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Showing 1 - 20 of 3525 items
Vance examines the reaction of Canadians to the First World War as a cultural and philosophical force, rather than a… political and military event. He argues that Canadians constructed a version of the war which stressed traditional values and the positive results of the war experience, and how this myth helped create within Canada a sense of nationhood. 1997.
In 1978, artist Hughes de Montalembert was blinded by two muggers. This is the tale of his search for a… cure, of his rehabilitation and his despair, and finally his discovery of reconciliation and peace. 1985. Uniform title: Lumière assassinée.
The author of "Planet of the Blind", who has been legally blind since birth, explains how he perceives the world… around him through listening. In these essays he describes childhood influences, adult travels, artful eavesdropping, and love of poetry and Caruso's singing. 2006.
For Tom Sullivan —author, actor, athlete, singer, entertainer, and producer—a life with blindness has been a life with very few… true limits. In this elegant exploration of the senses, he considers the different challenges he’s faced and explains the wonder he carries because, not in spite, of his blindness. 2012.
Neer suffered from low vision throughout her life and eventually became blind. Just as she lost her sight totally, her… adult son died and left her his 13-year-old daughter to raise. Neer's story is about coping - how to travel, shop, socialize, read and write, and run a household - and she describes attending plays, cooking for dinner parties, becoming street savvy, and, literally, dancing in the dark. 1994.
A memoir about the author's father whose work in the field of cholera, malaria, and tuberculosis is notable. The author… also tells about being sent to a school for the blind after illness robs him of his sight. 1972.
Raised in a village far from professional help during the Great Depression, Isabel Beveridge attended a distant residential school for… deaf and blind children, and went on to become the first blind graduate of the University of British Columbia. She overcame many difficulties and challenges in her search for higher education and meaningful work in a competitive market, and was eventually awarded a place in the Alumni Hall of Fame of Columbia University in New York in recognition of her groundbreaking achievements as well as her lifetime of service to blind and visually impaired people. 2003.
For nine to 10 months of the year, the Ontario School for the Blind was home to many children. Here,… former students, including musician Jeff Healey, describe their lives at this school and reminisce about their experiences, both good and bad. 1993.
Biography of Mae Brown (1935-1973), who was the first deaf-blind person to graduate from a Canadian university, and was a… counsellor at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Her college tutor chronicles Brown's family, education, social and professional life, and triumphs and disappointments.
The author presents journal entries, essays, and speeches. Gallagher was a college student of twenty when he almost died of… polio. As an influential Senate aide and lobbyist in Washington, D.C., he was instrumental in passing the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968. 1998.
This book is of Cyril Wakefield's life in Lincolnshire. He was blind from a very early age but has, just… as with sighted people, a variety of interests, desires and other characteristics. This is the story of an ordinary man who, as the result of misfortune in his very early years, has led a far from ordinary life. 1996.
A prolific nature writer's autobiographical essays. In "In the Country of the Blind," Hoagland explores social and biblical notions of… blindness and describes the loss and surgical restoration of his eyesight. Remembers teachers John Berryman and Archibald MacLeish and joining the circus at eighteen. 2001.
The author was Canada's first blind diplomat, and his vivid account of life and work in Tokyo, New Delhi and… Ottawa is a testament to the blind person's native capacity for innovation and practical adjustment. But the deeper message of Beyond Vision is more radical and consequential: the self - the real self that is normally veiled - does not go blind. The deep self stands entirely apart from the experience of sightedness or blindness, as a centre of stable equanimity. This is what the author discovered through his study and assimilation of Indian Vedantic philosophy. Jones briefly describes the basic features of Advaita Vedanta, and identifies startling findings of contemporary science that are consonant with the Advaitic view of world and self. He then outlines practical applications of Advaita, for example the mindfulness practice that allowed him to retain his white cane mobility skills despite chronic and untreatable spinal and muscular pain. 2018.
On four occasions Janet Gray has won the World Disabled Water-ski Championships. She has been champion and world record holder… in all three individual disciplines as well as overall champion. In competition with sighted water-skiers, she is one of the top skiers in Ireland and in the higher echelons of competitive skiing in the UK. And yet, in 2004, she nearly died. In the course of a training session in Tampa, Florida, Janet skied at high speed into a steel ski jump in the centre of the lake. 'Doctors assessing the extent of my injuries were united in their prognosis: I wouldn't survive the night.' But Janet Gray did not die. In fact, not only did she make a full recovery, she resumed her career in water-skiing and regained her world titles and previous ranking as World Disabled Water-ski Champion. This book tells her remarkable story. 2009.
Describes Knighton's voyage through the first year of fatherhood, made more daunting by his blindness. He wonders how he will… get to know his pre-verbal bundle of coos and burps when he can't see her smile or look into her eyes. Tackling these hurdles with grace and humour, Ryan is determined to do his part as a father, despite the pitfalls. Some strong language. 2010.
Knighton, who teaches at Capilano College in Vancouver, began losing his sight early enough in life that milestones such as… his first driving lesson and his first relationships with girls were anything but ordinary. Experiences in adulthood covered (often humorously) in this memoir include attending college in Vancouver, teaching English in South Korea, and getting married. Canada Reads 2012. 2006.
The failure of the Allied fleet to force a passage through the Straits of the Dardanelles in 1915 drove Winston… Churchill from office in disgrace and nearly destroyed his political career. For over a century, Churchill has been both praised and condemned for his role in launching this highly controversial campaign. For some, the Dardanelles offensive was a brilliant concept that might have dramatically shortened the First World War. To many others, however, Churchill was a reckless amateur who drove his unwilling and misinformed colleagues into a venture that was doomed to fail. 2017.
Conventional wisdom has World War I as an unstoppable juggernaut over which politicians had little control, but Stevenson reveals that… they deliberately took risks that led to war in July 1914, and remained very much in control during it. Far from being overwhelmed by the scale and brutality of the bloodshed, leaders such as Lloyd George, Clemenceau, and Bethmann-Hollweg were making conscious choices at every step of the war, including the continued acceptance of astronomical casualties. c2004.
Richard Moore was ten years old when he was shot by a British soldier, on his journey past an army… base on his way home from school. Here Richard Moore lends us his eyes as he shares his story, from his early years growing up on the Catholic working-class Creggan Estate in Derry, the second youngest of a family of twelve children. In it he describes the moment of grace that accompanied the realisation that he would never again see, where he accepted his fate instantly and without bitterness, and tells of wonderful childhood escapades, including 'endless cycles down Malin Gardens' guided by the voices of his friends. 2009.
This unique first-person account offers a window into the mind of a high-functioning, 27-year-old British autistic savant with Asperger's syndrome.… Tammet's ability to think abstractly, deviate from routine, and empathize, interact and communicate with others is impaired, yet he's capable of incredible feats of memorization and mental calculation. Besides being able to effortlessly multiply and divide huge sums in his head with the speed and accuracy of a computer, he learned Icelandic in a single week and recited the number pi up to the 22,514th digit. Tammet traces his life from a frustrating, withdrawn childhood and adolescence to his adult achievements. Bestseller. 2006.