Title search results
Showing 1 - 20 of 25 items
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Bestsellers (Non-fiction), Biography, Music biography, Canadian biography, Canadian non-fiction, Canadian authors (Non-fiction)
Takes us deep inside Gordon Lightfoot’s world, from his idyllic childhood in Orillia, the wild sixties, and his canoe trips… into Canada’s North to his heady times atop the music world. Jennings explores the toll that success took on his personal life - including his troubled relationships, his battle with alcohol and his near-death experiences - and the extraordinary drive and tenacity that pulled him through it all. Rich in voices from fellow musicians, close friends, Lightfoot’s family and the singer’s own reminiscences, the biography tells the stories behind some of his best-known love songs, including “Beautiful” and “Song for a Winter’s Night,” as well as the infidelity and divorce that resulted in classics like “Sundown” and “If You Could Read My Mind.” Bestseller. 2017.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Bestsellers (Non-fiction), Biography, Politics and government biography, Canadian biography, Canadian non-fiction, Canadian authors (Non-fiction)
October 2018 marks twenty-five years since Jean Chrétien took the helm as Prime Minister. In this collection of short essays,… he has picked up his pen to reminisce about his long years in the public eye, and the many luminaries he met and worked with. Readers will learn why his commonsense judgment continues to influence our lives to this day, in ways both profound and subtle: from forging long-lasting relationships with foreign countries to making it easy to identify our national airline when we travel. He recalls a memorable trip with the royal family to the Northwest Territories in 1970, and how Ross Perot tried to influence his views on free trade in 1992. Of course, many familiar names figure into these stories, including George W. Bush, Boris Yeltsin, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Pierre Trudeau, and Bill and Hillary Clinton. There are reflections on the many different posts over Chrétien's career, including becoming Canada's first-ever francophone finance minister. He pays tribute to old friends and colleagues, where the values of honour and dedication to public service transcend political views. He reserves his greatest admiration for his wife of more than sixty years, Aline, whom he calls his Rock of Gibraltar. Bestseller. 2018. Uniform title: Mes histoires.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted)
Biography, Family biography, Women biography, Canadian biography, Canadian authors (Non-fiction), Bestsellers (Non-fiction)
A young woman comes of age in a dysfunctional Asian family whose members blamed their woes on ghosts and demons… when in fact they should have been on anti-psychotic meds. Lindsay Wong grew up with a paranoid schizophrenic grandmother and a mother who was deeply afraid of the "woo-woo"-Chinese ghosts who come to visit in times of personal turmoil. From a young age, she witnessed the woo-woo's sinister effects; at the age of six, she found herself living in the food court of her suburban mall, which her mother saw as a safe haven because they could hide there from dead people, and on a camping trip, her mother tried to light Lindsay's foot on fire to rid her of the woo-woo. The eccentricities take a dark turn, however, when her aunt, suffering from a psychotic breakdown, holds the city of Vancouver hostage for eight hours when she threatens to jump off a bridge. And when Lindsay herself starts to experience symptoms of the woo-woo herself, she wonders whether she will suffer the same fate as her family. On one hand a witty and touching memoir about the Asian immigrant experience, and on the other a harrowing and honest depiction of the vagaries of mental illness, 'The Woo-Woo' is a gut-wrenching and beguiling manual for surviving family, and oneself. Bestseller. Canada Reads 2019. 2018.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Biography, War and military biography, Women biography, Canadian biography, Canadian authors (Non-fiction)
During the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Van wakes up one morning to find that her mother, her sisters Loan… and Lan, and her brother Tuan are gone. They have escaped the new communist regime that has taken over Ho Chi Minh City for freedom in the West. Four-year-old Van is too young--and her grandmother is too old--for such a dangerous journey by boat, so the two have been left behind. Once settled in North America, her parents will eventually be able to sponsor them, and Van and her grandmother will fly away to safety. But in the meantime, Van is forced to work hard to satisfy her aunt and uncle, who treat her like an unwelcome servant. And at school she must learn that calling attention to herself is a mistake, especially when the bully who has been tormenting her turns out to be the son of a military policeman. Grades 3-6. 2018.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Biography, Sports biography, Canadian biography, Canadian authors (Non-fiction)
On April 19, 1907, a hundred thousand people lined up to watch the eighth running of the Boston Marathon. At… the start of the race, more than one hundred runners surged forward, and at the end, Tom Longboat won it in an record-breaking four minutes, forty-six seconds. He became the most famous runner in the world, yet faced scrutiny and criticism of every part of his life, from his revolutionary training techniques to his Indigenous heritage. After the peak of his running career, Tom volunteered for military service in World War I. He survived, and faced further challenges upon his return. But Tom Longboat continued to live his life on his own terms, and his legacy as Canada's foremost distance runner continues to be recognized to this day. Grades K-3. 2019.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Biography, Sports biography, Canadian biography, Canadian authors (Non-fiction)
On April 19, 1907, a hundred thousand people lined up to watch the eighth running of the Boston Marathon. At… the start of the race, more than one hundred runners surged forward, and at the end, Tom Longboat won it in an record-breaking four minutes, forty-six seconds. He became the most famous runner in the world, yet faced scrutiny and criticism of every part of his life, from his revolutionary training techniques to his Indigenous heritage. After the peak of his running career, Tom volunteered for military service in World War I. He survived, and faced further challenges upon his return. But Tom Longboat continued to live his life on his own terms, and his legacy as Canada's foremost distance runner continues to be recognized to this day. Grades K-3. 2019.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted)
Biography, Science and medicine biography, Canadian biography, Canadian authors (Non-fiction)
Dr. Dave Williams shares the events that have defined his life, showing us that whether we're gravity-defying astronauts or earth-bound… terrestrials, we can all live an infinite, fulfilled life by relishing the value and importance of each moment. The greatest fear that we all face is not the fear of dying, but the fear of never having lived. Each of us is greater than we believe. And, together, we can exceed our limits to soar farther and higher than we ever imagined.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted)
Biography, Actors biography, Canadian biography, Canadian authors (Non-fiction)
What could be better than growing up in the 1980s? How about growing up in 1980s Newfoundland, which as Mark… Critch will tell you, was more like the 1960s. Critch takes us to where it all began in this tremendously funny and warm look back on his formative years. Growing up in a (very) small town wasn't easy, and Catholic school was a confusing setting that prompted many unexpected adventures. And when your father is the local radio personality, and your mother can't stop talking at all, life at home is always entertaining.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Biography, Family biography, Women biography, Canadian biography, Canadian authors (Non-fiction)
Bonnie, age four, along with four of her siblings, was taken from her home in rural Canada and placed with… the Children's Aid Society. Over the next fourteen years, the children are split up and reunited multiple times. By luck or providence, the four sisters spend the majority of their lives together working on a tobacco farm and living in an attic, where the stovepipe offers warmth, comfort, and news from the outside world. This is her testament to the resilience of the soul and the importance of family, friendship and fortitude.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Biography, Sports biography, Canadian biography, Canadian authors (Non-fiction), Bestsellers (Non-fiction)
Curtis Joseph, known affectionately to hockey fans around the world as Cujo, was an unlikely NHL superstar. The boy from… Sharon, Ontario, didn’t put on a pair of skates until most kids his age were already far along in organized hockey, and he was passed over by every team in the NHL draft. Despite an unorthodox start, he would go on to play eighteen seasons with the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Phoenix Coyotes and Calgary Flames; be ranked among the all-time greats in several key categories; and win an Olympic gold medal while representing Canada. Joseph is a legend in Toronto, where his fandom rivals that of other beloved Leaf greats, and he’s widely thought of as one of the best goalies of all time. Joseph talks about his highly unusual upbringing and what led him to put on his first pair of skates. He shares on- and off-the-ice tales no fan has heard before: the untold story behind the legend. Bestseller.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Biography, Travelogues, Journals and memoirs
A wildly hilarious and irreverent memoir of a globe-trotting life lived meal-to-meal by one of our most influential and respected… food critics As the son of a diplomat growing up in places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan, Adam Platt didn't have the chance to become a picky eater. Living, traveling, and eating in some of the most far-flung locations around the world, he developed an eclectic palate and a nuanced understanding of cultures and cuisines that led to some revelations which would prove important in his future career as a food critic. In Tokyo, for instance-"a kind of paradise for nose-to-tail cooking"-he learned that "if you're interested in telling a story, a hair-raisingly bad meal is much better than a good one." From dim sum in Hong Kong to giant platters of Peking duck in Beijing, fresh-baked croissants in Paris and pierogi on the snowy streets of Moscow, Platt takes us around the world, re-tracing the steps of a unique, and lifelong, culinary education. Providing a glimpse into a life that has intertwined food and travel in exciting and unexpected ways, The Book of Eating is a delightful and sumptuous trip that is also the culinary coming-of-age of a voracious eater and his eventual ascension to become, as he puts it, "a professional glutton."
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Actors biography, Biography
The award-winning film biographer presents a deeply-textured, ambitious, and definitive portrait of the greatest movie actor of the twentieth century,… the elusive Marlon Brando, bringing his extraordinarily complex life into view as never before. The most influential movie actor of his era, Marlon Brando changed the way other actors perceived their craft. His approach was natural, honest, and deeply personal, resulting in performances-most notably in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront-that are without parallel. Brando was heralded as the American Hamlet-the Yank who surpassed British stage royalty Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, and Ralph Richardson as the standard of greatness in the mid-twentieth century. Brando's impact on American culture matches his professional significance; he both challenged and codified our ideas of masculinity and sexuality. Brando was also one of the first stars to use his fame as a platform to address social, political, and moral issues, courageously calling out America's deeply rooted racism. William Mann's brilliant biography of the Hollywood legend illuminates this culture icon for a new age. Mann astutely argues that Brando was not only a great actor but also a cultural soothsayer, a Cassandra warning us about the challenges to come. Brando's admonitions against the monetization of nearly every aspect of the culture were prescient. His public protests against racial segregation and discrimination at the height of the Civil Rights movement-getting himself arrested at least once-were criticized as being needlessly provocative. Yet those actions of fifty years ago have become a model many actors follow today. Psychologically astute and masterfully researched, based on new and revelatory material, The Contender explores the star and the man in full, including the childhood traumas that reverberated through his professional and personal life. It is a dazzling biography of our nation's greatest actor that is sure to become an instant classic.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
General non-fiction, Biography, Journals and memoirs
In this inspirational and moving memoir-reminiscent of When Breath Becomes Air and The Bright Hour-activist Ady Barkan explores his life… with ALS and how his diagnosis gave him a profound new understanding of his commitment to social justice for all. Ady Barkan loved taking afternoon runs on the California coast and holding his newborn son, Carl. But one day, he noticed a troubling weakness in his hand. At first, he brushed it off as carpal tunnel syndrome, but after a week of neurological exams and two MRIs, he learned the cause of the problem: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. At age 32, Ady was given just three to four years to live. Yet despite the devastating diagnosis, he refused to let his remaining days go to waste. Eyes to the Wind is a rousing memoir featuring intertwining storylines about determination, perseverance, and how to live a life filled with purpose and intention. The first traces Ady's battle with ALS: how he turned the initial shock and panic from his diagnosis into a renewed commitment to social justice-not despite his disability but because of it. The second, told in flashbacks, illustrates Ady's journey from a goofy political nerd to a prominent figure in the enduring fight for equity and justice who is "willing to give [his] last breath to save our democracy" (CNN). From one of today's most vocal advocates for social justice, Eyes to the Wind is an evocative and unforgettable memoir about activism, dedication, love, and hope.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Politics and government biography, Biography, Journals and memoirs
From the leader of Canada's New Democratic Party-Jagmeet Singh-comes a personal and heartfelt story about family and overcoming adversity. In… October 2017, Jagmeet Singh was elected as the first visible minority to lead a major federal political party in Canada. The historic milestone was celebrated across the nation. About a month earlier, in the lead up to his election, Jagmeet held community meet-and-greets across Canada. At one such event, a disruptive heckler in the crowd hurled accusations at him. Jagmeet responded by calmly calling for all Canadians to act with "love and courage" in the face of hate. That response immediately went viral, and people across the country began asking, "Who is Jagmeet Singh? And why 'love and courage'?" This personal and heartfelt memoir is Jagmeet's answer to that question. In it, we are invited to walk with him through childhood to adulthood as he learns powerful, moving, and sometimes traumatic lessons about hardship, addiction, and the impact of not belonging. We meet his strong family, including his mother, who teaches him that "we are all one; we are all connected," a valuable lesson that has shaped who he is today. This story is not a political memoir. This is a story of family, love, and courage, and how strengthening the connection between us all is the way to building a better world.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Biography, Health and medicine, Self help
The Little Book of BIG LIES is a study in Self-care and freedom. It's the Life Skills class you never… had in school. You are the teacher and the student as you discover and squash the lies that lurk in the corners waiting to trip you up.shame, guilt, self-rejection, self-judgment, playing small, plus dozens of "sacred tortures" you know so well. Tina Lifford has served up 14 raw, personal stories to touch your core and help you navigate life's dramas, traumas, upsets, and disappointments. The stunningly honest stories read more like a novel than the roadmap to Inner Fitness they really are. As a working Hollywood actress for 20 years, Tina has managed to stay afloat in the choppy waters of Life because of her own Inner Fitness work and study. She shares her journey and Self-care practices with honesty and loving openness in these pages. This book is helpful if you are facing doubts and "forever" feelings. Do you feel like your dreams shall forever remain just dreams? Is there a challenge you just can't overcome? Are you always last on your list of priorities? How often does feeling not good enough show up in your life? These are thoughts that lie to us and The Little Book of BIG LIES uncovers them once and for all. It redefines human beings as innately Creative, Resilient, Empowered, Whole and Worthy (CREWW). Each story is a celebration and an invitation to fall in love with Self from this point forward. This is the powerful truth that awaits: When you know yourself, you are empowered. When you accept yourself, you are invincible. As a Hollywood actress, Tina Lifford has come into your home starring opposite such icons as Clint Eastwood, Sidney Poitier, Bruce Willis and Jennifer Lopez. Her characters have ranged from sweet and naive to strong and sometimes hard-hearted. Here in The Little Book of BIG LIES she comes with her heart wide-open.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Biography, Christianity, Journals and memoirs
In her own words, Cyntoia Brown shares the riveting and redemptive story of how she changed her life for the… better while in prison, finding hope through faith after a traumatic adolescence of drug addiction, rape, and sex trafficking led to a murder conviction. At the age of sixteen, Cyntoia Brown, a victim of sex trafficking, was arrested for killing a man who had picked her up for sex. Two years later, she was sentenced to life in prison. In these pages, written over the fifteen years she was incarcerated, Cyntoia shares her most intimate experiences as an inmate. A coming-of-age memoir set against the shocking backdrop of a life behind bars, Free Cyntoia takes you on a spiritual journey as Cyntoia struggles to overcome a legacy of family addiction and a lifetime of feeling ostracized and abandoned by society. Born to a teenage alcoholic mother who was also a victim of sex trafficking, Brown reflects on the isolation, low self-esteem, and sense of alienation that drove her straight into the hands of a predator. Though she attempts to build a positive path and honor the values her beloved adoptive mother taught her, Cyntoia succumbs to harmful influences that drive her to a cycle of promise and despair. After a fateful meeting with a prison educator turned mentor, Cyntoia makes the pivotal decision to take classes at Lipscomb University and strive for a better future, even if she's never freed. For the first time ever, Cyntoia shares the details of her transformation, including a profound encounter with God, an unlikely romance, and an unprecedented outpouring of support from social media advocates and A-list celebrities, which ultimately lead to clemency and her release from prison. Giving a rare look at the power of love, forgiveness, and self-discovery in the darkest of places, Free Cyntoia is a deeply personal portrait of one woman's journey for redemption within a system that had failed her from childhood.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Actors biography, Biography, Journals and memoirs
Famed American actress Demi Moore at last tells her own story in a surprisingly intimate and emotionally charged memoir. For… decades, Demi Moore has been synonymous with celebrity. From iconic film roles to high-profile relationships, Moore has never been far from the spotlight-or the headlines. Even as Demi was becoming the highest paid actress in Hollywood, however, she was always outrunning her past, just one step ahead of the doubts and insecurities that defined her childhood. Throughout her rise to fame and during some of the most pivotal moments of her life, Demi battled addiction, body image issues, and childhood trauma that would follow her for years-all while juggling a skyrocketing career and at times negative public perception. As her success grew, Demi found herself questioning if she belonged in Hollywood, if she was a good mother, a good actress-and, always, if she was simply good enough. As much as her story is about adversity, it is also about tremendous resilience. In this deeply candid and reflective memoir, Demi pulls back the curtain and opens up about her career and personal life-laying bare her tumultuous relationship with her mother, her marriages, her struggles balancing stardom with raising a family, and her journey toward open heartedness. Inside Out is a story of survival, success, and surrender-a wrenchingly honest portrayal of one woman's at once ordinary and iconic life.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Biography, Family and relationships, Journals and memoirs
With echoes of Just Mercy and An American Marriage, a remarkable memoir of a woman who falls in love with… an incarcerated man, and the toll prison takes not only on those behind bars, but on their families and relationships. Ebony's parents were high school sweethearts and married young. By the time Ebony was born, the marriage was disintegrating. The little girl witnessed her parents' brutal verbal and physical fights, fueled by her father's alcoholism. Then her father tried to kill his mother. At five, Ebony was sexually assaulted. When she tried to tell, her voice was not heard. Growing up, those experiences drastically affected the way Ebony viewed herself and set the pattern for her future romantic relationships. Despite being an intelligent, educated, and strong-minded woman, she was drawn to bad-boys: men who cheated; men who verbally abused her; men who disappointed her. Fed up, she cut off her hair and swore to wait for the partner God chose for her. Then she met Shaka Senghor. Though she felt an intense spiritual connection, Ebony struggled with the idea that this man behind bars for murder could be the good love God wanted for her. Through letters and visits, she and Shaka fell deeply in love. After he was released they had a son, and Shaka was embraced by Oprah Winfrey and wrote a New York Times bestselling memoir. Their lives had been transformed-the worst should have been behind them. But Shaka's release was the beginning of the end of their love story. Traumatized by having doors shut in his face, Shaka became depressed and emotionally detached. His struggles to adjust to freedom would irrevocably damage their relationship. The Love Prison Made is heartfelt and insightful. It reveals powerful lessons about love, sacrifice, courage, and forgiveness; of living your highest principles and learning not to judge someone by their worst acts. Ultimately, it is a stark reminder of the emotional cost of American justice on human lives-the partners, wives, children, and friends-beyond the prison walls.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Computers and internet, Biography, Politics and government
In this explosive memoir, a political consultant and technology whistleblower reveals the disturbing truth about the multi-billion-dollar data industry, revealing… to the public how companies are getting richer using our personal information and exposing how Cambridge Analytica exploited weaknesses in privacy laws to help elect Donald Trump-and how this could easily happen again in the 2020 presidential election. When Brittany Kaiser joined Cambridge Analytica-the UK-based political consulting firm funded by conservative billionaire and Donald Trump patron Robert Mercer-she was an idealistic young professional working on her fourth degree in human rights law and international relations. A veteran of Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, Kaiser's goal was to utilize data for humanitarian purposes, most notably to prevent genocide and human rights abuses. But her experience inside Cambridge Analytica opened her eyes to the tremendous risks that this unregulated industry poses to privacy and democracy. Targeted is Kaiser's eyewitness chronicle of the dramatic and disturbing story of the rise and fall of Cambridge Analytica. She reveals to the public how Facebook's lax policies and lack of sufficient national laws allowed voters to be manipulated in both Britain and the United States, where personal data was weaponized to spread fake news and racist messaging during the Brexit vote and the 2016 election. But the damage isn't done Kaiser warns; the 2020 election can be compromised as well if we continue to do nothing. In the aftermath of the U.S. election, as she became aware of the horrifying reality of what Cambridge Analytica had done in support of Donald Trump, Kaiser made the difficult choice to expose the truth. Risking her career, relationships, and personal safety, she told authorities about the data industry's unethical business practices, eventually testifying before Parliament about the company's Brexit efforts and helping Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, alongside at least 10 other international investigations. Packed with never-before-publicly-told stories and insights, Targeted goes inside the secretive meetings with Trump campaign personnel and details the promises Cambridge Analytica made to win. Throughout, Kaiser makes the case for regulation, arguing that legal oversight of the data industry is not only justifiable but essential to ensuring the long-term safety of our democracy.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Biography, Journals and memoirs
Edward Snowden, the man who risked everything to expose the US government's system of mass surveillance, reveals for the first… time the story of his life, including how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to try to bring it down. In 2013, 29-year-old Edward Snowden shocked the world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed that the United States government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every single phone call, text message, and email. The result would be an unprecedented system of mass surveillance with the ability to pry into the private lives of every person on earth. Six years later, Snowden reveals for the very first time how he helped to build this system and why he was moved to expose it. Spanning the bucolic Beltway suburbs of his childhood and the clandestine CIA and NSA postings of his adulthood, Permanent Record is the extraordinary account of a bright young man who grew up online - a man who became a spy, a whistleblower, and, in exile, the internet's conscience. Written with wit, grace, passion, and an unflinching candor, Permanent Record is a crucial memoir of our digital age and destined to be a classic.