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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 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 girl in Saskatoon: a meditation on friendship, memory and murder
By Sharon Butala. 2008
In 1962, Alexandra Wiwcharuk was found murdered on the banks of the Saskatchewan River. Nearly 50 years later, her murder…
still haunts Saskatoon residents, especially those who, like Butala, were Alexandra's friends. Compelled by her memories of Alex, Butala returns to that still-unsolved murder, writing an in-depth investigation of the tragic death, a nostalgic coming-of-age story, and an exploration of the nature of good and evil. Some descriptions of sex and violence. 2008.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 Gardner heist: a true story of the world's largest unsolved art theft
By Ulrich Boser. 2009
Journalist recounts the 1990 robbery of Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in which two crooks posing as policemen nabbed art…
worth $500 million, including five Degas paintings, three Rembrandts, and a Vermeer. Traces the investigation of art detective Harold Smith and explores case links to mobsters and the IRA. Strong language. 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 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 feather men
By Ranulph Fiennes. 1991
The "Feather Men," so named because of their light touch, were a group of Englishmen recruited to stop an organization…
of contract killers from murdering former members of the Special Air Service. This true story of their vigilante activities during the 1980s is set mainly in Oman and is told in chilling detail with action-packed narrative. Includes violence. 1991.The fence: a police cover-up along Boston's racial divide
By Dick Lehr. 2009
The Fence documents the true story of a Boston police incident during which an undercover officer was brutally beaten by…
fellow officers who mistook him for a murder suspect. Some strong language and some descriptions of violence. c2009.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 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 enforcer: Johnny Pops Papalia : a life and death in the Mafia
By Adrian Humphreys. 1999
By the time Johnny "Pops" Papalia was gunned down at the age of 73, his massive crime network had earned…
him the nickname "Canada's Capone." Filled with tales of extortion, loan sharking, gambling and heroin, this book chronicles the rise and fall of Canada's most successful Mafia don. Some descriptions of violence. 1999.The devil and the disappearing sea: a true story about the Aral Sea catastrophe
By Robert W Ferguson. 2003
The Aral Sea, once the fourth-largest inland body of water, has lost over half its surface area and 80 percent…
of its volume since 1960, due to poorly planned irrigation systems. In January 2000, Canadian Rob Ferguson went to Uzbekistan to work on an environmental project to save the Aral Sea. After a year of dealing with corrupt officials, not only had the project gone nowhere, but Ferguson was under suspicion of murder. Some strong language. 2003.The Corporation: an epic story of the Cuban American underworld
By T. J English. 2018
Drawing on detailed reporting and extensive evidence, English reveals how an entire generation of political exiles, refugees, racketeers, corrupt cops,…
hitmen, and their wives and girlfriends became caught up in an American saga of desperation and empire building, set against the larger backdrop of revolution, exile, and ethnicity. 2018.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 elements of murder: A History Of Poison
By John Emsley. 2005
Chemist Emsley offers an account of five of the most toxic elements - arsenic, antimony, lead, mercury, and thallium -…
describing their lethal chemical properties and highlighting their use in some of the most famous murder cases in history. Emsley also shows which toxic elements may have been behind the madness of King George III, the delusions of Isaac Newton, and the strange death of King Charles II. In addition, the book examines many modern day environmental catastrophes. 2005.