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From here to eternity: traveling the world to find the good death
By Caitlin Doughty. 2017
Fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for…
their dead. In rural Indonesia, she observes a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body. Grandpa's mummy has lived in the family home for two years, where the family has maintained a warm and respectful relationship. She meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls), and introduces us to a Japanese kotsuage, in which relatives use chopsticks to pluck their loved-ones' bones from cremation ashes. With curiosity and morbid humour, Doughty encounters vividly decomposed bodies and participates in compelling, powerful death practices almost entirely unknown in America. Introduces death-care innovators researching green burial and body composting, explores new spaces for mourning--including a glowing Buddha columbarium in Japan and America's only open-air pyre--and reveals unexpected new possibilities for our own death rituals. Bestseller. 2017.From Raj to Rajiv: 40 years of Indian independence
By Mark Tully, Zareer Masani. 1988
A small yet colourful piece cut from the rich tapestry of the Indian sub-continent, this account of some of the…
key events in Indian history since Independence in 1947 is based loosely on the BBC radio series of the same name. Mark Tully encountered some truly remarkable individuals who display all of the diverse characteristics of the Indian nations. A concise book drawing together the different strands of Indian history, culture, politics, religion and tradition. 1988.Chinese New Year: a celebration for everyone (Orca origins.)
By Jen Sookfong Lee. 2017
From its beginnings as a farming celebration marking the end of winter to its current role as a global party…
featuring good food, lots of gifts and public parades, 'Chinese New Year' is a snapshot of Chinese culture. Award-winning author and broadcaster Jen Sookfong Lee recalls her childhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, and weaves family stories into the history, traditions and evolution of Chinese New Year. Grades 3-6. 2017.Egg on Mao: the story of an ordinary man who defaced an icon and unmasked a dictatorship
By Denise Chong. 2009
On May 23, 1989, as student protests raged, Lu Decheng and two other men hurled 30 paint-filled eggs at the…
immense portrait of Mao Zedong that dominates Beijing's Tiananmen Square. His poli-art stunt stranded Lu in prison for almost a decade, cost him his wife and daughter, and led to his eventual defection to Canada. While hoping to bring true democracy and to unmask the repression of Mao's reign, Lu learned that in China, preserving the Chairman's legacy mattered more. 2009.East and West: The Last Governor Of Hong Kong On Power, Freedom And The Future
By Chris Patten. 1998
Chris Patten reflects on his experiences as the governor of Hong Kong, why he adopted the stance he did, and…
how he fought his battles. Why has the Far East more generally prospered so spectacularly over recent decades, and how seriously should its recent crises be taken? What is the possibility of such conditions for prosperity being reproduced elsewhere? What are the connections between political freedom and the rule of law, and economic freedom and advance? What is China's role in the world to be? Patten discusses the answers to these and other questions. 1998.Disarming Iraq
By Hans Blix. 2004
Blix reluctantly came out of retirement in 2000 to lead the U.N. weapons inspections team in Iraq because he was…
the only man everyone could agree on for the job. Three years later, those clamouring for military intervention grumbled at his inability (or, as they saw it, refusal) to present evidence of weapons of mass destruction, but he reminds readers that his assignment was to assess and report on the available evidence. A play-by-play account of the months of diplomacy and inspection efforts leading up to the Iraq war. Some descriptions of violence. 2004.China hands
By Charles Taylor. 1984
Charles Taylor, a former Peking correspondent, has selected reports from the last 25 years to provide a first-hand account of…
this dramatic period in Chinese history. 1984. Uniform title: The Globe and mail.Chen Village: the recent history of a peasant community in Mao's China
By Richard Madsen, Anita Chan, Jonathan Unger. 1984
Chinese lives: an oral history of contemporary China
By Hsin-Hsin Chang, Ye Sang, W. J. F Jenner. 1987
Includes interviews with 60 Chinese people from every walk of life: a 13-year-old street vendor; a pop singer; gold miners;…
bus conductors; ex-Red Guards; and a woman who was sold into prostitution in Shanghai in the 1930s. Some descriptions of sex. 1987.Armenian Golgotha: a memoir of the Armenian genocide, 1915-1918
By Peter Balakian, Grigoris Palakʻean, Aris G Sevag. 2010
On April 24, 1915, Grigoris Balakian was arrested along with some 250 other leaders of Constantinople's Armenian community. It was…
the beginning of the Ottoman Empire's systematic attempt to eliminate the Armenian people from Turkey--a campaign that continued through World War I and the fall of the empire. Over the next four years, Balakian would bear witness to a seemingly endless caravan of blood, surviving to recount his miraculous escape and expose the atrocities that led to over a million deaths. 2010. Uniform title: Hay goghgotʻan.Apron strings: navigating food and family in France, Italy, and China
By Jan Wong. 2017
Jan Wong knows food is better when shared, so when she set out to write a book about home cooking…
in France, Italy, and China, she asked her 22-year-old son, Sam, to join her. While he wasn't keen on spending excessive time with his mom, he dreamed of becoming a chef. Ultimately, it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. On their journey, Jan and Sam live and cook with locals, seeing how globalization is changing food, families, and cultures. In southeast France, they move in with a family sheltering undocumented migrants. From Bernadette, the housekeeper, they learn classic French family fare such as blanquette de veau. In a hamlet in the heart of Italy's Slow Food country, the locals teach them how to make authentic spaghetti alle vongole and a proper risotto with leeks. In Shanghai, they cook firecracker chicken and scallion pancakes with the nouveaux riches and their migrant maids, who are part of the biggest demographic shift in world history. Along the way, mother and son explore their sometimes-fraught relationship, uniting--and occasionally clashing--over their mutual love of cooking. 2017.All the Shah's men: an American coup and the roots of Middle East terror
By Stephen Kinzer. 2003
Chronicles the August 1953 CIA-led coup in Iran that overthrew the democratic government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. Describes the…
events that led to the takeover and the "catastrophic effects" that eventually resulted in the 1979 overthrow of the Shah by Islamic radicals. 2003.Adventures on the ancient Silk Road
By Priscilla Galloway, Dawn Hunter. 2009
Presents accounts of three explorers who journeyed on the Silk Road: Xuanzang, a seventh-century Buddhist pilgrim from China; Genghis Khan,…
the early-thirteenth-century Mongolian conqueror; and Marco Polo, the late-thirteenth-century Venetian merchant who traveled to the Chinese court. Includes cultural facts about places along the various routes. Some descriptions of violence. Grades 5-8. Winner of the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-fiction. 2009.A history of the Middle East
By Peter Mansfield. 2009
Over the centuries the Middle East has confounded the dreams of conquerors and peacemakers alike. This now-classic book, fully updated…
to 2009, follows the historic struggles of the region over the last two hundred years, from Napoleon's assault on Egypt, through the slow decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire, to the painful emergence of modern nations, the Palestinian question, and Islamic resurgence. 2009.1421: the year China discovered America
By Gavin Menzies. 2004
Former British submariner and amateur historian theorizes that the Chinese under the third Ming emperor Zhu Di explored Antarctica, Australia,…
and the Americas decades before the Europeans. Speculates that the emperor's eunuch admirals circumnavigated the globe between 1421 and 1423. 2002.Reaping the whirlwind: the Taliban movement in Afghanistan
By Michael Griffin. 2001
Griffin chronicles the rise of the Taliban from their first appearance in 1994, examines their place in the context of…
Afghanistan's political instability, and discusses the significance of their brand of Islamic fundamentalism. 2001.The island of seven cities: the discovery of a lost Chinese settlement in the Americas
By Paul Chiasson. 2006
2002. Architect Paul Chiasson climbed a mountain on Cape Breton and found an old wide, well-made road, once flanked by…
walls. After two years of study, he believed that these ruins were originally built by the Chinese, as part of a large colony that thrived on Canadian shores well before the European Age of Discovery. Chiasson addresses how the colony was abandoned and forgotten except in the storytelling and culture of the Mi'kmaq, whose written language, clothing, technical knowledge, religious beliefs and legends expose deep cultural roots in China. 2006.Voyage au pays d'Al-Qaïda: une femme dans la guerre
By Sara Daniel. 2006
"Ce livre est un journal de guerre. Récit personnel, témoignage engagé, ce texte est écrit par une journaliste qui, bien…
que mère d'une petite fille de deux ans, décide de partir en Irak dès le déclenchement de la guerre pour voir, savoir, tenter de comprendre. Portée par son désir de connaître et non de juger, Sara Daniel est acceptée et accueillie, tant du côté des "coupeurs de tête" de Fallouja et des membres de la guérilla, que de celui des soldats américains qui l'embarquent dans leur char. Chronique humaniste d'un échec programmé, d'un désastre qui ne cesse de s'amplifier, ce grand reportage nous plonge dans le quotidien et l'absurdité de cette guerre tout en nous permettant d'en comprendre les enjeux politiques et humains." -- 4e de couv. Titre uniforme: Voyage to a stricken land.The sleeping buddha: the story of Afghanistan through the eyes of one family
By Hamida Ghafour. 2007
In 2003, journalist Ghafour was sent to Afghanistan, which she had fled in 1981, to cover the country's reconstruction. In…
a place totally changed from the world her parents had described, she discovered a school which teaches women a new kind of independence, her cousin's determined parliamentary campaign, and the archaeologist digging for his country's lost civilization in the form of a giant sleeping Buddha. Some descriptions of violence. 2007.The Iraq invasion of 2003 was only the latest in a long line of episodes of Western manipulation in that…
country, which owes its existence - and its complex and troubled demographics - to the designs of British imperialists. The brunt of Lando's argument is that the U.S. has routinely played Iraq for profit and strategic advantage yet consistently evaded responsibility for exacerbating the carnage of its destructive wars and humanitarian crises. Descriptions of violence and strong language. 2007.