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Journals and memoirs, Hockey, Business and economics, Sports biography
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For the first time, the legendary Hall of Fame hockey player and six-time Stanley Cup champion tells the impressive story…
of his life and career, and shares the lessons he's learned about leadership. Mark Messier is one of the most accomplished athletes and dynamic leaders in the history of professional sports. He won the Stanley Cup five times with the Edmonton Oilers during their dynasty years, and once more with the New York Rangers, ending the team's fifty-four-year championship drought. He is second on the all-time career lists for playoff points, and third for regular season games played and for regular season points. Notably, he is the only player to have captained two different NHL franchises to championships. The amazing records are there for anyone to see, but few people know the real Mark Messier. This is his story. Messier reveals the astonishing journey he took to making NHL history, and the leadership philosophy he learned along the way. He recounts never-before-told tales from his childhood as the son of a hockey player, coach, and special education teacher; his years as a teammate and friend of Wayne Gretzky; and his evolution from a brash eighteen-year-old rookie to a distinctive captain and champion. Though bruising on the ice, he led teams with a deep understanding of what inspires and motivates people. He shares the advice he got from the inspirational leaders who had the greatest influence on him, and the lessons he gleaned from the pivotal successes—and sometimes failures—of his career. More than a book about hockey, No One Wins Alone demonstrates what it means to build a life, achieve dreams, and support the people around you. "My real wish," Messier says, "is to inspire people to reach their full potential."
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Sports and games, Hockey, History
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A love letter to a sport that's losing itself, from one of Canada's best sports writers.Canadian hockey is approaching a…
state of crisis. It's become more expensive, more exclusive, and effectively off-limits to huge swaths of the potential sports-loving population. Youth registration numbers are stagnant; efforts to appeal to new Canadians are often grim at best; the game, increasingly, does not resemble the country of which it's for so long been an integral part. These signs worried Sean Fitz-Gerald. As a lifelong hockey fan and father of a young mixed-race son falling headlong in love with the game, he wanted to get to the roots of these issues. His entry point: a season with the Peterborough Petes, a storied OHL team far from its former glory in a once-emblematic Canadian city that is finding itself on the wrong side of the country's changing demographics. Fitz-Gerald profiles the players, coaches and front office staff, a mix of world-class talents with NHL aspirations and Peterborough natives happy with more modest dreams. Through their experiences, their widely varied motivations and expectations, we get a rich, colourful understanding of who ends up playing hockey in Canada and why. Fitz-Gerald interweaves the action of the season with portraits of public figures who've shaped and been shaped by the game: authors who captured its spirit, politicians who exploited it, and broadcasters who try to embody and sell it. He finds his way into community meetings full of angry season ticket holders, as well as into sterile boardrooms full of the sport's institutional brain trust, unable to break away from the inertia of tradition and hopelessly at war with itself. Before the Lights Go Out is a moving, funny, yet unsettling picture of a sport at a crossroads. Fitz-Gerald's warm but rigorous journalistic approach reads, in the end, like a letter to a troubled friend: it's not too late to save hockey in this country, but who has the will to do it?
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Indigenous peoples biography
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Mamaskatch, Darrel J. McLeod’s 2018 memoir of growing up Cree in Northern Alberta, was a publishing sensation - winning the…
Governor General’s Award for Nonfiction, shortlisted for many other major prizes, and translated into French and German editions. In Peyakow, McLeod continues the poignant story of his impoverished youth, beset by constant fears of being dragged down by the self-destruction and deaths of those closest to him as he battles the bullying of White classmates, copes with the trauma of physical and sexual abuse, and endures painful separation from his family and culture. With steely determination, he triumphs: now, elementary teacher; now, school principal; now, head of an Indigenous delegation to the UN in Geneva; now, executive in the Government of Canada - and now, a celebrated author. Brutally frank but buoyed throughout by McLeod’s unquenchable spirit, Peyakow - a title borrowed from the Cree word for “one who walks alone” - is an inspiring account of triumph against unimaginable odds. McLeod’s perspective as someone whose career path has crossed both sides of the Indigenous/White chasm resonates with particular force in today’s Canada.
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Journals and memoirs, Indigenous peoples biography
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Like thousands of Aboriginal children in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere in the colonized world, Xatsu'll chief Bev Sellars…
spent part of her childhood as a student in a church-run residential school. These institutions endeavored to ""civilize"" Native children through Christian teachings; forced separation from family, language, and culture; and strict discipline. Perhaps the most symbolically potent strategy used to alienate residential school children was addressing them by assigned numbers only - not by the names with which they knew and understood themselves. In this frank and poignant memoir of her years at St. Joseph's Mission, Sellars breaks her silence about the residential school's lasting effects on her and her family - from substance abuse to suicide attempts - and eloquently articulates her own path to healing. They Called Me Number One comes at a time of recognition - by governments and society at large - that only through knowing the truth about these past injustices can we begin to redress them. Bev Sellars is chief of the Xatsu'll (Soda Creek) First Nation in Williams Lake, British Columbia. She holds a degree in history from the University of Victoria and a law degree from the University of British Columbia. She has served as an advisor to the British Columbia Treaty Commission.
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Biography, Sports and games, Hockey, Sports biography
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Autobiography of hockey great Bobby Orr (born 1948), who played with the Boston Bruins from 1966 to 1976, then retired…
after two seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks. Orr highlights his idyllic Canadian childhood, time in the minor leagues, professional success, and the injuries that ended his career. 2013
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Indigenous peoples biography, Actors biography, Journals and memoirs
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Capricious, big-hearted, joyful: an epic memoir from one of Canada’s most acclaimed Indigenous writers and performersTomson Highway was born in…
a snowbank on an island in the sub-Arctic, the eleventh of twelve children in a nomadic, caribou-hunting Cree family. Growing up in a land of ten thousand lakes and islands, Tomson relished being pulled by dogsled beneath a night sky alive with stars, sucking the juices from roasted muskrat tails, and singing country music songs with his impossibly beautiful older sister and her teenaged friends. Surrounded by the love of his family and the vast, mesmerizing landscape they called home, his was in many ways an idyllic far-north childhood. But five of Tomson's siblings died in childhood, and Balazee and Joe Highway, who loved their surviving children profoundly, wanted their two youngest sons, Tomson and Rene, to enjoy opportunities as big as the world. And so when Tomson was six, he was flown south by float plane to attend a residential school. A year later Rene joined him to begin the rest of their education. In 1990 Rene Highway, a world-renowned dancer, died of an AIDS-related illness. Permanent Astonishment: Growing Up in the Land of Snow and Sky is Tomson's extravagant embrace of his younger brother's final words: "Don't mourn me, be joyful." His memoir offers insights, both hilarious and profound, into the Cree experience of culture, conquest, and survival.
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Indigenous peoples biography
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In September 2015, Sheila North was declared the Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), the first woman elected to…
the position. Known as a "bridge builder", North is a member of Bunibonibee Cree Nation. North's work in advocacy journalism, communications, and economic development harnessed her passion for drawing focus to systemic racism faced by Indigenous women and girls. She is the creator of the widely used hashtag #MMIW. In her memoir, Sheila North shares the stories of the events that shaped her, and the violence that nearly stood in the way of her achieving her dreams. Through perseverance and resilience, she not only survived, she flourished.
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Indigenous peoples biography, Indigenous peoples in Canada
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Il existe dans chaque famille des histoires qui laissent des traces pour des générations. Des micromythes qui ne sortent pas…
de la microcellule familiale. Qu'on entretient un peu comme... comme le feu d'un poêle à combustion lente : une bûche de temps en temps.Mononk Jules reconstitue le parcours de Jules Sioui, un Wendat qui a bousculé l'Histoire canadienne avant de sombrer dans un énorme trou de mémoire familial et historique. Dans sa tentative de comprendre comment s'écrit l'Histoire (ou comment elle ne s'écrit pas) l'auteur se retrouve, malgré lui, face à un colosse aux pieds d'argile. Comédien, dramaturge et marionnettiste, Jocelyn Sioui tire ici sur les petits et grands fils de l'histoire de cet énigmatique grand-oncle, héros autochtone du 20e siècle.
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Biography, Family and relationships, Indigenous peoples, Indigenous peoples biography, Parenting, Paranormal
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Mark Anthony Rolo recreates a picture of his often conflicted mother during the last three years of her life. Rolo…
recounts stories of a woman who battles poverty, depression, her abusive husband, and isolation through the long northern Minnesota winters, and of himself, her son, who struggles at school, wrestles with his Ojibwe identity, and copes with violence. Some strong language
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Biography, Indigenous peoples biography, United States history, General non-fiction
Human-narrated audio
The author, an Iñupiat elder and chair of the First Alaskans Institute, describes his traditional, seminomadic childhood as well as…
his later education in the lower forty-eight states. Discusses his stint in the Alaska state legislature, role in the native land-claims movement, and commitment to preserving his culture. 2009
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Biography, United States history, Indigenous peoples biography
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Pennsylvania native recalls his move at age seven to the Navajo reservation. The author, who was known as "White Apple"…
to his new classmates, discusses his initial difficulties amidst relentless teasing and the eventual acceptance and admiration he felt for the people and the land. He reflects on how his experiences changed his own identity, and how these differences were magnified when he attended an eastern liberal arts college. Some strong language
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Sports biography, Hockey
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“Emrick loves stories and loves to tell them. Yesterday in broadcasting. Tomorrow in book form.” —Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun After…
nearly 50 years behind the microphone, the voice of hockey in America opens up in a must-read memoir. Mike “Doc” Emrick has seen everything there is to see in a hockey game. Sizzling slap shots. Commitment, courage, and camaraderie. Pugnacious pugilists. Game-winning goals. To hockey fans across the country, his voice—and vocabulary—have become synonymous with the game they love. In Off Mike, Doc takes readers back to the beginning, detailing how a Pittsburgh Pirates fan from small-town Indiana found himself in the wild world of professional hockey, calling games for the New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers, and finally NBC. He’s covered All-Star Games, Stanley Cup Finals, the Olympics, and everything in between, rubbing shoulders with hockey’s immortals both on and off the ice. Yet Doc’s life has had its share of ups and downs, from almost leaving behind the love of his life to the passing of beloved companions to personal health scares. After years of being welcomed into our homes, in this autobiography Doc welcomes us into his, revealing the stories, wit, and wisdom that have made him one of the most beloved figures in sports.
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Literature biography, Indigenous peoples biography, Journals and memoirs, Criticism
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The author of Ceremony (RC 13366) describes the people, animals, and spirits she encountered in New Mexico and Arizona. Ever…
attentive to the world around her, she often walked along the arroyos of Tucson, looking for the glint of blue turquoise on the desert floor. She discusses her diverse ancestry, her experiences painting and writing, and her kinship with rattlesnakes
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Biography, United States history, War, Indigenous peoples history, Indigenous peoples biography, World War II, War and military biography
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Memoir of an original Navajo code talker during World War II. The author reminisces about a childhood spent near the…
reservation in New Mexico, the hardships he faced attending various boarding schools, and his pride at being selected as a marine. He soon discovered that his secret mission would put him in the midst of many deadly battles in the Pacific, though the unbreakable code would turn the tide of the war. Some strong language
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Biography, Frontier and pioneer life, Indigenous peoples history, Indigenous peoples biography
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The author describes his capture as a child by the US military in 1872 and his subsequent work as an…
Indian scout throughout Arizona and the American West. Contains some violence
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Sports and games, Hockey
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Part of the "Team Spirit" series, this history for young fans includes fun and interesting facts about Boston's professional hockey…
team, which was the first team from the U.S. to join the NHL. For grades 3-6
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Journals and memoirs, Hockey, Self help
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An inspiring story of hope and resiliency On April 6, 2018, sixteen people died and thirteen others were injured after…
a bus taking the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team to a playoff game collided with a transport truck in a rural intersection. The tragedy moved millions of people to leave hockey sticks by their front door to show sympathy and support for the Broncos. People from more than eighty countries pledged millions of dollars to families whose relatives had been directly involved in the accident. Crossroads is the story of Kaleb Dahlgren, a young man who survived the bus crash and faced life after the tragedy with resiliency and positivity. In this chronicle of his time with the Broncos and the loving community of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Dahlgren takes a hard look at his experience of unprecedented loss, but also revels in the overwhelming response and outpouring of love from across Canada and around the world. But this book also goes much deeper, revealing the adversity Dahlgren faced long before his time in Humboldt and his inspiring journey since the accident. From a childhood spent learning to live with type 1 diabetes to his remarkable recovery from severe brain trauma that astounded medical professionals, Dahlgren documents a life of perseverance, gratitude and hope in the wake of enormous obstacles and life-altering tragedy
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Sports biography, Hockey, Indigenous peoples biography
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"Fred Sasakamoose played in the NHL before First Nations people had the right to vote in Canada. This page turner…
will have you cheering for "Fast Freddy" as he faces off against huge challenges both on and off the ice—a great gift to every proud hockey fan, Canadian, and Indigenous person." —Wab Kinew, Leader of the Manitoba NDP and author of The Reason You Walk Trailblazer. Residential school Survivor. First Treaty Indigenous player in the NHL. All of these descriptions are true—but none of them tell the whole story. Fred Sasakamoose, torn from his home at the age of seven, endured the horrors of residential school for a decade before becoming one of 120 players in the most elite hockey league in the world. He has been heralded as the first Indigenous player with Treaty status in the NHL, making his official debut as a 1954 Chicago Black Hawks player on Hockey Night in Canada and teaching Foster Hewitt how to pronounce his name. Sasakamoose played against such legends as Gordie Howe, Jean Beliveau, and Maurice Richard. After twelve games, he returned home. When people tell Sasakamoose's story, this is usually where they end it. They say he left the NHL to return to the family and culture that the Canadian government had ripped away from him. That returning to his family and home was more important to him than an NHL career. But there was much more to his decision than that. Understanding Sasakamoose's choice means acknowledging the dislocation and treatment of generations of Indigenous peoples. It means considering how a man who spent his childhood as a ward of the government would hear those supposedly golden words: "You are Black Hawks property." Sasakamoose's story was far from over once his NHL days concluded. He continued to play for another decade in leagues around Western Canada. He became a band councillor, served as Chief, and established athletic programs for kids. He paved a way for youth to find solace and meaning in sports for generations to come. Yet, threaded through these impressive accomplishments were periods of heartbreak and unimaginable tragedy—as well moments of passion and great joy. This isn't just a hockey story; Sasakamoose's groundbreaking memoir sheds piercing light on Canadian history and Indigenous politics, and follows this extraordinary man's journey to reclaim pride in an identity and a heritage that had previously been used against him
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Indigenous peoples biography, LGBTQ+ biography, General non-fiction
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FINALIST FOR THE 2021 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FOR GAY MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHYFINALIST FOR THE BC AND YUKON BOOK PRIZE, FOR BOTH THE…
HUBERT EVANS NON-FICTION PRIZE AND JIM DEVA PRIZE FOR WRITING THAT PROVOKESNATIONAL BESTSELLERThe youngest ever winner of the Griffin Prize mines his own personal history to reconcile the world he was born into with the world that could be.Billy-Ray Belcourt's debut memoir opens with a tender letter to his kokum and memories of his early life in the hamlet of Joussard, Alberta, and on the Driftpile First Nation. From there, it expands to encompass the big and broken world around him, in all its complexity and contradictions: a legacy of colonial violence and the joy that flourishes in spite of it, first loves and first loves lost, sexual exploration and intimacy, and the act of writing as a survival instinct and a way to grieve. What emerges is not only a profound meditation on memory, gender, anger, shame, and ecstasy, but also the outline of a way forward. With startling honesty, and in a voice distinctly and assuredly his own, Belcourt situates his life experiences within a constellation of seminal queer texts, among which this book is sure to earn its place. Eye-opening, intensely emotional, and excessively quotable, A History of My Brief Body demonstrates over and over again the power of words to both devastate and console us.
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Health and medicine, Hockey, Sports biography
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The greatest women’s hockey player of all time, Hayley Wickenheiser shares the lessons that won her four Olympic gold medals,…
and hard-earned wisdom distilled from moments when she fell short. There is no one in the world like Hayley Wickenheiser. 13 World Championship appearances. 6 Olympic Games. Hockey Hall of Famer. All while raising a child, earning multiple university degrees, and not benefiting from the financial stability male professional athletes have. She gave the game everything she had—now, Hayley shares what the game gave her. From motherhood to pro leagues to her new career in medicine, Hayley shares the hard-won lessons she learned on and off the ice that helped her not only have a record-breaking hockey career but craft a life filled with joy, growth, and challenges. In her own words, Hayley shares how she rose from the backyard pond and changing in boiler rooms (because girls' dressing rooms didn’t exist) to Olympic MVP (twice). How becoming a parent made her a better athlete. How she learned to thrive under monumental pressure. But she doesn’t stop at revealing the pillars to her tremendous success—Hayley delves into her immense failures and how she grew from them. Like Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, and Abby Wambach before her, Hayley shares her wisdom through personal stories of triumph, relentlessness, and more than a couple confrontations. Told with humour, compassion, and steadfast optimism, Hayley’s practical advice, coaching, and invaluable perspective inspires readers to never accept "that’s not the way we do things" or "that hasn’t been done before" as limitations. An empowering and pragmatic guide, Hayley encourages readers to not follow in her footsteps, but to carve their own ice.