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The closer we are to dying: A Memoir
By Joe Fiorito. 1999
Fiorito recalls his life growing as a poor, Italian boy in 1950s Fort William, Ontario. He shares memories of his…
father, and of the stories his father told about his own family. Strong language. c1999.The boy on the beach: my family’s escape from Syria and our hope for a new home
By Tima Kurdi. 2018
Alan Kurdi's body washed up on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea on September 2, 2015, and overnight, the political…
became personal, as the world awoke to the reality of the Syrian refugee crisis. Tima Kurdi first saw the shocking photo of her nephew in her home in Vancouver, Canada. Tima recounts her idyllic childhood in Syria, where she grew up with her brother Abdullah and other siblings in a tight knit family. A strong willed, independent woman, Tima studied to be a hairdresser and had dreams of seeing the world. At twenty two, she emigrated to Canada, but much of her family remained in Damascus. As Tima struggled to adapt to life in a new land, war overtook her homeland. Caught in the crosshairs of civil war, her family risked everything and fled their homes. Tima worked tirelessly to help them find safety, but their journey was far from easy. Although thwarted by politics, hounded by violence, and separated by vast distances, the Kurdis never gave up hope. And when tragedy struck, Tima suddenly found herself thrust onto the world stage as an advocate for refugees everywhere, a role for which she had never prepared but that allowed her to give voice to those who didn't have an opportunity to speak for themselves. Bestseller. 2018.The boy in the moon: a father's search for his disabled son
By Ian Brown. 2009
Walker Brown was born with a genetic mutation so rare that perhaps 300 people around the world also live with…
it. Walker turned twelve in 2008, but he weighs only 54 pounds, is still in diapers, can't speak and needs to wear special cuffs on his arms so that he can't continually hit himself. Expanded from Brown's Globe and Mail series about Walker, he sets out to discover his son. Some strong language. Canada Reads 2012. 2009.The bloody red hand: a journey through truth, myth and terror in Northern Ireland
By Derek Lundy. 2006
Author Derek Lundy, bearing in mind that the name "Lundy" is synonymous with traitor in Ulster, delves into the lives…
of ancestors Robert Lundy, Protestant governor of Derry in 1688, William Steel Dickson, a Protestant preacher of the early 19th century who advocated resisting the English, and Billy Lundy, born in 1890 and the embodiment of what the Ulster Protestants became - a tribe united in their hostility to Catholics and to the prospect of an independent Ireland. 2006.The Bin Ladens: an Arabian family in the American century
By Steve Coll. 2008
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Ghost Wars" (DC26423) outlines the history of the Arabian Peninsula's Bin Laden family. Begins with patriarch…
Mohamed Bin Laden, an illiterate Yemeni bricklayer who established a building company in Saudi Arabia in 1931 and fathered fifty-four children. Charts the path of son Osama. Some descriptions of violence. Bestseller. c2008.Sophia Tolstoy: a biography
By Alexandra Popoff. 2010
As Leo Tolstoy's wife, Sophia Tolstoy experienced both glory and condemnation during their forty-eight-year marriage. Drawing on newly available archival…
material, including Sophia's unpublished memoir, Alexandra Popoff presents a dramatically different and accurate portrait of the woman and the marriage. Some descriptions of sex. c2010.Relative stranger: a life after death
By Mary Loudon. 2006
The author's quest to find her sister Catherine, a schizophrenic, in Catherine's home, in her last hospital room, her paintings,…
her letters, her clothes. But in facing the truths about Catherine's life and death, she asks hard questions about sanity, family responsibility, love, and about what it means to say that a life is - or is not - worth living. 2006.Reluctant genius: the passionate life and inventive mind of Alexander Graham Bell
By Charlotte Gray. 2006
Biography of Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), inventor of the telephone and champion of the deaf. Discusses his temperament; creativity; marriage…
to Mabel Hubbard, who was deaf; family life; and friendship with Helen Keller. Covers his many inventions, years living in Washington, D.C., and association with the National Geographic Society. 2006.Oh the glory of it all
By Sean Wilsey. 2005
Sean Wilsey's memoir of growing up in 1980s' San Francisco. Despite a privileged background, family neglect supplies him with more…
than his share of neuroses, narcissism, and self-destructive behaviour, which lead him ultimately to a boarding school in Italy, where he turns his life around. Strong language and some descriptions of sex and violence. 2005.Of this earth: a Mennonite boyhood in the boreal forest
By Rudy Henry Wiebe. 2006
Author Wiebe describes the vanished world of Speedwell, Saskatchewan, an isolated, poplar-forested, mostly Mennonite community - and Rudy's first home.…
Too young to do heavy work, Rudy witnessed a way of life that was soon to disappear, including clearing the stony land and digging wells, and remembers sorrow at the death of a beloved sister and the sweet discovery of the power of reading. Some descriptions of sex and some strong language. 2006.Not guilty: my guide to working hard, raising kids and laughing through the chaos
By Debbie Travis. 2008
Debbie Travis, the home decorating icon, launched her career when she had two kids at home under two. She describes…
the rollercoaster ride of raising two feisty little boys at the same time as working with her husband to create two TV production companies and three TV series. Full of laughter, tears, survival strategies and reality checks from other moms who've also had their meltdown moments, Debbie's book will help you lose the guilt and enjoy the ride. Some descriptions of sex. 2008.Motion sickness: a memoir
By David Layton. 1999
David Layton shares his memories of a childhood during which he was shuttled from country to country, guardian to guardian.…
His parents, poet Irving Layton and his wife Aviva, largely ignored their son and allowed others to be responsible for his upbringing. Layton's story moves from Canada to London to Greece to Morocco and then back to London again, and includes stories about not just his family but also about his godfather, the poet and performer Leonard Cohen. 1999.Forgiveness: a gift from my grandparents
By Mark Sakamoto. 2014
The heart-rending true story of two families on either side of the Second World War, and a moving tribute to…
the nature of forgiveness. Bestseller. Winner of Canada Reads 2018. 2014.Hamlet's dresser: a memoir
By Bob Smith. 2002
At age ten, Smith stumbled onto a line from "The Merchant of Venice" and found a window through the language…
of Shakespeare to view the world. When he was a teenager, the American Shakespeare Festival moved into Stratford, Smith's hometown, and Smith became Hamlet's dresser. A few years later, he left home to travel with the Shakespeare Festival, and in the decades since, he has taught the plays in universities, acting schools, prisons, and senior centres. 2002.Assorted candies (Plateau Mont-Royal Chronicles ; #4)
By Michel Tremblay, Linda Gaboriau. 2006
In Tremblay's autobiographical work, young Michel is trying to understand his world, often observing the other nine members of the…
family from under the dining-room table. His mother Nana dominates these memories, but the cherished moments shared with his father, along with his prickly paternal grandmother and irascible aunt, also shape his views. Neighbours, from whom the family haplessly tries to hide their poverty with dignity, brothers, and an uncle complete the cast of characters. Some strong language. 2006, c2002. (Plateau Mont-Royal Chronicles ; 4) Uniform title: Bonbons assortis.All things consoled: a daughter's memoir
By Elizabeth Hay. 2018
Jean and Gordon Hay were a formidable pair. She was an artist and superlatively frugal; he was a proud and…
well-mannered schoolteacher with a temper that could be explosive. Elizabeth, their oldest daughter, was said to be a difficult and selfish child. Elizabeth always suspected she would end up caring for her parents in their final years, a way of making up for the sins of her childhood, proving herself to be a good daughter after all. But as her parents, who had been ferociously independent people, became increasingly dependent on her, their lives changed utterly and so did hers. Philip Roth once said, "Old age is a massacre." This book takes you inside the massacre. Bestseller. Winner of the 2018 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. 2018.A man named Dave: A Story Of Triumph And Forgiveness
By David J Pelzer. 2001
"A Man Named Dave" is the conclusion to Dave Pelzer's trilogy of memoirs about how he has overcome his abusive…
childhood. With extraordinary generosity of spirit, Dave takes us on his journey confronting his past. In a dramatic reunion he confronts his father and ultimately faces the mother who so brutally abused him. Finally Dave finds the courage to break the chains of the past and learn to love, trust and live for the future. Sequel to "The lost boy". Strong language and some descriptions of violence. 2001.A child called "it": One Child's Courage To Survive
By David J Pelzer. 2000
A man recounts the years of torture and starvation that he experienced as a child at the hands of his…
alcoholic mother. Chronicles the incidents of maltreatment, his ultimate rescue from the abusive home, and his recovery. Followed by "Lost boy" (EB69381). For junior and senior high readers. 2000.The glass castle: a memoir
By Jeannette Walls. 2006
Reporter for MSNBC.com looks back on her unsettled life. Describes growing up in a dysfunctional family, which was always on…
the move. She recalls her father's dream of building a "glass castle," and relates how she and her siblings escaped to make lives of their own. Strong language. 2005.Every time we say goodbye: the story of a father and a daughter
By Anna Blundy. 1998
On 17th November 1989 Anna Blundy received a phone call to say that her father, David Blundy, a foreign correspondent,…
had been killed in El Salvador. In a way she had expected this all her life. Every time they said goodbye, she knew he might not return. Eight years later, Anna went to El Salvador to try to discover the truth about his death, and finally, to come to terms with her loss.