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Biographies and autobiographies

  • Author:
    O'Driscoll, Treasa
    Summary:

    Celtic Woman explores with open honesty and engaging irony how cycles of personal discovery have connected international performing artist Treasa O’Driscoll to heaven and earthbut not the way you’d expect. This surprising memoir of an Irish woman attuned to poetic updrafts and spiritual downloads in the lives of real people, many of them celebrities in Ireland and North America she counts as personal friends, exudes her Celtic heritage on every page. Her encounters in life have been testing, tragic, romantic, and highly comic. O’Driscoll’s life entwines with musicians, poets, teachers, artists, actors, farmers, unexpected strangers and familiar drunkards. Their lives all become a single interwoven tapestry of common meaning connected at the level of the soul.

  • Author:
    Germain, Georges-Hebert, Homel, David
    Summary:

    Simply entitled Céline, this is the long-awaited, authorized biography of Céline Dion, the rags-to-riches story of a woman who has become the leading recording artist in the world. First published in French in Quebec in December 1997, Céline has sold in excess of 120,000 copies in Quebec alone. A French-language edition will be released in France this fall, to coincide with the release of a new French album. Céline Dion is one of the world’s best-loved and best-selling recording artists; her singles and albums have topped the international charts for several years. Her awards include numerous Junos, Grammys, and World Music Awards. Her most recent album, Let’s Talk About Love, has already sold over 25 million units world-wide since its release in November 1997. The song "My Heart Will Go On" from the box-office record-setting film Titanic is now the most frequently heard single in the history of American radio. Céline is the story of Céline Dion, her family, and her husband; it is the story of a child, with thirteen siblings, from a lower middle-class family, who grew up to achieve the status of pop icon and global diva. Along the way, she garnered the respect of some of the top people in the music industry, such as David Foster, Barbra Streisand, Luciano Pavarotti, and Sir George Martin. Germain gives the reader the full story of how René Angélil became Céline’s manager and, eventually, her husband. He also tells how René brought Céline to the status of pop icon in Quebec and then worked to help her achieve the same status on a global level. The competitive world of the contemporary music industry is revealed how the deals are put together, how the marketing machinery is motivated, and how songs come to be chosen and produced. Making it to the top demands talent certainly, but also overriding ambition, good luck, and marketing savvy. Céline is also a close-up of American popular culture, and the impact it has around the world. The book shows how a singing sensation becomes the guest of prime ministers, presidents, and sultans.

  • Author:
    Beaunoyer, Jean, Germain, Georges-Hebert, Beaulne, Jean, Homel, David
    Summary:

    Céline Dion is quite possibly Canada’s most famous singer and an icon in her own home province of Quebec. Possessed of an incandescent voice and a vibrant personality, she has moved huge audiences all over the world. These two books tell her story. Céline is the story of her journey from being just one child in a huge family to becoming the world’s songbird. René Angélil fills in the gaps by presenting the life of her manager and husband, who helps guide both Céline’s career and life and has played a key role in her success. IncludesCélineRené Angelil: The Making of Céline Dion

  • Author:
    Conrad, John
    Summary:

    Si l’on se fie à tous les principes de la guerre et à la logique militaire, le soutien logistique de la force opérationnelle Orion du Canada aurait dû s’écrouler en juillet 2006. Peu de pays posent un défi logistique aussi important que l’Afghanistan, et pourtant les soldats canadiens l’ont relevé avec brio, en 2006, dans ce dangereux théâtre international. Cette réussite représente un accomplissement militaire monumental. Les opérations de combat du Canada couvraient le sud de l’Afghanistan en 2006, et c’est avec un mélange d’inquiétude et de flegme que les soldats de la logistique canadiens s’acharnaient à faire progresser le groupement tactique. Ce n’est qu’aujourd’hui que l’on s’aperçoit à quel point les opérations de logistique de la force opérationnelle Orion à Kandahar constituaient une tâche ardue, presque irréalisable. L’auteur de ce livre présente du point de vue de la logistique et de façon sincère, parfois même crue, des incidents et des souvenirs de la guerre que le Canada a livrée. Il offre aussi au lecteur une vision éclairée de l’histoire de la logistique militaire au Canada et se penche, en tant que commandant de bataillon, sur l’érosion spectaculaire de ce qui était autrefois une des pierres angulaires de l’Armée de terre.

  • Author:
    Richer, Marc
    Summary:

    Ce grand homme que je cherchais est le récit très humain de l’histoire de Maco, un enfant qui a grandi à la recherche de l’idéal, espérant trouver un grand homme à travers un modèle de vie socialement valorisé. Marié pendant plusieurs années et père de 2 enfants, une prise de conscience tardive de son orientation sexuelle a eu un impact considérable sur sa vie personnelle et familiale. L’auteur souhaite que ce récit, élaboré à partir de réflexions poétiques orientées vers un savoir-être à la vie, puisse démystifier les saines différences et permette aux gens de réfléchir sur le respect de la personne dans tout son être.

  • Author:
    Creedon, Mark
    Summary:

    Caught Between Two Devils is based on the real-life experiences of Antanas Paskevicius, his wife Jadwyga, and his sister Maria. In April of 1944, their lives were forever altered when they were sent to a work camp in northeast Germany where they struggled for ten months. Despite the risk of betrayal, torture, and death, they stole a Wehrmacht truck in February 1945 and, along with other prisoners, fled and headed for Bavaria. The struggles of Antanas, Jadwyga and Maria are not unique; there were six million foreign prisoners compelled to work for the Third Reich.

  • Author:
    Massie, Robert K.
    Summary:

    Biography of the minor German princess who was brought to Russia by Empress Elizabeth and became Catherine the Great (1729-1796). Details her marriage to Peter III and ascendance to the throne. Highlights Catherine's modernization and expansion of the country amid court intrigue and wars. Bestseller. 2011.

  • Author:
    Redding, Stan, Abagnale, Frank W.
    Summary:

    The uproarious, bestselling true story of the world's most sought-after con man, immortalized by Leonardo DiCaprio in DreamWorks' feature film of the same name. Frank W. Abagnale, alias Frank Williams, Robert Conrad, Frank Adams, and Robert Monjo, was one of the most daring con men, forgers, imposters, and escape artists in history. In his brief but notorious criminal career, Abagnale donned a pilot's uniform and copiloted a Pan Am jet, masqueraded as the supervising resident of a hospital, practiced law without a license, passed himself off as a college sociology professor, and cashed over $2.5 million in forged checks, all before he was twenty-one. Known by the police of twenty-six foreign countries and all fifty states as "The Skywayman," Abagnale lived a sumptuous life on the lam--until the law caught up with him. Now recognized as the nation's leading authority on financial foul play, Abagnale is a charming rogue whose hilarious, stranger-than-fiction international escapades, and ingenious escapes--including one from an airplane--make Catch Me If You Can an irresistible tale of deceit.

  • Author:
    McMullan, Peter
    Summary:

    Covering a span of more than 60 years, these classic fishing essays are brought together for the first time, celebrating the thoughts, pleasures and adventures of a devoted angler and renowned storyteller as he fishes some of the timeless streams of the Ireland, New Zealand and British Columbia. Through the pages of Casting Back Peter McMullan takes the reader from his youthful Irish beginnings in the 1940s to his time as a young journalist in Northern Ireland during the mid-1950s, through the 1960s and into today’s western Canada and a totally different sport fishing environment. Pike and bream, roach, tench and perch were his original targets – what British and Irish anglers call “coarse” fish. Then, with experience and the passage of time, came brown trout and Atlantic salmon – the more highly regarded “game” fish – as angling with lures and sometimes even “garden olives” gave way to dressed silk flies and fine handmade rods crafted from split cane. Moving from Northern Ireland to British Columbia in the 1970s brought an entirely new dimension to McMullan’s fishing life, as there were now Pacific salmon and legendary steelhead to be caught in stunning rivers too numerous to name. The author’s recollections range from stories of being that boarding school boy who would slip away from his still-sleeping dormitory before dawn to fish for tench, to the time when an Irish pig stole his salmon, to an encounter with a black bear in British Columbia that just might have been a serious threat. Pivot from there to reflections on the lives of commercial fishers of herring in the Irish Sea and trout in Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles, and finally to the ruminations of a now very experienced angler fortunate enough to travel twice to New Zealand to seek out big trout. There is one more tale that just had to be included, and for the very first time it can be told. A yarn involving a nine-weight fly rod, a police bomb squad and one of the biggest international events to be staged in Canada in recent years. Definitely hard to believe, but all too true.

  • Author:
    Lee, Caspar
    Summary:

    A biography from YouTube sensation Caspar Lee (and his mom).

  • Author:
    Van Driesche, Emmet
    Summary:

    When he first envisioned becoming a farmer, author Emmet Van Driesche never imagined his main crop would be Christmas trees, nor that such a tree farm could be more of a managed forest than the conventional grid of perfectly sheared trees. Carving Out a Living on the Land tells the story of how Van Driesche navigated changing life circumstances, took advantage of unexpected opportunities, and leveraged new and old skills to piece together an economically viable living, while at the same time respecting the land's complex ecological relationships. From spoon carving to scything, coppicing to wreath-making, Carving Out a Living on the Land proves that you don't need acres of expensive bottomland to start your land-based venture, but rather the creativity and vision to see what might be done with that rocky section or ditch or patch of trees too small to log. You can lease instead of buy; build flexible, temporary structures rather than sink money into permanent ones; and take over an existing operation rather than start from scratch. What matters are your unique circumstances, talents, and interests, which when combined with what the land is capable of producing, can create a fulfilling and meaningful farming life.

  • Author:
    Holmes, Jasmine L.
    Summary:

    A look at the inspirational lives of ten Black women of faith Do the names Elizabeth Freeman, Nannie Helen Burroughs, or Charlotte Forten Grimke ring any bells? Have you ever heard of Sarah Mapps Douglass, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, or Maria Fearing? What about Sara Griffith Stanley, Amanda Berry Smith, Lucy Craft Laney, and Maria Stewart? While these names may not be familiar to you, these women lived faithful and influential lives in a world that was filled with injustice. They worked to change laws, built schools, spoke to thousands, and shared the Gospel all around the world. And while history books may have forgotten them, their stories can teach us so much about how we can live today.

  • Author:
    Bowering, George
    Summary:

    It's not where you're going but how you get there ...

    Everyone's got a good story to tell about cars: a funny fender-bender, a bad cab ride, awkward amorous acrobatics. But the stories we tell about cars tell even more about ourselves. You'll see what we mean in Cars.

    George Bowering, one of Canada's Grand Prix writers, and Ryan Knighton, a young writer just entering the race, realized that they could tell the stories of their lives and friendship through the automobiles that have driven them.

    Now, these aren't your ordinary boys-and-cars stories. There's no drag racing or cruising for chicks. In fact, George likes to drive pretty slowly, and Ryan, who is now blind, doesn't drive at all. But they take turns in the literary driver's seat, bantering and fender-nudging so their stories curve and tangle like a BC highway, until what emerges is a poignant, hilarious conversation.

    Boiling fish in the radiator, jousting with a forklift, cabbing with Doris Lessing: in one hundred panels (that's fifty each), George and Ryan tell the tales of their friendship, families, friends and loves - all illuminated by the dashboard light. Cars is an auto biography that'll chauffeur you through the intersection of the lives of two of Canada's most exciting writers.

  • Author:
    Melton, Glennon Doyle
    Summary:

    Glennon Melton believes that by shedding our weapons and armor, we can stop hiding, competing, striving for the mirage of perfection, and ultimately build a better life in our hearts, homes, and communities. Readers will find a wise and witty friend who will embolden them to cut themselves a break and commit to small acts of love that can have an extraordinary impact.

  • Author:
    Jensen, Toni
    Summary:

    A powerful, poetic memoir about what it means to exist as an indigenous woman in America, told in snapshots of the author's encounters with gun violence. "Essential ... We need more voices like Toni Jensen's, more books like Carry."'Tommy Orange, New York Times bestselling author of There There Toni Jensen grew up around guns: As a girl, she learned to shoot birds in rural Iowa with her father, a card-carrying member of the NRA. As an adult, she's had guns waved in her face near Standing Rock, and felt their silent threat on the concealed-carry campus where she teaches. And she has always known that in this she is not alone. As a Metis woman, she is no stranger to the violence enacted on the bodies of indigenous women, on indigenous land, and the ways it is hidden, ignored, forgotten. In Carry, Jensen maps her personal experience onto the historical, exploring how history is lived in the body and redefining the language we use to speak about violence in America. In the title chapter, Jensen connects the trauma of school shootings with her own experiences of racism and sexual assault on college campuses. "The Worry Line" explores the gun and gang violence in her neighborhood the year her daughter was born. "At the Workshop" focuses on her graduate school years, during which a workshop classmate repeatedly killed off thinly veiled versions of her in his stories. In "Women in the Fracklands," Jensen takes the reader inside Standing Rock during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and bears witness to the peril faced by women in regions overcome by the fracking boom. In prose at once forensic and deeply emotional, Toni Jensen shows herself to be a brave new voice and a fearless witness to her own difficult history'as well as to the violent cultural landscape in which she finds her coordinates. With each chapter, Carry reminds us that surviving in one's country is not the same as surviving one's country.

  • Author:
    Weller, Sheila
    Summary:

    A remarkably candid biography of the remarkably candid and brilliant Carrie Fisher. In her 2008 bestseller, Girls Like Us, Sheila Weller, with heart and a profound feel for the times, gave us a surprisingly intimate portrait of three icons: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon. Now she turns her focus to one of the most loved, brilliant, and iconoclastic women of the modern age: the actress, writer, daughter, and mother Carrie Fisher. She traces Fisher's life from her Hollywood royalty roots to her untimely and shattering death just days before Christmas 2016. Her mother was the seemingly idyllic Debbie Reynolds; her father, the famously ne'er-do-well Eddie Fisher (who runs off with Elizabeth Taylor). Weller exposes us to the demons that haunted Fisher all her life, particularly bipolar disorder and a drug addiction from which she could never quite free herself. We follow her career from her debut in Shampoo to the fame-making Star Wars; dive into her serious relationships with Paul Simon and the talent agent Bryan Lourd; witness her metamorphosis from actress to bestselling author; and watch her turn into a casual spokesperson for mental illness. Sourced by friends, colleagues, and witnesses to all stages of Fisher's life, Carrie Fisher is an affectionate and even-handed portrayal of a woman whose unsurpassed honesty is a reminder of how things should be. This is a big book about a small woman with a larger-than-life spirit and impact.

  • Author:
    Bradbury, Bettina
    Summary:

    Caroline Kearney faced a heartbreaking dilemma. In 1865 she was newly widowed, thirty-one years old, and the mother of six children. She had hoped her husband would leave his sheep station in Victoria, Australia to her sons. Instead, his will required that the family move to Ireland and live in a house chosen by her brothers-in-law. Pieced together from archives, newspapers, genealogical sites, and legal records, Caroline’s Dilemmasheds new light on colonial family and gender relationships of the nineteenth century and tells the story of how one woman fought to shape her own life within the British Empire.

  • Author:
    Irvine, David
    Summary:

    "Caring is Everything" brilliantly fosters the notion that all of us, regardless of our education, social or economic status, can sincerely make a difference and bring joy to others, ourselves, and the community in which we serve.

  • Author:
    Rondina, Catherine
    Summary:

    The son of an NHL draftee and the chief of the Ulkatcho First Nation, Carey Price got his start on skates as a toddler, first on a frozen creek and then on his father's homemade rink. The natural athlete went on to become one of the top amateur players in Canada in 2002, getting drafted fifth overall by the famed Montreal Canadiens three years later. Now one of the most recognizable figures in hockey, Carey credits his success to his community of Anahim Lake, British Columbia, where hard work and commitment often faced off against remoteness and cost. Throughtout his incredible career, he's taken every oppotunity possible to encourage all young people, especially those who share his indigenous background, to follow their dreams.

  • Author:
    Coyote, Ivan
    Summary:

    Beloved storyteller Ivan Coyote returns with their most intimate and moving book yet. Writer and performer Ivan Coyote has spent decades on the road, telling stories around the world. For years, Ivan has kept a file of the most special communications received from readers and audience members—letters, Facebook messages, emails, soggy handwritten notes tucked under the windshield wiper of their truck after a gig. Then came Spring, 2020, and, like artists everywhere, Coyote was grounded by the pandemic, all their planned events cancelled. The energy of a live audience, a performer"s lifeblood, was suddenly gone. But with this loss came an opportunity for a different kind of connection. Those letters that had long piled up could finally begin to be answered. Care Of combines the most powerful of these letters with Ivan's responses, creating a body of correspondence of startling intimacy, breathtaking beauty, and heartbreaking honesty and openness. Taken together, they become an affirming and joyous reflection on many of the themes central to Coyote's celebrated work—compassion and empathy, family fragility, non-binary and Trans identity, and the unending beauty of simply being alive, a giant love letter to the idea of human connection, and the power of truly listening to each other.

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