"A compelling act of connection, leavened with humour, clear-eyed yet packed with hope." —Ann-Marie MacDonald A rare work of narrative non-fiction that illuminates a world most of us try not to see: the daily lives of the severely mentally ill, who are medicated, marginalized, locked away and shunned. Susan Doherty's groundbreaking book brings us a population of lost souls, ill-served by society, feared, shunted from locked wards to rooming houses to the streets to jail and back again. For the past 10 years, many who have cycled in and out of the locked wards of the Douglas Institute in Montreal found a friend in Susan, who volunteers on the wards and then accompanies her friends out into the world. With their full cooperation, she brings us intimate stories that challenge our views of people with mental illness. Through "Caroline Evans," a woman in her early sixties whom Susan has known since she was a bright, sunny school girl, we experience living with schizophrenia, such as when Caroline was convinced she could save her roommate from the devil by pouring boiling water into her ear... She has been through it all, including having to navigate an indifferent justice system that is incapable of serving the severely ill. Susan interleaves Caroline's story with vignettes about her other friends—stories that reveal their hopes, circumstances, personalities, humanity. Susan found that if she can hang in through the first 10-15 minutes of every coffee date with someone in the grip of psychosis, true communication results. Their "madness" is not otherworldly: instead it tells us something about how they're surviving their lives and what they've been through. The Ghost Garden carries a cargo of compassion and empathy that motivates us to re-examine our understanding of justice, society and humanity.

The forgotten garden which inspired Charles Darwin becomes the modern-day setting for an exploration of memory, family, and the legacy of genius. Darwin never stopped thinking about the garden at his childhood home, The Mount. It was here, under the tutelage of his green-fingered mother and sisters, that he first examined the reproductive life of flowers, collected birds’ eggs, and began the experiments that would lead to his theory of evolution. A century and a half later, with one small child in tow and another on the way, Jude Piesse finds herself living next door to this secret garden. Two acres of the original site remain, now resplendent with overgrown ashes, sycamores, and hollies. The carefully tended beds and circular flower garden are buried under suburban housing; the hothouses where the Darwins and their skilful gardeners grew pineapples are long gone. Walking the pathways with her new baby, Piesse starts to discover what impact the garden and the people who tended it had on Darwin’s work. Blending biography, nature writing, and memoir, The Ghost in the Garden traces the origins of the theory of evolution and uncovers the lost histories that inspired it, ultimately evoking the interconnectedness of all things.

In the second book of the Nina Tanleven Mysteries, Nina, the world’s number-one sixth-grade ghost buster, embarks on a treasure hunt with help from the ghost of a Civil War soldier Not too long ago, Nina Tanleven would never have thought that her dream vacation could take place at a creaky lodge in New York’s Catskill Mountains. But when her architect father agrees to renovate the three-story inn, it’s the perfect opportunity for Nina and her best friend, Chris, to investigate rumors that the rambling old building is haunted. It isn’t long before they learn the truth: Not only is the place haunted by the ghost of a Confederate soldier, it also holds secrets that lead to a buried treasure! The soldier hid his trove as a gift for the New York abolitionist who cared for him before he died, and his last wish is to see it unearthed. The clock is ticking as Nina and Chris race to solve the phantom’s mysterious clues. But they aren’t the only ones seeking the valuable bounty. Can they manage to find it first? The Ghost Wore Gray is the second book of the Nina Tanleven Mysteries, which begin with The Ghost in the Third Row and continue with The Ghost in the Big Brass Bed. This ebook features an illustrated personal history of Bruce Coville including rare images from the author’s collection.

Justice Jones, super-smart super-sleuth, is back for her third spine-tingling adventure! For fans of Robin Stevens, Katherine Woodfine and Enid Blyton. Justice and her friends are third years now and there's an intriguing new girl in Barnowls. Letitia has never been to school before and doesn't care for the rules - and the teachers don't seem to mind! She decides that Justice is her particular friend, much to Stella and Dorothy's distress. But Letitia just isn't the kind of girl you say no to. Then, after a midnight feast in the barn, and a terrifying ghost-sighting in the garden, a girl disappears. Soon ransom notes appear, and they're torn from the pages of a crime novel. Where is the schoolgirl and who has taken her? It will take all of Justice's sleuthing to unravel this mystery!

In the early 1970s, two young filmmaking brothers unloaded their camera and recording equipment on the collapsing front porch of a dilapidated manor in East Hampton. The seemingly abandoned, decaying shell of a once-glorious home belonged to Edith Bouvier Beale. She and her daughter Edie Beale were the aunt and first cousin of former First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.Lois Erdmann Wright was one of only a handful of outsiders allowed into Grey Gardens. During the decades before the documentary, Lois and her mother had formed a close, family-like bond with the Bouvier-Beale women, and Lois learned to overlook the destruction and disarray of the home.For many years, the Beales lived alone in the crumbling estate, physically and financially unable to keep the house up to the codes demanded by the local Board of Health.Lois understood the Beale family. The two Edies were outsiders, trying to eke out a reclusive existence among their haughty, East Hampton neighbors. Surrounded by dozens of cats, raccoons, and piles of trash, Lois found acceptance, security, and unconditional love in the company of Grey Gardens' unlikely inhabitants.She never questioned her dear friends' lives, and they never questioned Lois. Much like the Beale ladies, and the mysterious mansion disintegrating around them, Lois held onto her own secrets, including one impossible rumor that connected her to the Bouvier-Beales in a way she never expected, and would never forget.Nearly a half-century later, the worldwide appeal and fascination with Grey Gardens hasn't dampened. The story has been recreated as a Tony Award winning Broadway musical, as well as a feature length film, and a second documentary.Now, Lois Wright, the "Ghost of Grey Gardens," tells the truth embedded in the cult-classic fable. For the first time ever, Lois recounts her ninety years of life, including the perfectly-imperfect years she spend with the Beales. Featuring never before seen personal photos, documents, and letters, and revealing jaw-dropping facts, this book is a must read for any Grey Gardens fan.

The Garden is dying. Once a little piece of orchid paradise, now in the aftermath of the worst hurricane in Florida's living memory, it is shattered greenhouses, creeping mangroves and dangerously idle men. So when Romeo, an expert breeder of the lucrative ghost orchid, arrives from Honduras, keeper of the Garden, Blanchard, and his Irish right-hand man, Swallow, believe their fortunes are on the up. But Romeo may not be what he seems, and Swallow can't shake the feeling that the newcomer will threaten his privileged position in the Garden's creaking hierarchy. And the ghost orchid is infamously rare, a delicate and endangered species, hidden deep in a sweltering and treacherous cypress swamp, the Fakahatchee Strand. To capture it, Blanchard and Swallow must strike a deal with the leader of the local Seminole tribe, and his dangerously unpredictable nephew, Logan. The tribe are the only ones exempt from the laws protecting the endangered species of the glades, but Logan's wounded pride, and the simmering threat of violence, may just uproot any hope of success. As Blanchard's obsession distracts him from what is truly precious, Swallow's own long-buried traumas test his ability - and desire - to prevent the lust, betrayal and murder that engulf the Garden. Under a relentless Florida sun, Paul Perry's first solo novel is a tale of smothering power, with loyalty and agency thwarted by the tragic patterns of memory and behaviour. Told in spare, exact prose, The Garden is a modern fable, and a warning about trespassing against nature in the name of profit.