all about. Few people know the modern-era premiers of Canada’s most populous province the way Steve Paikin does. He has covered Queen’s Park politics, discussed provincial issues from all perspectives with his TVO guests, and has interviewed the premiers one-on-one. Paikin and the Premiers offers a rare, uniform perspective on John Robarts, Bill Davis, Frank Miller, David Peterson, Bob Rae, Mike Harris, Ernie Eves, Dalton McGuinty, and Kathleen Wynne – from the vantage point of one of Canada’s most astute and respected journalists.

Paikin and the Premiers: Personal Reflections on a Half Century of Ontario Leaders

Paikin, Steve

Arts & Literature

A young First Nations man sets out from his Muskoka home in a quest for redemption after a terrible fire. 
In the early 1930s, Oscar Wolf, a 13-year-old Native from the Chippewas of Rama Indian Reserve, sets fire to the business section of his village north of Toronto in a fit of misguided rage against white society, inadvertently killing his grandfather and a young maid. Tortured by guilt and fearful of divine retribution, Oscar sets out on a lifetime quest for redemption. 
His journey takes him to California where he works as a fruit picker and prizefighter during the Great Depression, to the Second World War where he becomes a decorated soldier, to university where he excels as a student and athlete, and to the diplomatic service in the postwar era where he causes a stir at the United Nations in New York and in Colombia and Australia. 
Beset by an all-too-human knack for making doubtful choices, Oscar discovers that peace of mind is indeed hard to find in this saga of mid-20th-century aboriginal life in Canada and abroad that will appeal to readers of all backgrounds and ages.

The Redemption of Oscar Wolf

Bartleman, James

United States

A look at how a major confrontation between Canada and the First Nations could erupt, and how it might be prevented. There are few greater tragedies than a war waged by a society against itself. As Time Bomb shows, a catastrophic confrontation between Canada’s so-called “settler” and First Nations communities is not only feasible, it is, in theory, inevitable. Grievances, prejudice, and other factors all combine to make the likelihood of a First Nations uprising very real. Time Bomb describes how a nationwide insurgency could unfold, how the "usual" police and military reactions to First Nations protests would only worsen such a situation, and how, on the other hand, innovative policies might defuse the smouldering time bomb in our midst. The question all Canadians and First Nations must answer is this: Must we all suffer the disaster of a great national insurgency or will we act together to extinguish the growing danger in our midst?

Time Bomb: Canada and the First Nations (Point of View, 2)

Bland, Douglas L.

2015 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize ― Shortlisted, Non-Fiction In Irresponsible Government, former MP Brent Rathgeber takes Parliament to task for its failure to hold the government to account. Irresponsible Government examines the current state of Canadian democracy in contrast to the founding principles of responsible government established by the Fathers of Confederation in 1867. The book examines the failure of modern elected representatives to perform their constitutionally mandated duty to hold the prime minister and his cabinet to account. It further examines the modern lack of separation between the executive and legislative branches of government and the disregard with which the executive views Parliament. The book seeks to shine light on the current power imbalances that have developed in Canadian government. Through an examination of the foundation principles of our parliamentary system and their subsequent erosion, Irresponsible Government seeks methods through which we can begin to recalibrate and correct these power imbalances and restore electoral accountability.

Irresponsible Government: The Decline of Parliamentary Democracy in Canada (Point of View, 1)

Politics & Social Sciences

Rathgeber, Brent

Politics & Government

2016 Speaker's Book Award ― Shortlisted Former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty shares the story of his life in politics and the leadership lessons he has learned. Dalton McGuinty was premier of Ontario for ten years, from 2003 to 2013. Inheriting a province wounded from years of cutbacks and divisive politics, McGuinty led Ontario through a deep recession and a challenging shift away from a manufacturing-based economy. Moving boldly, he initiated a major rebuilding of the province's schools and hospitals as well as a transformation of its transportation and energy infrastructure. Here, McGuinty tells the story of his life in politics, including his first crushing defeat, the victories that followed, his campaign for the leadership of the Liberal Party, and his years as premier. Delivering a frank look at his years in power, he offers insight into major issues, like the closing of the coal-fired electricity plants, the HST, full-day kindergarten, and the two cancelled Ontario Hydro gas plants. Perpetually underestimated by both his opponents and the media, Dalton McGuinty prevailed through a mix of sheer determination and political shrewdness, becoming the longest-serving Liberal leader in Ontario in over a century. Here he shares the valuable lessons he has learned along the way about leadership and the limitations and expectations for political leaders in the twenty-first century.

Dalton McGuinty: Making a Difference

McGuinty, Dalton

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Books by A J. Patrick Boyer Book

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Cottage Daze

Winston Churchill and Mackenzie King: So Similar, So Different

Second Summer of War (Seasons of War, 2)

Hardscrabble: The High Cost of Free Land

Paikin and the Premiers: Personal Reflections on a Half Century of Ontario Leaders

The Redemption of Oscar Wolf

Winston Churchill and Mackenzie King: So Similar, So Different

Time Bomb: Canada and the First Nations (Point of View, 2)

Irresponsible Government: The Decline of Parliamentary Democracy in Canada (Point of View, 1)

Dalton McGuinty: Making a Difference