Biography & Autobiography
...and along came Alexis
By Emma Pivato
And Along Came Alexis is a book about choices and consequences. The author’s youngest daughter, Alexis, was born in 1978 with multiple disabilities, including blindness, an intractable seizure disorder and spastic quadriplegia. The choice to keep her at home despite medical ... Read more
(ideas of reference)
By Mike Barnes
A poet recounts his experience with madness and explores the relationship between apprehension and imagination.
In the summer of 1977, standing on a roadside somewhere between Dachau and Munich, twenty-two-year-old Mike Barnes experienced the dawning of the psychic break he’d ... Read more
32 Short Views of Mazo de La Roche
By Daniel Bratton
Honourable Mention in Quill & Quire's "Best Books of 1996" This unconventional biography of the woman who wrote Jalna and other chronicles of the Whiteoak family, approaches her life from multiple angles, including an interview with an old neighbour of the subject; critical ... Read more
A Bite of the Apple
By Lennie Goodings
A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book for 2020
Carmen is vigorously polishing one of our three telephones. I am just twenty-five, Canadian, new to Britain and in awe of this formidable woman but as there are only two of us in the office I feel emboldened to ask: “Why did you start ... Read more
A Brief History of Oversharing
By Shawn Hitchins
Narrator Shawn Hitchins
Musings from a “one-man flash mob” (Toronto Star)
Comedian Shawn Hitchins explores his irreverent nature in this debut collection of essays. Hitchins doesn’t shy away from his failures or celebrate his mild successes — he sacrifices them for an audience’s amusement. ... Read more
A Bright and Steady Flame
By Luanne Armstrong
In 1974, after escaping an abusive marriage, Luanne Armstrong struggled with poverty and caring for four small children. During this time, the author and Sam Moore began their friendship; they were both young single parents in crisis, and needed to change their lives. They supported ... Read more
A Chance for Life
By Suzanne Giroux & Robyn Burnett
Telling the story of a woman who constantly walked a fine line between life and death, this autobiography reveals one woman`s struggles, from breast cancer and miscarriages to the loss of a fiance and an abusive relationship with a man who ended up an alcoholic and adulterer. ... Read more
A Cowherd in Paradise
By May Q. Wong
In 2006, the Prime Minister apologized to the Chinese people for the legislated discrimination created by Canada’s head tax laws in the first half of the twentieth century, acknowledging the far-reaching and long-term consequences it has had on their families. A Cowherd in ... Read more
A Family Outing
By Ruby Remenda Swanson
Ruby Swanson’s life changed when her sixteen-year-old son walked to her office, closed the door, and with his hand still on the doorknob said, “I’m gay. ” Despite her initial reaction of shock, fear, and denial, Ruby became a public advocate for equality and acceptance ... Read more
