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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 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 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 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 Published in: 1995 No. of Pages: 192 ISBN: 0969875231
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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 Published in: 1994 No. of Pages: 96 ISBN: 0969518099
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GIRL IN A CBC STUDIO

Memoirs / Biographies, Our Books
Author: Mary Peate Synopsis: Suburban housewife and mother Mary Peate did accept the challenge of having her own radio program, and her very popular show Teas & Trumpetsran until July 1965. Using a mix of personal experiences, comments on society and culture, with generous helpings of humour, the show also featured music from Peate’s extensive record collection.  Girl in a CBC Studiois more than a personal memoir. It is a picture of suburban life bedfore the Vietnam War, when a housewife on national radio was a raity, and toreador pants were not. It is also a fascinating look at earlier days of CBC Radio and Television and some of its key players. As with Mary Peate’s previous books, Girl in a Red River Coatand Girl in a Sloppy Joe Sweater, readers can identify…
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BEFORE THE SUNSET

Memoirs / Biographies, Our Books
Author: Eileen Gentle Synopsis: “The most outstanding characteristic of Grenada is its beauty,” writes Eileen Gentle. And behind the beauty of this Spice Island in the West Indies lies a fascinating history. In the 1800s, the author’s ancestors settled in this tiny outpost of the British Empire. Her account of the ensuing years encompasses estate life under British rule and the often-bloody struggle for independence. As family members are now scattered, the author wanted to acquaint her grandchildren with the life and times of four generations of their Grenada ancestors. Eileen Gentle has written not only a memoir, but a story of the island, with glimpses of the cultural and social life, education, economics, agriculture, architecture, government and politics. As her husband, Alan, a member of the Colonial Police Service,…
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WILHEMINA RETURNS TO ORROCK

Memoirs / Biographies, Our Books
Author: Wilhelmina Fair Hayes Synopsis: My grandmother, Wilhelmina Hayes, was born on September 28, 1920 in Scotland. She and her family moved to a farm in New Brunswick when she was eight years old. They moved to escape hard times but settled in an isolated community where making a living was more difficult than in Scotland. Five years after the move, Wilhelmina’s mother died of cancer. At the age of thirteen, my grandmother was left to take care of her two younger sisters. Due to the lack of money, she had to leave school at the end of eight grade to help her father with the housework and the children. In 1942, she married Lloyd Hayes who was a farmer and a lumberman. In order to make money, they lived…
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