Results 281 to 290 of 345 | « previous | next »
- Flora! : a woman in a man's world / by MacDonald, Flora,1926-2015,author.; Stevens, Geoffrey,1940-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Flora Isabel MacDonald--politician, humanitarian, adventurer, and role model for a generation of women--was known across Canada and beyond simply as Flora. In her memoir, co-authored by award-winning journalist and author Geoffrey Stevens, she tells her personal story for the very first time. Flora describes her amazing journey from her childhood and secretarial school in Cape Breton through her years in backroom Progressive Conservative politics, to elected office and her appointment as Canada's first female foreign minister. Finally, she details her exceptional humanitarian work in India and in war-torn Africa and Afghanistan. Flora was driven by a lifelong conviction that there is nothing a woman cannot achieve in a world controlled by men, and she pursued this conviction in everything she did, carving a path for women in Parliament. She won international acclaim for bringing 60,000 Vietnamese refugees to Canada, and for engineering the rescue of six American hostages in Tehran in a top-secret collaboration with the CIA known as the the Canadian Caper. She exposed the inhumane treatment of inmates at Kingston's Prison for Women. She defied male chauvinists in the Progressive Conservative party by running for its leadership, and she introduced the Employment Equity Act to guarantee women equal access to federal jobs. Flora was brave. She was relentless. She was controversial. She was a force of nature. In her own words and drawing from interviews with those who knew her, Flora grants us insight into this exceptional woman who changed the course of history"--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; MacDonald, Flora, 1926-2015.; Human rights workers; Legislators; Politicians; Women human rights workers; Women legislators; Women politicians;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Orwell's roses / by Solnit, Rebecca,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A fresh take on George Orwell as a far more nature-loving figure than is often portrayed, and a dazzlingly rich meditation on roses, gardens, and the value and use of beauty and pleasure in the face of brutality and horror. "In the spring of 1936 a man planted roses." That man was George Orwell, shortly before he went off to fight against fascism in Spain. Today, those rosebushes are still thriving. This is the starting point for Rebecca Solnit's new book, which presents another side of Orwell, a neglected arcadian Orwell who took enormous pleasure in the natural world and found great meaning and value in it. Orwell's planting of the roses is an axle from which Solnit's chapters radiate out like spokes as she brilliantly explores its various contexts, perspectives, and meanings, following the contours of Orwell's life and tracking how deeply enmeshed the love of nature is in all his writing. Journeying to the cottage in Wallingford where Orwell lived in 1936, she examines his desire to be agrarian and settled, how gardening restored him, and how planting something can be an act of fidelity and faith. Probing at the beauty and meaning of roses, she draws in the revolutionary photography and politics of Tina Modotti and makes a clandestine visit to a Columbian rose factory, where 80% of America's roses for sale are grown. She tracks the history of gardening, showing how the desire to garden is culturally determined and often rooted in class, recounts the immense battles over breeding and genetics in Russia during Stalin's time, and probes into the colonialist roots of Orwell's forebears, who worked in opium production in India and profiteered from sugar and slavery in Jamaica. Solnit shows how these points of intersection illuminate Orwell's work, and how that illumination shines forth on larger questions about beauty, pleasure, meaning, relationship, and hope. Her book establishes that "Orwellian" could stand for something more than ominous, corrupt, and sinister"--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Orwell, George, 1903-1950; Orwell, George, 1903-1950.; Authors, English; Gardening.; Nature.; Roses.;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Night flight to Paris / by Black, Cara,1951-author.;
"October 1942: it's been two years since Kate Rees was sent to Paris on a British Secret Service mission to assassinate Hitler. Since then, she has left spycraft behind to take a training job as a sharpshooting instructor in the Scottish Highlands. But her quiet life is violently disrupted when Colonel Stepney, her former handler, drags her back into the fray for a dangerous three-pronged mission in Paris. Each task is more dangerous than the next: Deliver a package of penicillin to sick children. Assassinate a high-ranking German operative whose knowledge of secret invasion plans could turn the tide of the war against the Allies. Rescue a British agent who once saved Kate's life, and get out. Kate will encounter sheiks and spies, poets and partisans, as she races to keep up with the constantly shifting nature of her assignment, showing every ounce of her Oregonian grit in the process. New York Times bestselling author Cara Black has crafted another heart-stopping thrill ride that reveals a portrait of Paris at the height of the Nazi occupation"--
- Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Historical fiction.; Spy fiction.; Novels.; Attempted assassination; Snipers; World War, 1939-1945;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- The art of dying / by Parry, Ambrose,author.;
"Edinburgh, 1849. Despite being at the forefront of modern medicine, hordes of patients are dying all across the city, with doctors finding their remedies powerless. But it is not just the deaths that dismay the esteemed Dr James Simpson - a whispering campaign seeks to blame him for the death of a patient in suspicious circumstances. Simpson's protégé Will Raven and former housemaid Sarah Fisher are determined to clear their patron's name. But with Raven battling against the dark side of his own nature, and Sarah endeavouring to expand her own medical knowledge beyond what society deems acceptable for a woman, the pair struggle to understand the cause of the deaths. Will and Sarah must unite and plunge into Edinburgh's deadliest streets to clear Simpson's name. But soon they discover that the true cause of these deaths has evaded suspicion purely because it is so unthinkable"--
- Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Historical fiction.; Medical fiction.; Physicians; Medical students; Women household employees; Murder; Scandals;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- We will be jaguars : a memoir of my people / by Nenquimo, Nemonte,author.; Anderson, Mitch,author.;
"From a fearless, internationally acclaimed activist, We will be jaguars is an impassioned memoir about an indigenous childhood, a clash of cultures, and the fight to save the Amazon rainforest and protect her people. Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuador's Amazon rainforest -- one of the last to be contacted by missionaries in the 1950s -- Nemonte Nenquimo had a singular upbringing. She was taught about plant medicines, foraging, oral storytelling, and shamanism by her elders. She played barefoot in the forest and didn't walk on pavement, or see a car, until she was a teenager and left to study with an evangelical missionary group in the city. But after Nemonte's ancestors began appearing in her dreams, pleading with her to return and embrace her own culture, she listened. Nemonte returned to the forest and traditional ways of life and became one of the most forceful voices in climate change activism. She spearheaded an alliance of Indigenous nations across the Upper Amazon and led her people to a landmark victory against Big Oil, protecting over a half million acres of primary rainforest. We Will Be Jaguars is an astonishing memoir by an equally astonishing woman. Nemonte digs into generations of oral history, uprooting centuries of conquest, and hacking away at racist notions of Indigenous peoples. Ultimately, she reveals a life story as rich, harsh, and vital as the Amazon rainforest herself"--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Nenquimo, Nemonte.; Indigenous peoples; Nature; Rain forest conservation; Rain forests; Women political activists;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Futurekind : design by and for the people / by Phillips, Robert(Product designer),author.; Béhar, Yves,1967-writer of foreword.;
We have grown accustomed to two beliefs: the first, that only experts can be designers; the second, that our everyday activities are harming the natural world. Yet, with new platforms, digital communication and engaged online communities, the products we can now design - and truly need - can be made by anyone for social and environmental good. Social design can see that primary school children learn to code, and uses local information in off-grid locations to create global change. Open-source design is enabling us to re-make our world right now. Structured into eight areas of application, from healthcare to education, this book showcases over sixty projects - not the kind you see in glossy magazines or online, but the ones that have made a genuine difference to communities and lives around the world. Rather than being client-driven, as commercial design often is, each project here is the result of designers who reach out, communities who get involved and the technologies that helping people to realize ideas together. From a playground-powered water pump in South Africa to a DIY budget cellphone, each of these groundbreaking projects is presented through fascinating and life-affirming stories, diagrams that reveal the mechanisms and motivations behind each design approach, and photography that celebrates the humanity of the endeavour.
- Subjects: Community development.; Social entrepreneurship.; Sustainable design.; Technological innovations.; Design;
- 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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- The underworld : journeys to the depths of the ocean / by Casey, Susan,1962-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."From New York Times bestselling author Susan Casey, an awe-inspiring portrait of the mysterious world beneath the waves, and the men and women who seek to uncover its secrets For all of human history, the deep ocean has been a source of wonder and terror, an unknown realm that evoked a singular, compelling question: What's down there? Unable to answer this for centuries, people believed the deep was a sinister realm of fiendish creatures and deadly peril. But now, cutting-edge technologies allow scientists and explorers to dive miles beneath the surface, and we are beginning to understand this strange and exotic underworld: A place of soaring mountains, smoldering volcanoes, and valleys 7,000 feet deeper than Everest is high, where tectonic plates collide and separate, and extraordinary life forms operate under different rules. Far from a dark void, the deep is a vibrant realm that's home to pink gelatinous predators and shimmering creatures a hundred feet long and ancient animals with glass skeletons and sharks that live for half a millennium--among countless other marvels. Susan Casey is our premiere chronicler of the aquatic world. For The Underworld she traversed the globe, joining scientists and explorers on dives to the deepest places on the planet, interviewing the marine geologists, marine biologists, and oceanographers who are searching for knowledge in this vast unseen realm. She takes us on a fascinating journey through the history of deep-sea exploration, from the myths and legends of the ancient world to storied shipwrecks we can now reach on the bottom, to the first intrepid bathysphere pilots, to the scientists who are just beginning to understand the mind-blowing complexity and ecological importance of the quadrillions of creatures who live in realms long thought to be devoid of life. Throughout this journey, she learned how vital the deep is to the future of the planet, and how urgent it is that we understand it in a time of increasing threats from climate change, industrial fishing, pollution, and the mining companies that are also exploring its depths. The Underworld is Susan Casey's most beautiful and thrilling book yet, a gorgeous evocation of the natural world and a powerful call to arms"--
- Subjects: Deep-sea sounding.; Marine ecology.; Marine ecosystem health.; Ocean bottom.; Ocean; Ocean.; Oceanography; Submarine topography.;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Silent spring revolution : John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the great environmental awakening / by Brinkley, Douglas,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 705-819) and index.Acclaimed historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles in vivid detail how the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring - and Carson's close partnership with President John F. Kennedy and his administration - launched the modern environmental movement. With Silent Spring Revolution, Brinkley thrillingly caps an arc of work exploring the 20th century histories of the Presidency and ecological awareness in the US, how we moved from the conservation imperatives of Theodore Roosevelt to today's intentional activism is a twisty tale of fits and starts, politics, money, villains, and heroes. Brinkley pays tribute to those who combated the mauling of the natural world in the Long Sixties: Rachel Carson (a marine biologist and author), David Brower (director of the Sierra Club), Barry Commoner (an environmental justice advocate), Coretta Scott King (an antinuclear activist), Stewart Udall (the secretary of the interior), William O. Douglas (Supreme Court justice), Cesar Chavez (a labor organizer), and other crusaders are profiled with verve and insight. With the United States grappling with climate change and resource exhaustion, this meticulously researched and deftly written book reminds us that a new generation of twenty-first-century environmentalists can save the planet from ruin.
- Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Carson, Rachel, 1907-1964.; Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973.; Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963.; Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994.; Conservationists; Environmentalism; Environmentalists;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Soundings : journeys in the company of whales : a memoir / by Cunningham, Doreen,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."In this memoir of motherhood, love, and resilience, a woman and her toddler son follow the grey whale migration from Mexico to northernmost Alaska. In this striking blend of nature writing, whale science, and memoir, Doreen Cunningham interweaves two stories: tracking the extraordinary northward migration of the grey whales with a mischievous toddler in tow and living with an Iñupiaq family in Alaska seven years earlier. Throughout the journey she explores the stories of the whales and their young calves-their history, their habits, and their attempts to survive the changes humans have brought to the ocean. Cunningham's voice is powerful: sharp, profound, sensitive, and unflinching. A story of courage and resilience, Soundings is about the migrating whales and all we can learn from them as they mother, adapt, and endure, their lives interrupted and threatened by global warming. It is also a riveting journey onto the Arctic Sea ice and into the changing world of Indigenous whale hunters, where Doreen becomes immersed in the ancient values of the Iñupiaq whale hunt and falls in love. For this is Doreen's story, too-a fierce, feminist tale, touching on her childhood and her time living in a Women's Refuge with her baby, becoming a mother, just like the whales. Lyrical, brave, and fearlessly honest, Soundings is an unforgettable journey"--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Cunningham, Doreen; Cunningham, Doreen.; Inupiat; Nature; Single mothers; Whales; Women journalists;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 281 to 290 of 345 | « previous | next »