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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: 0 / 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 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: 1 / 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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A Year of Last Things Poems [electronic resource] : by Ondaatje, Michael.aut; cloudLibrary;
One of the Globe and Mail's most anticipated books of 2024 With A Year of Last Things, acclaimed novelist Michael Ondaatje returns to poetry, where he began his career over fifty years ago, and what a return it is. Born in Sri Lanka during the Second World War, Ondaatje was sent as a child to school in London, and later moved to Canada. While he has lived here since, these poems reflect the life of a writer, traveller and watcher of the world – describing himself as a “mongrel,” someone born out of diverse cultures. Here, rediscovering the influence of every border crossed, he moves back and forth in time, from a childhood in Sri Lanka to Moliere’s chair during his last stage performance, from icons in Bulgarian churches to the California coast and loved Canadian rivers, merging memory with the present, looking back on a life of displacement and discovery, love and loss. At first sight it is a glittering collection of fragments and memories – but small, intricate pieces of a life are precisely what matter most to Ondaatje.  They make an emotional history. As he writes in the opening poem: “Reading the lines he loves / he slips them into a pocket, / wishes to die with his clothes / full of torn free stanzas / and the telephone numbers / of his children in far cities”.  Poetry – where language is made to work hardest and burns with a gem-like flame – is what Ondaatje has returned to in this intimate history.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Death, Grief, Loss; Love & Erotica; Places;
© 2024., McClelland & Stewart,
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