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Showing 1 - 20 of 6959 items
By Peter Goddard. 2017
Considered one of the most influential musicians and cultural figures of his time, Glenn Gould remains a fascinating figure. In…
the first book to be published in co-operation with Gould's estate, Peter Goddard draws on Gould's unpublished writings, interviews, and never-before-seen photographs to present a startling new portrait of Gould, the man and the musician. Presents a deep and nuanced study of Gould's life with unmatched candour and clarity. Inside is a love letter Gould wrote but never sent (he later revised it again and again); the text of a speech that Gould gave to a group of children about life and childhood; and portions of Glenn Gould: hysteric return, a never-before-seen radio script in which Gould imagines his return to the concert stage and all it would have entailed. 2017.By Ted Barris. 2014
On the night of March 24, 1944, eighty airmen crawled through a 400-foot-long tunnel, code-named "Harry," and dashed from Stalag…
Luft III, the infamous WWII German POW camp. It became known as The Great Escape. The breakout had taken a year to plan, involved 2,000 POWs, and prompted a massive manhunt across occupied Europe. All but three escapees were recaptured, and on Hitler’s orders, fifty were murdered. The author recounts this battle of wits and determination through the voices of those involved, assembles original interviews, memoirs, letters and diaries to reconstruct the Great Escape’s untold story. Bestseller. 2014.By Denise Kiernan. 2013
At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents. But to most of the…
world, the town did not exist. Thousands of civilians—many of them young women from small towns across the South—were recruited to this secret city, enticed by solid wages and the promise of war-ending work. Kept very much in the dark, few would ever guess the true nature of the tasks they performed each day in the hulking factories in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. That is, until the end of the war—when Oak Ridge’s fateful secret was revealed. Bestseller. 2013.By Helen Humphreys. 2017
Delving deep into the storied past of the apple in North America, Humphreys explores the intricate link between agriculture, settlement,…
and human relationships. She brings light to such varied topics as how the apple first came across the Atlantic Ocean with a relatively unknown Quaker woman long before the more famed “Johnny Appleseed”; how bountiful Indigenous orchards were targeted to be taken over or eradicated by white settlers and their armies; how the once-17,000 varietals of apple cultivated were catalogued by watercolour artists from the United States’ Department of Pomology; how apples wove into the life and poetry of Robert Frost; and how Humphreys’ own curiosity was piqued by the Winter Pear Pearmain, believed to be the world’s best tasting apple, which she found growing beside an abandoned cottage not far from her home. 2017.By Rosemary Sexton. 1993
Portrayal of Toronto's wealthy women who organize lavish charity balls. Sexton, who was the society columnist for the "Globe and…
Mail" from 1988 to 1993, describes the women's organizational skills for the balls and their talent for gossip and backbiting. 1993.By John Vaillant. 2005
In 1997, when a shattered kayak and camping gear are found on an Alaskan island north of the Canadian border,…
they reignite a mystery surrounding a shocking act of protest. The author braids together the strands of this mystery and brings to life the historical collision of Europeans and the Haida and the harrowing world of logging. Canada Reads 2012. Winner of the 2005 Governor General's Award for Non-fiction. Bestseller. 2005.By Rachael Preston. 2016
The boathouse community along the shores of Dundas Marsh has come under siege, and young Egypt Fisher is faced with…
the prospect of losing her home. Members of Hamilton’s City Beautiful Movement have planned a new bridge through their neighbourhood and the boathouses are being destroyed, their owners relocated. Soon, however, it’s clear that politicians and gentrification aren’t the only threats to Egypt’s paradise. At first Egypt is thrilled to have her family reunited when her father, Ray, suddenly returns after a mysterious six-year absence. But Ray Fisher has demons, and his wife, Laura, has secrets. Together, they turn the Fisher house into an emotional tinderbox, and when handsome Matt Oakes drifts into town, he could be just the spark to ignite it. 2016.By Bob Duff. 2017
2017-18 marks the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the National Hockey League. But the league almost didn't survive its…
first year. Duff chronicles the trials and tribulations of that first season, and tells the story of that first generation of hockey heroes who lent their names to the game they loved, and helped to make it great. 2017.By Donna Thomson. 2014
Donna Thomson’s life was forever changed when her son Nicholas was born with cerebral palsy. A former actor, director, and…
teacher, Donna became his primary caregiver and embarked on a second career as a disability activist, author, and consultant. Thomson vividly describes her experience in treading delicately through daily care, emergencies, and medical bureaucracy as she and her family cope with her son’s condition while maintaining value and dignity (for Nicholas, too). She demonstrates the vital contribution that people with disabilities make to our society and addresses the ethics and economics of giving and receiving care. 2014.By Charles Montpetit. 1995
A collection of true stories, written by some of Canada's best writers, about "the first time" -- their first sexual…
encounter. The writers include Brian Doyle, W.P. Kinsella, and Julie Lawson. Descriptions of sex. Junior high and older. 1995.By Timothy C Winegard. 2016
Oil is the source of wealth and economic opportunity. Oil is also the root source of global conflict, toxicity and…
economic disparity. The author argues that beginning with the First World War, oil became the preeminent commodity to safeguard national security and promote domestic prosperity. For the first time in history, territory was specifically conquered to possess oil fields and resources; vital cogs in the continuation of the industrialized warfare of the twentieth century. 2016.The love story of rodeo promoter Guy Weadick and trick roper Flores LaDue began among the rough-and-tumble vaudevillians who preserved…
the frontier way of life in the first Wild West shows. Their love endured through North American performances in the small-time and big-time circuits, to the audiences of Europe, and culminated in 1912 with the most spectacular of accomplishments - the establishment of the greatest outdoor show on earth, the Calgary Stampede. c2011.By Gerald W Hankins. 1994
Biography of Art Jenkyns, who founded Operation Eyesight Universal, a Calgary-based organization which provides eye-care programs in developing countries. Since…
it began in the early 1960s, OEU has helped to restore sight to over 1.3 million people and provided eye-care to millions more. 1994.By Declan Hill. 2010
By H. W Brands. 2000
Biography of one of America's founding fathers, incorporating correspondence and anecdotes of his contemporaries. Franklin was heralded as a leading…
inventor and scientist, author, and diplomat as well as a bon vivant. In exploring Franklin's conversion from British loyalist to revolutionary, Brands seeks out the genius behind the man. 2000.By Peter Gzowski. 1994
Peter Gzowski offers more letters and stories sent to his CBC Radio program, "Morningside." The selections include everything from memories…
of Christmas to Sarah Binks to thoughts from the Arctic. 1994. Uniform title: Morningside (Radio program).By Johanna Skibsrud. 2016
In this collection of poems, the author asks: is our world really what it appears to be? How do we…
shape it through language? And if language can create our world, can it also transform or destroy it? She brings us to the edges of dreams and waking. With lines that are searching, but spacious, she deftly turns over ideas of perception and reality, inviting us to join her as she releases the abstract figure from its painting, or brings the poet in from the wilderness. 2016.By Deborah Cadbury. 2000
The text tells the story of the bitter feud between Gideon Mantell, who uncovered giant bones in a Sussex quarry…
and became obsessed with the ancient past and Richard Owen, patronised by royalty, the Prime Minister and the aristocracy, who scooped the credit for the discovery of the dinosaurs. Their struggle was to create a new science that would change man's perception of his place in the universe. 2000.By Barry M Gough. 2014
Born in Connecticut in 1739, Peter Pond volunteered for the colonial Connecticut and New York regiments that fought against the…
French for control of North America. Soon after, drawn by the promise of wealth and adventure, Pond paddled into the wild territory of the Indians to the west with only a canoe, some trade goods and a few French Canadians to aid him. What he returned with is the stuff of legend. 2014.By Andrew Nikiforuk. 2012
A radical analysis of our master-and-slave relationship to energy and a call for change. Nikiforuk makes a comparison between slavery…
and fossil fuels. Like slaveholders, we feel entitled to surplus energy and rationalize inequality, even barbarity, to get it. But endless growth is an illusion, and now that half of the world's oil has been burned, our energy slaves are becoming more expensive by the day. What we need, the author argues, is a radical new emancipation movement. c2012.