Oakland Ross: 8 books

As a boy growing up in southern Ontario,Oakland Ross had little knowledge of his paternal grandfather. Eventually, he learned that William Oliver Kennedy Ross was among the last of Canada’s independent fur traders, toughened adventurers who beat their way by dogsled through the wilds of Quebec and...

He's the finest male singles tennis player in Canadian history, with a serve some say is currently the best in the world. And when Milos Raonic of Thornhill played at the Davis Cup World Group quarter-finals in April, it was this country's first competition at that level. The 22-year-old's victory meant...

Ask a foreigner what he or she thinks about when Canada is mentioned, and the answer is likely to be Niagara Falls. It's the image that most defines us, for better or for worse, and no matter how inaccurately. But what does the place say about this country? Not all of the answers to that question are...

As the snow flies and the bitter winds blow, more and more Canadians are escaping winter by flocking to the glorious beaches of Cuba. And, as Cuba opens up, increasing numbers of Canadians are venturing beyond the resort boundaries to experience firsthand the cultural lifeblood of this beautiful island....

The Star's Oakland Ross wanted to understand how the universe works. But there was a slight problem: like many people, he was allergic to math. He decided to grapple with the cosmos anyway, reading many daunting books and spending hours on the phone with theoretical physicists. His six-part primer on...

In sixteenth-century Mexico, Pitoque is a reluctant spy for the Aztec ruler Montezuma, who is desperate to discover the truth about reports of strange, tall, odorous beings. Are these creatures the envoys of the man-god Quetzalcóatl? Pitoque can’t be sure—nor does he suspect how the arrival of...

It is 1864, and Mexico is bankrupt and riven by civil war. After a dangerous army officer survives a bungled assassination attempt, young, bookish Diego Serrano is inadvertently pulled into a drama of loyalty and deceit that unfolds against a backdrop of imperial splendour and brutal conflict. Diego...

An unlikely friendship between a Canadian teenager and a South African girl sparks a journey to untangle an unsolved murder. Eighteen-year-old Hilary Anson’s startling good looks and wanton ways scandalize the denizens of sleepy Kelso County, but young Sam Mitchell is instantly enthralled...