14 great Canadian nonfiction books to read this summer

If you're a fan of nonfiction, you'll want to pick up one of these books.

A Mind Spread Out on the Groundby Alicia Elliott

Alicia Elliottexplores the systemic oppression faced by Indigenous peoples across Canada through the lens of her own experiences as a Tuscarora writer from Six Nations of the Grand River.Elliottexamines how colonial violence, including the loss of language, seeps into the present day lives of Indigenous people, often in the form of mental illness.Elliott, who lives in Brantford, Ont., won gold at theNational Magazine Awards in 2017 for the essay this book is based on.

• Alicia Elliott on why the cultural appropriation debate isn't about free speech it's about context

Hello I Want to Die Please Fix MebyAnna Mehler Paperny

Anna Mehler Papernyis a journalistwho has struggled with depression her entire life. After a suicide attempt in her 20s, she decided to look into her disease: how it's caused, treatedand talked about. Part memoir, part investigation,Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Meis an examination of an illness that is far too commonand far too little understood.

Big Lonely DougbyHarley Rustad

Big Lonely Dougis about an ancient Douglas fir tree that stands at roughly the height of a 20-storey building on Vancouver Island. Saved by a logger named Dennis Cronin, the tree stands alone in the forest near Port Renfrew, as its neighbouring cedar, hemlock and great fir trees were clear cut and hauled away.Big Lonely Dougwas originally a magazine article, which won silver at the National Magazine Awards.

• How Harley Rustad's award-winning magazine article about saving a tree grew into the bookBig Lonely Doug

Chop Suey Nationby AnnHui

InChop Suey Nation, Ann Hui drives to small towns across Canada and visits the family-run Chinese restaurants that dot the country. She also discovers her own family's secrets of working in the industry. Hui, a journalist with the Globe and Mail, begins her journey as an authenticity snob, but comes to appreciate the determination and enterprise of families across the nation.

• Ann Hui pays tribute to Canada's small town Chinese restaurants

The Vagabond Valiseby Siris, translated byRupert Bottenberg

A founding father of Quebec's vibrant comixunderground, Sirishas released his first graphic novel in the form of the autobiographicalTheVagabond Valise.Representing himself as achick-headed boy named Chick-o, Sirisdocuments a coming-of-age spent in a series of foster families, separated from his four older siblings and parents. In discovering a talent for art, Chick-o finds glimmers of hope under grim circumstances.

The Real LolitabySarahWeinman

Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 bookLolita, the controversial novel of a professor who falls obsessively in love with his 12-year-old stepdaughter, has sold over 60 million copies worldwide. The novel was based on the real abduction of an 11-year-old American girl named Sally Horner.Sarah Weinmanpores over news articles and conducts interviews with Horner's living relatives to chronicle the young girl's life, including her kidnapping and rescue, in mid-century America. She also investigates how much Nabokov knew about Horner's case and the ways he hid it when publishing what is considered both an infamous and classic novel.

• The forgotten real-life story behind Lolita

The Emperor's Orphansby Sally Ito

When approximately 4,000 Japanese-Canadians were "repatriated" to Japan during the Second World War, many of Sally Ito's relatives left their lives in Canada. Ito, who grew up in Edmonton, tells her family's story of displacement and their experiences in the dark days of the Pacific War.

They Call Me Georgeby Cecil Foster

At the beginning of the 20th century, being a train porter in Canada was a job reserved for black men only. Cecil Foster documents this underreported piece of Canadian history in the nonfiction bookThey Call Me George. The tiring, thankless and low-paying job that consisted of hauling luggage, folding down beds, shining shoes and serving passengers forced these men to be separated from their families as they travelled thecountry.

They Call Me Georgedocuments how one man, Stanley Grizzle, went from being a porter to leading a movement and eventually receiving the Order of Canada.

• The untold story of Canada's black train porters

All Our RelationsbyTanya Talaga

Journalist and writerTanya Talagainvestigatesthe alarming rise in youth suicides in Indigenous communities.All Our Relations part of the 2018 Massey Lectures and based onTalaga's Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy series is a call for action and justice for Indigenous communities and youth.

• The 2018 CBC Massey Lectures: All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward

Murder by Milkshakeby Eve Lazarus

Murder by Milkshakerevisits the suspicious 1965 death of a popular radio personality's wife that became one of British Columbia's most sensational criminal cases of the century. When Esther Castellani wife to charismatic CKNW radio personality Rene Castellani passed away after a painful and prolonged illness, the cause of death was initially undetermined. But soon after Rene quickly moved on with his girlfriend Lolly, the truth was revealed: he had methodically poisoned his wife by putting poison in her vanilla milkshakes.

This nonfiction work by Eve Lazarus provides a well-researched look at murder, infidelity and the social and political realities in 1960s Canada.

Spies of No Countryby Matti Friedman

Matti Friedman tells the story of a espionage unit known as the "Arab Section," a small group of Jewish men who could pass as Arabs. They were chosen by British spies and Jewish militia leaders during the Second World War andwere disguised as Palestinian refugees when the first Jewish-Arab war broke out in 1948. They passed messages from Beirut to Israel for two years. Five were caught and executed.

Friedman is a journalist and the author of the memoirPumpkinflowers, which was shortlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize and Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

• Matti Friedman: How I wrote about my time as an Israeli soldier

From the AshesbyJesse Thistle

Abandoned by his parents and raised by his difficult grandparents, Jesse Thistle struggled with addiction as an adult and spent 10 years homeless. Thistle is now a leading academic and expert on Indigenous homelessness. He has earned many honours for his work in academia, includingthe2016 Governor General's Silver Medal. Heis also a Trudeau and Vanier Scholar.He shares his story of overcoming his circumstancesin thememoir,From the Ashes.

• From street to scholar: Jesse Thistle creates new definition of Indigenous homelessness

Feast of Fieldsby Sean Karemaker

In this blackand white book, Sean Karemakerrecords a grim period of his mother's childhood, spent in an orphanage in Denmark. Karemaker'slove and admiration for his mother is evident on every carefully designed page, drawing a woman whose kindness, compassion and curiosity outweighed the tremendous sadness of her circumstances.

The Wife's TalebyAidaEdemariam

InThe Wife's Tale,Aida Edemariamrecords her grandmother Yetemegnu's long and storied life in Ethiopia. Yetemegnuwas born in Gondar,married to an ambitious man before the age of 10 and grew into aspiritual andresilientwoman.Over the stretch of her 97 years, Yetemegnuraised afamily through violentfascist regimes,civil war and revolution.

The Wife's Talewasshortlisted for the2018 Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction.

• How Aida Edemariam turned her grandmother's stories into a biography about 97 years in Ethiopia