Non-Fiction for Adults

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All books listed in Braille Books Acquired that also have an equivalent Electronic Braille version will now have both the BR and the EB number listed in the entry.

Animals (science)

BR73900, EB73900 Horse: how the horse has shaped civilizations by J. Edward Chamberlin. 3 v. of braille. Chamberlin draws on archaeology, biology, art, literature and ethnography to describe the relationship between humans and horses throughout history - from Alexander the Great to Genghis Khan, from the Moors in Spain and the knights in France to the great horse cultures of native America. From the Ice Age to the Industrial Age, horses have provided sustenance, transportation, status, companionship and the ability to establish and expand empires. Included are stories of horses at work, at war and at play, both wild horses and famous horses, in paintings, books and movies. 2006.

Archeology

BR73902, EB73902 The island of seven cities: the discovery of a lost Chinese settlement in the Americas by Paul Chiasson. 4 v. of braille. 2002. Architect Paul Chiasson climbed a mountain on Cape Breton and found an old wide, well-made road, once flanked by walls. After two years of study, he believed that these ruins were originally built by the Chinese, as part of a large colony that thrived on Canadian shores well before the European Age of Discovery. Chiasson addresses how the colony was abandoned and forgotten except in the storytelling and culture of the Mi'kmaq, whose written language, clothing, technical knowledge, religious beliefs and legends expose deep cultural roots in China. 2006.

Biography

BR74046, EB74046 Searching for Bobby Orr by Stephen Brunt. 4 v. of braille. Bobby Orr redefined the defensive style of hockey - he was the first to infuse the defenseman position with offensive juice, driving up the ice, setting up players and scoring some goals of his own. He was the first player to win three straight MVP awards, the first defenseman to score twenty or more goals in a season. But history will also remember Bobby Orr as a key figure in the Alan Eagleson scandal, and as the unfortunate player forced into early retirement in 1978 because of his injuries. 2006.

BR73707, EB73707 Kepler's witch: an astronomer's discovery of cosmic order amid religious war, political intrigue, and the heresy trial of his mother by James A. Connor. 5 v. of braille. Professor's portrait of German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), considered "the father of celestial mechanics." Examines Kepler's tribulations and triumphs as a protestant scientist during the Thirty Years' War, the Reformation, and the Counter-Reformation. Describes events such as his mother's witchcraft trial. Includes Kepler's letters and journal entries. 2004.

BR73429, EB73429 The Icarus factor: the rise and fall of Edgar Bronfman Jr. by Rod McQueen. 5 v. of braille. Between 2000 and 2002, the value of the Bronfman family holdings in Seagram - swapped for shares in French media giant Vivendi SA - plummeted from US$8.2 billion to $2.2 billion. Edgar Bronfman Jr., heir to the family business, was spoiled as a child but given little guidance, and saddled with responsibilities not befitting his experience or years. Not surprisingly, his speedy rise to the top of the Bronfman empire was followed by his stunning crack-up as he blundered his way to failure. 2004.

BR73899, EB73899 High: confessions of a pot smuggler by Brian O'Dea. 4 v. of braille. The O'Dea family is well known in Newfoundland, but they could not protect their middle son from sexual abuse at the hands of priests, nor from turning to selling and using drugs as a teenager. Twenty-five years later, when the police knocked on his door at the end of a massive DEA investigation, he had given up the trade and was working as a drug addiction counselor in Santa Barbara. O'Dea interweaves extracts of his prison diary with the recounting of his outlaw years and the dawning recognition of those things in his life that were worth living for. Explicit strong language, descriptions of sex and violence. 2006.

BR73832, EB73832 Oh the glory of it all by Sean Wilsey. 7 v. of braille. Sean Wilsey's memoir of growing up in 1980s' San Francisco. Despite a privileged background, family neglect supplies him with more than his share of neuroses, narcissism, and self-destructive behaviour, which lead him ultimately to a boarding school in Italy, where he turns his life around. Strong language and some descriptions of sex. 2005.

Blindness & visual impairment

BR73506, EB73506 Dancing in the dark by Frances Lief Neer. 2 v. of braille. Neer suffered from low vision throughout her life and eventually became blind. Just as she lost her sight totally, her adult son died and left her his 13-year-old daughter to raise. Neer's story is about coping - how to travel, shop, socialize, read and write, and run a household - and she describes attending plays, cooking for dinner parties, becoming street savvy, and, literally, dancing in the dark. 1994.

Business

BR74428, EB74428 Always fresh: the untold story of Tim Hortons by the man who created the Canadian cultural and business icon by Ron Joyce ; with Robert Thompson. 3 v. of braille. Ron Joyce tells the story of how he built the Tim Hortons empire before and after the death of the hockey star who started the franchise. Explains some of the key strategic decisions that fuelled the company's growth, celebrates the importance of hard work and discipline, and argues Mr. Joyce made a terrible mistake when he handed the operation over to the Wendy's restaurant chain and its founder Dave Thomas, rather than going public with an IPO. 2006.

Crime

BR73890, EB73890 Angels of death: inside the bikers' global crime empire by William Marsden and Julian Sher. 6 v. of braille. Marsden and Sher focus on how head Angel Ralph "Sonny" Barger personally directs a crime organization that has successfully represented itself as a bunch of hard-drinking mischief makers guilty only of loving freedom and hedonism too much. Telling tales of murder and revenge at the hands of chopper pilots in the Netherlands, Australia, the U.S., and elsewhere, they cite control of the drug trade as the root of a criminal empire that also embraces prostitution and sundry other interests. Explicit strong language and descriptions of violence, some descriptions of sex. 2006.

General non-fiction

BR73896, EB73896 Child's play: rediscovering the joy of play in our families and communities by Silken Laumann. 3 v. of braille. As parents, we are often afraid to let our children out of sight - our streets don't feel safe, and neighbours don't rely on each other like they used to. While we recognize the need for our kids to be active, our fears and busy lives have led us to schedule their every activity. We have forgotten just how important unstructured play is for our children's development: it keeps kids healthy, creative, and active - and lets our kids be kids. 2006.

Health

BR74360, EB74360 Navigating Canada's health care: a user guide to getting the care you need by Michael Decter and Francesca Grosso. 5 v. of braille. A practical guide to getting the best health care within the existing system. Filled with concrete, up-to-date information and surprising facts, the book follows best-practice health care through the three stages of life (early, middle and senior years). Explains what the system does and does not provide, and outlines strategies for better advocacy. 2006.

BR73487, EB73487 The G.I. Diet: the easy, healthy way to permanent weight loss by Rick Gallop. 3 v. of braille. G.I. measures the speed at which your body breaks down food and converts it to glucose, which is used for energy or stored as fat. When losing weight, it is critical to avoid foods that have a high G.I., because they are digested too quickly by your body. Gallop lists foods in one of three categories: foods to avoid, foods to eat occasionally, and foods that you can eat as much of as you want. Includes recipes, snack ideas, a pull-out shopping list, tips on dining out and strategies for maintaining your new weight. 2005.

History (Canadian)

BR73625, EB73625 For the love of history: celebrating the winners of the Pierre Berton Award by Pierre Berton ... [et al.] ; preface by Deborah Morrison ; foreword by Will Ferguson. 3 v. of braille. The National History Society established the Pierre Berton Award for outstanding achievement in popularizing Canadian History. Its winners each provide an article which best captures the spirit of the award, including Peter C. Newman's account of the voyageurs, Charlotte Gray's biographical piece on Isabel King, and J. L. Granatstein's selection on the October Crisis. 2005.

Language instruction

BR73959, EB73959 Practice makes perfect: English grammar for ESL learners by Ed Swick. 2 v. of braille. A complete overview of English grammar, with hands-on exercises, for the beginner ESL student. Covers punctuation, capitalization, articles, pronouns, verbs in all tenses, modifiers, and common, proper and predicate nouns. 2005.

Poetry

BR74430, EB74430 Book of longing by Leonard Cohen. 2 v. of braille. A collection of musings, jottings, quatrains, lyrics, prose meditations and offhand epigrams, including previously unpublished poems dating as far back as 1970. Cohen displays both a surface humility and an underlying self-confidence as he reflects on women, Zen doctrine, his own advancing age, and the legacy of the '60s. Descriptions of sex and strong language. 2006.

Politics and government

BR74050, EB74050 The will of the people: Churchill and parliamentary democracy by Martin Gilbert. 2 v. of braille. Throughout his career, Churchill did his utmost to ensure that Parliament was effective and that it was not undermined by either adversarial party politics or by elected members who sought to manipulate it. First elected at twenty-five, Churchill was still in the House of Commons sixty-four years later, and the largest part of his life was spent in debate in the service of the people, whose instrument he believed Parliament to be. 2006.

BR74272, EB74272 French kiss: Stephen Harper's blind date with Quebec by Chantal Hébert. 3 v. of braille. On January 23, 2006, political writer and broadcaster Hébert stood in a Calgary convention hall with 2,000 Alberta Conservatives, who were cheering the election of ten Tory MPs from Quebec. Just months before, this would have been inconceivable, since more than ten years previously, the Quebec-Alberta Coalition cobbled together by Brian Mulroney had dissolved, leading to the birth of the Bloc Québecois and the Reform Party. Hébert delivers a post-mortem of the Canadian coalitions that died that election night, and an examination of our changing political landscape. 2007.

Science

BR74364, EB74364 The science of Sherlock Holmes: from Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear, the real forensics behind the great detective's greatest cases by E.J. Wagner. 4 v. of braille. By using Sherlock Holmes stories as her starting point, forensics expert Wagner blends familiar examples from Doyle's accounts into a history of the growth of forensic science, pointing out where fiction strayed from fact. She also weaves in true crime cases that either influenced Holmes's creator or may have been influenced by a published story from the Baker Street sleuth. Some descriptions of sex and explicit descriptions of violence. 2006.

Sea stories non-fiction

BR74365, EB74365 The serpent's coil by Farley Mowat. 2 v. of braille. The true story of how the crews of three Liberty ships, the old wartime freighters that were converted to commercial service after 1945, fought a series of devastating hurricanes in the Atlantic in the early 1950s. Some strong language. 2001.

Social problems

BR74278, EB74278 One child at a time: the global fight to rescue children from online predators by Julian Sher. 5 v. of braille. The Internet has helped make child abuse terrifyingly common. The men perpetrating these crimes include lawyers, priests, doctors and politicians, while the police - from a crack image analyst with the Toronto police to an FBI agent who poses as a thirteen-year-old girl online - work desperately to nab the predators. Investigators are using cutting edge tools, turning the technology of the Internet against the perpetrators, as they race to find and rescue the victims. Descriptions of sex and violence. 2007.

Travel and culture

BR73626, EB73626 Hitching rides with Buddha: a journey across Japan by Will Ferguson. 5 v. of braille. With the same fervour they have for outlandish game shows and tiny gadgets, the Japanese go nuts each spring when the cherry blossoms sweep from island to island towards the country's northerly tip. Ferguson, after way too much sake, announced he would be the first person to follow the blossom's progress end to end. To make it a challenge worth doing, he'd hitchhike, resulting in a journey full of misadventures and revelations. Some descriptions of sex and some strong language. 2005.