Search:

Results 211 to 220 of 239 | « previous |

The fight for history : 75 years of forgetting, remembering, and remaking Canada's Second World War / by Cook, Tim,author.;
"A masterful telling of the way World War Two has been remembered, forgotten, and remade by Canada over seventy-five years. The Second World War shaped modern Canada. It led to the country's emergence as a middle power on the world stage; the rise of the welfare state; industrialization, urbanization, and population growth. After the war, Canada increasingly turned toward the United States in matters of trade, security, and popular culture, which then sparked a desire to strengthen Canadian nationalism from the threat of American hegemony. The Fight for History examines how Canadians framed and reframed the war experience over time. Just as the importance of the battle of Vimy Ridge to Canadians rose, fell, and rose again over a 100-year period, the meaning of Canada's Second World War followed a similar pattern. But the Second World War's relevance to Canada led to conflict between veterans and others in society--more so than in the previous war--as well as a more rapid diminishment of its significance. By the end of the 20th century, Canada's experiences in the war were largely framed as a series of disasters. Canadians seemed to want to talk only of the defeats at Hong Kong and Dieppe or the racially driven policy of the forced relocation of Japanese-Canadians. In the history books and media, there was little discussion of Canada's crucial role in the Battle of the Atlantic, the success of its armies in Italy and other parts of Europe, or the massive contribution of war materials made on the home front. No other victorious nation underwent this bizarre reframing of the war, remaking victories into defeats. The Fight for History is about the efforts to restore a more balanced portrait of Canada's contribution in the global conflict. This is the story of how Canada has talked about the war in the past, how we tried to bury it, and how it was restored. This is the history of a constellation of changing ideas, with many historical twists and turns, and a series of fascinating actors and events."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: World War, 1939-1945; Collective memory; Memorialization;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

1666 : a novel / by Chilton, Lora,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-200)."The survival story of the Patawomeck Tribe of Virginia has been remembered within the tribe for generations, but the massacre of Patawomeck men and the enslavement of women and children by land hungry colonists in 1666 has been mostly unknown outside of the tribe until now. Author Lora Chilton, a member of the tribe through the lineage of her father, has created this powerful fictional retelling of the survival of the tribe through the lives of three women. 1666: After the Massacre is the imagined story of the indigenous Patawomeck women who lived through the decimation of their tribe in the summer of 1666. Told in first person point of view, this historical novel is the harrowing account of the Patawomeck women who were sold and transported to Barbados via slave ship. The women are separated and bought by different sugar plantations, and their experiences as slaves diverge as they encounter the decadence and clashing cultures of the Anglican, Quaker, Jewish and African populations living in sugar rich "Little England" in the 1660's. The book explores the Patawomeck customs around food, family and rites of passage that defined daily life before the tribe was condemned to "utter destruction" by vote of the Virginia General Assembly. The desire to return to the land they call home fuels the women as they bravely plot their escape from Barbados. With determination and guile, Ah'SaWei WaTaPaAnTam (Golden Fawn) and NePa'WeXo (Shining Moon) are able to board separate ships and make their way back to Virginia to be reunited with the remnant of the tribe that remained. It is because of these women that the tribe is in existence to this day. This work of historical fiction is based on oral tradition, written colonial records and extensive research by the author, including study of the language. The book uses indigenous names for the characters and some of the Patawomeck language to honor the culture and heritage that was erased when European colonization of the Americans began in the 16th century. The book includes a glossary for readers unfamiliar with the language and names"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Enslaved persons; Indigenous peoples; Indigenous women; Indigenous women; Massacres; Potomac Indians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Fever Beach : A Novel. by Hiaasen, Carl.;
Another instant classic from Carl Hiaasenlaugh-out-loud funny, tackling the current chaotic and polarized American culture (following in the path of Squeeze Me), with two wonderful new Hiaasen heroesThe afternoon of September first, dishwater-gray and rainy, a man named Dale Figgo picked up a hitchhiker on Gus Grissom Boulevard in Tangelo Falls, Florida. The hitchhiker, who reminded Figgo of Danny DeVito, asked for a lift to the interstate. Figgo said hed take him there after finishing an errand.Thus begins Fever Beach, with an errand that leadsin pure Hiaasen-styleinto the depths of Florida at its most Floridian: a sun-soaked bastion of right-wing extremism, white power, greed, and corruption. Figgo, it turns out, is the only hate-monger ever to be kicked out of the Proud Boys for being too dumb and incompetent. On January 6, 2021 he thought he was defacing a statue of Ulysses S. Grant, but he wound up spreading feces all over a statue of James Zacharia George, a Civil War Confederate war leader.Figgo's already messy life is about to get more complicated, thanks to two formidable adversaries. Viva Morales is a newly transplanted Floridian, a clever woman recently taken to the cleaners by her ex-husband, now working at the Mink Foundation, a supposedly philanthropical organization, and renting a room in Figgos apartment because theres no place else she can afford. Twilly Spree has an anger management problem, especially when it comes to those who deface the environment, and way too many inherited millions of dollars. He's living alone a year after his dog died, two years after he sank a city councilmans party barge, and three years after his divorce.Viva and Twilly are plunged into a mysteryinvolving dark money and darker motivesthey are determined to solve, and become entangled in a world populated by some of Hiaasens most outrageous characters: Claude and Eletra Minkbillionaire philanthropists with way too much plastic surgery and a secret right-Library Bound Incorporated
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; FICTION / Humorous / General; FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General; FICTION / Thrillers / Suspense;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Before the lights go out : a season inside a game worth saving / by Fitz-Gerald, Sean,author.;
" A love letter to a sport that's losing itself, from one of Canada's best sports writers. Canadian hockey is approaching a state of crisis. It's become more expensive, more exclusive, and effectively off-limits to huge swaths of the potential sports-loving population. Youth registration numbers are stagnant; efforts to appeal to new Canadians are often grim at best; the game, increasingly, does not resemble the country of which it's for so long been an integral part. These signs worried Sean Fitz-Gerald. As a lifelong hockey fan and father of a young mixed-race son falling headlong in love with the game, he wanted to get to the roots of these issues. His entry point: a season with the Peterborough Petes, a storied OHL team far from its former glory in a once-emblematic Canadian city that is finding itself on the wrong side of the country's changing demographics. Fitz-Gerald profiles the players, coaches and front office staff, a mix of world-class talents with NHL aspirations and Peterborough natives happy with more modest dreams. Through their experiences, their widely varied motivations and expectations, we get a rich, colourful understanding of who ends up playing hockey in Canada and why. Fitz-Gerald interweaves the action of the season with portraits of public figures who've shaped and been shaped by the game: authors who captured its spirit, politicians who exploited it, and broadcasters who try to embody and sell it. He finds his way into community meetings full of angry season ticket holders, as well as into sterile boardrooms full of the sport's institutional brain trust, unable to break away from the inertia of tradition and hopelessly at war with itself. Before the Lights Go Out is a moving, funny, yet unsettling picture of a sport at a crossroads. Fitz-Gerald's warm but rigorous journalistic approach reads, in the end, like a letter to a troubled friend: it's not too late to save hockey in this country, but who has the will to do it?"-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Peterborough Petes (Junior hockey team); Hockey teams; Hockey;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Mégantic : a deadly mix of oil, rail, and avarice / by Saint-Cerny, Anne-Marie,1954-author.; translation of:Saint-Cerny, Anne-Marie,1954-Mégantic.English.; Wilson, W. Donald,1938-translator.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Lac-Mégantic, Québec, Canada--July 6, 2013. During a hot summer night, a driverless, out-of-control train, firing explosive crude-oil bombs, descends the slope that leads to the scenic town below, pulverizing the downtown area, charring forty-seven trapped victims. The devastation leaves the people dazed ... but is quickly the object of an intentional and tortuous cover-up. Who are the tragedy's real culprits? How did the accident lead to the brutal death of forty-seven people, the suicides of several others, and the devastation of a whole community? Who took control of the crime scene? Who carried out the reconstruction, and for whose good? In this fascinating piece of investigative journalism, written like a thriller, Saint-Cerny reveals the inner workings of the 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster. She reveals how the tragedy, far from being just the "error of a faulty system," was knowingly caused by powerful people and institutions distant from the town itself. Iconic in more ways than one, Lac-Mégantic is a perfect capitalist tale. Conceived in the offices of Wall Street hedge funders, of Dakota black-gold cowboy magnates, of oil conglomerates, and set up by a political class entirely devoted to the interests of the rail industry, the disaster hit a population which, while still in shock, found itself at the mercy of local predators--the perfect illustration of Naomi Klein's shock doctrine. Despite everything, the transport of crude oil and dangerous products today has increased so much that it constitutes the rail industry's main source of profit. But the Government of Canada stubbornly refuses to shed light on the 2013 tragedy and identify its causes. The fruit of five years of work and interviews with nearly a hundred people from various backgrounds, including victims and their relatives, Mégantic: A Tragedy in Waiting, tells the story of the disaster in three acts--before, during, and after--in an investigation whose ultimate goal is to prevent the preventable."--
Subjects: Disaster victims; Lac-Mégantic Derailment, Lac-Mégantic, Québec, 2013.; Railroad accidents;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Hell's half-acre : the untold story of the Benders, a serial killer family on the American frontier / by Jonusas, Susan,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In 1873 the people of Labette County in Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried on a homestead seven miles south of the town of Cherryvale, in a bloodied cellar and under frost-covered soil, were countless bodies in varying states of decay. The discovery sent the local community and national newspapers into a frenzy that continued for over two decades, and the land on which the crimes took place became known as 'Hells Half-Acre.' When it emerged that a family of four known as the Benders had been accused of the slayings, the case was catapulted to infamy. The idea that a family of seemingly respectable homesteaders--one among thousands who were relocating further west looking for land and opportunity after the Civil War--were capable of operating 'a human slaughter pen' appalled and fascinated the nation. But who the Benders really were, why they committed such a vicious killing spree, and what became of them when they fled from the law is a mystery that has remains unsolved to this day--not that there aren't some convincing theories. Part gothic western, part literary whodunnit, and part immersive study of postbellum America, Hell's Half-Acre sheds new light on one of the most notorious cases in our nation's history while holding a torch to a society under the strain of rapid change and moral disarray. Susan Jonasus draws on extensive original archival material, and introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters, including the despairing families of the victims as well as the fugitives that helped the murderers escape. Hell's Half-Acre is not simply a book about a mass murder. It is a journey into the turbulent heart of nineteenth century America, a place where modernity stalks across the landscape, violently displacing existing populations and wearily building new ones. It is a world where folklore can quickly become fact, and an entire family of criminals can slip right through a community's fingers, only to reappear at the most unexpected of times"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Bender family.; Frontier and pioneer life.; Serial murderers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Mother daughter traitor spy : a novel / by MacNeal, Susan Elia,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-315)."From the New York Times bestselling author of the Maggie Hope series comes a tantalizing standalone novel about a mother and daughter who stumble upon an underground Nazi cell in Los Angeles during the early days of World War II-and find the courage to go undercover. June 1940. France has fallen to the Nazis, Britain is next-but to many Americans, the war is still something happening "over there." Veronica Grace has just graduated from college; she and her mother, Violet, the widow of a Navy commander, are looking for a fresh start in Los Angeles, where the sun always shines and the opportunities feel riper. Having taken a misstep that cost her a prestigious career opportunity back in New York, Veronica is relieved to take a temporary typing job-only torealize that she's working for one of L.A.'s most vicious anti-Semitic propagandists. Overnight, Veronica is exposed to the dark underbelly of the place she now calls home, where German Nazis are recruiting new American members and building a bunker in the Pacific Palisades for Hitler's anticipated visit to the West Coast. After the FBI dismisses their concerns for "lack of evidence," Veronica and Violet decide to call on an old friend of Violet's late husband-who introduces them to Ari Lewis, L.A.'s anti-Nazi spymaster. At once, the two blonde-haired, blue-eyed German American women go undercover and infiltrate the heart of Nazism in Los Angeles. Risking their lives, Veronica and Violet aim to gather enough information about the California Reich to taketo the authorities. But as the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor ripples through the Nazi population in Southern California, and President Roosevelt declares war, the Grace women realize that the plots they're investigating are far more sinister than they feared-and even a single misstep could cost them everything. Inspired by real events, Mother Daughter Traitor Spy is a powerful portrait of family, duty, and deception that raises timeless questions about America-and what it means to have courage in theface of terror"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Historical fiction.; Spy fiction.; Novels.; Anti-Nazi movement; Mothers and daughters; Undercover operations; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Lytton Climate Change, Colonialism and Life Before the Fire [electronic resource] : by Edwards, Peter.aut; Loring, Kevin.aut; cloudLibrary;
From bestselling true-crime author Peter Edwards and Governor General's Award-winning playwright Kevin Loring, two sons of Lytton, BC, the town that burned to the ground in 2021, comes a meditation on hometown―when hometown is gone. “It’s dire,” Greta Thunberg retweeted Mayor JanPolderman. “The whole town is on fire. It took a whole 15 minutes from the first sign of smoke to, all of a sudden, there being fire everywhere.” Before it made global headlines as the small town that burned down during a record-breaking heatwave in June 2021, while briefly the hottest placeon Earth, Lytton, British Columbia, had a curious past. Named for the author of the infamous line, “It was a dark and stormy night,” Lytton was also where Peter Edwards, organized-crime journalist and author of seventeen non-fiction books, spent his childhood. Although only about 500 people lived in Lytton, Peter liked to joke that he was only the second-best writer to come from his tiny hometown. His grade-school classmate’s nephew Kevin Loring, Nlaka’pamux from Lytton First Nation, had grown up to be a Governor General’s Award–winning playwright.         The Nlaka’pamux called Lytton “The Centre of the World,” a view Buddhists would share in the late twentieth century, as they set up a temple just outside town. A gold rush in 1858 saw conflict with a wave of Californians come to a head with the Canyon War at the junction of the mighty Fraser and Thompson rivers. The Nlaka’pamux lost over thirty lives in that conflict, as did the American gold seekers. In modern times, many outsiders would seek shelter there, often people who just didn’t fit anywhere else and were hoping for a little anonymity in the mountains.         Told from the shared perspective of an Indigenous playwright and the journalist son of a settler doctor who pushed back against the divisions that existed between populations, Lytton portrays all the warmth, humour and sincerity of small-town life. A colourful little town that burned to the ground could be every town’s warning if we don’t take seriously what this unique place has to teach us.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Canada; Rural; Native Americans;
© 2024., Random House of Canada,
unAPI

Letters / by Sacks, Oliver,1933-2015,author.; Edgar, Kate(Editor),editor.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The letters of one of the greatest observers of the human species, revealing his intimate thoughts on life and work, friendship and art, medicine and society, and the richness of his relationships with friends, family and scientists over the decades. A prolific correspondent, Dr. Oliver Sacks -- who describes himself variously in these pages as "a philosophical physician," "an astronomer of the inward," a "neuropathological Talmudist," and "a consummate observer" with "a pure love for phenomena" -- wrote letters throughout his life to his parents, his beloved Aunt Lennie, to friends and colleagues from London, Oxford, California, and around the world. The pages begin with his arrival in America as a young man, eager to establish himself away from the confines of postwar England, and carry us through his bumpy early career in medicine and the discovery of his writer's voice and métier; his weightlifting, motorcycle-riding years and his explosive seasons of discovery with the patients who populate his book Awakenings; his growing interest in matters of sight and the musical brain; his many friendships and exchanges with fellow writers, artists and scientists (to say nothing of astronauts, botanists, and mathematicians), and his deep gratitude for all these relationships at the end of his life. From Francis Crick and Jane Goodall to W. H. Auden and Susan Sontag, from lovers to patients, and ordinary folk who wrote to him with their odd symptoms and questions, all are treated equally to Sacks's lyrical, ferocious, penetrating and at times hilarious observations. His musings often contain the first detailed sketches of an essay forming in his mind. Sensitively introduced and edited by Kate Edgar, Sacks's longtime assistant (and one of his correspondents), the letters deliver a complete portrait of Sacks as he wrestles with the workings of the brain and mind. We see, through his eyes, the beginnings of modern neuroscience as it unlocks many secrets of how the human brain defines us. We experience the arc of a remarkable personal evolution, closely following the thought processes of one of the twentieth century's great intellectuals, whose life was long and productive and whose words, as evidenced in these pages, were unfailingly shaped with generosity and wonder toward other people"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal correspondence.; Personal narratives.; Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015; Sacks, Oliver, 1933-2015; Neurologists;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The knowledge : how to rebuild our world from scratch / by Dartnell, Lewis.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."How would you go about rebuilding a technological society from scratch? If our technological society collapsed tomorrow, perhaps from a viral pandemic or catastrophic asteroid impact, what would be the one book you would want to press into the hands of the postapocalyptic survivors? What crucial knowledge would they need to survive in the immediate aftermath and to rebuild civilization as quickly as possible-a guide for rebooting the world? Human knowledge is collective, distributed across the population. It has built on itself for centuries, becoming vast and increasingly specialized. Most of us are ignorant about the fundamental principles of the civilization that supports us, happily utilizing the latest-or even the most basic-technology without having the slightest idea of why it works or how it came to be. If you had to go back to absolute basics, like some sort of postcataclysmic Robinson Crusoe, would you know how to re-create an internal combustion engine, put together a microscope, get metals out of rock, accurately tell time, weave fibers into clothing, or even how to produce food for yourself? Regarded as one of the brightest young scientists of his generation, Lewis Dartnell proposes that the key to preserving civilization in an apocalyptic scenario is to provide a quickstart guide, adapted to cataclysmic circumstances. The Knowledge describes many of the modern technologies we employ, but first it explains the fundamentals upon which they are built. Every piece of technology rests on an enormous support network of other technologies, all interlinked and mutually dependent. You can't hope to build a radio, for example, without understanding how to acquire the raw materials it requires, as well as generate the electricity needed to run it. But Dartnell doesn't just provide specific information for starting over; he also reveals the greatest invention of them all-the phenomenal knowledge-generating machine that is the scientific method itself. This would allow survivors to learn technological advances not explicitly explored in The Knowledge as well as things we have yet to discover. The Knowledge is a brilliantly original guide to the fundamentals of science and how it built our modern world as well as a thought experiment about the very idea of scientific knowledge itself"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Discoveries in science; Knowledge, Theory of; Survival; Technology;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Results 211 to 220 of 239 | « previous |