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Biographies and autobiographies

  • Author:
    Krull, Kathleen
    Summary:

    Discover how animals influenced twenty of the world's most beloved authors, from Charles Dickens to J. K. Rowling. Each short chapter focuses on one author's life, using simple, entertaining text to weave tales of the pets that affected the lives and works of these writers.

  • Author:
    Geering, Lloyd
    Summary:

    Biography of New Zealand theologian Lloyd Geering [1918-]

  • Author:
    Kanyon, Chris, Clark, Ryan
    Summary:

    A rare glimpse not only into the life of a professional wrestler, but the life of a gay man in a straight world, this tragic memoir is told in Chris Kanyon’s own words, with the help of journalist Ryan Clark.

    One of the most popular wrestlers of the late 1990s, Kanyon kept his personal life private from his fans until finally revealing his biggest secret in 2004: he was gay. Going through the various roles that Kanyon played, both in the ring and out of it, as well as his battle with manic depression, this book explores the factors that led to his suicide in 2010.

    In his voice and the way he wanted it told, these are Kanyon’s last words about his experience rising through the ranks to the top of the professional wrestling world while keeping his sexuality hidden.

  • Author:
    Burke, Kelley Jo.
    Summary:

    Kelley Jo Burke embarks on a wild journey to understand many things, including the part where her grandfather sort of murdered her grandmother. Returning to a house filled with her first memories of childhood, she begins to explore the complex origins of her own anxiety. Along the way, she reflects on alienation and immigration, mental health and generational trauma, and the nature of memory itself. A memoir filled with raw honesty, comedy, tragedy and grace.

  • Author:
    Irby, Samantha
    Summary:

    A new rip-roaring essay collection from the smart, edgy, hilarious, unabashedly raunchy, and bestselling Samantha Irby. Irby is forty, and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin despite what Inspirational Instagram Infographics have promised her. She has left her job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic, has published successful books and has been friendzoned by Hollywood, left Chicago, and moved into a house with a garden that requires repairs and know-how with her wife in a Blue town in the middle of a Red state where she now hosts book clubs and makes mason jar salads. This is the bourgeois life of a Hallmark Channel dream. She goes on bad dates with new friends, spends weeks in Los Angeles taking meetings with "tv executives slash amateur astrologers" while being a "cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwest person," "with neck pain and no cartilage in [her] knees," who still hides past due bills under her pillow. The essays in this collection draw on the raw, hilarious particulars of Irby's new life. Wow, No Thank You is Irby at her most unflinching, riotous, and relatable.

  • Author:
    Telfer, A.H., DiCorpo, Lorene
    Summary:

    In the 1880s the provincial government sent out teams of land surveyors to explore the northern Ontario hinterland. By rail, canoe and on foot they and their crews cut through the forests and across streams, establishing the boundaries for townships in preparation for settlement. Alexander Herkes Telfer was a member of the party led by the Haliburton surveyor Alexander Niven, who was responsible for running the lines for seven townships around the head of Lake Temiskaming. The child of Scottish immigrants who settled in Scarborough, Ontario, A.H. Telfer logged his experiences in a personal diary, revealing a love of new frontiers and adventure that the hardships of life could not diminish. His vivid account provides interesting details of early surveying methods and of the lives of some intrepid early settlers in this wild but beautiful land. An introduction and annotations by the editor and early photographs of the upper Ottawa/Lake Temiskaming area complement the diary and create a historical context. "I personally have long been interested in the surveyor Alexander Niven from Haliburton. I grew up on Niven Street in New Liskeard, and as a child wondered about the man the street was named for. The story of Niven and the other surveyors who mapped the Townships of the Little Clay Belt in the District of Temiskaming in the 1880s is long overdue. "A.H. Telfer’s personal diaries, which tell of the day-to-day hardships and accomplishments of these surveyors, are a fascinating account of the country before the great land rush of the 1890s and the Cobalt mining boom of 1903, which changed the landscape dramatically. This personal account by one of the members of the actual survey party of 1886 is interesting from a historical perspective, as it bridges the gap between the fur trading and logging eras, and the settlement of Temiskaming. Of equal interest is the mention in the diary of pioneers in the area, such as C.C. Farr, the founder of the town of Haileybury; Edouard Piche, one of the earliest settlers on Lake Temiskaming; and the Heard brothers from Haliburton, who were among the first homesteaders. "For anyone interested in the history of northern Ontario, this is a ’must read.’"- Bruce W. Taylor, genealogist, historian and author, his most recent book being New Liskeard: The Pioneer Years (2003).

  • Author:
    Jurmain, Suzanne
    Summary:

    Describes how their different political views caused friends Thomas Jefferson and John Adams to become rivals, until they learned to set aside their differences for the sake of their friendship.

  • Author:
    Bourdain, Anthony
    Summary:

    Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. This book presents his life of experience collected into an entertaining, practical, fun, and frank travel guide to some of his favorite places, in his own words. Supplementing Bourdain's words are a handful of essays by friends, colleagues, and family that tell even deeper stories about the place.

  • Author:
    Martin, Sandra, Thorsell, William
    Summary:

    Longlisted for the Charles Taylor Prize and selected as a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book and an iTunes Store Best Book Globe and Mail columnist Sandra Martin honours the lives of Canada's famous, infamous, and unsung heroes in this unique collection of obituaries of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Here are Canadian icons such as Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, social activist June Callwood, and urban theorist Jane Jacobs. Here are builders such as feminist and editor Doris Anderson, and businessman and famed art collector Ken Thomson. Here are our rogues, rascals, and romantics; our service men and women; and here are those private citizens whose lives have had an undeniable public impact. Finally, Martin interweaves these elegant and eloquent biographies with the autobiography of the obit writer, offering an exclusive and intimate view of life on the dead beat. Beautifully written, compelling, and vivid, Working the Dead Beat is a tribute to those individuals who, each on their own and as a collective, tell the story of our country, and to the life of the obit writer who chronicles their extraordinary lives.

  • Author:
    Holmes, Madelyn
    Summary:

    In Working for the Common Good, Madelyn Holmes details the political policy work of eight social democratic Canadian women and highlights their largely unrecognized struggles and accomplishments. Throughout their political careers, Agnes Macphail, Thérèse Casgrain, Grace MacInnis, Pauline Jewett, Margaret Mitchell, Lynn McDonald, Audrey McLaughlin and Alexa McDonough worked towards curing society's economic and social ills. They raised their voices for world peace from the 1920s to the 2000s. They were incensed about economic inequality in Canadian society and advocated for policies to reduce poverty. They fought for social justice for Indigenous peoples, Japanese-Canadians, Chinese-Canadians, Muslim-Canadians and the imprisoned. The profiles in this book illustrate the many ways these politicians embraced the cause of gender equality and served as role models for generations of Canadian women.

  • Author:
    Reed, Kim
    Summary:

    For years, Kim's day job was a social worker to the home-bound elderly in Brooklyn Heights. Then she'd scramble into Manhattan to make her hostess shifts at Babbo, where even the Pope would have trouble scoring a reservation, and Gwyneth Paltrow and Ryan Reynolds squeezed through the jam-packed entryway like everyone else. Despite her sometimes fifteen-hour days, Kim couldn't make ends meet, up to her eyeballs in grad school debt. Her social work training -- problem solving, crisis intervention work, dealing with unpredictable people and random situations -- made her the ideal assistant for Joe Bastianich, a hard-partying, "What's next?" food and wine entrepreneur who drummed up new business ventures one after another. He rose to fame in Italy as a TV star while Kim planned parties, fielded calls, and negotiated his deals from a cell phone on the go. Eventually, something had to give, and that was Kim herself. With no life outside her job, she was panicked about ending up alone without building the family she craved. Workhorse is a deep-dive into the chaos of the NYC foodie craze as well as an all-too-relatable look at what happens when your job takes over your life, and when a scandal upends your understanding of where you work and what you do. As Kim realized, if you can make the impossible possible for someone else, you can do the same for yourself.

  • Author:
    Stadler, Gustavus
    Summary:

    Dismantles the Woody Guthrie we have been taught--the rough-and-ready ramblin' man--to reveal an artist who discovered how intimacy is crucial for political struggleWoody Guthrie is often mythologized as the classic American "ramblin' man," a real-life Steinbeckian folk hero who fought for working-class interests and inspired Bob Dylan. Biographers and fans frame him as a foe of fascism and focus on his politically charged folk songs. What's left unexamined is how the bulk of Guthrie's work--most of which is unpublished or little known--delves into the importance of intimacy in his personal and political life. Featuring an insert with personal photos of Guthrie's family and previously unknown paintings, Woody Guthrie: An Intimate Life is a fresh and contemporary analysis of the overlapping influences of sexuality, politics, and disability on the art and mind of an American folk icon. Part biography, part cultural history of the Left, Woody Guthrie offers a stunning revelation about America's quintessential folk legend, who serves as a guiding light for leftist movements today. In his close relationship with dancer Marjorie Mazia, Guthrie discovered a restorative way of thinking about the body, which provided a salve for the trauma of his childhood and the slowly debilitating effects of Huntington's disease. Rejecting bodily shame and embracing the power of sexuality, he came to believe that intimacy was the linchpin for political struggle. By closely connecting to others, society could combat the customary emotional states of capitalist cultures: loneliness and isolation. Using intimacy as one's weapon, Guthrie believed we could fight fascism's seductive call.

  • Author:
    Fraser, Malcolm
    Summary:

    The Juno award-winning Wooden Stars both epitomized and transcended the sound of mid-90s indie rock. One of Canada’s greatest bands, they helped build a scene whose members would go on to be associated with some of the country’s most revered acts including Julie Doiron, Islands and Arcade Fire. With Wooden Stars: Innocent Gears, Malcolm Fraser tracks the highs and lows of this totally unique and influential band.

  • Author:
    Parker, Mike
    Summary:

    Lumbering in Nova Scotia has a long and storied history, dating back nearly for centuries. A rich resource and lose to world markets, lumbering has played an important role in the development of the province, employing thousands of men and woman over the years. This oral history, covering a 30-year period from the 1920s to the 1940s, captures the personal experiences of those choppers, scalers, swayers, yarders, mill hands and cooks who were part of this rugged experience.

  • Author:
    Wagman-Geller, Marlene
    Summary:

    This book is filled with inspiring true stories of women activists, artists, and entrepreneurs who launched some of the most famous companies, brands, and organizations today and changed the world. It is at once a collection of biographies and a testament of female empowerment.

  • Author:
    Nowell, Iris
    Summary:

    This book pays tribute to 14 women who donated millions of dollars to causes close to their hearts. Iris Nowell is the author of five books. Writing her 1996 book, Women Who Give Away Millions, has given her a solid foundation of philanthropy, the not-for-profit sector, and the wealthy. She has also written a memoir of Canadian artist Harold Town, and a biography of artist, filmmaker, and impassioned feminist, Joyce Wieland.

  • Author:
    Day, Francis Martin, Spence, Phyllis, Ladouceur, Barbara
    Summary:

    In these Red Cross memoirs, thirty women tell their stories of volunteer work with the Canadian Red Cross Corps in overseas postings during World War Two and the Korean War. These dramatic narratives take us across oceans infested with enemy submarines to witness Canadian women on duty in the U.K., in Europe and in Asia. Laced with humour and filled with grace, these stories are a testament to the vital yet often overlooked responsibilities that thousands of women gallantly accepted for the Allied war effort. Women Overseas is a companion volume to the national bestseller Blackouts to Bright Lights: Canadian War Bride Stories.

  • Author:
    Campbell, Olivia M.
    Summary:

    For fans of Hidden Figures and Radium Girls comes the remarkable story of three Victorian women who broke down barriers in the medical field to become the first women doctors, revolutionizing the way women receive health care. In the early 1900s, women were dying in large numbers from treatable diseases because they avoided receiving medical care. Examinations performed by male doctors were often demeaning and even painful. In addition, women faced stigma from illness--a diagnosis could greatly limit their ability to find husbands, jobs or be received in polite society. Motivated by personal loss and frustration over inadequate medical care, Elizabeth Blackwell, Lizzie Garret Anderson and Sophie Jex-Blake fought for a woman's place in the male-dominated medical field. For the first time ever, Women in White Coats tells the complete history of these three pioneering women who, despite countless obstacles, earned medical degrees and paved the way for other women to do the same. Though very different in personality and circumstance, together these women built women-run hospitals and teaching colleges--creating for the first time medical care for women by women. With gripping storytelling based on extensive research and access to archival documents, Women in White Coats tells the courageous history these women made by becoming doctors, detailing the boundaries they broke of gender and science to reshape how we receive medical care today.

  • Author:
    Ignotofsky, Rachel
    Summary:

    Women in Sports highlights the achievements and stories of fifty notable women athletes from the 1800s to today, including trailblazers, Olympians, and record-breakers in more than forty sports. The athletes featured include well-known figures like tennis player Billie Jean King and gymnast Simone Biles, as well as lesser-known champions like Toni Stone, the first woman to play baseball in a professional men's league, and skateboarding pioneer Patti McGee. The book also contains information on topics that sporty women want to know about such as muscle anatomy, a timeline of women's participation in sports, pay and media statistics for female athletes, and influential women's teams. Women in Sports celebrates the success of the tough, bold, and fearless women who paved the way for today's athletes.

  • Author:
    Ignotofsky, Rachel
    Summary:

    The New York Times bestseller Women in Science highlights the contributions of fifty notable women to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from the ancient to the modern world.

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