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The Road Years: A Memoir, Continued . . .
By Rick Mercer. 2023
THE INSTANT #1 BESTSELLERRick Mercer is back—again!—with the eagerly awaited sequel to his bestselling memoirAt the end of his memoir…
Talking to Canadians, Rick Mercer was poised to make the biggest leap yet in his extraordinary career. Having overcome a serious lack of promise as a schoolboy and risen through the showbiz ranks—as an aspiring actor, star of a surprisingly successful one-man show about the Meech Lake Accord, co-founder of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, creator and star of the dark-comedy sitcom Made in Canada—he was about to tackle his biggest opportunity yet. The Road Years picks up the story at that exciting point, with the greenlighting of what would become Rick Mercer Report. Plans for the show, of course, included political satire and Rick’s patented rants. But Rick and his partner, Gerald Lunz, were also determined to do something that comedy tends to avoid as too challenging: they would emphasize the positive. Rick would travel from coast to coast to coast in search of everything that’s best about Canada, especially its people. He found a lot to celebrate, naturally, and was rewarded with a huge audience and a run of 15 seasons. The Road Years tells the inside story of that stupendous success. A time when Rick was heading to another town—or military base, sports centre, national park—to try dogsledding, chainsaw carving, and bear tagging; hang from a harness (a lot); ride the “Train of Death;” plus countless other joyous and/or reckless assignments. Added to the mix were encounters with the country’s great. Every living prime minister. Rock and roll royalty from Rush to Randy Bachman. Olympians and Paralympians. A skinny-dipping Bob Rae. And Jann Arden, of course, who gets a chapter to herself. Along the way he even found the time to visit several countries in Africa and co-found and champion the charity Spread the Net, which has gone on to protect the lives of millions. Join the celebration, and revive a wealth of happy memories, with what is Rick Mercer’s funniest, most fascinating book yet.Undisputed: A Champion's Life
By Donovan Bailey. 2023
A memoir of Olympic glory, the value of mentorship and the courage to champion your own excellence, from the long-reigning…
world's fastest man, Canadian sprinting legend Donovan Bailey.From the lush fields of his boyhood in Jamaica, to the basketball courts of Oakville, where he came of age in one of Canada’s most thriving cultural mosaics, to his sprint toward double Olympic gold for Canada in Atlanta in 1996, Donovan Bailey got a long way on natural talent. But he also learned that in the bureaucratic world of Canadian sports, an athlete who didn't come up in the system needed to take charge of his fate if he was going to become the world’s best. As he ascended from outsider to dominant athlete, others didn’t always understand the rigour at work behind Bailey’s confident demeanour. He’d learned from watching Muhammad Ali that a champion needed to act like a champion. But media grew fixated on the sprinter’s immodesty, the likes of which they never saw from Canadian athletes, especially track athletes in the wake of the Ben Johnson doping scandal at Seoul in 1988. Bailey was having none of it, and when he called out Canada's subtle racism and contradicted the prevailing idea most Canadians had of their country, he left in his wake a media uproar and cracked wide open the nation’s moral complacency. In addition to his unforgettable 100-metre and 4x100 relay gold-medal sprints in Atlanta, Bailey's track career was a litany of records and rare accomplishments, including his audacious 1997 race in Toronto's SkyDome against American 200-metre Olympic champion Michael Johnson to determine who was really the world’s fastest man. There was no disputing the result. Bailey had been coached in success before he was seriously coached in athletics. Following the lead of his father, a machinist-turned-real estate investor, Bailey became a millionaire by the age of 21, an experience he continues to draw on as an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Frank about his dominance on the track and unapologetic for expecting as much of those around him as he expects of himself, Undisputed is an athlete's story that refuses to settle for second best.The Utility of Boredom: Baseball Essays
By Andrew Forbes. 2016
Spitball literary essays on the off-kilter joys, sorrows and wonder of North America’s national pastime. A collection of essays for…
ardent seamheads and casual baseball fans alike, The Utility of Boredom is a book about finding respite and comfort in the order, traditions, and rituals of baseball. It’s a sport that shows us what a human being might be capable of, with extreme dedication—whether we’re eating hot dogs in the stands, waiting out a rain delay in our living rooms, or practising the lost art of catching a stray radio signal from an out-of-market broadcast. From learning about America through ball-diamond visits to the most famous triple play that never happened on Canadian soil, Forbes invites us to witness the adult conversing with the O-Pee-Chee baseball cards of his youth. Tender, insightful, and with the slow heartbreak familiar to anyone who’s cheered on a losing team, The Utility of Boredom tells us a thing or two about the sport, and how a seemingly trivial game might help us make sense of our messy lives.Veteran National Public Radio correspondent Anne Garrels, embedded with the U.S. military forces in Baghdad, chronicles her observations before and…
during the 2003 second Gulf War. Includes e-mails that her husband, Vint Lawrence, sent while she was gone and describes hardships endured by her Iraqi driver, Amer.Veterans recall experiences of battle from World War I to the war in Iraq. Soldiers' letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral…
histories provide personal accounts of D-Day, the Tet offensive, heroic actions, and sinking ships. Includes an interview with Senator John McCain about his captivity in Vietnam. 2005Sinister touches: the secret war against Hitler
By Robert Goldston. 1982
A dramatic account of the daring covert operations carried out by scientists, private citizens, professors, and assassins who risked their…
lives for an allied victory. This compelling and well-documented report penetrates the veils of secrecy that have shrouded some of the most important activities of World War II. For junior and senior high and adult readersThe secret that exploded
By Howard Morland. 1981
The author tells the true story of his investigation of the nuclear weapons industry, the inner workings of the H-bomb,…
and the U.S. government's unsuccessful attempt to suppress his discoveries. Morland, a former Air Force pilot, is devoutly anti-nuclear and very forthright about his positionLooking the tiger in the eye: confronting the nuclear threat
By Carl Feldbaum. 1988
The authors emphasize the important roles of individual scientists, politicians, and military officials in the nuclear arms race. They trace…
the history of nuclear weapons as a series of deliberate decisions.... They explain the circumstances of these decisions through extensive quotation and paraphrasing of historical documents and memoirs. For high school and older readersThe longest day: June 6, 1944
By Cornelius Ryan. 1959
A reconstruction of the D-Day invasion of Europe, covering the hours before and after the massive landing in Normandy. The…
author depicts the Nazi enemy the Allied forces fought and the civilians who were caught in the epic battle that would determine the course of fascism. BestsellerAftermath: the remnants of war
By Donovan Webster. 1996
Depicts the enduring, harmful remains of twentieth-century wars, including unexploded mines and artillery shells, radioactive soil and water, and bomb-ravaged…
landscapes. Assesses inventor Alfred Nobel's dynamite and other efficient explosives for their role in amplifying the devastation of modern warfareThe last battle
By Cornelius Ryan. 1966
Recounts the last three weeks of the war against Germany in April 1945 from the viewpoint of the Allied and…
German Armies locked in battle and of individual soldiers and civilians who survived the final horrors of the siege and fall of Berlin. Companion to A Bridge Too Far (RC 44181, BR 10974)A bridge too far
By Cornelius Ryan. 1974
Recounts the 1944 battle of Arnhem and the daring Allied airborne assault on Nazi-occupied Holland. The attack, which was intended…
to capture a crucial bridge and end the war early, resulted in heavy losses and a defeat for the Allies. Companion to The Longest Day (BR 09765). ViolenceBlood rites: origins and history of the passions of war
By Barbara Ehrenreich. 1997
The author theorizes that the origin of human propensity for war is linked to the fear that the earliest people…
had of predators in the wild, rather than an innate aggressivenessFirst-hand accounts by communications intelligence practitioners in the Southwest Pacific theater during World War II. Tells how the breaking of…
enemy codes aided in the timing and planning of Allied campaigns and "shortened the ground war in the Pacific."My Louisiana sky (Major And Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide To Ser.)
By Kimberly Holt. 1998
Louisiana, 1950s. Twelve-year-old Tiger Ann Parker begins to feel embarrassed in front of the other kids about the "slowness" of…
her parents. Her grandmother is the one who keeps the family intact. After Granny dies, Tiger has a chance to move to the city with her sophisticated aunt, but she is reluctant to abandon the parents who love her. For grades 6-9Reminiscences (A Da Capo paperback)
By Douglas MacArthur. 1964
Memoirs of the twentieth-century American combat general whose fifty-year career brought him both glory and condemnation. His service spanned the…
administrations of eight presidents and provides a view of military history in this centuryOnce there was a war
By John Steinbeck. 1958
Collection of the novelist's realistic, hard-hitting dispatches from the front lines in World War II. Depicts the humor and tragedy…
of war, and the fear and courage of men and women in combatGreen hills of Africa (Scribner classics)
By Ernest Hemingway. 1998
Twenty-four excerpts from fiction and nonfiction, describing instances of heroism and bravery. Includes writings by Bruce Catton, Michael Shaara, and…
Stephen Crane on the American Civil War, Ernie Pyle on World War II, and Leo Tolstoy on Napoleon. Some violence and some strong language. 2001