The Penguin History of Canada by Kenneth McNaught is a basic but useful primer on the country's history.Native Peoples and Cultures of Canada by Allan Macmillan provides a historical framework and raises contemporary issues regarding Canada's Native people.City to City (also published under the name O Canada: Travels in an Unknown Country) by Jan Morris is a collection of essays written after she traveled in Canada from coast to coast. Stephen Brook's Maple Leaf Rag is a somewhat quirkier collection of travel essays.John and Martha Stradiotta describe the many national and provincial parks across the country in The Road to Canada's Wilds: Parks Along the Trans Canada Highway.Canada's National Parks - A Visitor's Guide, by Marylee Stepehenson, is the most comprehensive guide to the country's national parks.For a taste of Canadian literature, read Margaret Atwood's Surfacing and Booker-winning Blind Assassin, Alice Munro's Moons of Jupiter short story collection, Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion or Robertson Davies' Fifth Business.