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The giants of Irish literature: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett (The modern scholar)
By George O'Brien. 2006
Georgetown University professor George O'Brien provides the biographical background of the four masters of Irish literature and an in-depth analysis…
of their greatest works. O'Brien discusses the very qualities that set these works apart and the "Irishness" that characterizes each of them. 2006.The girl from Leam Lane: the life and writing of Catherine Cookson
By Piers Dudgeon. 1997
Catherine Cookson's first novel, "Kate Hannigan", was published in 1950. The novel represented the author's triumph over unhappiness - within…
its pages she was exorcising her own demons. Piers Dudgeon unlocks her complex character using her many books as a key and explores with Catherine herself the tortured drama of her personal life and its resolution. 1997.The girl in the painted caravan: memories of a Romany childhood
By Eva Petulengro. 2011
Born into a Romany gypsy family in 1939, Eva Petulengro's childhood seemed to her to be idyllic in every way.…
She would travel the country with her family in their painted caravan and spend evenings by the fire as they sang and told stories of their past. She didn't go to school or visit a doctor when she was unwell. Instead her family would gather wild herbs to make traditional remedies, hunt game and rabbits, and while the men tended horses to make a living, the young girls would join the women in reading palms. But Eva's perfect world would be turned upside down as the countryside became increasingly hostile to all travellers. 2011.The gift of a home: with decorations
By Beverley Nichols. 1972
The genius and the goddess: Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe
By Jeffrey Meyers. 2009
Dual biographies of playwright Arthur Miller (1915-2005) and actress Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962). Traces the couple's disparate family backgrounds and 1956…
marriage. Describes Monroe's role as Miller's muse but posits that her psychological problems and feelings of inadequacy led to their divorce after five years. Some descriptions of sex. 2009.The film club: a true story of a father and son
By David Gilmour. 2007
The true story of author Gilmour's decision to let his 16-year-old son drop out of high school, on the condition…
that the boy agree to watch three films a week with him. Examines how those years changed both their lives. From French New Wave and Kurosawa to De Palma, film noir, and Billy Wilder, Gilmour describes key moments in each film, as he teaches his son about life and the vagaries of growing up through the power of the movies. Strong language and descriptions of sex. Canada Reads 2012. 2007.The flying carpet of small miracles: a woman's fight to save two orphans
By Hala Jaber. 2009
Jaber, a Lebanese-British foreign correspondent, describes covering the Gulf War and her personal engagement with an Iraqi family caught in…
the crossfire. Reporting on the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Jaber took up the cause of hospitalized children wounded in the bombing, and helped start a fund to provide them with better medical attention and supplies. In particular, she learned the extraordinary story of two orphans and decided to adopt them. Some descriptions of violence. 2009.The first man in my life: daughters write about their fathers
By Sandra Martin, Ed Martin Sandra. 2007
In twenty-two original narratives, some of Canada's most acclaimed writers share stories, memories, insights, and revelations - from the comic…
to the tragic - about the first man in their lives. These complex stories will open a fresh and intense conversation with daughters everywhere about the men they've observed since childhood: their fathers. Some descriptions of sex and violence and some strong language. 2007.The fellowship: the literary lives of the Inklings : J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams
By Philip Zaleski, Carol Zaleski. 2015
The far side of the street
By Bruce Hutchison. 1976
This is the 1970s autobiography of the journalist and historian whose life and writing influenced many Canadians. British Columbia-raised, his…
life spanned some formative years of the province's political history. As a journalist he met and wrote about many prime ministers, and became recognized as an influential thinker. 1976.The enthusiasms of Robertson Davies
By Robertson Davies, Judith Skelton Grant. 1979
The exquisite life of Oscar Wilde: An Exquisite Life
By Stephen Calloway, David Colvin. 1997
Oscar Wilde was a central figure of the fin de siecle, and, in his own words, "a man who stood…
in symbolic relation to his times." He rose to fame in the 1880s and had the world at his feet in the 1890s. It all went wrong when following his love-affair with Lord Alfred Douglas he was persecuted by Douglas' father and sentenced to two years in jail for homosexuality. He spent the last years of his life surrounded by a handful of loyal friends in France but shunned by those who had been his followers in his days of glory. 1997.The errand runner: reflections of a rabbi's daughter
By Leah Rosenberg. 1981
The essential gesture: writing, politics and places
By Nadine Gordimer, Stephen Clingman. 1988
This personal history of 27 years, 1959 to 1986, of Afrikaner domination in South Africa charts the response of novelist…
Nadine Gordimer to the crisis of apartheid and the struggle of the blacks to free themselves. 1988.The color of water: a Black man's tribute to his white mother
By James McBride. 1996
One of twelve siblings in Brooklyn, the author was confused about his mother's race. She called herself light-skinned and refused…
to discuss her past. Years later she admitted to being an Orthodox rabbi's daughter whose family shunned her after her marriage to the first of her two black husbands. Some strong language. 1996.The draw: a memoir
By Lee Siegel. 2017
Hoping to make a killing in New Jersey real estate, the author's father, Monroe Siegel, takes a draw from his…
employer against unearned commission. When the recession hits in the 1970s, Monroe finds himself owing a small fortune to his firm. He sinks toward divorce and bankruptcy, while Lola, Lee's mother, suffers a nervous breakdown that turns her into a different person. Shamed and enraged by his father's fate, Lee grows up wondering what society owes a person who has failed materially but preserved his humanity. Touches on fundamental questions: How do we balance our obligations to ourselves with our obligations to others? What do we owe society when its rules have a legal basis but not a moral one? 2017.The cooked seed: A Memoir
By Anchee Min. 2013
Traces the author's journey from the painful deprivations of her homeland to the sudden bounty of the United States, where…
she endured five jobs, crime, and a painful marriage before the birth of a daughter inspired her writing career. 2013.The history of the Bronte family: from Ireland to Wuthering heights
By John Cannon. 2000
This account of the Bronte family traces their Irish ancestry from its murky origins around 1710 to 1820 when the…
Bronte family arrived at Haworth Parsonage, Yorkshire. Patrick Brunty was the eldest of a family of ten from Ballynaskeagh near Newry in County Down. His parents were uneducated and impoverished, but his father, Hugh, was known locally as a storyteller whose repertoire included the strange tale of Welsh Brunty, almost certainly a prototype for Heathcliff. Patrick won a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge, was ordained a Church of England priest, and held various ministries until finally he arrived in Haworth with his wife suffering from cancer and six young children. He cherished literary ambitions which he passed on to Charlotte, Emily and Anne; and this book points out certain themes and stories in their novels which could only have come from a profound knowledge of their Irish roots as told to them by their father. 2000.The heart of a woman (I know why the caged bird sings. #4)
By Maya Angelou. 1986
The fourth part of an autobiography of Maya Angelou. Maya becomes immersed in the world of black writers and artists…
in Harlem, working in the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King. Sequel to “Singin’ and swingin’ and gettin’ merry like Christmas”, followed by “All God’s children need travelling shoes“. 1986.The heart does break: Canadian writers on grief and mourning
By George Bowering, Jean Baird. 2009
When Jean Baird's daughter, Bronwyn, died suddenly, Jean's instinct was to turn to books. Although she found that the thoughts…
of counsellors, psychologists, and self-help gurus were some help, the works that truly did were by literary writers, largely from the UK and the US. Jean and her husband George Bowering found little from Canadian writers on the subject, and this anthology of original pieces attempts to fill that gap. c2009.