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Degrees of separation [graphic novel] : a decade north of 60 / by McCreesh, Alison,author,illustrator.;
At age 21, Alison hitchhiked to the Yukon and spent the summer living in a tent. 10 years later, in the deep of winter and seven months pregnant, she returns. Degrees of Separation is about what happened in between. Over the course of a decade, artist Alison McCreesh lived, worked, and travelled north of the 60th parallel. Through a combination of autobiographical stories, drawings and sketches, Degrees of Separation offers an intimate and understated glimpse of the North as Alison experienced it. From frigid days spent killing time while stranded in the High Arctic, to the challenges of raising a baby in a small shack with no running water, it is one young woman's personal experience of both passing through and of setting down roots. Tinged with McCreesh's characteristic blend of humour and humanity, Degrees of Separation is about the north and its vastness and its diversity. While the backdrop may seem foreign to many, this collection is also a universal exploration of those transformative years from young-adulthood to motherhood. It's a graphic novel navigating themes of connection and disconnect, between the north and the south, but also between different norths and between our different selves.
Subjects: Biographical comics.; Nonfiction comics.; Autobiographical comics.; Graphic novels.; Personal narratives.; Travel comics.; McCreesh, Alison; McCreesh, Alison; McCreesh, Alison; McCreesh, Alison; Artists; Travelers' writings, Canadian; Women cartoonists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Inspire : life lessons from the wilderness / by Fogle, Ben,1973-author.;
Writing during the coronavirus pandemic, Ben Fogle revisits some of his most meaningful encounters with nature, from idyllic childhood summers on Canadian lakes and his time spent castaway on a remote Hebridean island to close calls swimming with crocodiles in Botswana. Drawing on a wealth of personal anecdotes, Fogle reflects on the significance of nature to all our lives and shows us how, even in lockdown, we can all live a little more wild.
Subjects: Fogle, Ben, 1973-; Travel; Natural history.; Motivation (Psychology);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Around England with a dog / by Choyce, Lesley,1951-author.;
The story of two seasoned and intrepid Canadian travellers, Lesley and Linda Choyce, who embark on a new adventure with their West Highland terrier, Kelty. Lesley Choyce is a 70-year-old year-round North Atlantic surfer, the godfather of transcendental wood-splitting, and the award-winning author of over 100 books. His wife, Linda, a former high school principal who has fearlessly commandeered knives from teenage malcontents, usually guides her husband away from quixotic quests, but she is fully on board for this one. As for Kelty, the couple's West Highland terrier, he's always ready to give up on chewing shoes and chasing pheasants for something more exciting. For years, Lesley has been fascinated and perplexed by the tumultuous history of England, the inexplicable customs of the English, and the many paradoxes of the people, but also their indomitable spirit. If he were to continue to grow intellectually and spiritually, he was certain that the answers to the meaning of life were to be found in England. As their itinerary expands, Lesley and Linda will cross borders into Wales and Scotland as well. Join the Choyces as they hurtle around the U.K. in search of history (all kinds), good food (mostly Indian), quirky destinations (the smaller and weirder the better), and places for the dog to pee. All while waiting for the imminent arrival of new grandchildren back home in Canada. Ever wondered what a Nova Scotian surfer/wood-splitter/Renaissance man/Westie owner thinks of the U.K.? Now you can find out.
Subjects: Travel writing.; Choyce, Lesley, 1951-; Travel with dogs;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The drive across Canada : the remarkable story of the Trans-Canada Highway / by Richardson, Mark,1962-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.The Trans-Canada Highway is one of the longest highways in the world--7,700 kilometres from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Victoria, British Columbia, with almost the same distance again on secondary routes. It's ironically Canadian, but its story is a long and winding journey. In The Drive Across Canada, automotive journalist Mark Richardson tells the stories of the pioneers who first drove across the country in the early days of cars and motorcycles, even before any roads existed, and of the political fight to create a physical link that would connect Canadians to every province of their vast country. Richardson drove the length of the Trans-Canada Highway in 2023, repeating the drive he first completed in 2012. In his most recent journey, he encounters a hurricane in Newfoundland, a firestorm in British Columbia, and unspeakable tragedies on the Prairies. He meets people whose lives have been changed by the highway, sometimes in ways they could never have imagined, and along the way the highway changes his life too.
Subjects: Travel writing.; Richardson, Mark, 1962-; Automobile travel; Roads;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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From the tundra to the trenches / by Weetaltuk, Eddy,1932-2005,author.; Martin, Thibault,1963-editor,writer of foreword.; St-Amand, Isabelle,writer of introduction.;
Includes bibliographical references."'My name is Weetaltuk; Eddy Weetaltuk. My Eskimo tag name is E9-422.' So begins From the 'Tundra to the Trenches.' Weetaltuk means 'innocent eyes' in Inuktitut, but to the Canadian government, he was known as E9-422: E for Eskimo, 9 for his community, 422 to identify Eddy. In 1951, Eddy decided to leave James Bay. Because Inuit weren't allowed to leave the North, he changed his name and used this new identity to enlist in the Canadian Forces: Edward Weetaltuk, E9-422, became Eddy Vital, SC-17515, and headed off to fight in the Korean War. In 1967, after fifteen years in the Canadian Forces, Eddy returned home. He worked with Inuit youth struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, and, in 1974, started writing his life's story. This compelling memoir traces an Inuk's experiences of world travel and military service. Looking back on his life, Weetaltuk wanted to show young Inuit that they can do and be what they choose. From the Tundra to the Trenches is the fourth book in the First Voices, First Texts series, which publishes lost or underappreciated texts by Indigenous writers. This new English edition of Eddy Weetaltuk's memoir includes a foreword and appendix by Thibault Martin and an introduction by Isabelle St-Amand."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Weetaltuk, Eddy, 1932-2005.; Inuit; Korean War, 1950-1953; Soldiers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The weight of sand : my 450 days held hostage in the Sahara / by Blais, Edith,1984-author.; Grubisic, Katia,translator.; translation of:Blais, Edith,1984-Sablier.English.;
"An evocative, earth-shattering memoir about one woman's kidnapping and 450 days of captivity at the hands of terrorists-and her stunning escape to freedom. In January 2019, news outlets reported that a young Canadian woman and her Italian companion were presumed kidnapped while traveling in Africa's Sahel region, a haven for Islamic terrorists. Little was known about the pair's fate until they reappeared in Mali more than one year later, having apparently escaped their captors. Now, in The Weight of Sand, Edith Blais describes her harrowing hostage experience for the first time-and reveals that writing poetry in secret helped save her life. Edith recounts the prolonged terror of her months as a hostage, enduring violent sandstorms, constant relocations, grueling hunger strikes, extreme isolation, and the unpredictability of her captors. She also shares the luminous poems she wrote in secret with a borrowed pen, which became a lifeline of creativity and one of the few possessions she smuggled out in her escape, strapped to her leg under her clothes. A compelling descent into a strange, brutal universe, The Weight of Sand is ultimately a life-affirming book-a celebration of resilience by a woman who refused to have her humanity stripped away from her."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Blais, Edith, 1984-; Blais, Edith, 1984-; Hostages; Hostages; Kidnapping victims; Kidnapping victims; Terrorism;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Notes on a writers' life : a memoir / by Richards, David Adams,author.;
Notes on a Writer's Life is the author's account of his more than fifty years as a writer. It chronicles his early childhood, his high school years of turmoil and rebellion, and his uneasy relationship with both publishers and academics. Throughout, Richards records his continuous investigation into human conflict, into the chasm between the seeking of power and the knowledge of love. The book also deliberates on his examination into the nature of violence, both overt and coercive, that he has considered in thirty-five books. Richards describes his travels to various parts of the world, his love of the sea, his love of Spain, and his fight against alcoholism. Crucially and poignantly, he recounts how for years his wife Peggy has been his greatest ally and supporter. Notes on a Writer's Life also includes his relationships with other writers--his respect for Alden Nowlan, Alistair MacLeod, P.K. Page, Joel Hines, and Patrick Lane, and his friendship with Ray Fraser among others. Here, too, are his views on writers like Orwell, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. Readers will learn of his determination to write against the odds, from the early books like The Coming of Winter, Blood Ties and Lives of Short Duration, to his later works, such as Mercy Among the Children, Crimes Against My Brother, and Darkness. Richards believes that suffering is inherent and so is joy. He reflects on the absolute necessity of reaching toward a spiritual life (if not a religious one) as well as his knowledge of war and revolutions, and how both swallow humanity's greater need for justice and liberty.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Richards, David Adams.; Authorship.; Authors, Canadian (English);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Is a river alive? / by Macfarlane, Robert,1976-author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-345) and index."From the celebrated nature writer, observer and advocate Robert Macfarlane, a brilliant, immersive and paradigm-shifting book that says an emphatic yes to the question it asks. Robert Macfarlane writes, "At the heart of Is A River Alive? is a single, powerful idea: that rivers, forests, glaciers and mountains are living beings, and that as such they have rights that should be recognized both in imagination and in law. The river has the right to flow unimpeded to the sea; the old-growth forest the right not to be felled; the mountain the right not to be disembowelled for coal." This idea -- known as the Rights of Nature -- is driving a conceptual and legal revolution, largely led by Indigenous and non-white activists who are succeeding at challenging the Western legal system to think beyond the idea of nature as material for humans to exploit to a future where regarding all of nature as a living entity may ensure our survival. The book flows like water, from the mountains to the sea, following three major journeys Macfarlane undertakes with local activists: to Ecuador where a recent court decision protects the ancient cedars of the cloud forests from Canadian mining activity; to India, where the fight to revive rivers that start in the glaciers of the Himalayas and empty into the ocean and polluted lagoons of Chennai is not yet won; and to northeastern Quebec where in 2021 an alliance between the local Innu nation and the regional municipal council declared the Mutehekau (Magpie) River a living being, with legal rights. Along with the voices of his fellow travellers, Macfarlane's own voice and incomparable gifts of expression carry immeasurable power to open hearts, spark conversations and challenge perspectives, making Is A River Alive? not only a wondrous literary experience but a powerful rallying cry in the environmental justice movement"--
Subjects: Macfarlane, Robert, 1976-; Environmentalism.; Rights of nature.; Rivers; Rivers;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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