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Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism (A List)
by James LaxerThe remarkable memoir of growing up in a communist family at the height of the Cold War, by the late historian, public intellectual, and political activist, James Laxer. Originally published in 2004, Red Diaper Baby is James Laxer’s extraordinary memoir of growing up in a communist family during the height of the Cold War. When Jim was born his father was in hiding under an assumed name. When it came time to begin school, Jim was enrolled under a false birth date. Throughout his childhood he was repeatedly instructed to tell noone what his father did for work.Laxer’s parents were members of the Communist Party, true believers in an ideology generally reviled and outlawed during much of World War II. From an early age, Laxer was collecting signatures on ban-the-bomb petitions, delivering Party flyers door to door, attending eccentric left-wing Camp Naivelt, and campaigning for the charismatic J. B. Salsberg, a Communist MPP in the Ontario legislature.Dramatic, humorous, and full of period detail, Red Diaper Baby offers a rare look at the McCarthy years through the eyes of a child. It also explains a great deal about Laxer’’s crucial role in the founding of the Waffle faction of the NDP, his continued engagement with the left, and his evolution into one of Canada’’s preeminent intellectuals.
Red Land, Yellow River
by Ange ZhangThe amazing, dramatic, and painful autobiographical story of Ange Zhang as he came of age during the Cultural Revolution in China. When Mao’s Cultural Revolution took hold in China in June 1966, Ange Zhang was thirteen years old. His father was a famous writer. Shortly after the revolution began, many of Ange’s classmates joined the Red Guard, Mao’s youth movement, and they drove their teachers out of the classrooms. But in the weeks that followed, Ange discovered that his father’s fame as a writer now meant that he was a target of the new regime. When his father was arrested, he began to question everything that was happening in his country. Finally, Ange was forced to join many other young urban Chinese students in the countryside for re-education where he found the emotional space to develop his own artistic talent and to find that he, like his father, was an artist — except that Ange’s talent lay in painting and drawing. This dramatic, painful autobiographical story is complemented by photographs, many drawn from Ange’s personal collection, as well as a non-fiction section that explains the historical period and is also illustrated with archival images. Key Text Features author’s note glossary Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.6 Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.7 Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.
The Regiment
by Farley Mowat Lee WindsorThe story of an astonishing band of Canadian soldiers and their part in the Allied victory in Italy. The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment (the Hasty Ps) was Canada’s most decorated regiment in the Second World War, winning thirty-one battle honours. Famed for their role in the Allied invasion of Sicily and the conquest of Italy, for six years the members of the regiment suffered brutal conditions, fighting bravely in the face of fierce opposition from the enemy, and ultimately triumphing. In The Regiment (originally published in 1955), Farley Mowat, famed Canadian fiction writer and regiment member, tells the story of the Hasty Ps, from their recruitment in September 1939 until the end of the war. Mowat was a second lieutenant and platoon leader with the regiment, and writes movingly of the great suffering his fellow soldiers endured, their bravery in battle, and the lasting friendships he forged as a member of the group.
Reluctant Pioneer: How I Survived Five Years in the Canadian Bush
by Thomas Osborne Roy MacgregorThomas Osborne delivers a gripping account of 1870s Ontario pioneer life. The view 16-year-old Thomas Osborne first had of Muskoka was at night, trudging alone with his even younger brother along unmarked primitive roads to find their luckless father who, in 1875, had decided to make a new start for his beleaguered family on some "free land" in the bush east of the pioneer village of Huntsville, Ontario. The miracle is that Thomas lived to tell the tale.For the next five years Thomas endured starvation, falling through the ice and freezing, accidents with axes and boats, and narrow escapes from wolves and bears. Many years later, after returning to the United States, Osborne wrote down all his adventures in a graphic memoir that has become, in the words of author and journalist Roy MacGregor, "an undiscovered Canadian classic."Reluctant Pioneer provides a brooding sense of adventure and un- sentimental realism to deliver a powerful account of pioneer life where tragedies arrive as naturally as rain and where humour resides in irony.
Remembering Lucy Maud Montgomery
by Alexandra HeilbronLucy Maud Montgomery, Canada’s most beloved author, not only gave the world the classic novel Anne of Green Gables, but she was also a devoted minister’s wife, mother, neighbour, and friend to many, who in turn were honoured to have know this great lady. In Remembering Lucy Maud Montgomery, the writer is remembered through first-hand reminiscences of the people who knew her. Her Sunday school students, neighbours, maids, family, and friends paint a portrait of Montgomery as she has never before been seen. Not only does this book uncover fascinating sides of the author and provide fresh anecdotes, but it includes many photographs that are published for the first time. Even Montgomery’s most devoted fans will find stories to surprise, delight, and at times even shock them.
René Angelil: The Unauthorized Biography
by Jean Beaunoyer Jean BeaulneFor almost twelve years, Jean Beaulne was a member of the Baronets "the Beatles of Quebec" along with René Angélil. In this book, he has collaborated with writer and journalist Jean Beaunoyer to tell the untold story of René Angélil and Céline Dion. Previously unknown details of René Angélil’s personal and professional life are revealed in this unprecedented investigation into the man who orchestrated one of the foremost successes in the history of show business.
René Lévesque: Charismatic Leader
by Marguerite Paulin Jonathan KaplanskyRené Lévesque entered provincial politics in 1960 when Jean Lesage persuaded him to join his Liberal dream team. In 1968 he founded the Parti Québécois (PQ). Under the PQ banner, Lévesque served as premier from 1976 to 1985.
Research and Reform: W.P. Thompson at the University of Saskatchewan
by Richard A. RempelThe first biologist to establish the study of genetics in a Canadian university, W.P. Thompson was a passionate advocate of science education whose impact extended far beyond his home province of Saskatchewan. In Research and Reform, Richard Rempel brings to light the life, times, and legacy of a brilliant and influential geneticist. Born and raised in rural Ontario, Thompson's thirst for knowledge took him from a largely self-educated youth to undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Toronto and Harvard, respectively, culminating in a successful career in the field of cytogenetics. The discoveries Thompson made working with wheat chromosomes spread across the country and brought him considerable renown within the scientific community. Research and Reform documents Thompson's revolutionary attempts to create a wheat hybrid resistant to fungal leaf rust - efforts supported by the Winnipeg Rust Laboratory, the National Research Council, and the Federal Department of Agriculture. Rempel also documents the sweeping curriculum reforms Thompson introduced to the University of Saskatchewan, first as dean of arts and sciences and later as president. Thompson's presidency demonstrated for the first time the depth of the constructive and cordial relationship that existed between Tommy Douglas's Cooperative Commonwealth Federation government and the university. Shedding light on Thompson's later years, Rempel describes how he became a key figure in the planning and establishment of Saskatchewan's 1962 Medicare legislation. An invaluable addition to the history of science and medicine in Canada, Research and Reform restores a Canadian scientist and educator to his rightful place in history.
Research Is a Passion With Me: The Autobiography of a Bird Lover
by Margaret Morse Nice Konrad LorenzIn her incredibly productive lifetime (1883-1974), American-born ornithologist Margaret Morse Nice earned the admiration of ornithologists and naturalists in far distant lands. Research Is a Passion With Me is an enthralling autobiography of one of the great individuals in her field and of her time. The prominent California nature writer, Donald Peattie, in commenting on Margaret Nice’s writing ability, stated: "Your art of telling is so good that it conceals how good the science is." And Professor Ernst Mayer of Harvard University said: "Margaret Nice was a remarkable person and only those who know the state of American ornithology when she started her work will appreciate her contribution." "An extraordinary bird watcher. Every summer she and her husband would gather the girls, pack their old car with camping gear, and head off into the wilds to look for new birds. This eccentric way of living was unusual in the early 1920s, but even their youngest daughter adjusted to it. Their older girls shinnied up trees to observe nests and helped in housekeeping tasks around the campsite."- Marcia Bonta, Bird Watcher’s Digest
Resilience Is Futile: The Life and Death and Life of Julie S. Lalonde
by Julie S. LalondeFor over a decade, Julie Lalonde, an award-winning advocate for women’s rights, kept a secret. She crisscrossed the country, denouncing violence against women and giving hundreds of media interviews along the way. Her work made national headlines for challenging universities and taking on Canada’s top military brass. Appearing fearless on the surface, Julie met every interview and event with the same fear in her gut: was he there? Fleeing intimate partner violence at age 20, Julie was stalked by her ex-partner for over ten years, rarely mentioning it to friends, let alone addressing it publicly. The contrast between her public career as a brave champion for women with her own private life of violence and fear meant a shaky and exhausting balancing act. Resilience sounds like a positive thing, so why do we often use it against women? Tenacity and bravery might help us survive unimaginable horrors, but where are the spaces for anger and vulnerability? Resilience is Futile is a story of survival, courage and ultimately, hope. But it’s also a challenge to the ways we understand trauma and resilience. It’s the story of one survivor who won’t give up and refuses to shut up.
Revisiting "Our Forest Home": The Immigrant Letters of Frances Stewart
by Jodi Lee AokiFrances Stewart arrived in Upper Canada from Ireland in 1822 with her husband, three children, and two servants. The family settled in Douro Township on the bank of the Otonabee River in 1823. Spanning three-quarters of a century, her letters represent the immigrant experience of one of the first pioneer women in the Peterborough, Ontario, area. Included are transcripts of the extant collection. They chronicle the three stages of Francess life: the years of her childhood in Ireland to her departure for North America; her voyage across the Atlantic and her life in Upper Canada to the time of her husbands death in 1847; and the period of widowhood until her death in 1872. The chapter summaries, annotations, and key passages extracted from letters written by others further the story of Francess nineteenth-century immigrant life. Advance Praise for Revisiting Our Forest Home Presenting the perspective of a cultivated immigrant who refrained from publication, Frances Stewarts articulate letters to her family and friends nicely complement the narratives of her Peterborough neighbours, Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill. Jodi Aokis intelligent approach to the editorial complexities of the Stewart archive has given us a reliable and welcome volume that makes an important contribution to our understanding of womens lives on the Upper-Canadian frontier. Carole Gerson, University Professor, English Department, Simon Fraser University Revisiting Our Forest Home is a welcome addition to the scholarly record of nineteenth-century writing and letters by immigrant gentlewomen to Upper Canada. To have this well-edited and thoughtful record of Stewarts struggles available is a boon to scholars, old and new. With precision and tenderness, Jodi Aoki brings forward these important and culturally revealing letters. In her hands, the original Our Forest Home, initially a project meant only for family members, becomes a valuable and much fuller record of social and family life in early Ontario. Michael Peterman, Professor Emeritus, Trent University, FRSC
Rick: The Rick Hansen Story
by Dennis FoonFifteen-year-old Rick Hansen is confident, outgoing, and the star of his high-school basketball team. He has his whole life planned out, until a tragic accident severs his spinal cord, leaving him in a wheelchair. Rick's accident forces him to adapt his positivity to deal with his new life, while helping to strengthen the relationship with his guilt-stricken best friend. Refusing to be put at a disadvantage, Rick conquers the challenges presented to him with a smile and changes the definition of what it means to be disabled. Based on the true story of the man who inspired millions with his Man In Motion World Tour, Rick is a triumphant play that showcases the importance of optimism and perseverance, encouraging audiences to make their own paths to change the world.
Righting Wrongs: The Story of Norman Bethune
by John WilsonShort-listed for the 2002 Canadian Children’s Book Centre Norma Fleck Award <P><P>Norman Bethune was a doctor who devoted his life to helping others and whose story is a remarkable one, cut short by his early death in China in 1938. <P><P>This biography in our Stories of Canada series traces his life from his childhood spent moving around Ontario as a preacher’s son to his experiences in the First World War and his crusades to find a cure for tuberculosis and to promote health care in Canada. <P><P>But Bethune is most famous for the time he spent fighting Fascism through his profession of healing in Spain and China during the late 1930s. His story inspires us to believe that we can change the world through our actions.
Ringing the Changes: An Autobiography
by Mazo De La Roche Heather Kirk Michael GnarowskiFirst published in 1957, Mazo de la Roche’s last autobiography is a vivid look at her life in Ontario, and a parting shot at her critics. Mazo de la Roche was once Canada’s best-known writer, loved by millions of readers around the world. Her Jalna series is filled with unforgettable characters who come to life for her readers, but she herself was secretive about her own life and tried to escape the public attention fame brought. In this memoir, de la Roche describes her childhood and her relationship with her cousin and life-long companion, Caroline Clement. She confesses her personal connection with her troubled character Finch Whiteoak and details her romantic struggles. Ringing the Changes is the closest view we have of Mazo de la Roche’s innermost thoughts and the private life she usually kept hidden.
The Rivers North of the Future: The Testament Of Ivan Illich
by David CayleyIn The Rivers North of the Future David Cayley has compiled Ivan Illich's moving and insightful thoughts concerning the fate of the Christian Gospel. Illich's view, which could be summed up as the corruption of the best is the worst, is that Jesus' call to love more abundantly became the basis for new forms of power in the hands of those who organized and administered this New Testament. Illich also explores the invention of technology, the road from hospitality to the hospital, the criminalization of sin, the church as the template of the modern state, and the death of nature. Illich's analysis of contemporary society as a congealed and corrupted Christianity is both a bold historical hypothesis and a call to believers to re-invent the Christian church. With a foreword by Charles Taylor. Ivan Illich (1926-2002) was a brilliant polymath, an iconoclastic thinker, and a prolific writer. He was a priest, vice-rector of a university, founder of the Centre for Intercultural Documentation in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and author of numerous books, including Deschooling Society, Tools for Conviviality, Energy and Equity, and Medical Nemesis.
Robertson Davies: Magician of Words
by Nicholas MaesBorn in Thamesville, Ontario, a student at Queen’s University in Kingston in the 1930’s, and editor and later publisher of the Peterborough Examiner from the 1940s to the mid-1960s, playwright, essayist, critic, professor, and novelist Robertson Davies (1913-1995) was one of Canada’s pre-eminent literary voices for more than a half-century. Davies, with his generous beard and donnish manner, was the very epitome of the "man of letters," a term he abhorred. Best known for his Deptford Trilogy of novels (Fifth Business, The Manticore, World of Wonders), he also wrote two other trilogies (Salterton and Cornish) and was at work on the third volume of another trilogy (Toronto) when he died. With a life as rich in character and colour as that found in his fiction and essays, Davies had a great fondness for magic and myth, both of which are found in abundance in his work, along with a prodigious streak of wry humour.
Rocke Robertson: Surgeon and Shepherd of Change
by Richard W. PoundRocke Robertson (1912 - 1998) was a McGill-trained surgeon who served at the front lines in the Sicilian and Italian campaigns in World War II. His post-war experience took him to the top of the medical profession and appointments as chief of the Department of Surgery at McGill and surgeon-in-chief at the Montreal General Hospital. In 1962 Robertson was named principal of McGill University, a position he held for eight years during one of the most unsettling periods in the university's history. Apart from the usual demanding job of running the university, Robertson was forced to deal with political upheaval, student unrest and revolt, and defending the rights of the English-speaking minority in Quebec. While all around him university leaders cracked under the pressures, Robertson persisted until workable governance solutions were put in place at McGill. Rocke Robertson: Surgeon and Shepherd of Change is a compelling portrait of a remarkable man who handled the greatest challenge of his career - running a primarily English-speaking university in Quebec during the Quiet Revolution - with courage, wisdom, and success.
Routines and Orgies: The Life of Peter Cundill, Financial Genius, Philosopher, and Philanthropist
by Christopher Risso-GillPeter Cundill (1938-2011) was highly regarded as one of the greatest value investors of his time, but he was also a teacher and mentor who was generous with his knowledge and shared the wealth of his experience with many aspiring investors. He was taken with Aldous Huxley's words that the "rhythm of human life is routine punctuated by orgies," and spent his life shaking off the quotidian tasks that dulled thought and striving for the excitement of new experiences. Supported by four decades of Cundill's meticulously kept daily journals, which are intimate, frank, self-admonishing, and confessional, Routines and Orgies covers all aspects of what Cundill referred to as his "wonderful life" - commercial, artistic, romantic, and adventurous. As he would have wished, the exposure of his investment approach has been carefully continued in this biography by close friend and confidant Christopher Risso-Gill, who initially explored Cundill's professional life in There's Always Something to Do. Routines and Orgies acquaints the reader with a generous and complex man. Spanning over seventy years, and covering most corners of the globe, it is a tale of hard-won professional development and extraordinary challenges faced and survived. Although not meant to be an investment manual, those seeking perspective from an expert mind in finance will find a great deal in its pages.
Rowallan: The Autobiography of Lord Rowallan
by Lord K.T. RowallanIn his eightieth year, Lord Rowallan has finally completed this autobiography. This is a book both moving and modest. He shares with us his joys and sorrows alike, keeping nothing back, yet never causing us embarrassment. He has inspired many people, especially the young, by his life, his unswerving standards, and his indomitable faith; and this, his testament, will surely do the same.
Royal Tours 1786-2010: Home to Canada
by Arthur Bousfield Garry ToffoliRoyal Tours 17862010 is a penetrating look at the tours of 11 royals who were or would be monarchs, viceroys, and commanders-in-chief of Canada. Leaving California in 1983 to tour British Columbia, Queen Elizabeth II said she was going home to Canada. Since its pioneer days, the Royal Family has made the country home through tours of public service, naval and military duty, and residence. Beautifully illustrated, featuring photos from the June/July 2010 tour of the queen, Royal Tours 17862010 is a captivating look at how these tours shaped Canada and the royals themselves, with an eye for the significant, interesting, and humorous. Included are the young naval captain who became King William IV, the long Canadian residences of Queen Victorias father and daughter, those who would be kings and governors general, the triumph of the first reigning monarchs tour, and the current queens six decades of regular presence.
Royals in Canada 5-Book Bundle: Royal Tours / Fifty Years the Queen / Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother / and 2 more
by Arthur Bousfield Garry ToffoliDiscover the Royal Family as they “go home to Canada.” Collected together are five must-have books on the Royal Family’s relationship with Canada, their tours, and a Canadian perspective on their biographies. Includes: Royal Tours 1786–2010 Fifty Years the Queen Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother 1900–2002 Royal Observations Royal Spring
Running The Rapids: A Writer's Life
by Kildare DobbsPoet, travel writer, teacher, quiz-show presenter, broadcaster, adventurer - Kildare Dobbs has played many parts, met many people, and been many places. His life journey, marked by frequent diversions and detours, reflects the exuberant eclecticism of the man himself. In Kildare Dobbs: A Writer’s Life, Dobbs takes us from a gas-lit big-house childhood in 1930s Tipperary, to college days at Cambridge, to commando training and naval service in the Second World War. After a stint as a colonial administrator in Tanganyika, he moved to Canada in 1952, where he became variously an editor at Macmillan, managing editor of Saturday Night magazine, and literary editor of the Toronto Star. This is a self-portrait of a fascinating man of letters driven by a hunger for adventure.
The Running-Shaped Hole
by Robert Earl StewartA searching, self-deprecating memoir of a man on his way to eating himself to death before discovering the anxiety and fulfillment of distance running.“Uplifting, emotional, and just plain hilarious, The Running-Shaped Hole may even inspire you to put down your fork and pick up those running shoes.” — JAY ONRAIT, TSN host and broadcasterWhen Robert Earl Stewart sees his pants lying across the end of his bed, they remind him of a flag draped over a coffin — his coffin. At thirty-eight years old he weighs 368 pounds and is slowly eating himself to death. The only thing that helps him deal with the fear and shame is eating. But one day, following a terrifying doctor’s appointment, he goes for a walk — an act that sets The Running-Shaped Hole in motion. Within a year, he is running long distances, fulfilling his mother's dying wishes, reversing the disastrous course of his eating, losing 140 pounds, and, after several mishaps and jail time, eventually running the Detroit Free Press Half-Marathon.At turns philosophical and slapstick, this memoir examines the life-altering effects running has on a man who, left to his own devices, struggles to be a husband, a father, a son, and a writer.
Running With Dillinger: The Story of Red Hamilton and Other Forgotten Canadian Outlaws
by Edward ButtsThis book picks up where The Desperate Ones: Canada’s Forgotten Outlaws left off. Here are more remarkable true stories about Canadian crimes and criminals — most of them tales that have been buried for years. The stories begin in colonial Newfoundland, with robbery and murder committed by the notorious Power Gang. As readers travel across the country and through time, they will meet the last two men to be hanged in Prince Edward Island, smugglers who made lake Champlain a battleground, a counterfeiter whose bills were so good they fooled even bank managers, and teenage girls who committed murder in their escape from jail. They will meet the bandits who plundered banks and trains in Eastern Canada and the West, and even the United States. Among them were Same Behan, a robber whose harrowing testimony about the brutal conditions in the Kingston Penitentiary may have brought about his untimely death in "The Hole"; and John "Red" Hamilton, the Canadian-born member of the legendary Dillinger gang.
Ryszard Kapuściński: Biography of a Writer
by Beata Nowacka Zygmunt ZiątekAn award-winning writer and a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, Ryszard Kapuściński (1932–2007) was a celebrated Polish journalist and author. Praised for the lengths to which he would go to get a story, Kapuściński gained an extraordinary knowledge of the major global events of the second half of the twentieth century and shared it with his diverse audience.The first posthumous monograph on the writer’s life and work, Ryszard Kapuściński confronts the mixed reception of Kapuściński’s tendency to merge the conventions of reportage with the artistry of literature. Beata Nowacka and Zygmunt Ziątek discuss the writer’s accounts of the decolonization of Africa and his work in Asia and South America between 1956 and 1981, a period during which Kapuściński reported on twenty-seven revolutions and coups. They argue that the journalistic tradition is not in conflict with Kapuściński’s meditations on the deep meanings of these events, and that his first-person involvement in his text was not an indulgence detracting from his journalistic adventures but a well-thought-out conception of eyewitness testimony, developing the moral and philosophical message of the stories. Exploring the whole of Kapuściński’s achievements, Nowacka and Ziątek identify a constant tension between a strictly journalistic position and what in Poland is called literary reportage, located on the border between journalism and artistic prose. Kapuściński’s desire and dedication to make more of journalistic writing is the driving force behind the excellence and readability that have made his legendary books so controversial – and so widely celebrated.