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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.The crack in the teacup: the life of an old woman steeped in stories
By Joan Bodger. 2000
Gestalt therapist, story-teller, teacher, writer, children's book editor, director of the first Headstart Program in New York State, Joan Bodger…
is a woman whose life has always been intertwined with stories. Her biography depicts how a life -- and a century -- can be shaped and given meaning by personal mythology, how the power of stories can repair a shattered life. While describing her own life she also includes sharp observations of the nuances of class, racial prejudice, and regional and national differences. Some strong language. 2000.The book of revenge: a blues for Yugoslavia
By Dragan Todorović. 2006
Serb Dragan Todorovic goes to Belgrade as the editor of a cultural magazine, but his constant clashes with the system…
end in his being drafted into the army. Dragan survives his tour of duty, but his return to Belgrade is unsettling - everything is changing, friendships are collapsing, conversations are guarded, and bit by bit, the country he knows and loves is being torn apart. Some strong language. 2006.The bookseller of Kabul
By Åsne Seierstad. 2003
Two weeks after September 11th, award-winning journalist Asne Seierstad went to Afghanistan to report on the conflict there. In the…
following spring she returned to live with an Afghan family for several months. For more than 20 years Sultan Khan defied the authorities - be they Communist or Taliban - in order to supply books to the people of Kabul. He was arrested, interrogated and imprisoned by the Communists, and watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. But while Khan is passionate in his love of books and hatred of censorship, he is also a committed Muslim with strict views on family life. 2003.Stormy weather: F.H. Varley, a biography
By Maria Tippett. 1998
This biography of the Group of Seven painter, Fred Varley, examines both his personal and professional lives. The effects of…
his drinking and womanizing on his family and his work are closely examined.Shadow maker: the life of Gwendolyn MacEwen
By Rosemary Sullivan. 1995
Using the personal impressions of the poet's intimate friends, Rosemary Sullivan builds a composite portrait of Gwendolyn MacEwan, the Toronto…
poet who died in 1987 at the age of 46. The daughter of an alcoholic father and mentally ill mother, MacEwen's story is a painful one, yet the richness of her art and inner life redeemed the pain. Winner of the 1995 Governor General's Award for Non-fiction.Remembering Peter Gzowski: a book of tributes
By Edna Barker. 2002
This book is a celebration of Peter Gzowski's life and of the enormous role he played in Canadian life. It…
collects tributes from friends and colleagues, and from grieving strangers who had been touched by him in one of the roles that provide us with the chapters in this book: as a writer in newspapers, magazines, or books; as a radio broadcaster; on camera; as a lover of Canada; and as a father, relative, or trusted friend. 2002.Raymond Chandler: a biography
By Tom Hiney. 1997
Chandler created the famous fictional detective Philip Marlowe, whose many investigations in print also made it to the big screen.…
Chandler's own life was centred around his wife Cissy, 18 years his senior. After she died, he embarked on a manic globe-trotting spree that was risky and peppered with chance encounters. 1997.Invisible? Impossible? Not ever!: biography of Jean-Paul Losier
By Edna Arseneault-McGrath. 2005
Acadian-born, fifth in a family of thirteen, and born blind, Jean-Paul Losier has overcome many obstacles to achieve success. Attaining…
Bachelors of Arts and Education degrees and a law degree, known as 'the man who knew the books by heart', Losier spent 24 years teaching while also cultivating the family farm. He is known as a tireless volunteer in his community and on behalf of the blind and deaf-blind, and as a man who is dedicated to the betterment of all mankind. 2005.Paper shadows: a Chinatown childhood
By Wayson Choy. 1999
This is a memoir of the author's childhood days in Vancouver's Chinatown, during the 1930s and 1940s. He is able…
to piece together deeply held family secrets that came from China in the form of "paper shadows." With an engaging style, he reveals the link between these secrets and his own life. Some strong language. Canada Reads 2012. 1999.On a clear day
By Alex MacCormick, David Blunkett. 1995
Born in 1947 in the slums of Sheffield, England, David Blunkett has never let blindness be more than an inconvenience…
to him, whether at university or in the British House of Commons as an MP. In this autobiography, he discusses his life, politics, and, most of all, his beloved guide dogs, Ruby, Offa, and Lucy. 1995.No end in sight: my life as a blind Iditarod racer
By Rachael Scdoris, Rick Steber. 2006
Twenty-one-year-old author discusses her Oregon childhood, her experience with low vision, and her determination to become a professional sled dog…
racer. Describes being introduced to the sport by her father, becoming the youngest athlete to win a five-hundred-mile race, and the obstacles she overcame to qualify for the Iditarod. 2006.The author recounts her journey to Tibet, where she opened a school for blind children to teach them the Tibetan…
braille system she devised while a University of Bonn student. Tenberken describes losing her sight at age twelve, her education, establishing her school, and founding the organization Braille without Borders. 2003.Lives of mothers & daughters: growing up with Alice Munro
By Sheila Munro. 2001
An intimate biography of Alice Munro. It describes in a way that only a close relative could, the details of…
her family background, from the Laidlaws who left Scotland in the early 19th century, to Alice Munro's birth in 1931, her early years and marriage all the way to the current family. The constant echoes of settings, situations, and characters that occur in her fiction make this an informative commentary to Munro's works.L. M. Montgomery, the creator of Anne of Green Gables and author of more than 20 books, is a household…
name the world over. "Anne of Green Gables" has been translated into 40 different languages and immortalized on film. Montgomery was determined to be a writer, despite the loss of her mother at an early age, her strict and lonely upbringing, and years of doubt and rejection. 2004.Lessons I learned in the dark: steps to walking by faith, not by sight
By Jennifer Rothschild. 2002
At the age of fifteen, Jennifer Rothschild confronted two unshakable realities: blindness is inevitable, and God is enough. The popular…
author, speaker, and recording artist offers poignant lessons that illuminate a path to freedom and fulfillment. With warmth, humour, and insight, Jennifer shares the guiding principles she walks by, and shows you how to walk forward by faith into God's marvellous light. 2002.Lake of the prairies: a story of belonging
By Warren Cariou. 2002
Cariou's memoir on growing up in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, where he witnessed the discrimination, anger and fear directed at the…
town's Cree and Métis populations by the European settlers. While he has absorbed these prejudices as his own, he is forced to confront the politics of race as an adult. Then, he discovers secrets that his family had kept hidden for generations, secrets that would alter forever his sense of identity and belonging in Meadow Lake. Winner of the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize of the 2003 Writers' Trust of Canada Awards. 2002.Inner vision: the story of the world's greatest blind athlete
By Gib Twyman, Craig MacFarlane. 1997
Athlete Craig MacFarlane was blinded in an accident at age 2, and grew up to become a champion sprinter, internationally…
acclaimed wrestler, downhill skier, and a regular in the water skiing spectacular at Florida's Cypress Gardens. Craig now makes over 200 appearances a year - everything from children in a classroom setting to 3-time speaker at the Republican National Convention. 1997.Images from the dark: the story of Carolyn James
By Andrew Whitehouse. 1990
Carolyn James is a talented painter, especially of landscapes. She is completely blind. In a full and varied life she…
was constantly frustrated by failing sight. Only when her blindness became total did her imagination and her daughter's paint-box free her to make pictures. Within a year her work was exhibited, and soon she appeared on television and radio. She began writing poems, which became song lyrics, and now in her 40s is a creative artist in both media. 1990.Jane Austen (A Penguin life)
By Carol Shields. 2001
In this literary biography, writer Carol Shields throws light on the works of the nineteenth-century English novelist, Jane Austen. Discusses…
the private woman, describing the quiet personal life of a "stern moralist" who wrote "marriage novels" but never married. Canada Reads 2012.