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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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We oughta know : how Céline, Shania, Alanis, and Sarah ruled the '90s and changed music / by Warner, Andrea,author.; Shraya, Vivek,1981-writer of foreword.;
Includes bibliographical references."A lively collection of essays that re-examines the extraordinary legacies of the four Canadian women who dominated '90s music and changed the industry forever. Fully revised and updated, with a foreword by Vivek Shraya In this of-the-moment essay collection, celebrated music journalist Andrea Warner explores the ways in which Céline Dion, Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, and Sarah McLachlan became legit global superstars and revolutionized '90s music. In an era when male-fronted musical acts were given magazine covers, Grammys and Junos, and serious critical consideration, these four women were reduced, mocked, and disparaged by the media and became pop culture jokes even as their recordings were demolishing sales records. The world is now reconsidering the treatment and reputations of key women in '90s entertainment, and We Oughta Know is a crucial part of that conversation. With empathy, humor, and reflections on her own teenaged perceptions of Céline, Shania, Alanis, and Sarah, Warner offers us a new perspective on the music and legacies of the four Canadian women who dominated the '90s airwaves and influenced an entire generation of current-day popstars with their voices, fashion, and advocacy."--
Subjects: Dion, Céline.; McLachlan, Sarah.; Morissette, Alanis.; Twain, Shania.; Music, Influence of.; Popular music; Women singers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Funny you should say that / by Dee, Gerry,1968-author.;
"In a hilarious collection of comedic essays, Canada's top comic shares the funniest stories from his life and career. For nearly two decades, Gerry Dee has made audiences laugh, first as a hard-working stand-up comedian and then as the star of his own CBC television program, Mr. D. The former varsity hockey player and gym teacher has drawn from a lifetime of material, from growing up in the suburbs of Toronto to getting cut from his hockey team to becoming a physical education teacher and living what he figured would be the high life: summers off, short hours, great pay. Dee found in teaching an avocation, experiences, and adversity he never expected and hung on for the ride. Then one day, after years of dreaming of a career change to comedy, he turned in his whistle for a microphone and became one of Canada's top comics. He fought his way to the top after years of being told he just wasn't funny enough and that he had no chance. In his new book of comedic essays, Dee writes about the funniest moments in his life, whether stories of his childhood, becoming a father, starring in his own TV show, on the road in dank clubs as a stand-up comedian, behind the scenes at Last Comic Standing and Mr. D, and everywhere in between. As Johnny Cash once sang, "I've been everywhere, man," and the same is true for Gerry Dee, who's just about seen it all. He shares his choicest anecdotes in this new book of comedic essays for his legion of fans."--
Subjects: Essays.; Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Dee, Gerry, 1968-; Comedians; Comedians; Stand-up comedy;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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When the Irish invaded Canada : the incredible true story of the Civil War veterans who fought for Ireland's freedom / by Klein, Christopher,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The outlandish, untold story of the Irish-American revolutionaries who tried to free Ireland by invading Canada. Just over a year after Robert E. Lee relinquished his sword, a band of Union and Confederate veterans dusted off their guns. But these former foes had no intention of reigniting the Civil War. Instead, they were bound by a common goal: to seize the British province of Canada and to hold it hostage until the independence of Ireland was secured. By the time that these invasions--known together as the Fenian Raids--began in 1866, Ireland had been Britain's unwilling colony for seven hundred years. Thousands of Civil War veterans considered themselves Irishmen before they were Americans. They were those who fled rather than perish in the wake of the Great Hunger, and now they took their cue from a previous generation of successful American revolutionaries. With the tacit support of the U.S. government, the Fenian Brotherhood established a state in exile, planned prison breaks, weathered infighting, stockpiled weapons, and assassinated enemies. Defiantly, this motley group, including a one-armed war hero, an English spy infiltrating rebel forces, and a radical who staged his own funeral, managed to seize a piece of Canada--if only for three days. When the Irish Invaded Canada is the untold tale of a band of fiercely patriotic Irish-Americans and their chapter in Ireland's centuries-long fight for independence. Inspiring, lively, and often undeniably comic, this is a story of fighting for what's right in the face of impossible odds"--
Subjects: Fenians.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The story of us / by Hernandez, Catherine,1977-author.;
"Like many Overseas Filipino Workers, Mary Grace Concepcion has lived a life of sacrifices. First, she left her husband, Ale, to be a caregiver in Hong Kong. Now, she has travelled even farther, to Canada, in the hopes of one day sponsoring Ale and having children of their own. But when she arrives in Toronto, she must navigate a series of bewildering and careless employers and unruly children. Mary Grace seeks new employment as a Personal Support Worker and begins caring for Liz, an elderly patient suffering from Alzheimer's disease, whose health is as fragile as her rundown bungalow beside the Rouge River in Scarborough. While Mary Grace's time with her charge challenges her conservative beliefs, she soon becomes Liz's biggest ally, and the friendship that grows between them will turn out to be just as legendary as Liz's past. Beautifully narrated by the all-seeing eye of Mary Grace's newborn baby, The Story of Us is a novel about sisterhood, about blood and chosen family, and about how belonging can be found where we least expect it."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Alzheimer's disease; Caregivers; Female friendship; Filipinos; Foreign workers; Women caregivers;
Available copies: 3 / Total copies: 4
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The story of us : [Book Club Set] / by Hernandez, Catherine,1977-author.;
"Like many Overseas Filipino Workers, Mary Grace Concepcion has lived a life of sacrifices. First, she left her husband, Ale, to be a caregiver in Hong Kong. Now, she has travelled even farther, to Canada, in the hopes of one day sponsoring Ale and having children of their own. But when she arrives in Toronto, she must navigate a series of bewildering and careless employers and unruly children. Mary Grace seeks new employment as a Personal Support Worker and begins caring for Liz, an elderly patient suffering from Alzheimer's disease, whose health is as fragile as her rundown bungalow beside the Rouge River in Scarborough. While Mary Grace's time with her charge challenges her conservative beliefs, she soon becomes Liz's biggest ally, and the friendship that grows between them will turn out to be just as legendary as Liz's past. Beautifully narrated by the all-seeing eye of Mary Grace's newborn baby, The Story of Us is a novel about sisterhood, about blood and chosen family, and about how belonging can be found where we least expect it."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Alzheimer's disease; Caregivers; Female friendship; Filipinos; Foreign workers; Women caregivers;
Available copies: 13 / Total copies: 13
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The laundryman's boy : a novel / by Lee, Edward Y. C.,author.;
"Hoi Wing is immediately thrust into relentless, mind-numbing toil, washing clothes by hand for sixteen hours a day, six days a week. Without knowledge of English or western societal customs, he faces a daily onslaught of insults, taunts and physical violence from gangs of local bullies. Hoi Wing must also contend with Jonathan Braddock, a wealthy and influential entrepreneur who heads the Asiatic Exclusion League, which seeks to send the Chinese back to China. Isolated and friendless, Hoi Wing falls into despair as his dreams of education slip away. His greatest fear is that he will grow up to be uneducated and illiterate, knowing little more than how to darn socks or hem pants. But his life changes when he befriends Heather Ryan, an Irish scullery maid who shares his love of books and education. He also meets Martha MacIntosh, a former missionary to China, and her niece, Adele. With their help, Hoi Wing begins to learn English and wins a chance to achieve his greatest dream: attending secondary school in the town's public education system. A coming-of-age story that examines race, immigration, duty and friendship, The Laundryman's Boy is an enduring and moving tale about early newcomers to Canada and their struggle to succeed against all odds."--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Bildungsromans.; Novels.; Friendship; Immigrants; Laundries; Racism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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If I knew then : finding wisdom in failure and power in aging / by Arden, Jann,author,illustrator.;
"Jann Arden--bestselling author, recording artist and late-blooming TV star--is back with this funny, heartfelt and fierce memoir on becoming a woman of a certain age. The power, gravity and freedom she's found at fifty-seven are superpowers she believes all of us can unleash. Digging deep into her strengths, her failures and her losses, Jann Arden brings us an inspiring account of how she has surprised herself, in her fifties, by at last becoming completely her own person. Like many women, it took Jann a long time to realize that trying to be pleasing and likeable and beautiful in the eyes of others was a loser's game. Letting it rip, and damning the consequences, is not only liberating, it's a hell of a lot of fun: "Being the age I am--that so many women are--is just the best time of my life." Jann weaves her own story together with tales of her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, and the father she came close to hating, to show her younger self--and all of us--that fear and avoidance is no way to live. "What I'm thinking about now aren't all the ways I can try to hang on to my youth or all the seconds ticking by in some kind of morbid countdown to death," she writes, "but rather how I keep becoming someone I always hoped I could be. If I'm lucky one day a very old face will look back at me from the mirror, a face I once shied away from. I will love that old woman ferociously, because she has finally figured out how to live a life of purpose--not in spite of but because of all her mistakes and failures.""--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Arden, Jann.; Actresses; Aging.; Singers;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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