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Biographies and autobiographies

  • Author:
    Jones, Allan
    Summary:

    In this unique and exhilarating autobiography, Allan Jones - Canada's first blind diplomat - vividly describes how an untreatable eye disease slowly decimated his visual world, most challengingly during his postings in Tokyo and New Delhi, and how he discovered and took to heart the revelatory Indian philosophy that changed his life. Advaita Vedanta, the most iconoclastic and liberating of the classical Indian philosophies, profoundly altered the author's experience of self and world. He found that the true self, as distinct from the individual ego, far exceeds the boundaries of individuality. It lies beneath sightedness or blindness and is absolutely unaffected by the latter. This welcome shift of perspective was reinforced by startling discoveries in contemporary physics, evolutionary biology, and developmental psychology that are fully consistent with Advaitic metaphysics. As for the practical applications of metaphysics, this book demonstrates step by step how Advaitic insight and practice significantly reduce physical and psychological tension. The most telling examples have to do with adjustments compelled by extreme circumstances. Thus Jones describes how he drew upon Advaitic mindfulness techniques to maintain his white cane mobility skills in the teeth of permanent spinal, nerve, and muscle pain. The arc of Beyond Vision moves from the claustrophobically personal to the openness of the transpersonal. It begins in a dysfunctional family background, breaking out into a full life encompassing an adventurous foreign service career, spiritual exploration, and an unconventional kind of marital love.

  • Author:
    Urquhart, Emily
    Summary:

    The story begins on St. Stephen's Day, 2010, in St. John's, NL, when the author gives birth to a baby girl named Sadie Jane who has a shock of snow-white hair. After three months of medical testing, Sadie is diagnosed with albinism, a rare genetic condition where pigment fails to form in the skin, hair and eyes. She is visually impaired and faces a lifetime indoors. A journalist and folklore scholar accustomed to processing the world through other people's stories, Emily is drawn to understanding her child's difference by researching the cultural beliefs associated with albinism worldwide.

  • Author:
    Du Boulay, Shirley
    Summary:

    Considered by many to be one of the great religious figures of the twentieth century and at the forefront of East-West dialogue, Bede Griffiths will gain even more recognition with this definitive biography.

  • Author:
    Phillips, Diana
    Summary:

    Pan Phillips and Rich Hobson founded some of the most isolated ranches in North America. This is the story of Phillips' youngest daughter Diana, who learned to trap muskrat as a toddler, and was known as the only person feisty enough to compete with her father. In time she became a masterful rancher herself and continued the life on her own ranch.

  • Author:
    Woodcock, George
    Summary:

    Beyond the Blue Mountains details Woodcock’s life in the British Columbia bush, his close and longstanding relationship with the Doukhobors, his battles with US immigration officials. We learn of the founding of the influential Canadian Literature review, and we follow Mr. Woodcock on his extended and beautifully-described tours of India and the South Seas. George Woodcock is not only a revered literary critic. He is also a gifted and witty raconteur. Beyond the Blue Mountains allows us further insights into the life of this fascinating man. Winner of the Governor General’s Award, the author now lives in Vancouver, where he founded and edited for many years Canadian Literature. He has written countless articles and books, including critical studies of novelists Hugh MacLennan and Mordecai Richler as well as biographies of George Orwell, Thomas Merton and Oscar Wilde. He is also responsible for the panoramic study of Canada entitled The Canadians. Mr. Woodcock has recently returned from a trip to China.

  • Author:
    Kuklin, Susan
    Summary:

    A 2015 Stonewall Honor Book. A groundbreaking work of LGBT literature takes an honest look at the life, love, and struggles of transgender teens. Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves.

  • Author:
    McCormick, Peter, Greene, Ian
    Summary:

    As a judge, Beverley McLachlin is known for her unique ability to stand up for the values and beliefs that reflect the best of Canada and Canadians. As chief justice, she led the way to assisted suicide legislation, greater recognition of aboriginal rights and title, safe injection sites for drug users and many other changes that have had a dramatic impact on Canadian life. Less well known is how she encouraged collegiality within the Supreme Court and led Canadian judges to pay closer attention to real-world information about the issues they are considering. Her defence of the independence of the court and her own personal integrity when she was attacked by Stephen Harper - an incident discussed and documented in this book - underline her strength of character and integrity. This book sketches Beverley McLachlin's experiences growing up in rural Alberta, attending university, becoming a lawyer and then a judge. At a time when governments were seeking qualified women for senior positions in Canada's courts, she was selected by politicians, both Liberal and Conservative, to fill progressively higher positions. As leading Canadian writers on the role of the judiciary in Canada, Ian Greene and Peter McCormick offer readers a balanced, informed perspective on her time on the Supreme Court - a role that was remarkable for her prodigious work and the clarity of her decisions.

  • Author:
    Jaouad, Suleika
    Summary:

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A searing, deeply moving memoir of illness and recovery that traces one young woman's journey from diagnosis to remission to re-entry into "normal" life-from the author of the Life, Interrupted column in The New York Times ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Rumpus, Library Journal - "I was immersed for the whole ride and would follow Jaouad anywhere. . . . Her writing restores the moon, lights the way as we learn to endure the unknown."-Chanel Miller, The New York Times Book Review "Beautifully crafted . . . affecting . . . a transformative read . . . Jaouad's insights about the self, connectedness, uncertainty and time speak to all of us."- The Washington Post. In the summer after graduating from college, Suleika Jaouad was preparing, as they say in commencement speeches, to enter "the real world." She had fallen in love and moved to Paris to pursue her dream of becoming a war correspondent. The real world she found, however, would take her into a very different kind of conflict zone. It started with an itch-first on her feet, then up her legs, like a thousand invisible mosquito bites. Next came the exhaustion, and the six-hour naps that only deepened her fatigue. Then a trip to the doctor and, a few weeks shy of her twenty-third birthday, a diagnosis: leukemia, with a 35 percent chance of survival. Just like that, the life she had imagined for herself had gone up in flames. By the time Jaouad flew home to New York, she had lost her job, her apartment, and her independence. She would spend much of the next four years in a hospital bed, fighting for her life and chronicling the saga in a column for The New York Times . When Jaouad finally walked out of the cancer ward-after countless rounds of chemo, a clinical trial, and a bone marrow transplant-she was, according to the doctors, cured. But as she would soon learn, a cure is not where the work of healing ends; it's where it begins. She had spent the past 1,500 days in desperate pursuit of one goal-to survive. And now that she'd done so, she realized that she had no idea how to live. How would she reenter the world and live again? How could she reclaim what had been lost? Jaouad embarked-with her new best friend, Oscar, a scruffy terrier mutt-on a 100-day, 15,000-mile road trip across the country. She set out to meet some of the strangers who had written to her during her years in the hospital: a teenage girl in Florida also recovering from cancer; a teacher in California grieving the death of her son; a death-row inmate in Texas who'd spent his own years confined to a room. What she learned on this trip is that the divide between sick and well is porous, that the vast majority of us will travel back and forth between these realms throughout our lives. Between Two Kingdoms is a profound chronicle of survivorship and a fierce, tender, and inspiring exploration of what it means to begin again.

  • Author:
    Chapman, Steven Curtis
    Summary:

    For decades, Steven Curtis Chapman's music and message have brought hope and inspiration to millions around the world. Now, for the first time, Steven openly shares the experiences that have shaped him, his faith, and his music in a life that has included incredible highs and faith-shaking lows. Readers will be captivated by this exclusive look into Steven's childhood and challenging family dynamic growing up, how that led to music and early days on the road, his wild ride to the top of the charts, his relationship with wife Mary Beth, and the growth of their family through births and adoptions. In addition to inside stories from his days of youth to his notable career, including the background to some of his best-loved songs, readers will walk with Steven down the devastating road of loss after the tragic death of five-year-old daughter Maria. And they'll experience his return to the stage after doubting he could ever sing again. Poignant, gut-wrenchingly honest, yet always hopeful, Steven offers no sugary solutions to life's toughest questions. Yet out of the brokenness, he continues to trust God to one day fix what is unfixable in this life. This backstage look at the down-to-earth superstar they've come to love will touch fans' lives and fill their hearts with hope. Includes black-and-white photos throughout.

  • Author:
    Chapman, Steven Curtis
    Summary:

    For decades, Steven Curtis Chapman's music and message have brought hope and inspiration to millions around the world. Now, for the first time, Steven openly shares the experiences that have shaped him, his faith, and his music in a life that has included incredible highs and faith-shaking lows. Readers will be captivated by this exclusive look into Steven's childhood and challenging family dynamic growing up, how that led to music and early days on the road, his wild ride to the top of the charts, his relationship with wife Mary Beth, and the growth of their family through births and adoptions. In addition to inside stories from his days of youth to his notable career, including the background to some of his best-loved songs, readers will walk with Steven down the devastating road of loss after the tragic death of five-year-old daughter Maria. And they'll experience his return to the stage after doubting he could ever sing again. Poignant, gut-wrenchingly honest, yet always hopeful, Steven offers no sugary solutions to life's toughest questions. Yet out of the brokenness, he continues to trust God to one day fix what is unfixable in this life. This backstage look at the down-to-earth superstar they've come to love will touch fans' lives and fill their hearts with hope. Includes black-and-white photos throughout.

  • Author:
    Vargas, Elizabeth
    Summary:

    From the moment she uttered the brave and honest words, "I am an alcoholic," Elizabeth Vargas began writing her story. Now Vargas discusses her accounts of growing up with anxiety and how she dealt with it as she came of age, from turning to alcohol for relief to her eventual recovery.

  • Author:
    Franz, Margaret
    Summary:

    The courageous life and tragic death of a brave and passionate young social worker and prison justice advocate, caught up in the terror of a hostage-taking at the B.C. Penitentiary in June 1975.

  • Author:
    Salaam, Yusef
    Summary:

    Yusef Salaam shares his story of growing up Black in central Harlem in the 1980s--being raised by a strong, fierce mother and grandmother--his years of incarceration, his reentry, and exoneration. Yusef connects these stories to lessons and principles he learned that gave him the power to survive through the worst of life's experiences. He inspires listeners to accept their own path, and to understand their own sense of purpose.

  • Author:
    Pohl-Weary, Emily, Merril, Judith
    Summary:

    Judith Merril was a pioneer of twentieth-century science fiction, a prolific author, and editor. She was also a passionate social and political activist. In fact, her life was a constant adventure within the alternative and experimental worlds of science fiction, left politics, and Canadian literature. Better to Have Loved is illustrated with original art works, covers from classic science fiction magazines, period illustrations, and striking photography.

  • Author:
    Curtis, Nicole
    Summary:

    A New York Times and USA Today Bestseller For the first time, Nicole Curtis, the star of the megahit HGTV and DIY Network show Rehab Addict, reveals her private struggles, her personal victories, and the inspiring lessons we can all learn from them. Part celebrity memoir and part self-help book, Better Than New goes behind the scenes with an entrepreneurial single mom who worked her way from waitress/real estate agent to home renovation expert, preservationist, and television star. With eight chapters in the book-eight lessons told through her life story and through several of the homes she has remodeled-readers will get to see another side of Nicole Curtis, including the private and personal struggles that are not seen on TV. Working in Detroit and Minneapolis, Curtis has opened her fans' eyes to the beauty of older homes and the value of reclaiming and reusing authentic original materials rather than sending dumpster loads to the local landfill. Curtis applies the same principles to her personal life-valuing old friends, rescuing dogs, and advocating for the wounded, the elderly, and the disadvantaged. Readers will find inspiration to apply to their own lives supplemented with never-before-seen photos of Curtis and the homes she renovates. Better Than New is a visual treat, packed with more than 75 color photographs from Curtis's personal collection, ranging from family photos to before-and-after photos of the rehabbed homes' interiors and exteriors.

  • Author:
    Doucette, Fred
    Summary:

    Fred Doucette always wanted to be a soldier. In the 1960s he joined the Canadian Armed Forces and served in Cyprus in the 1970s and ’80s and Bosnia in the 1990s. When he returned home to New Brunswick in 1999 after his last overseas tour, he was diagnosed with severe chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. Eventually released from the army, Fred found a position with the Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) program, where he supported serving soldiers and veterans for ten years. Better Off Dead chronicles Fred’s efforts in helping to rehabilitate and support soldiers and veterans suffering from what the military terms “operational stress injuries.” We meet Ted, saved from a suicide attempt by a timely phone call; Bob, at wit’s end and reluctantly seeking help to overcome severe PTSD; Roger, caught in a cycle of violence and drug and alcohol abuse; and Jane, diagnosed with PTSD after having been sexually assaulted while on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. These accounts are raw, desperate, and often angry, but as Doucette shows, there is hope and real progress for those able to obtain proper diagnosis and treatment. Includes a colour insert with 15 photos.

  • Author:
    Beakley, Mike "Darkside"
    Summary:

    Petite and feisty, Pam Phree, founder of Phree Bail Bonds, is one of the first female bail bonds agents in a male dominated field, partnered with Mike Beakley, an insightful, quick-witted, former narcotics officer, bounty hunter they take on the underground world of prostitution, drug dealers, AIDS, organized crime and murder while fighting to make changes and dispelling the myths about the bail bond industry in Betrayal, Murder and Greed: The True Story of a Bounty Hunter and a Bail Bond Agent. Truth and reality are more frightening and fascinating than fiction. Betrayal, Murder and Greed is edgy and poignant; authors Phree and Beakley expose the murky sometime corrupt world of the bail bond industry as well as revealing the courageous vigilante action of those who fight against evil. Travel alongside them, as they hit the streets and set about catching their marks. Investigate with them the famous "Robin Hood" case, where a wanted fugitive sought to emulate the storybook hero, but committed heinous crimes, experience the horror as a partner goes down in the line of duty among other fascinating first-hand accounts from their partnership as a bail bond agent and bounty hunter. Betrayal, Murder and Greed: The True Story of a Bounty Hunter and a Bail Bond Agent is an intriguing true crime story from the front lines by the very people who are charged to maintain justice and fight evil within and outside their profession. This eye opening first hand expose by two courageous figures who have sought to reveal and change the practices between the shadowy world of criminals and the intrigue of the bail bond industry is a must read.

  • Author:
    Zemel, Joel
    Summary:

    Before the Halifax Explosion, F. Evan Wyatt was a recently-married officer with a promising career in the Royal Canadian Navy. He also enjoyed popularity among those in the city’s elite society. But little else is known about the only man indicted for allegedly causing the disaster.

  • Author:
    Stewart, Roderick, Majada, Jesús
    Summary:

    Norman Bethune (1890-1939) was a man who had everything, and yet had nothing. Although he had achieved international prominence as a surgeon, he was unhappy in his personal life and deeply frustrated by a failed attempt to introduce medicare to Canada. An uncompromising humanitarian in search of a cause, Bethune became immersed in the Spanish Civil War. In Bethune in Spain, Roderick Stewart and Jesús Majada recount Bethune's achievements in Spain and the events that led to his decision to assist the Loyalist forces. The narrative contains Bethune's letters and reports, some of them reproduced here for the first time, as well as newspaper articles, and interviews with him. It covers his creation and operation of a mobile blood transfusion unit, his rescue of fleeing Loyalist civilians during the Malaga-Almeria road tragedy, and his efforts to aid children orphaned by the War. It also deals with the gruelling public-speaking tour Bethune undertook on his return to Canada in 1937 to plead for intervention in support of democracy in Spain and to raise awareness of atrocities committed against civilians by the fascist-backed Spanish Nationalists. Illustrated with photographs from Bethune's seven months in Spain, Bethune in Spain is a poignant portrait of an early advocate for universal health care, an unwavering communist, and a crusader for the Spanish Republican cause.

  • Author:
    Healey, Emma
    Summary:

    Wry, inventive, and relentlessly honest, a memoir of trying to make a living without compromising your truth. Emma Healey just wants to be a writer, but that’s more a journey than a job, and the journey isn’t free. As a teenager, she begins her adventures in precarious employment when introduced by her actor/playwright mother to the role of “standardized patient,” performing illness as a living training dummy for medical students. In university, she joins a creative writing program, cultivating a poet’s interest in language while learning lessons about the literary world that have more to do with survival than art. Through her twenties, she writes software manuals for the world’s leading producer of online pornography, masters search engine optimization for a marketing firm run out of a bedroom by two Phish-loving brothers, narrowly escapes death as a research assistant for a television drama, and works the night shift captioning daytime TV. Along the way, as she navigates dating apps, tumultuous relationships, and the evolution of a voice that she is slowly learning to trust, she begins writing personal essays for money—and finds herself embroiled in a content economy that blurs the boundaries between day job and making art even further.       Through the stories of several very odd jobs, each related to—but also achingly far from—the job she really wants, poet and essayist Emma Healey creates a unique snapshot of the gig economy that is also a timeless meditation on identity, value, and language.     For a writer trying to pay the bills, life can be a work in progress.

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