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LOOKING BACK

Memoirs / Biographies, Our Books
Author: Bess Burrows Rivett Synopsis: The fact that my mother decided to write a book when she was well into her late seventies did not surprise me. There is very little that my mother decides to do that surprises me anymore—nor would it be wise to try to dissuade her, although I did manage to get her to re-think her decision to go ice-skating with her grandson last year, when she was eighty-one. What did surprise me was how very interesting her story was. There were no earth-shattering experiences, no fascinating discoveries, no gripping adventures, but I found myself being taken back to a calmer time where enjoyments were far simpler and life was more serene. I found myself becoming very involved with this spirited, impish, mischievous child, and enjoying…
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ALASKA BURNING

Memoirs / Biographies, Our Books
Author: Jerry Ray Nelson Synopsis: Can it really become so hot that steam will rise from your sweaty body? It can happen, when the wind shifts and the heat of a forest fire is that intense. Emergency Fire Fighters (EFF), having been trained in safety and firefighting, know to expect the unexpected, as occasionally fires do turn on them. A surprising number of dedicated men and women, many of whom are Native Alaskans, spend their summers fighting forest fires in Alaska. Smoke Jumpers and Hot Shots are dispatched from the military style bases where they live. Emergency Fire Fighters live at home and belong to crews based in their villages. The EFF crews are called upon mainly to assist the Smoke Jumpers and Hot Shots fight fires by making fire…
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RED RIGHT RETURNING

Memoirs / Biographies, Our Books
Author: Joan Eyolfson Cadham Synopsis: Sailors will tell you: keep the red buoy on your right when returning to harbour. Joan Eyolfson Cadhan has returned after an unforgettable voyage. Red Right Returningis a love story – about a boat with a soul and the journey of two unsure people who fought their way to an enduring friendship. Because Joan and Jack discovered they both liked good food, included in the book are some of their favourite galley recipes. The book is not a recipe for a successful relationship; it is rather a menu of trials, tribulations and joys of the Skipper and the Viking, plus a few practical lessons learned about taking to the bounding waves in a small sailboat. Genre: Non-fiction/Memoir Price: $19.95 Published in: 1998 No. of Pages:…
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BREAKING THE ICE: AN ARCTIC ODYSSEY

Memoirs / Biographies, Our Books
Author: Arnold Ruskell Synopsis: Arnold Ruskell spent from 1946 to 1951 in Fort Chimo and Lake Harbour in the Eastern Arctic as an Anglican missionary. His flock, the Inuit, lived the life of their ancestors, untarnished by outside influences. The Inuit were reserved, stoic and fatalistic, yet cheerful, resourceful, and generous. Still fascinated by the people and their ability to survive in a hostile land, the author has, forty-five years later, written this story from his diaries of those years. His story is not a religious work, but rather an often hair-raising account of his experiences among the Inuit in the Eastern Arctic. A link between past and present, it is a description of a way of life which no longer exists. Says the author, “It was an unforgettable experience,…
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ZSUZSA NOT ZSAZSA: BALANCE WITH A SMILE

Memoirs / Biographies, Our Books
Author: Susan Romvary Synopsis: Zsuzsa not Zsazsa tells the story of Zsuzsa Romvary, the immigrant who didn’t know the difference between “push” and “pull”, later to become Susan Romvary, vice-president of the Montreal branch of Canadian Authors Association (CAA), Canada’s oldest writers’ organization. One of the stories in this collection, Montreal 1957-1977, Trust and Distrust, won first prize in a Montreal CAA Literary Competition and first prize again a year later in a competition sponsored by the Montreal Hungarian Literary Association. Genre: Non-fiction/Memoir Price: $11.95 Published in: 1992 No. of Pages: 117 ISBN: 0969518048
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THE SEPTEMBER YEARS

Memoirs / Biographies, Our Books
Author: Vera Gauley Munro Synopsis: Vera Gauley Munro, at age eighty-six, remembers and describes life in thirteen schools in and round Montreal, from 1925 to 1963. As a teacher and principal, she has been “privileged to sample lifestyles and culture,” from rural Avoca and Grenville, to inner-city Montreal and suburban Dorval. Her own school days in Grenville were the inspiration for her career in education. The School for Teachers at Macdonald College of McGill University started her on her way. Now, she says, “I have a deep and growing sense of my responsibility to share these memories of times that are so long gone. Genre: Non-fiction/Memoir Price: $16.95 Published in: 1994 No. of Pages: 160 ISBN: 0969518072
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DANDELIONS HELP

Memoirs / Biographies, Our Books
Author: Eve McBride Synopsis: Eve McBride has received hundreds of letters about her columns, but what really touched her was finding a column tacked to the inside of a friend’s kitchen cupboard door.  Through the columns, we see the passage of a personal journalist from the 80s to the 90s; her insightful reflections in a mutating society. Dandelions Helpis a collection of columns from the Gazette and the Toronto Star selected to reflect reader response over the years. Genre: Non-fiction/Memoir Price: $18.95 Published in: 1995 No. of Pages: 157 ISBN: 0969875258
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MILDRED MINTURN

Memoirs / Biographies, Our Books
Author: Leslie Minturn Allison Synopsis: “Mildred Minturn was born at a time (1875) when girls, particularly of her class, were expected to be totally dependent first upon their fathers, and then upon their husbands …” (From the Preface) Mildred’s college education at Bryn Mawr exposed her to the world of ideas and lifelong friends. There, she met Bertrand Russel, who was to become such a great influence in her life. Her travels through Europe opened her mind, as did meetings with such diverse figures as George Santayana, Rodin, Axel Munthe, and socialist leaders of the day. Mildred Minturngives us an intimate, turn-of-the-century glimpse of the hopes, frustrations, love of family, and quest for a life’s meaning of an uncommon woman. Genre: Non-fiction/Biography Price: $18.95 Published in: 1995 No. of Pages: 192…
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STREAM OF MEMORY: REFLECTIONS OF MEGANTIC COUNTY

Memoirs / Biographies, Our Books
Author: M. Laurel Buck Synopsis: “Laurel Buck remembers a spring stream flowing through the cellar of her grandfather’s Quebec farmhouse as an ancestral tongue that has licked her memories and infused her attention with messages of the power, the mystery, and the beauties of the natural world. In tracing the stream back to its fount, she has discovered something of the ancient and mystical connection that the Irish and their descendants have with the land, and the shadows that darken the land when it becomes a custodian of tragic family truth. Genre: Non-fiction/Memoir Price: $14.95 Published in: 1994 No. of Pages: 96 ISBN: 0969518099
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