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The secret history of soldiers : how Canadians survived the Great War / by Cook, Tim,1971-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Tim Cook, Canada's foremost military historian, offers a surprising portrayal of how soldiers found solace, distraction and entertainment to escape the horrors of the trenches during the Great War. There have been thousands of books on the Great War, and hundreds on Canada's part in the conflict, but most of these have focused on commanders, battles, strategy, and tactics. Less attention has been paid to the daily lives of the combatants, how they coped with and endured the unimaginable conditions of what was then modern industrial warfare: the rain of shells, bullets, and chemical agents. The Secret History of Soldiers examines how those who managed to survive the horrific conditions of trench warfare on the Western Front found solace, relief, distraction, and even entertainment. Over the years, both writers and historians have overlooked this aspect of soldiers' lives, as there are no official histories or records. These tales come from the soldiers themselves, captured in letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral accounts. The recollections and artifacts of more than five hundred soldiers form the basis of this book; they include such rare resources as trench art, postcards, and even songsheets. Each piece of history is a reminder that these battles were fought by living, breathing human beings who, when they weren't engaged in battle, needed escapist activities to counter the daily horrors of trench life. It is those eyewitnesses to the bloodshed and carnage who act as guides to the Great War. The world they introduce readers to isn't limited to the harrowing struggle to another day. Cook catalogues the violence of war, but also the gallows humour the soldiers employed to get through it. The Great War was a devastating event, but another layer of life that included songs, skits, art, and even newspapers existed on and behind the battle lines. With his trademark narrative abilities, Cook has created another landmark history of Canadian military life."--
Subjects: Canada. Canadian Army; World War, 1914-1918; Military morale; World War, 1914-1918;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Hotline / by Nasrallah, Dimitri,1978-author.;
"A vivid love letter to the 1980s and one woman's struggle to overcome the challenges of immigration. It'ss 1986, and Muna Heddad is in a bind. She and her son have moved to Montreal, leaving behind a civil war filled with bad memories in Lebanon. She had plans to find work as a French teacher, but no one in Quebec trusts her to teach the language. She needs to start making money, and fast. The only work Muna can find is at a weight-loss center as a hotline operator. All day, she takes calls from people responding to ads seen in magazines or on TV. On the phone, she's Mona, and she's quite good at listening. These strangers all have so much to say once someone shows interest in their lives--marriages gone bad, parents dying, isolation, personal inadequacies. Even as her daily life in Canada is filled with invisible barriers at every turn, at the office Muna is privy to her clients' deepest secrets."--
Subjects: Novels.; Call center agents; Immigrants; Lebanese; Marginality, Social; Nineteen eighties;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Hatchet / by Paulsen, Gary.;
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the wilderness, learning to survive initially with only the aid of a hatchet given by his mother and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.LSCNewberry Honor book
Subjects: Airplane crash survival; Divorce; Wilderness survival;
© 2007, c1987., Simon & Schuster Children's Pub.,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Daughters of the deer / by Daniel, Danielle,author.;
"In this haunting, groundbreaking, historical novel, Danielle Daniel imagines the lives of her ancestors in the Algonquin territories of the 1600s, a story inspired by her family link to a girl murdered near Trois-Rivières in the early days of French settlement. Marie, an Algonquin woman of the Weskarini Deer Clan, lost her first husband and her children to an Iroquois raid. In the aftermath of another lethal attack, her chief begs her to remarry for the sake of the clan. Marie is a healer who honours the ways of her people, and Pierre, the green-eyed ex-soldier from France who wants her for his bride, is not the man she would choose. But her people are dwindling, wracked by white men's diseases and nearly starving every winter as the game retreats away from the white settlements. If her chief believes such a marriage will cement their alliance with the French against the Iroquois and the British, she feels she has no choice. Though she does it reluctantly, and with some fear--Marie is trading the memory of the man she loved for a man she doesn't understand at all, and whose devout Catholicism blinds him to the ways of her people. This beautiful, powerful novel brings to life women who have literally fallen through the cracks of settler histories. Especially Jeanne, the first child born of the new marriage, neither white nor Weskarini, but caught between worlds. As she reaches adolescence, it becomes clear she is two-spirited. In her mother's culture, she would have been considered blessed, her nature a sign of special wisdom. But to the settlers of New France, and even to her own father, Jeanne is unnatural, sinful--a woman to be shunned, and worse. And so, with the poignant story of Jeanne, Danielle Daniel imagines her way into the heart and mind of a woman at the origin of the long history of violence against Indigenous women and the deliberate, equally violent, disruption of First Nations culture--opening a door long jammed shut, so all of us can enter"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Arranged marriage; First Nations women; First Nations; Algonquin;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Just once, no more : on fathers, sons, and who we are until we are no longer / by Foran, Charles,1960-author.;
"In this vulnerable, honest, beautiful memoir, award-winning writer Charles Foran offers a brief and powerful meditation on fathers and sons, love and loss, even as his own father approaches the end of life. Dave Foran was a formidable man of few words, seemingly from a different era than his sensitive, literary son, Charlie. Among other adventures, Dave had lived in the bush, been snow-blinded, hauled a dead body across a frozen lake on a dog sled, dodged a bullet during a bar fight, and gone toe to toe with a bear. Aspects of his life were like tall tales while others were more somber and enigmatic. A decent father to Charlie and his siblings, and a devoted husband to Charlie's mother, Dave was a tough, emotionally distant man, prone to gruff cynicism and a changeable mood. As Charlie writes: "He struggled most days of his life with wounds he could not readily identify, let alone heal ... Not only did my father never get over what had happened to him as a boy, he didn't try. Men usually didn't try back then. And we just had to deal." When Charlie turned 55, his father began a slow and, as it turned out, final decline. And Charlie felt something he'd never imagined before: a mysterious desire to write about his relationship with his father. On the surface, the motivation was to help lift an inchoate burden from his father's shoulders, to reassure him that he was loved. But there was also another, more personal motivation. "Late into the middle of my own lifespan," Charlie writes, "sadness took hold of my being ... I wanted to say so frankly, never mind how glib it sounded, how uncomfortable it made me." In spare, haunting prose, Just Once pulls on these threads--unravelling a fascinating personal story but also revealing its universal context (suggested by the title "Just Once, No More," a quote from a poem by Rilke that applies to all of our brief lives). With its skillful prose, humour, affecting intimacy, and love of life even in the shadow of death and uncertainty, this short but very full book presents a nuanced, moving portrait of a fond but distant father grappling with the end of life as his son acts as witness, solace, and would-be guide while shakily facing his own decline. What story can we tell ourselves and those we love, this memoir asks, to withstand the insecurities of self and the inexorable passage of time?"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Foran, Charles, 1960-; Foran, Dave.; Aging parents; Fathers and sons; Fathers; Parent and adult child;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Cobalt : cradle of the demon metals, birth of a mining superpower / by Angus, Charlie,1962-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The world is desperate for cobalt. It fuels the digital economy and powers everything from cell phones to clean energy. But this 'demon metal,' this 'blood mineral,' has a horrific present and troubled history. Then there is the town in northern Canada, also called Cobalt. It created a model of resource extraction a hundred years ago--theft of Indigenous lands, rape of the earth, exploitation of workers, enormous wealth generation--that has made Toronto the mining capital of the world and given the mining industry a blueprint for resource extraction that has been exported everywhere. Charlie Angus unearths the history of the town and shows how it contributed to Canada's mining dominance. He connects the town to present-day Congo, with its cobalt production and misery, to horrendous mining practices in South America and demonstrates that global mining is as Canadian as hockey."--
Subjects: Mineral industries; Mineral industries; Cobalt mines and mining.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Inuit relocations : colonial policies and practices, Inuit resilience and resistance / by Tester, Frank J.,author.; Zawadski, Krista Ulujuk,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The traditional life of Inuit of Canada's North, affected early on by contact with whalers and the development of the fur trade. Changes to the lives of Inuit following the Second World War, including the relocation of Inuit, resulting in separation from family and culture and deaths from starvation, contagious diseases and appalling living conditions as Inuit were forced to adapt from living off the land to permanent settlements. The relocation of Inuit children to settlement-based federal day schools. How Inuit fought back against these injustices to maintain their culture and language and contribute to the richness and diversity of Canadian culture."--
Subjects: Inuit; Inuit; Inuit;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Prairie Chicken dance tour / by Dumont, Dawn,1978-author.;
"The hilarious story of an unlikely group of Indigenous dancers who find themselves thrown together on a performance tour of Europe in 1972. The Tour is all prepared. The Prairie Chicken dance troupe is all set for a fifteen-day trek through Europe, performing at festivals and cultural events. But then the performers all come down with the food poisoning. And John Greyeyes, a retired cowboy who hasn't danced in fifteen years, finds himself abruptly thrust into the position of leading a hastily-assembled group of replacement dancers. A group of expert dancers they are not. There's a middle-aged woman with advanced arthritis, her nineteen-year-old niece who is far more interested in flirtations than pow-wow, and an enigmatic man from the U.S. -- all being chased by Nadine, the organizer of the original tour who is determined to be a part of the action, and the handsome man she picked up in a gas-station bathroom. They're all looking to John, who has never left the continent, to guide them through a world that he knows nothing about. As the gang makes its way from one stop to another, absolutely nothing goes as planned and the tour becomes a string of madcap adventures. The Prairie Chicken Dance Tour is loosely based -- like, hospital-gown loose -- on the true story of a group of Indigenous dancers who left Saskatchewan and toured through Europe in the 1970s. Dawn Dumont brings her signature razor-sharp wit and impeccable comedic timing to this hilarious, warm, and wildly entertaining novel."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Humorous fiction.; Friendship; Tours; First Nations; First Nations; Indigenous dancers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Evolve or die : hard-won lessons from a hockey life / by Shannon, John,1956-author.;
"For fans of Michael McKinley's Hockey: A People's History and Bob Cole's Now I'm Catching On--a book about what's changed in hockey, what never should, and a celebration of what we love about the game, from the broadcaster, analyst, and longtime executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada, John Shannon. For decades, Hockey Night in Canada has been the gold standard not just for hockey broadcasts, but for all sports across North America. It shows the stories of the game: on-ice heroics, the love and support of family, small-town values, and big-city lights. Meet the person who shaped that standard. John Shannon was the longtime executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada, starting at the bottom and working his way up through the 1980s and 1990s. He has a unique view of the game and how the way we enjoy it has developed. Technology plays a role, but it's about the storytelling--modern-day gladiators and their trials--and hockey provides endless good stories. Shannon's world behind the scenes is every bit as colourful and unexpected as what happens on the ice--and just as full of rich characters. From standing up to the Edmonton Oilers' mighty Glen Sather to ordering then-Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau to keep out of a dressing room, these stories illuminate the big moments and people that have made the game special. Shannon captures a nostalgia for the great broadcasts of the past--complete with baby blue Hockey Night in Canada blazers--and a pride in how far we've come in improving the game and expanding on the stories we tell. He also shares the keys to a long and successful career: integrity, loyalty, determination, and above all passion. Much has changed in the sport and how we enjoy it, but Shannon's career shows that some things must always remain."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Shannon, John, 1956-; National Hockey League; Hockey night in Canada (Television program); Hockey; Hockey; Sportscasters;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Finding Larkspur : a return to village life / by Needles, Dan,author.;
"Bestselling chronicler of village life Dan Needles (author of the Wingfield Farm stage plays) leads an insightful and laugh-out-loud tour through the quirks and customs of today's Canadian small town. Modern literature has not been kind to village life. For almost two centuries, small towns have been portrayed as backward, insular places needing to be escaped. But anthropologists tell us that the human species has spent more than 100,000 years living in villages of 100 to 150 people. This is where the oldest part of our brain, the limbic system, grew and adapted to become a very sophisticated instrument for reading other people's emotions and figuring out how we might cooperate to find food, shelter and protection. By comparison, the frontal cortex, which helps us do our taxes, drive a car and download cat videos, is a very recent aftermarket addition, like a sunroof. And it is the village where almost half the world's population still chooses to live. Finding Larkspur takes a walk through the Canadian village of the twenty-first century, observing customs and traditions that endure despite the best efforts of Twitter, Facebook and Amazon. The author looks at the buildings and organizations left over from the old rural community, why they were built in the first place and how they have adapted to the modern day. The post office, the general store, the church, the school and the service club all remain standing, but they operate quite differently than they did for our ancestors. Drawing from his experience working in rural communities across Canada and in other countries, Needles reveals how a national conversation may be driven by urban voices but the national character is often very much a product of its small towns and back roads."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Sociology, Rural; Villages; Villages;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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