Amazing But True!: 150 Fascinating Stories About Canada

by Lowell Green

150 historically accurate stories about Canadian history but with a little twist or turn about someone or an event most have never heard Pirates in the St. Lawrence River, camels in the Yukon, French noblewoman left on a deserted island, to name a few. Read each story in two minutes or less. Laugh, cry, and feel a rush of pride

316 pages, Paperback

Published May 8, 2017

About the author

Lowell Green is a Canadian radio personality. He hosts The Lowell Green Show, a conservative morning talk show on Ottawa radio station CFRA, and has also syndicated programming to several other Canadian radio stations.

Reviews

[Russell Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in Canada to celebrate their 150th anniversary in 2017, Lowell Green’s Amazing Truth: 150 Fascinating Stories About Canada is a mixed bag. I would say the title is a bit of overkill. A few of the stories are fascinating; others are interesting; others are either blah or of interest only to Canadians. My biggest complaint is that the book is heavy on war stories and doesn’t have many stories about pop culture in Canada. We hear almost nothing about entertainment, art, or society in general. In fact, despite his final story that praises diversity, in the rest of the book, he tells very few things about Canadians of color. To his credit, several stories are about women, and Green is enthusiastic about them. Green is supposedly a beloved broadcaster in Canada, and perhaps his on-air personality is electric. But his writing style is grating. He uses far too many exclamation points, and his use of present tense can be annoying, rather than making the story seem immediate and conversational, as I’m sure is what he intended. Over all, this might be a good resource for those visiting Canada for the first time, giving them a cursory overview of the country’s history. But be aware, you will learn a lot about the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, while the other provinces are given short shrift.

[Hans Johnsen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I haven’t read this book in whole, but a friend showed me the story about the Danish settlers in New Brunswick who happen to be my forebears. His story is so inaccurate as to be basically a lie. He clearly did no research whatsoever, since it’s fairly easy to find information. If he’d talked to a resident or two they’d have given him the real story, but he clearly didn’t bother. If this is an indication of the type of research Mr. Green does, I won’t be reading any of his books and I would warn others not to either.

[Jason Lavoie]

This is filled with lots of interesting stories about Canada and our history. However, I just don't feel justified giving a rating. It would almost be like asking to give a rating to a history textbook. It would have been a better read had the stories had some form of order such as earliest to latest.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are definitely not enough books that talk about Canada’s history and this one taught me so many things I didn’t know.