Mountain Timber
The Comox Logging Company in the Vancouver Island Mountains
by Richard Somerset Mackie
On one level the story of loggers and their machines—cold deckers, skidders, geared locies and many more—Mountain Timber is also a dense and engrossing social history of central Island in the mid-20th century. The book's nine chapters alternate revealingly between logging and social history: between working landscapes and the communities they supported. A stunning visual feast, this richly illustrated history contains 340 photographs of the men, women, families and communities supported by logging. Mackie has gathered most of the photos, many of them hitherto unpublished, from 60 private collections. Mountain Timber also contains 18 maps and diagrams of logging camps, methods and aspects of railway and highlead logging technology.
HISTORY • 8.5 x 11 • 320 pp
350+ b/w photos & maps
ISBN 13: 978-1-55039-171-8; 1-55039-171-2
softcover • $42.95
Flights of a Coast Dog
A Pilot's Log
by Jack Schofield
First published in 2000, Flights of a Coast Dog is Jack Schofield's first book. This third edition of his ever-popular account of flying seaplanes along the British Columbia coast displays the BC Millennium Book Award bestowed on the original edition, and the book is back again in its original hardcover format.
Flying seaplanes along the rugged B.C. coast is a demanding job, depending heavily on flying skills and an ingrained knowledge of this challenging country, but more than anything one needs a well-developed sense of humour. Schofield has just that when telling these fascinating anecdotes about the colourful characters who crossed his path and some hair-raising adventures during 20 years of flying Beaver, Otter and Cessna seaplanes.
AVIATION/HISTORY • 182 pp • 8.25 x 8.25
60+ b/w photos & drawings
ISBN 13: 978-1-55039-172-5; 1-55039-172-0
hardcover • $29.95
Counting on Hope
by Sylvia Olsen
Hope and her family travel from England to their new home on an island off the coast of British Columbia in the 1860s. Hope thinks that she has arrived in paradise. She is right … until whiskey traders arrive.
Letia and her family are Lamalcha people who winter on Kuper Island and move to Wallace Island in the summer. The problem is that Letia's summer camp is on the island that the Crown has deeded to Hope's family. When the two girls meet, against the wishes of their mothers, their stories intersect.
JUVENILE HISTORICAL FICTION • Ages 12+
320 pp • 6 x 9 • historical note & map
ISBN 13: 978-1-55039-173-2; 1-55039-173-9
paper • 14.95
Duet for Wings and Earth
by Barbara Colebrook Peace
Barbara's Colebrook Peace's re-imagining of the Christ story takes the reader on a journey that is at once familiar and marvellously mythical. Drawn from the Biblical record, these beautifully-wrought poems written from multiple points of view – God's, Christ's, Mary's, Joseph's, an innkeeper's, the manger's, and even a donkey's -- illuminate the landscape of first century Jerusalem. By turns playful, meditative and mystical, these imaginative renderings, imbued with the poet's deeply personal spirituality, grapple with the immensity of space and time and our small place in them.
6 x 9
ISBN 1-55039-164-X • paperback • $14.95
I Will Ask for Birds
by Kelly Parsons
What is perhaps most remarkable in this, Kelly Parsons' first collection, is the authenticity of voice, a voice which exudes a largeness of spirit and depth of feeling. Each word, line and stanza of "I Will Ask for Birds" seems to reverberate outward, in waves of radiant light. Whether writing about an old jacket, her dog, or a llama's visit to the art gallery, Parsons' exquisite sensibility infuses poem after poem with a quiet luminosity. Unlike many who rush into print, Parsons, a Buddhist, has waited to publish poems that have been polished over time like smooth river stones. For this we can be grateful.
6 x 9
ISBN 1-55039-165-8 • paperback • $14.95
Wearing My People Like a Shawl
by Dorothy Field
Reading Dorothy Field's second collection of poems, "Wearing My People Like a Shawl," is like entering a rich, digressive, passionate, multi-layered novel, at the heart of which is the individual in search of self. Field's physical journey takes her to Israel, the American deep south, India, New York and Western Canada. At the same time, these poems attempt to penetrate the past, the complex and indecipherable lives of her parents, grandparents, and even great grandparents. In an attempt to understand her family's often confusing and conflicted relationship to their Jewishness, Field revisits her fifties childhood, becoming again the sharply observant child.
6 x 9
ISBN 1-55039-166-6 • paperback • $14.95
Coast Dogs Don't Lie
Tales from the North Coast Shed
by Jack Schofield
They called it the North Coast Sched, but it didn't go to British Columbia's North Coast—only as far north as would allow a Beaver or Otter seaplane to get back to base before grounding time. Calling it a schedule was also something of a stretch, as it was rarely on time. As one wag put it, "We could be on time if there weren't so many babies to deliver along the way." The "babies" were more often truck transmissions, logging equipment and large grocery loads for the camp cookhouses.
AVIATION/HISTORY • 140 pp • 8.25 x 8.25
95 b/w photos & illustrations
ISBN 13: 978-1-55039-169-5; 1-55039-169-0
hardcover • $29.95
When Jan is seven, Nazis attack and take over Holland. At first, not much changes. Soon, though, war starts taking things away: important things like neighbours and friends, trust and respect, even clothing, fuel, and food. Through it all, Jan is still a boy, finding ways to play with friends and paddle his sailing canoe in the canals. But he must also filch food and help protect his father's "guests" from the enemy.
An exciting, touching true story of the Second World War, told by the Dutch Canadian who lived it.
186 pp • 6 x 9
ISBN 1-55039-167-4, ISBN 13 978-1-55039-167-1 • paperback • $13.95
Saara's Passage
by Karen Autio
Saara is trying hard to put her horrible experience aboard the doomed Empress of Ireland behind her. She goes to school, roller skates with her best friend, and enjoys her new baby cousin. And she is so looking forward to starring in the school play!
But nightmares—and unanswerable questions—continue to disturb her. War is declared, and the future of the whole world looks uncertain. Then her family is struck with another heavy blow: tuberculosis. Saara's beloved Aunt Marja must go to the sanatorium in Toronto. Who will care for baby Sanni?
Juvenile Historical Fiction • Ages 10+ • 256 pp • 5¼ x 7¾ • historical note and archival photos
ISBN 1-55039-168-2, ISBN 13 978-1-55039-168-8 • paper • $10.95
The Garden That You Are
by Katherine Gordon
Photography by Rod Currie and Quinton Gordon
If gardening is a cycle of growth, enrichment, decay, and rebirth, so is the nature of humanity: in our societies, our cultures, and our relationships. For the gardeners among us, it's more than an analogy. Our gardens and our lives are inextricably intertwined. Who we are; where we were born; our heritage; our family and friends; the events in our lives—all play a role in the daily experiences on the piece of land we call our garden. That piece of land we have chosen (or which, in some cases, has chosen us) will in turn influence who we are, our relationships, and the events in our lives. Such is the culture of gardeners.
192 pp • 8 x 9
ISBN 1-55039-160-7 • hardcover • $28.95
full colour
Shipping cost: $5.00 for the first book, $1.00 for each additional book
Delivery time: 2-5 days
