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Biographies and autobiographies

  • Author:
    Lambert, François
    Summary:

    François Lambert, personnage médiatique incontournable du Québec, nous offre une nouvelle édition de son tout premier livre, mis à jour selon ses derniers développements et l'évolution des marchés. L'ancien dragon revisite cet essai toujours pertinent, dans lequel il prodigue de précieux conseils pour naviguer avec succès dans le milieu entrepreneurial. Retrouvez le franc-parler de cet homme d'affaires et accédez aux coulisses de son cheminement, depuis la ferme familiale et ses études universitaires, jusqu'au plateau de Dans l'oeil du dragon et à ses investissements des dernières années. Quel est le moment idéal pour se lancer en affaires ? Comment reconnaître une bonne opportunité ? Autant de réponses que vous trouverez dans cet essai, véritable guide de l'entrepreneur autodidacte.

  • Author:
    Gagnon, Yves
    Summary:

    Pionnier du jardinage écologique,Yves Gagnon partage une centaine de magnifiques photos, beaucoup de ses secrets horticoles, des poèmes ludiques, des lieux et des gens inspirants et de délicieuses recettes.

  • Author:
    Gosselin, Virginie, Julie, Aubé, Waridel, Laure, Rivest, Véronique, Orhon, Jacques, Barthomeuf, Christian
    Summary:

    Christian Barthomeuf est l'inventeur du cidre de glace. C'est aussi un des pionniers de l'agriculture biologique au Québec. Témoin privilégié des déséquilibres provoqués par les humains, ce paysan hors normes a décidé, dès les années 80, de s'engager dans une autre voie, celle de l'agriculture non seulement biologique, mais aussi régénératrice de la santé des sols et plus largement, de la biodiversité, une façon de faire qu'il nomme la culture fondamentale. Dans Autoportrait d'un paysan rebelle, son premier livre, il revient sur son parcours de vie, de son enfance dans le Cantal (France) à son arrivée au Québec dans les années 70, en passant par la création du cidre de glace en 1989 et la fondation du domaine Clos Saragnat. Avec une grande générosité et sans langue de bois, cet autodidacte et rebelle dans l'âme nous livre ses réflexions et coups de gueule sur la production du vin et du cidre, l'agriculture locale et mondiale, les dérives de l'industrie agroalimentaire, l'importance de la biodiversité agricole et générale, et au travers de ces thématiques, ses apprentissages, ses observations, ses essais et erreurs, ses impulsions créatives. Son récit est guidé par les interventions de la nutritionniste et conférencière Julie Aubé (Prenez le champ !, 2016), et ponctué des superbes photographies de Virginie Gosselin (Au gré des champs, 2015).

  • Author:
    Yogananda, Paramhansa
    Summary:

    The spiritual journey of the man who introduced yoga to the West, and inspired practitioners from George Harrison to Steve Jobs. The remarkable life story of Paramhansa Yogananda is the groundbreaking work that introduced millions of Westerners to the practices of meditation and Kriya Yoga. Yogananda tells of his childhood in Gorakhpur, India, with his Bengali family, and his quest to find a guru who could satiate his desire for wisdom. After becoming a monk, he began his teachings of Kriya Yoga. But when he accepted an invitation to speak at a religious congress in Boston in 1920, his knowledge found an entirely new audience, as he then traveled across America lecturing and finally establishing the Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles, where he was able to complete this classic work of spiritual expression. Autobiography of a Yogi has been in print for over seventy years, sold over four million copies, and been translated into forty-six languages, spreading the wisdom of one of the most highly revered teachers of the Hindu religion and philosophy. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

  • Author:
    Masuda, Sayo
    Summary:

    Sayo Masuda has written the first full-length autobiography of a former hot-springs-resort geisha. Masuda was sent to work as a nursemaid at the age of six and then was sold to a geisha house at the age of twelve. In keeping with tradition, she first worked as a servant while training in the arts of dance, song, shamisen, and drum. In 1940, aged sixteen, she made her debut as a geisha.

    Autobiography of a Geisha chronicles the harsh life in the geisha house from which Masuda and her "sisters" worked. They were routinely expected to engage in sex for payment, and Masuda's memoir contains a grim account of a geisha's slow death from untreated venereal disease. Upon completion of their indenture, geisha could be left with no means of making a living. Marriage sometimes meant rescue, but the best that most geisha could hope for was to become a man's mistress.

    Masuda also tells of her life after leaving the geisha house, painting a vivid panorama of the grinding poverty of the rural poor in wartime Japan. As she eked out an existence on the margins of Japanese society, earning money in odd jobs and hard labor―even falling in with Korean gangsters―Masuda experienced first hand the anguish and the fortitude of prostitutes, gangster mistresses, black-market traders, and abandoned mothers struggling to survive in postwar Japan.

  • Author:
    Summary:

    In departing from the traditional stance taken by anthropologists, who study 'others' ethnographically, this timely book explores forms of self-inscription on the part of both the ethnographer and those 'others' who are studied. Informed by developments in postmodernism, postcolonialism, and feminism, this is an original contribution to the growing dialogue across disciplinary boundaries. The chapters build upon recent reconsiderations of the uses and meaning of personal narrative to examine the ways in which selves and social forms are culturally constituted through biographical genres. Ethnic autobiography, self-reflexivity in ethnography, and native ethnography raise provocative questions about a range of issues for the contemporary scholar: authenticity of voice; ethnographic authority; and the degree to which autoethnography constitutes resistance to hegemonic bodies of discourse. Examined here in a variety of cultural and political contexts, writing about the self offers challenging insights into the construction and transformation of identities and cultural meanings.

  • Author:
    O'Toole, Jennifer
    Summary:

    This intimate memoir reveals the woman inside one of autism's most prominent figures, Jennifer O'Toole. At the age of thirty-five, Jennifer was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, and for the first time in her life, things made sense. Now, she exposes the constant struggle between carefully crafted persona and authentic existence, editing the autism script with wit, candor, passion, and power. Her journey is one of reverse-self-discovery not only as an Aspie but-more importantly-as a thoroughly modern woman.Beyond being a memoir, Autism in Heels is a love letter to all women. It's a conversation starter, a game-changer, and a firsthand account of what it is to walk in Jennifer's shoes (especially those iconic red stilettos). Whether it's bad perms or body image, sexuality or self-esteem, Jennifer's journey is as much a human journey as one on the spectrum. Because autism looks a bit different in pink, most girls and women who fit the profile are not identified, facing years of avoidable anxiety, eating disorders, volatile relationships, self-harm, and stunted independence. Jennifer has been there too. Autism in Heels takes that message mainstream. From her own struggles and self-discovery, she has built an empire of empowerment, inspiring women the world over to realize they aren't mistakes. They are misunderstood miracles.

  • Author:
    Wren, Jecob
    Summary:

    Authenticity is a Feeling: My Life in PME-ART is a compelling hybrid of history, memoir, and performance theory. It tells the story of the interdisciplinary performance group PME-ART and their ongoing endeavour to make a new kind of highly collaborative theatre dedicated to the fragile but essential act of "being yourself in a performance situation." Written, among other things, to celebrate PME-ART's twentieth anniversary, the book begins when Jacob Wren meets Sylvie Lachance and Richard Ducharme, moves from Toronto to Montreal to make just one project, but instead ends up spending the next twenty years creating an eccentric, often bilingual, art. It is a book about being unable to learn French yet nonetheless remaining Co-Artistic Director of a French-speaking performance group, about the Spinal Tap-like adventures of being continuously on tour, about the rewards and difficulties of intensive collaborations, about making performances that break the mold and confronting the repercussions of doing so. A book that aims to change the rules for how interdisciplinary performance can be written about today. When Jacob finished a first draft of the book he sent it to many of those who had co-created or worked on PME-ART projects asking for their comments. Therefore, the book also features contributions from: Caroline Dubois, Richard Ducharme, Claudia Fancello, Marie Claire Forté, Adam Kinner, Sylvie Lachance, Nadia Ross, Yves Sheriff, Kathrin Tiedemann and Ashlea Watkin.

  • Author:
    Davis, Kathryn
    Summary:

    This memoir is a meditation on the way imagination shapes life and how life, as it moves forward, shapes imagination. Kathryn Davis centers the book on the death of her husband, Eric. The book unfolds as a study of their marriage, its deep joys and stinging frustrations; it is also a book about time, the inexorable events that determine beginnings and endings.

  • Author:
    Converse, Cathy, Sawatsky, Adam
    Summary:

    Brought into the media spotlight by her great-niece Pamela Anderson, Auntie Vie burst onto the scene as Pamela’s biggest supporter on “Dancing with the Stars.” Unexpectedly, Auntie Vie’s distinctive balance of earned wisdom and chic glamour quickly charmed the media and viewers of all ages. Her door suddenly stormed by cameras and reporters, Auntie Vie never missed a beat. Having harnessed the power of simply being herself, she has captured imaginations and inspired people with her rare pedigree: a down-to-earth farm gal and a sassy tinsel queen bee. And now, author Cathy Converse has captured her story.Discover Auntie Vie’s life story, along with her fashion advice, best recipes, words of wisdom, and thoughts on aging and the power of dance. This glamour grandma is revealed in a scrapbook, packed with full-color photographs, about one woman’s life, lessons, and infectious sparkle. Born in a time before television, and now a media sensation, Auntie Vie’s pearls and pickles philosophy is sure to delight and inspire.“Remember, all life needs a little sparkle once in a while.” —Auntie Vie

  • Author:
    Nelson, Marilyn
    Summary:

    Augusta Savage, a gifted sculptor of the 1930s, flourished during the Harlem Renaissance, and became a teacher to an entire generation of African American artists, including Jacob Lawrence.

  • Author:
    Blondeau, Sonia
    Summary:

    Ce livre raconte l'histoire de Catherine Maranzana, infirmière diplômée qui a initié l'entrée de l'aromathérapie dans les structures médicales des Hôpitaux Civils de Colmar, en France, et ce, sur des bases scientifiques et sous le contrôle des autorités médicales hospitalières et universitaires. Le livre relate les origines de Catherine, alors que, dès son enfance, elle est élevée au fin fond d'un hameau par son arrière-grand-père qui lui enseigne l'amour de la nature et le pouvoir des plantes, et veille sur sa vie jusqu'à ce qu'elle accède à un poste d'infirmière hospitalière auprès de patients cancéreux. Elle raconte comment elle s'est battue, avec ardeur et détermination, pour obtenir le droit d'introduire des traitements issus de l'aromathérapie pour soulager les malades, en complément de la thérapie médicale conventionnelle. Il s'agit d'applications cliniques inédites. Le propos est scandé par de nombreux témoignages et exemples pratiques, authentiques et éprouvés qui sauront toucher le coeur du lecteur. Le récit est également ponctué d'information très utiles dans l'usage de l'aromathérapie familiale. Le livre intéressera autant le grand public (pour les témoignages) et les passionnés d'aromathérapie familiale (pour la partie pratique), que les professionnels de la santé qui s'ouvrent de plus en plus aux méthodes médicales « complémentaires ». Toujours active, Catherine Maranzana est l'une des premières professionnelles de la santé à utiliser officiellement, depuis 2009, l'aromathérapie dans sa pratique médicale et scientifique à l'hôpital. Titulaire de plusieurs prix pour son travail sur l'aromathérapie scientifique clinique en milieu hospitalier, dont le prestigieux « Prix annuel de la Fondation Gattefossé » en 2015, elle est enseignante à l'Université de Strasbourg (France) et praticienne de cabinet en aromathérapie et olfactothérapie.

  • Author:
    Gibson, Dale
    Summary:

    The purpose of this biography is to bring to public attention the importance of the contributions made by Enos Stutsman, an American, to the history of the province and the Northwest generally. It also attempts to impress and entertain the reader by highlighting Stutsman’s personal qualities.

  • Author:
    Tovell, Freeman M.
    Summary:

    Capitán de Navío Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra was the most important Spanish naval officer on the Northwest Coast in the eighteenth century. Serving from 1774 to 1794, he participated in the search for the Northwest Passage and, with George Vancouver, endeavoured to forge a diplomatic resolution to the Nootka Sound controversy between Spain and Britain. Freeman Tovell’s thorough and nuanced study presents this officer as a key figure in the history of the region. Bodega's accomplishments place him in the company of Bering, Cook, Vancouver, La Pérouse, and Malaspina – those who advanced a better understanding of the geography, ethnography, and natural history of the area.

  • Author:
    Fox, Caroline
    Summary:

    An illustrated narrative that interweaves the shifting seasons of the Northwest Coast with the experiences of a conservation biologist surveying thousands of kilometres of open ocean in order to uncover the complex relationships between humans, marine birds and the realities of contemporary biodiversity. At Sea with the Marine Birds of the Raincoast combines the natural and human histories of Pacific Northwest marine birds with Caroline Fox’s personal story of her life as a conservation scientist. Accompanied by vivid images, drawings and both archival and modern photography, the narrative follows the author as she sails the coast, documenting marine bird diversity and seasonal shifts in community assemblages. This unique story captures the natural splendour and rich variety of marine birds feeding, breeding and undertaking spectacular, often trans-equatorial migrations along the Northwest Coast. Introducing some of the most fascinating yet poorly understood species, including albatrosses, puffins and cranes, this compelling read calls attention to the urgent conservation challenges faced by marine birds and their ecosystems, as well as their historically complex relationship with human society.

  • Author:
    Nevala-Lee, Alec
    Summary:

    "A big biography of John Campbell, the genius magazine editor who created a mass market for science fiction, couldn't be timelier. Alec Nevala-Lee's granular portrait of Campbell and the quirky superstars whose careers he launched in the 1940s and 1950s is a gift to science fiction fans everywhere."--Sylvia Nasar, New York Times bestselling author of A Beautiful Mind"[Astounding] is a major work of popular culture scholarship that science fiction fans will devour."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)Astounding is the landmark account of the extraordinary partnership between four controversial writers--John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and L. Ron Hubbard--who set off a revolution in science fiction and forever changed our world. This remarkable cultural narrative centers on the figure of John W. Campbell, Jr., whom Asimov called "the most powerful force in science fiction ever." Campbell, who has never been the subject of a biography until now, was both a visionary author--he wrote the story that was later filmed as The Thing--and the editor of the groundbreaking magazine best known as Astounding Science Fiction, in which he discovered countless legendary writers and published classic works ranging from the I, Robot series to Dune. Over a period of more than thirty years, from the rise of the pulps to the debut of Star Trek, he dominated the genre, and his three closest collaborators reached unimaginable heights. Asimov became the most prolific author in American history; Heinlein emerged as the leading science fiction writer of his generation with the novels Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land; and Hubbard achieved lasting fame--and infamy--as the founder of the Church of Scientology. Drawing on unexplored archives, thousands of unpublished letters, and dozens of interviews, Alec Nevala-Lee offers a riveting portrait of this circle of authors, their work, and their tumultuous private lives. With unprecedented scope, drama, and detail, Astounding describes how fan culture was born in the depths of the Great Depression; follows these four friends and rivals through World War II and the dawn of the atomic era; and honors such exceptional women as Dona Campbell and Leslyn Heinlein, whose pivotal roles in the history of the genre have gone largely unacknowledged. For the first time, it reveals the startling extent of Campbell's influence on the ideas that evolved into Scientology, which prompted Asimov to observe: "I knew Campbell and I knew Hubbard, and no movement can have two Messiahs." It looks unsparingly at the tragic final act that estranged the others from Campbell, bringing the golden age of science fiction to a close, and it illuminates how their complicated legacy continues to shape the imaginations of millions and our vision of the future itself.

  • Author:
    Cooper, Anderson
    Summary:

    The number one New York Times bestselling authors of Vanderbilt return with another riveting history of a legendary American family, the Astors, and how they built and lavished their fortune. The story of the Astors is a quintessentially American story-of ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention. From 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society. The family fortune, first made by a beaver trapping business that grew into an empire, was then amplified by holdings in Manhattan real estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New York society and inserted themselves into political and cultural life, but also suffered the most famous loss on the Titanic, one of many shocking and unexpected twists in the family's story. In this unconventional, page-turning historical biography, #1 New York Times bestselling authors Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe chronicle the lives of the Astors and explore what the Astor name has come to mean in America-offering a window onto the making of America itself. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

  • Author:
    Iles, Elizabeth A.
    Summary:

    Ask the Grey Sisters: Sault Ste. Marie and the General Hospital, 1898-1998 tells the story of the creation and one-hundred-year history of the Sault Ste. Marie General Hospital. At a time when Canada's healthcare system is at a crossroads and we are asked to make crucial decisions for its future, it is intriguing and enlightening to look at the colourful past of a typical community hospital. Throughout the 1890s, Sault Ste. Marie was a town in search of a hospital. Its glory days at the centre of the fur-trade route were long gone and the Sault was in the process of becoming a modern industrial community. Such a community needed a hospital as a centrepiece to attract investors and as a necessary social institution to care for the hundreds of workers who were flocking to town without family support. The General Hospital was established in 1898 after the town committee charged with developing a hospital had been refused funding by both the federal and provincial governments. In desperation, the committee met with the provincial Inspector of Asylums and Prisons (the only provincial official with hospitals in his mandate). "If you wish a hospital of which the work is serious and lasting," he is reported to have advised them, "ask the Grey Sisters." And so began a fruitful association between the community of Sault Ste. Marie and two orders of Grey Sisters who have operated the hospital through its one-hundred-year history. Based in part on the extensive archival collections of both orders of nuns, this history includes material from the sisters' Chronicles and their personal reminiscences. The result is an intimate and detailed portrait of a community hospital, placed in the context of an emerging provincial system of health care.

  • Author:
    Reid, Sonia
    Summary:

    Le parcours du fondateur de la chaîne de restauration rapide Chez Ashton. Ashton Leblond est un personnage unique en son genre. Son histoire et son parcours méritent d'être connus car ils s'avèrent une véritable source d'inspiration. Né sur une ferme du Québec rural de l'après-guerre, l'enfance d'Ashton Leblond est rude et dédiée au travail pénible qu'exige la vie à la campagne à cette époque. Il y apprend le sens de l'effort, la persévérance et l'autonomie. Portant en lui l'inépuisable désir de se sortir de cette misère, il part pour la grande ville de Québec alors qu'il n'est encore qu'un jeune adolescent. Il déniche un emploi d'aide-cuisinier dans un collège. Pour arrondir ses fins de mois et réaliser quelques économies, il cuisine lui-même des tartes et des pâtés à la viande qu'il vend de porte en porte. Puis, l'occasion qu'il attendait et qui changera sa vie se présente : une roulotte « à patates frites » est à vendre. Avec ses économies et un prêt qu'il réussit à obtenir, il l'achète et devient restaurateur à temps plein. Le premier restaurant Chez Ashton était né. Au fil des ans, 24 autres succursales verront le jour. Aujourd'hui, la chaîne de restauration rapide Chez Ashton est une institution dans la région de Québec. Ce livre nous fait découvrir le parcours et l'ascension d'Ashton Leblond vers le succès mais présente aussi l'homme, ses visions, ses valeurs, ses méthodes, ses forces et ses faiblesses, ses revers, ses blessures. Il en résulte un ouvrage intéressant autant pour les gens d'affaires et ceux orientés vers l'entrepreneuriat, que pour les personnes souhaitant découvrir l'être humain derrière ce succès ou celles intéressées par l'histoire de cette chaine de restauration rapide unique au Québec.

  • Author:
    Loyie, Oskiniko Larry
    Summary:

    Tells the story of Larry Loyie, a Cree Indian in Canada, who was sent to a government school and later became a writer.

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