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Pluck : a memoir of a Newfoundland childhood and the raucous, terrible, amazing journey to becoming a novelist / by Morrissey, Donna,1956-author.;
"A deeply personal account of love's restorative ability as it leads renowned novelist Donna Morrissey through mental illness, family death, and despair to becoming a writer--told with charm and inimitable humour. When Donna Morrissey left the only home she had ever known, an isolated Newfoundland settlement, at age 16, she was ready for adventure. She had grown up without television or telephones but had absorbed the tragic stories and comic yarns of her close-knit family and community. The death of her infant brother marked the family, and years later, Morrissey suffers devastating guilt about the accidental death of her teenage brother, whom she'd enticed to join her in the oilfields. Her misery was compounded by her own misdiagnosis of a terminal illness, all of which contributed to crippling anxiety and an actual diagnosis of PTSD. Many of those events and themes would eventually be transformed and recast as fictional gold in Morrissey's novels. In another writer's hands, Morrissey's account of her personal story could easily be a tragedy. Instead, she combines darkness and light, levity and sadness into her tale, as her indomitable spirit and humour sustain her. Morrissey's path takes her from the drudgery of being a grocery clerk (who occasionally enlivens her shift with recreational drugs) to western oilfields, to marriage and divorce and working in a fish-processing plant to support herself and her two young children. Throughout her struggles, she nourishes a love of learning and language. Morrissey layers her account of her life with stories of those who came before her, a breed rarely seen in the modern world. It centers around iron-willed women: mothers and daughters, wives, sisters, teachers and mentors who find the support, the wind for their wings, outside the bounds given to them by nature. And it is a mysterious older woman she meets in Halifax who eventually unleashes the writer that Morrissey is destined to become. An inspiring and insightful memoir, Pluck illustrates that even when you find yourself unravelling, you can find a way to spin the yarns that will save you--and delight readers everywhere."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Morrissey, Donna, 1956-; Anxiety disorders; Brothers; Novelists, Canadian (English);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Death at Greenway : a novel / by Rader-Day, Lori,1973-author.;
"Bridey Kelly has come to Greenway House-the beloved holiday home of Agatha Christie-in disgrace. A terrible mistake at St. Prisca's Hospital in London has led to her dismissal as a nurse trainee, and her only chance for redemption is a position in the countryside caring for children evacuated to safety from the Blitz. Greenway is a beautiful home full of riddles: wondrous curios not to be touched, restrictions on rooms not to be entered, and a generous library, filled with books about murder. The biggestmystery might be the other nurse, Gigi, who is like no one Bridey has ever met. Chasing ten young children through the winding paths of the estate grounds might have soothed Bridey's anxieties and grief-if Greenway were not situated so near the English Channel and the rising aggressions of the war. When a body washes ashore near the estate, Bridey is horrified to realize this is not a victim of war, but of a brutal killing. As the local villagers look among themselves, Bridey and Gigi discover they eachharbor dangerous secrets about what has led them to Greenway. With a mystery writer's home as their unsettling backdrop, the young women must unravel the truth before their safe haven becomes a place of death ... "--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Historical fiction.; Murder; Nurses; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Grand : a memoir / by Schaefer, Sara Carole,1978-author.;
"When Sara Schaefer is in first grade, her father warns her to always tell the truth because one lie leads to another and soon you will find yourself in a hole you can't escape. A few years later, the Schaefer family is completely upended when it's revealed that their grand life is based on a lie. Her parents become pariahs in their upper middle class community and go from non-religious people to devout church members. The idea of good and evil as binary, opposed forces is drilled into Sara and it becomes the perfect framework on which to build her anxiety and increasingly-obsessive thoughts. The year she turns forty, Sara decides to take each member of her family on a one-on-one vacation culminating with a whitewater rafting journey through the Grand Canyon with her younger sister. The only problem is she's terrified of rafting. Along the way, she grapples with unresolved grief over the death of her mother and the family scandal that changed the trajectory of her life. Heartfelt, candid, and witty, Grand is a story about family, identity, and struggling to make something of yourself. Sara deconstructs her struggles with anxiety and depression, what it means to be a good person, and the radically discordant stories we tell ourselves and share with the world"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Schaefer, Sara Carole, 1978-; Schaefer, Sara Carole, 1978-; Shaffer family; Comedians; Women comedians;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Behind the pickle jar / by McQuaig, Wendy,author.;
Amy Hewston, Assistant Manager of Ultra Luscious Relaxation Spa, is so stressed she can barely function. Her anxiety on overdrive, she finds herself forced to take some time off work, despite her Type A, goal-oriented personality. Her well-meaning husband Matt decides the best road to recovery would be to rent a farmhouse north of the city, where the whole family can relax and regroup. Their two teens are far from onside when their family van pulls into the old farmhouse on Concession 5. While fixing a broken window in the cellar, Amy and Matt come across a diary behind a long-forgotten jar of pickles. The diary belonged to Isabel Huntly who lived in the farmhouse at the turn of the 20th century. As Amy gradually reads through its pages, the history of the century home and the family who lived there takes hold of her psyche. Fascinated by the simple farm lifestyle and the intricate community, in contrast to her own harried existence, there is something about the diary that speaks to her. Suddenly her life choices, which once seemed so clear, are put to the test. She finds herself torn between the need to return to her stressful, high-paced career and her desire to live a simpler life, following her passion for opening a piano bar in a small town. Fraught with indecision, whichever choice Amy makes at this crossroad will affect herself and her family forever. This historical fiction, partially narrated by the old farmhouse itself, takes the reader on a journey through yesteryear, from horse-drawn buggies and church socials to Instagram and iPhones. Many people today can relate to Amy Hewston's hectic life. Her daily struggles, eventual crisis and life-altering decisions, would lead to great discussions over a glass of wine at any book club.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Diary fiction.; Novels.; Diaries; Families; Farmhouses; Women;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Finding Freedom : a cook's story : remaking a life from scratch / by French, Erin(Chef),author.;
"Long before The Lost Kitchen became a world dining destination with every seating filled the day the reservation book opens each spring, Erin French was a girl roaming barefoot on a 25-acre farm, a teenager falling in love with food while working the line at her dad's diner and a young woman finding her calling as a professional chef at her tiny restaurant tucked into a 19th century mill. This singular memoir-a classic American story-invites readers to Erin's corner of her beloved Maine to share the real person behind the "girl from Freedom" fairytale, and the not-so-picture-perfect struggles that have taken every ounce of her strength to overcome, and that make Erin's life triumphant. In Finding Freedom, Erin opens up to the challenges, stumbles, and victories that have led her to the exact place she was ever meant to be, telling stories of multiple rock-bottoms, of darkness and anxiety, of survival as a jobless single mother, of pills that promised release but delivered addiction, of a man who seemed to offer salvation but in the end ripped away her very sense of self. And of the beautiful son who was her guiding light as she slowly rebuilt her personal and culinary life around the solace she found in food-as a source of comfort, a sense of place, as a way of bringing goodness into the world. Erin's experiences with deep loss and abiding hope, told with both honesty and humor, will resonate with women everywhere who are determined to find their voices, create community, grow stronger and discover their best-selves despite seemingly impossible odds. Set against the backdrop of rural Maine and its lushly intense, bountiful seasons, Erin reveals the passion and courage needed to invent oneself anew, and the poignant, timeless connections between food and generosity, renewal and freedom"--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; French, Erin.; Women cooks; Cooks;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Breaking and entering : a novel / by Gillmor, Don,author.;
Forty-nine and sweating through the hottest summer on record, Beatrice Billings is rudderless: her marriage is stale, her son communicates solely through cryptic text messages, her mother has dementia, and she conducts endless arguments with her older sister in her head. Toronto feels like an inadequately air-conditioned museum of its former self, and the same could be said of her life. She dreams of the past, her days as a newlywed, a new mom, a new homeowner gutting the kitchen--now the only novel experience that looms is the threat of divorce. Everything changes when she googles "escape" and discovers the world of amateur lock-picking. Breaking into houses is thrilling: she's subtle and discreet, never greedy, but as her curiosity about other people's lives becomes a dangerous compulsion and the entire city feels a few degrees from boiling over, she realizes she must turn her guilty analysis on herself. A searingly insightful rendering of midlife among the anxieties of the early twenty-first century, Breaking and Entering is an exacting look at the fragility of all the things we take on faith.
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Burglary; Families; Middle-aged women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Rebecka Martinsson. [videorecording] / by Ahlqvist, Daniel,television producer.; Edfeldt, Fredrik,1972-television director.; Engdahl, Niklas,1974-actor.; Engström, Henrik,screenwriter.; Engvoll, Ida,1985-actor.; Esmaili, Ardalan,1986-actor.; Fröler, Samuel,1957-actor.; Grosin, Mattias,1966-screenwriter.; Inde, Jonas,actor.; Lind, Lars,1935-actor.; Melander, Eva,1974-actor.; Öhrman, Jakob,1984-actor.; Oredsson, Thomas,1946-actor.; Röör, Gunilla,1959-actor.; Virtanen, Ville,1961-actor.; Acorn Media (Firm),publisher.; RLJ Entertainment,distributor.; Yellow Bird Rights,production company.;
Director of photography, Petrus Sjövik ; ediotr, Hanna Lejonkvist ; composers, Dan Berridge, Matthew Bourne.Ida Engvoll, Eva Melander, Jakob Öhrman, Gunilla Röör, Jonas Inde, Niklas Engdahl, Ville Virtanen, Ardalan Esmaili, Lars Lind, Thomas Oredsson, Samuel Fröler.Prosecutor Rebecka Martinsson returns to her roots in Kiruna, to attend the funeral of the priest that had administered her confirmation. Her plan was to travel with a return ticket, but Rebecka stayed. Now several years have passed, and when we return to Rebecka in season 2 her anxieties about truly fitting in and if she made the right choice have grown worse.14A.DVD ; wide screen presentation ; Dolby Digital stereophonic.
Subjects: Detective and mystery television programs.; Television programs.; Foreign television programs.; Murder; Police; Women lawyers;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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