Book picks similar to
Kindling Spirit: Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables (Canadian Fiction Studies series) by Elizabeth Hillman Waterston
biography-autobiography-memoir
canada
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The Lonely End of the Rink: Confessions of a Reluctant Goalie
Grant Lawrence - 2013
Grant, his parents, Bobby Orr and the rest of the Canadian hockey team were ontheir way to Game Three of the famous Summit Series -- seven games played between Russia and Canada in 1972, during the height of the Cold War. It was at this point -- at the age of one -- that Grant's life-long entanglement with hockey began.In this deeply personal, yet incredibly witty memoir about Grant's relationship with hockey, the narrative passes back and forth between tales of Grant's life and a fascinating history of hockey, complete with lively anecdotes about the many colourful characters of the NHL. Through Grant's early life, he struggled with the idea of hockey. He was an undersized child who wore thick glasses and knee-braces, and he understood, first-hand, what it was like to be in the attack zone of the hockey-obsessed jocks at his school. For Grant, bullying and the violent game of hockey seemed to go hand-in-hand. Yet he was also enamoured with the sport, and eventually learned that playing goalie on a hockey team isn’t all that different from playing in a band and that artistically-minded wimps find just as much joy in the game as their meathead counterparts.In
The Lonely End of the Rink
, Grant Lawrence brings the allure of hockey into a zone where it can impress upon the nerds and geeks as well as the jocks. Grant is a highly original writer, and with this book, he tells a quintessentially Canadian story about the nation’s favourite sport.
Princess Alice: Countess of Athlone
Theo Aronson - 1981
Princess Alice was the daughter of Queen Victoria's youngest son Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. She grew up under the watchful eye of Queen Victoria and in 1904 married Prince Alexander of Teck, afterwards known as the Earl of Athlone, Queen Mary's brother. Renowned for her beauty, elegance and vivacity, she was for the remainder of her long life one of the most popular and energetic members of the Royal Family. In 1923 Lord Athlone was appointed Governor General of South Africa and his wife was at his side through some of that country's most turbulent years. When he was appointed Governor General of Canada during the Second World War, Princess Alice won the hearts of Canadians as well. For many years she was Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and until her death in 1981 at the age of 97 she remained lively and interested in a great variety of social and cultural events.
Boy Wonders: A Memoir
Cathal Kelly - 2018
How did that day you've forgotten look? What did it feel like? Were you lonely? Did you have the sense you were progressing anywhere? Probably not. Yet string a few thousand of them together and that's a life. --From Boy WondersCathal Kelly grew up in the seventies and eighties, decades when dressing like Michael Jackson seemed like a good idea and The Beachcombers--an adventure show about logging--seemed to make sense. But apart from fashion missteps and baffling TV plotlines, Kelly's youth was a time of wonder, obsession and discovery. Navigating an often fraught family life, Kelly sought refuge in books, music, movies, games and at least one backyard hole. However, looking back he sees that his passion for George Orwell, Star Wars or The Smiths was never just about the book, movie or band. Rather, it was about the promise each new experience offered him in making sense of the world, and how he might find a home within it.By turns funny, elegiac and insightful, Boy Wonders is an unvarnished celebration of growing up and stumbling toward identity. It's about the good and the bad of those brief years when we find purpose without end, obsession without limit and joy in the strangest of places.
Village Of The Small Houses: A Memoir Of Sorts
Ian Ferguson - 2003
Beginning with the dramatic events surrounding his birth, the richly recalled events of Ferguson's life and a vivid cast of loveable misfits make for a taut and appealingly idiosyncratic tale. In 1959, just one step ahead of the law, Hank Ferguson (the Ferguson brothers' con-artist dad) headed north in a beat-up two-toned 1953 Mercury Zephyr with his pregnant wife, Louise. He got as far as remote Fort Vermilion. Passing himself off as a teacher at the local "Indian school," he settled his ever-expanding family in what was then Canada's third poorest community. In this spirited reading, originally broadcast on CBC Radio in September 2004, Ian Ferguson's gifts as a comic actor rise exuberantly to the fore.
The Bright Side: Twelve Months, Three Heartbreaks, and One (Maybe) Miracle
Cathrin Bradbury - 2021
Bradbury's black humour and gloriously upbeat voice makes it the perfect antidote to a tough year. I loved it!--Plum Johnson, author of They Left Us Everything The hilarious and moving story of how a modern woman's life can change utterly in a single year--and how, even when life whacks you in the head, you can find yourself rewarded with grace.Cathrin Bradbury's life imploded in the space of a few months. Her beloved parents died, her marriage limped to an end after twenty-five years, her heavily mortgaged house turned against her, and a promising new romance ended in crushing disappointment.But somewhere in that year, a new path, or three or four, began to open up. As Bradbury navigates the setbacks, her troubled brother makes an astounding recovery to heath and sobriety. She is reunited with her closest childhood friend after a long absence, with deeply satisfying results. She and her four siblings feel their way to becoming a new kind of family without their parents. And her adult children emerge into sharper focus, each gloriously and uniquely themselves. Slowly, she discovers that the path is steep, the view obscured, but there's light ahead.Cathartic, hilarious, and profoundly moving, The Bright Side broadens the way we think and talk to each other about the ordinary experiences we all share. A master of the uncomplaining voice, Bradbury combines grace and humanity to look at the world unflinchingly and see what makes it wonderful and absurd at the same time, and to let us all in on the secret.
All At Sea: One man. One bathtub. One very bad idea.
Tim FitzHigham - 2009
The book follows the author's death-defying 200-mile journey in his antique Thomas Crapper bath - not just across the Channel, but around Kent - right up to the tremendous reception and huge media attention which awaited him under Tower Bridge. Tim met the Queen, and his bath now resides in the National Maritime Museum of Great Britain.
The Donnellys Must Die
Orlo Miller - 1962
This is the tale of "The Black Donnellys"a notorious family of Irish settlers who were viciously attacked while they slept in their Lucan, Ontario farmhouse on February 4, 1880.Here, in this definitive account of this sordid episode in Canadian history, first published in 1962 and continuously in print since then, author Orlo Miller sets out to separate fact from fiction, and legend from reality, to bring us the truth behind the Donnelly murders. Combining exhaustive research based on contemporary newspaper accounts, court records and personal diaries, with personal insights and dramatic re-creations, Miller's chilling revelations shed new light on this infamous case in the annals of Canadian crime.You will be taken on a journey of terrible bloodlust, unbending loyalties, and fatal revenge in the re-telling of an event whose infamy still lives in popular culture today.
To the Grave: Inside a Spectacular RCMP Sting
Mike McIntyre - 2006
A pretty teenager from Brandon, Manitoba, named Erin Chorney steps out for coffee, tells her mom she’ll be back in an hour. . . and never returns. Rumours about Erin’s fate begin to fly. Psychics with bizarre theories and suggestions. Shocking accusations and denials. Cryptic diary entries. Disturbing anonymous letters. Search warrants and surveillance. But she doesn’t turn up. Nearly two years later, when all hope seems lost — a last—ditch plan straight out of Hollywood.The RCMP take aim at the prime suspect in Erin’s disappearance through a unique undercover sting operation, and the result is a wild, four—month ride into a dark criminal underworld filled with cunning mind games, shadowy figures, daring twists and Academy—award winning acting performances. And an explosive ending that nobody saw coming.
Epiphany: A Christian's Change of Heart & Mind over Same-Sex Marriage
Michael Coren - 2016
It was one of countless posts, tweets, and articles that have condemned me for coming out in favour of same-sex marriage. I've also been fired from columns that I wrote for years, been banned from various Catholic TV and radio stations, had speeches cancelled, and been accused of cheating on my wife. My children have been called gay, and I have been compared to a child molester and a murderer. These are new experiences for me. Until last year, I was considered something of a champion of social conservatism in Canada and was well known among politically active Christians. I hosted a nightly show on Crossroads Television for twelve years, was a syndicated Sun columnist, and wrote briskly selling books with such titles as Why Catholics Are Right. Today, I am working away at a new book, Epiphany: Changing Heart and Mind on Same-Sex Marriage. How and why did it go so terribly wrong?" --Michael CorenWhat went "terribly wrong" is that Michael Coren had a profound spiritual and personal change of heart. Epiphany is about how and why that happened; the reaction from both sides of the fence; and how the Christian doctrine, when studied closely and without bias, heartily supports Michael's findings. As a middle-aged, very white, very straight, very Christian man, he was obliged, first reluctantly and then eagerly, to explore the complex dynamic between faith and homosexuality and to work out a new narrative. The crux of that narrative: God is love. Honest, brave, and rigorous in its scholarship, Epiphany is a groundbreaking book on one of society's most pressing issues.
Finding Murph: From First Overall to Living Homeless in the Bush - The Tragic True Story of Joe Murphy
Rick Westhead - 2020
In 1986, he became the first college-educated hockey player ever selected first overall in the NHL entry draft. He won a Stanley Cup in Edmonton alongside Mark Messier. But since then, his life has taken a tragic turn as a result of mental illness, substance abuse and the untreated head injuries he suffered as a player.Murphy’s life didn’t begin on a track that would take him to poverty, addiction and illness. He was smart, dedicated and put his hockey life on hold to complete his education before joining the NHL. He once scored eighty-two points in a season and was a key player for the Oilers, Red Wings and Blackhawks, among other teams. But one vicious bodycheck during a game started him down a road to ruin. Murphy was clearly shaken by the hit, but he was never treated and he never missed a game. His entire life was about to change.Murphy became a journeyman, moving from team to team, and all along the way, other NHLers said they witnessed a change. Murphy was becoming more different by the day. He took to drugs and alcohol and soon found himself out of the NHL entirely. He and his wife divorced. Murphy eventually became homeless and, in the spring of 2019, he made his way to Kenora, Ontario, where he lived in the bush, spending his days outside a local convenience store, muttering to himself. The player who had once set the NHL aflame slept by the side of the road in the unforgiving North.In the vein of Playing with Fire and Boy on Ice, Finding Murph tells the tragic story of Joe Murphy and examines the role of the NHL in the downward spiral of one of the league’s most promising players.
One Game at a Time: My Journey from Small-Town Alberta to Hockey's Biggest Stage
Harnarayan Singh - 2020
There was only one small difference--he didn't look like any of the other kids. And when he sat down on Saturday nights to tune in to Hockey Night in Canada with the rest of the nation, he couldn't ignore the fact that the broadcasters or analysts didn't look like him either. Undeterred, Harnarayan worked his way from calling imaginary hockey games with his plastic toy microphone as a child, to funding secret flights from Calgary to Toronto every weekend in the early days of Hockey Night in Punjabi, to making history as the first Sikh to broadcast an NHL game in English.Full of heart, humour, and bursting with personality (and maybe a few family prayers for Wayne Gretzky), One Game at a Time is the incredible and inspiring story of how Harnarayan Singh broke through the longstanding barriers and biases of the sport he loves. But more than that, Harnarayan blends his unabashed love of hockey with a refreshing and necessary positive message about what it means to be a Canadian in the world, making him one of the most influential ambassadors of the game today.
Never Swim Alone and This is a Play
Daniel MacIvor - 1997
[MacIvor is a writer with an angular sense of humour and an uncommon knack for probing basic elements and truths of human behaviour." ?Vit Wagner, Toronto StarThis Is a Play is a hilarious postmodern romp through the interior lives of actors in a bad play."Ingenious, whimsical, a lyrical lunacy in the writing, This Is A Play is a theatre experience comedy you might associate with Tom Stoppard." ?Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
The Sport and Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich Are Stealing Canada’s Public Wealth
Linda McQuaig - 2019
Another popular movement succeeded in establishing Canada’s public broadcasting system to counter American dominance of the airwaves. And a Canadian doctor created a publicly-owned laboratory that saved countless lives by producing affordable medications, contributing to medical breakthroughs and helping eradicate smallpox throughout the world.In recent decades, however, Canadians have allowed their inspiring public enterprises to be privatized and their vital public programs downsized, leaving them increasingly dominated by the forces of private greed that rule the marketplace.In this provocative book, Linda McQuaig challenges the dogma of privatization that has defined our political age. She argues that, particularly now as we grapple with climate change and income inequality, we need to expand, not shrink, our public sphere.
Fifteen Poems
Leonard Cohen - 2012
These fifteen poems, including “Death of a Lady’s Man,” “On Hearing a Name Long Unspoken,” and “The Embrace,” are drawn from across his remarkable career and appear here for the first time with his illustrations. With its lyrical intensity and sensual immediacy, Fifteen Poems offers a potent distillation of the genre-crossing genius of one of the most admired artists of our time.
Michael O'Leary: A Life In Full Flight
Alan Ruddock - 2007
He transformed Ryanair from a loss-making joke of an Irish carrier into one of the most valuable airlines in the world, and in the process he has revolutionized the very nature of commercial aviation. In this, the first biography of O'Leary, Alan Ruddock portrays the man in three dimensions and examines the business miracle - often talked about but poorly understood - that O'Leary has wrought.'Ruddock's fast-paced retelling of Ryanair's rise and rise confirms O'Leary's insistence that his success has little to do with the management maxims of business gurus and everything to do with graft and ruthless attention to detail' Observer'Probably the definitive Ryanair story ... a good read' Sunday Independent'The fullest and most accurate picture of O'Leary to date' Irish Daily Mail'Unlike previous books which simply chart the growth of the airline, this one is bound to get under O'Leary's skin because it reveals a great deal about his hugely driven character' Irish Independent'Ruddock is good on the flavour of the man, a bundle of energy whose two favourite words start with an F and an S (they aren't flower and sugar)' Irish Examiner