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Girl Runner A Novel [electronic resource] : by Snyder, Carrie.aut; cloudLibrary;
Girl Runner is the story of Aganetha Smart, a former Olympic athlete who was famous in the 1920s, but now, at age 104, lives in a nursing home, alone and forgotten by history. For Aganetha, a competitive and ambitious woman, her life remains present and unfinished in her mind. When her quiet life is disturbed by the unexpected arrival of two young strangers, Aganetha begins to reflect on her childhood in rural Ontario and her struggles to make an independent life for herself in the city. Without revealing who they are, or what they may want from her, the visitors take Aganetha on an outing from the nursing home. As ready as ever for adventure, Aganetha’s memories are stirred when the pair return her to the family farm where she was raised. The devastation of WWI and the Spanish flu epidemic, the optimism of the 1920s and the sacrifices of the 1930s play out in Aganetha’s mind, as she wrestles with the confusion and displacement of the present. Part historical page-turner, part contemporary mystery, Girl Runner is an engaging and endearing story about family, ambition, athletics and the dedicated pursuit of one’s passions. It is also, ultimately, about a woman who follows the singular, heart-breaking and inspiring course of her life until the very end.General adult.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Literary; Biographical; Sports;
© 2014., House of Anansi Press Inc,
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Magic : the life of Earvin "Magic" Johnson / by Lazenby, Roland,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Magic Johnson is one of the most beloved, and at times controversial, athletes in history. His iconic smile lifted the dowdy sport of American pro basketball from a second tier sport with low ratings into the global spotlight, a transformation driven by his ability to eviscerate opponents with a style that featured his grand sense of fun. He was a master entertainer who directed Los Angeles Lakers "Showtime" basketball to the heights of both glory and epic excess, all of it driven by his mind-blowing no-look passes and personal charm. At the charismatic height of his power, Johnson then shocked the world with a startling cautionary tale about sexually transmitted disease that pushed public awareness of an HIV and AIDS crisis. Then out came his confession of unprotected sex with hundreds of women each year, a retirement, an attempted return, then a proper farewell on the iconic 1992 Olympic Dream Team. Longtime biographer Roland Lazenby spent years tracking Johnson's unlikely rise to become an immensely popular public figure who was instantly scandalized in 1991, then turned to his legendary will to rise again as a successful entrepreneur with another level of hard-won success in business. In his portrayal, Johnson's tale becomes bigger than that of one man. It is a generational saga over parts of three centuries that reveals much not just about his unique basketball journey but about America itself. Through literally hundreds of interviews with Johnson's coaches, representatives past and present, teammates, opponents, friends and loved ones, including key conversations with Johnson himself over the years, Lazenby has produced the first truly definitive study, both dark and light, of Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Jr., the revolutionary player, the icon, the man"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Johnson, Earvin, 1959-; Basketball players;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Down and back : on alcohol, family, and a life in hockey / by Bourne, Justin,author.;
"For readers of Nine Lessons I Learned from My Father and Hockey Confidential, Down and Back tells broadcaster Justin Bourne's story of following his Hall-of-Fame father into the NHL, only to also follow him into rehab. When Justin Bourne's father stole back the Stanley Cup ring he'd given his son as a graduation present, the younger man was forced to call into question just about everything he thought he knew about two of the most important things in his life: hockey, and his father. Bob Bourne had been a star--an NHL All-Star, a Sports Illustrated "Athlete of the Year," a Stanley Cup champion. He was everything a son wants to emulate. And Justin did follow in those huge footsteps, leading his teams in scoring year after year, and finally garnering an invitation to the New York Islanders' training camp--the same team his father had played for. Though an injury brought to an end his dream of winning a Cup, Bourne found a way to stay in the game. His blog caught the eye of both The Athletic and the Toronto Maple Leafs, and soon he was both coaching and writing professionally. But at the same time, Justin was following his father's footsteps down a darker path. Though he hadn't had his first drink until he was 18, by 30 he was in rehab--his impressive career in the game in peril of being cut short. In an act of brutal self-honesty--which may not have been possible had his father not shown him the consequences of lying--Bourne got help, got sober, and confronted what his father and the game mean to him. That honesty is the backbone of Playing Hurt. It is a frank and sometimes harsh appraisal of the game and of the man in his family who played it: the violence and danger, the booze and drugs, the consequences of fame for the young men who are not prepared for it. But it is also an honest look at what is redeeming about the game, through the eyes of someone who grew up in NHL dressing rooms, who has skated on NHL ice as both a player and a coach, who lives and breathes the game--and who inherited it from a man he can understand only through the game."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Bourne, Justin; Bourne, Justin.; Fathers and sons; Hockey coaches; Hockey players; Recovering alcoholics; Sportscasters; Sportswriters;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Lives of the stoics : lessons on the art of living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius / by Holiday, Ryan,author.; Hanselman, Stephen,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the bestselling authors of The Daily Stoic comes an inspiring guide to the lives of the Stoics, and what the ancients can teach us about happiness, success, resilience and virtue. Nearly 2,300 years after a ruined merchant named Zeno first established a school on the Stoa Poikile of Athens, Stoicism has found a new audience among those who seek greatness, from athletes to politicians and everyone in between. It's no wonder; the philosophy and its embrace of self-mastery, virtue, and indifference to that which we cannot control is as urgent today as it was in the chaos of the Roman Empire. In Lives of the Stoics, Holiday and Hanselman present the fascinating lives of the men and women who strove to live by the timeless Stoic virtues of Courage. Justice. Temperance. Wisdom. Organized in digestible, mini-biographies of all the well-known--and not so well-known--Stoics, this book vividly brings home what Stoicism was like for the people who loved it and lived it, dusting off powerful lessons to be learned from their struggles and successes. More than a mere history book, every example in these pages, from Epictetus to Marcus Aurelius--slaves to emperors--is designed to help the reader apply philosophy in their own lives. Holiday and Hanselman unveil the core values and ideas that unite figures from Seneca to Cato to Cicero across the centuries. Among them are the idea that self-rule is the greatest empire, that character is fate; how Stoics benefit from preparing not only for success, but failure; and learn to love, not merely accept, the hand they are dealt in life. A treasure of valuable insights and stories, this book can be visited again and again by any reader in search of inspiration from the past"--
Subjects: Stoics.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The eye test : a case for human creativity in the age of analytics / by Jones, Chris,1973-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."THE EYE TEST is a necessary course correction, a call for a more balanced, personal approach to problem solving. Award-winning journalist Chris Jones makes the case for the human element--for what smart, practiced, devoted people can bring to situations that have proved resistant to analytics. Jones shares what he's learned from an army of extraordinary talents, including some of the best doctors, executives, athletes, meteorologists, magicians, designers, astrophysicists, and detectives in the world. There are lessons in their mastery. Of course there is a place for numbers in decision making. No baseball player should be judged by his jawline. But the analytics revolution sparked by Michael Lewis's Moneyball now threatens to replace one kind of absurdity with another. We have developed a blind faith in the machine, the way a driver overly reliant on his GPS might be led off the edge of a cliff. Not all statistical analysis is sound. Algorithms aren't infallible, and spreadsheets aren't testaments. Trust in them too much, and they risk becoming instruments of destruction rather than understanding. Worse, data's supremacy in our daily lives has led to a dangerous strain of anti-expertise: the belief that every problem is a math problem, and anyone given access to the right information will find the right answer. That taste doesn't matter, experience doesn't matter, creativity doesn't matter. That we can't believe our eyes, no matter how much they've seen. There is also hope. THE EYE TEST serves as a reminder that if beauty is less of a virtue in the age of analytics, a good eye still is. This book is a celebration of our greatest beholders-and an absorbing, inspiring guide for how you might become one, too"--
Subjects: Creative thinking.; Data mining.; Decision making.; Problem solving.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Hidden potential : the science of achieving greater things / by Grant, Adam,1981-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again illuminates how we can elevate ourselves and others to unexpected heights. We live in a world that's obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distance we ourselves can travel. We underestimate the range of skills that we can learn and the amount of ground that we can gain. When opportunity doesn't knock, there are ways to to build a door. Hidden Potential offers a new framework for reaching aspirations and exceeding expectations. Realizing potential isn't about being a workaholic or a perfectionist. What matters most is not how hard we work, but how well we learn. It's not about being a genius-growth depends more on developing character skills than cognitive skills. The character skills that propel progress include the proactivity to absorb and adapt to new information, the courage to embrace discomfort, and the determination to find the beauty in imperfections. Mastering those skills doesn't require us to find the one perfect mentor or expert coach to guide us. Often we just need to borrow a compass to begin charting our own path. And we can clear the path for more people by building better systems of opportunity in our schools, teams, and workplaces. Many writers have chronicled the habits of superstars who accomplish great things. This book breaks new ground by revealing how anyone can rise to achieve greater things. The true measure of your potential isn't the height of the peak you reach, but how far you climb to get there"--
Subjects: Achievement motivation.; Motivation (Psychology);
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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On sex and gender : a commonsense approach / by Coleman, Doriane Lambelet,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."On Sex and Gender focuses on three sequential and consequential questions: What is sex -- as opposed to gender? How does sex matter in our everyday lives? And how should it be reflected in law and policy? All three are front-and-center in American politics: They are included in both of the major parties' political platforms. They are the subject of ongoing litigation in the federal courts and of highly contentious legislation on Capitol Hill. And they are a pivotal issue in the culture war between left and right playing out on battlegrounds from campuses and school boards to op-ed pages and corporate handbooks. Doriane Coleman challenges both sides to chart a new way forward. She argues that denying biological sex would have profound and detrimental effects on women's equal opportunity and on the health and welfare of society generally. Structural sexism needed to be dismantled -- a true achievement of feminism and an ongoing fight -- but sex blindness is not the next step forward. This book is a clear guide for reasonable Americans on the issue of gender and sex -- something everyone is terrified to discuss. Coleman shows equally that the science is settled but there is a middle ground on protecting both women's rights and trans rights. She livens her narrative with a sequence of portraits of exceptional human beings who have fought to advance the cause of equality from legal pioneers like Myra Bradwell and Ketanji Brown Jackson to champion athletes like Caster Semenya and Cate Campbell to civil rights giants like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Pauli Murray. Above all, Coleman reminds us that sex -- the male and the female body -- is good for three reasons. Sex is good for procreation, it's good for sexual pleasure, and it's good for something in our natural lives to be beautiful"--
Subjects: Feminism; Gender identity; Sex (Biology); Sex and law; Women's rights;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The movement miracle : the Essentrics stretch program to increase strength, improve mobility, and become pain free / by Esmonde-White, Miranda,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From Canadian fitness pioneer, bestselling author and PBS star Miranda Esmonde-White, the definitive Essentrics stretching and strengthening book, designed to keep your body strong, mobile and pain-free whatever your age. Miranda Esmonde-White's fitness revolution began with a simple insight: many exercise programs, including the ones she used to teach at her own studio, actually cause injury and prematurely age the body, bulking muscles and restricting joints. Throwing out the idea of "no pain, no gain," she studied how we are actually designed to move, creating a program that stretches and strengthens all the muscles in the body in a balanced way, enhances the full range of motion of every joint, and unglues stuck connective tissue. The result is Essentrics, a groundbreaking practice of gentle movement, respecting the muscle chains and joint mobility of the body, that scientists from Harvard, Adelphi and McGill universities have validated as a way to keep us strong, flexible and fit for life, as well as providing immense benefits for brain and digestive health. Where her previous bestsellers, Aging Backwards and Forever Painless, focused on anti-aging and pain-relief, The Movement Miracle is the Essentrics bible. In beautifully shot illustrations, twelve models who range in age from their twenties to their late sixties--all of whom have benefited from the program--demonstrate 100 sequences of gentle movements that can be combined to meet the needs of everyone from office workers to elite athletes. Another section of the book concentrates on posture, teaching us how to counteract the harmful impacts of sedentary living and too much screen time. The revolution Esmonde-White offers us all: only twenty-five minutes a day of gentle movement, following the Essentrics formula, will radically change and strengthen your body, relieve you of pain, replenish your energy and keep you young, no matter your age"--
Subjects: Handbooks and manuals.; Stretching exercises; Stretching exercises.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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What she said : conversations about equality / by Renzetti, Elizabeth,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."A passionate advocate for gender equity, and one of our most respected journalists, explores the most pressing issues facing women in Canada today. The fight for women's rights was supposed to have been settled. Or, to put it another way, women were supposed to have settled -- for what we were grudgingly given, for the crumbs from the table that we had set. For thirty per cent of the seats in Canada's Parliament; for four per cent of the CEO's offices; for a tenth of the salary of male athletes; for the one per cent of sexual assault cases that result in convictions; for tenuous control over our health and bodies. "Aren't we over it yet? No, we're not," Elizabeth Renzetti writes. For more than thirty years, Renzetti was an award-winning journalist at the Globe and Mail. Her columns over the years followed the trajectory of women's rights and were written with humour and with sympathy. In this forcefully argued, accessible book, Renzetti explores a range of issues: the increasingly hostile world of threats that deter young women from seeking a role in public life; the rise of the toxic manosphere; the use of non-disclosure agreements to silence victims of sexual harassment and assault; the inadequacy of access to health care and reproductive justice, especially as experienced by Indigenous and racialized women; the ways in which future technologies must be made more inclusive; the disparity in pay, wealth, and savings, and how women are not yet socialized to be the best financial managers they can be; the imbalanced burden of care, from emotional labour to child care. Renzetti explores the nuance of these issues, so often presented as divisive, in order to unite women at a time when women must work together to protect their fundamental right to exist fully and freely in the world. Exploring too the places where progress is being made, What She Said is a rallying cry for a more just future."--
Subjects: Equality; Women; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The character edge : leading and winning with integrity / by Caslen, Robert L.,Jr.,1953-author.; Matthews, Michael D.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The former superintendent at West Point and a psychologist explain why all successful leaders rely on a foundation of strong character. Among the most successful leaders throughout history-from Abe Lincoln to Rosa Parks, Mahatma Gandhi to Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr. to Nelson Mandela-some were brilliant mathematicians and economists, others were creative visionaries, still others were masterful at strategic planning. Their mastery of their field wasn't the secret to their highly effective leadership. All of their skill, grit, resilience, charisma, and courage emanated from one thing: their strength of character. Character-the moral values and habits of an individual-is in the spotlight now more than perhaps at any other point in modern history. Politicians distort facts. Corporations cheat customers and investors. Athletes are caught using illegal supplements. In addition to harming our culture at large, these failures of character have a profound and undermining impact on leadership. The authors of this book are experts on the value of character, its correlation with successful leadership, and how to build it in individuals and prospective leaders. General Robert L. Caslen, Jr. served the US Army for over 43 years and served as Superintendent at the US Military Academy at West Point. Psychologist Dr. Michael D. Matthews is a Professor of Engineering Psychology at West Point who has focused on the psychology of character for years. Together they witnessed firsthand that raw talent is not enough to stand on its own; successful leadership relies on the critical foundation of a strong character. In The Character Edge they leverage their perspectives to offer an empowering, story-driven argument-backed by the latest scientific research-that character is vital to success. They give readers the tools to build and sustain character in themselves and their organizations by testing readers' strengths of the gut, head and heart and teaching how to build trust and nurture the seeds of character"--
Subjects: Character.; Executive ability.; Integrity.; Leadership.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 271 to 280 of 290 | « previous |