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The genius within: smart pills, brain hacks and adventures in intelligence
By David Adam. 2018
What if you have more intelligence than you realize? What if there is a genius inside you, just waiting to…
be released? And what if the route to better brain power is not hard work or thousands of hours of practice but to simply swallow a pill? In The Genius Within, David Adam explores the groundbreaking neuroscience of cognitive enhancement that is changing the way the brain and the mind works, to make it better, sharper, more focused and, yes, more intelligent. He considers how we measure and judge intelligence, taking us on a fascinating tour of the history of brain science and medicine, from gentlemen scientist brain autopsy clubs to case studies of mental health patients with extraordinary savant abilities. In addition to reporting on the latest research and fascinating case studies, David also goes on his own personal journey to investigate the possibilities of neuroenhancement, using himself as a guinea pig for smart pills and electrical brain stimulation in order to improve his IQ scores and cheat his way into MENSA. Getting to the heart of how we think about intelligence and mental ability, The Genius Within plunges into deep ethical, neuroscientific, and historical pools of enquiry about the science of brain function, untapping potential, and what it means for all of us. Going to the heart of how we consider, measure, and judge mental ability, The Genius Within asks difficult questions about the science that could rank and define us, and inevitably shape our future. 2018.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 Great Dominion: Winston Churchill in Canada, 1900-1954
By David Dilks. 2005
Winston Churchill's connection with Canada ("the Great Dominion", as he called it) spanned more than half a century: at Winnipeg…
he heard the news of Queen Victoria's death, in Ottawa in the dark days of 1941 he proclaimed his confidence in victory, and in 1952 had to concede that the result of victory had been far less satisfying than he had wished. No other Commonwealth country sparked such detailed knowledge or lifelong interest. 2005.The good fight: political memoirs, 1909-1958
By David Lewis. 1981
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 golden spruce: A True Story Of Myth, Madness And Greed
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.The global forest
By Diana Beresford-Kroeger. 2010
Weaving together ecology, ethnobotany, horticulture, spirituality, science, and alternative medicine, the author describes trees' untapped ecological and pharmaceutical potential. Beresford-Kroeger…
proposes how trees can be planted in urban and rural areas to promote health and counteract pollution and global warming. c2010.The geography of hope: a tour of the world we need
By Chris Turner. 2007
To offset the grim predictions of environmentalists, Turner describes solutions already at work around the world, from Canada's largest wind…
farm to Asia's greenest building and Europe's most eco-friendly communities. He also seeks out the next generation of political, economic, social, and spiritual institutions that could provide the global foundations for a sustainable future, including the parliament houses of Scandinavia and the villages of southern India, where microcredit finance has remade the social fabric. Some descriptions of sex and some strong language. 2007.The gentleman from New York: Daniel Patrick Moynihan : a biography
By Godfrey Hodgson. 2000
Presents an account of the popular senator's life as a politician who championed both liberal and conservative causes. Traces Moynihan's…
difficult childhood, his educational path, and his varied career in government. Discusses the philosophy behind his landmark 1965 report on African American families. Some strong language. 2000.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.Describes the unlikely friendship between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Pauli Murray, a granddaughter of a mixed race slave and…
a lesbian, who became a lawyer and civil rights pioneer, and the important work they each did for justice and freedom. 2016.The frock-coated communist: the revolutionary life of Friedrich Engels
By Tristram Hunt. 2009
Friedrich Engels was a textile magnate and fox-hunter, a raffish, high-living, heavy drinking devotee of the good things in life.…
But Engels was also the man behind Karl Marx who for forty years funded him, looked after his children, soothed his furies, and provided one-half of history's most celebrated ideological partnership. He was co-author of The Manifesto of the Communist Party and co-founder of what would come to be known as Marxism. Interpreted and misinterpreted, quoted and misquoted, Friedrich Engels became one of the central architects of modern global socialism. 2009.The flight of the patriot: escape from revolutionary Iran
By Yadi Sharifirad. 2010
Sharifirad was shot down in the Iraqi-Iranian war in the early 1990s, saved by a group of local Kurds, and…
eventually returned to Iran where he became a national hero. The Ayatollah sent him to Pakistan as military attaché, but when he returned to Teheran, he was accused of being a CIA spy and was imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured. Upon his release, despite constant surveillance, he resolved to smuggle his family out of the country. Some descriptions of sex and violence, some strong language. 2010.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 first days of life
By Russell Freedman, Joseph Cellini. 1974
The final forest: the battle for the last great trees of the Pacific Northwest
By William Dietrich. 1992
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 flamingo's smile: reflections in natural history
By Stephen Jay Gould. 1985
The first American: the life and times of Benjamin Franklin
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.The doctor will not see you now
By Jane Poulson. 2002
Autobiography of Dr. Jane Poulson, the first blind person in Canada to become a practising doctor. Poulson suffered from diabetes…
and because of the disease, lost her sight and then experienced severe heart problems. Nonetheless she was an extremely accomplished doctor, published widely in leading medical journals, and showed great courage and endurance to all who knew her. She wrote this book during the last two years of her life. 2002.