Non-Fiction for Adults
<< back to table of contents
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.
Biography
BR74895 The life and times of the thunderbolt kid: a memoir by Bill Bryson. 4 v. of braille. Some say that the first hint that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came when his mother sent him to school in lime-green Capri pants. Others think it all started with his discovery, at the age of six, of a woollen jersey of rare fineness. Across the moth-holed chest was a golden thunderbolt. It may have looked like an old college football sweater, but young Bryson knew better. A book about growing up in a specific time and place. But in Bryson's hands, it becomes everyone's story, on that will speak volumes, especially to anyone who has ever been young. 2006.
BR74397, EB74397 Almost like a song by Ronnie Milsap with Tom Carter. 4 v. of braille. Taken in by dirt-poor but loving grandparents after his mother rejected him, Ronnie was soon sent off to a school for the blind. There, among other things, he learned discipline, determination, and classical music - acquirements that shaped his boyhood, his career, and his success as a country music superstar. His inspiring story reveals little-known aspects of the music industry where he rose to the top. 1990.
BR74338, EB74338 And no birds sang by Farley Mowat. 2 v. of braille. The barbarity and futility of war transformed a swaggering, self-confident junior officer into a seasoned, cynical veteran as his regiment was decimated in Sicily and struggled to survive the carnage of the 1943 Italian campaign. Strong language and descriptions of violence. 2003, c1975.
BR74887 Dreams from my father: a story of race and inheritance by Barack Obama. 5 v. of braille. The son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father, a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man, has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey, first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. 2008, 1995.
BR74898 The measure of a man: a spiritual autobiography by Sidney Poitier. 4 v. of braille. Sidney Poitier, a true American icon, looks back on his celebrated life and career. His body of work is arguably the most morally significant in cinematic history, and the power and influence of that work are indicative of the character of the man behind the many storied roles. Sidney Poitier here explores these elements of character and personal values to take his own measure - as a man, as a husband and a father, and as an actor. 2000.
Business
BR74553, EB74553 Stupid to the last drop: how Alberta is bringing environmental Armageddon to Canada (and doesn't seem to care) by William Marsden. 3 v. of braille. In its search for oil and gas riches, Alberta is plunging ahead with uncontrolled development of its fossil fuels, levelling its northern Boreal forest to get at the oil sands, and filling its southern half with tens of thousands of gas wells. In so doing, it is running out of water, destroying its range land, wiping out its forests and wildlife and spewing huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. 2007.
BR74482, EB74482 Get smarter: life and business lessons for the 20- to 40-year-old by Seymour Schulich. 2 v. of braille. In examining his own life, Seymour Schulich, a Canadian billionaire and philanthropist, realized that at age 20, and even at age 30, he knew very little. This is his attempt to impart lessons learned in a lifetime to today's youth, by someone who has achieved success in both his personal and professional life. Covers such issues as how to make a decision, choosing a career, and how to deal with adversity. 2007.
Correspondence
BR74539, EB74539 Graham Greene: a life in letters edited by Richard Greene. 7 v. of braille. Editor presents a compilation of letters from noted twentieth-century British writer Graham Greene (1904-1991). The correspondence reveals Greene's religious, political, literary, and personal concerns and describes his travels, his sentiments about suffering in the world, and empathy for his family and friends. Some descriptions of sex and violence, some strong language. 2007.
Health
BR74742, EB74742 Meg Hickling's Grown-up sex: sexual wholeness for the better part of your life by [Meg Hickling]. 1 v. of braille. Meg Hickling, a retired RN, has been teaching parents, children, grandparents, caregivers, teachers, and other professionals how to talk about sex and sexual health for over 30 years. Now she answers the many questions adults ask. Meg's 'whole person' approach respects the roles of personal and family values, spirituality, and community. Some strong language and descriptions of sex. 2008.
History (Canadian)
BR74629, EB74629 Loyalists and layabouts: the rapid rise and fall of Shellburne, Nova Scotia, 1783-1792 by Stephen Kimber. 5 v. of braille. A few hundred loyalists gathered in New York on November 16, 1782, abandoned by their king, unwelcome in their land, and with no choice but to flee. Their dream was to build a new and improved New York City called Shelburne, in Nova Scotia, beside one of the best harbours in the world. The city would be more refined, royal, loyal, and exclusive, but within the decade, Shelburne was a wasteland of abandoned homes and shops. Some descriptions of violence. 2008.
Internet
BR74395, EB74395 SEND: the essential guide to email for office and home by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe. 2 v. of braille. When should you email, and when should you call, fax, or just show up? What is the crucial - and most often overlooked - line in an email? What is the best strategy when you send (in anger or error) a potentially career-ending electronic bombshell? This guide shows how to write the perfect email, and also points out the numerous times when email can be the worst option and might land you in hot water (or even jail!). 2007.
Language instruction
BR74888 Eats, shoots & leaves: the zero tolerance approach to punctuation by Lynne Truss. 2 v. of braille. Everyone knows the basics of punctuation, surely? Aren't we all taught at school how to use full stops, commas and question marks? The author dares to say that, with our system of punctuation patently endangered, it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them for the wonderful and necessary things they are. 2005.
Law
BR74481, EB74481 Frontiers of justice: disability, nationality, species membership by Martha C. Nussbaum. 7 v. of braille. Theories of social justice are necessarily abstract, yet such theories, addressing the world and its problems, must respond to the real and changing dilemmas of the day. Taking up three often neglected problems of social justice - the treatment of animals, extending the equal rights of citizenship to the disabled, and justice and dignified life conditions for all people - Nussbaum seeks a more inclusive theory. 2006.
Poetry
BR74567, EB74567 The door: poems by Margaret Atwood. 1 v. of braille. A collection of fifty poems, ranging in subject from the personal to the political. They investigate the mysterious writing of poetry itself, as well as the passage of time and our shared sense of mortality. 2007.
Politics and government
BR74447, EB74447 The new cold war: revolutions, rigged elections and pipeline politics in the former Soviet Union by Mark MacKinnon. 5 v. of braille. While Vladimir Putin cements power in Russia by co-opting now independent neighbouring countries, pro-democracy advocates work with the American government to support Western-oriented movements and political parties in the region. Focusing on the Commonwealth of Independent States and other formerly Soviet-influenced states such as Serbia and Slovakia, MacKinnon chastises both democrats and authoritarians for their actions, like the Western organizations, who while officially nonpartisan, make no secret of their allegiances and goals. 2007.
Psychology
BR74745, EB74745 Seeking the sacred: leading a spiritual life in a secular world edited by Elizabeth Etue. 1 v. of braille. In a world permeated by religious strife, renewed interest in issues of faith necessitates a journey beyond the orthodox institutions many have come to mistrust. This new brand of "seeker" is looking for an open and safe environment in which to discuss unique interpretations of consciousness, spirituality, ethics, and philosophy through the world's complex mosaic of beliefs and customs. Includes lectures by Jungian therapist Marion Woodman, Lt. General Rom�o Dallaire, and Stephen Lewis. Descriptions of violence. 2006.
Social problems
BR74626, EB74626 In the realm of hungry ghosts: close encounters with addiction by Gabor Mat�. 6 v. of braille. Mat� describes his patients while looking to the root causes of addiction, applying a clinical and psychological view to the physical manifestation and offering some answers for why people inflict such catastrophe on themselves. He takes aim at the ineffectual War on Drugs, and shows how measures such as safe injection sites are more successful at reducing drug-related crime and the spread of disease than anything most governments are doing. Strong language. 2008.
Social sciences
BR73909, EB73909 The upside of down: catastrophe, creativity, and the renewal of civilization by Thomas Homer-Dixon. 7 v. of braille. From the fall of the Roman empire to the devastation of the 9/11 attacks, from Toronto in the 2003 blackout to the ancient temples of Lebanon, Homer-Dixon argues that the great stresses our world is experiencing - global warming, energy scarcity, population imbalances, and widening gaps between rich and poor - can't be looked at independently. As these stresses combine and converge, the risk of breakdown rises. However, we can use our emerging understanding of the complex systems in which we live to avoid catastrophic collapse in a way the Roman empire could not. c2006.
Sports and recreations
BR74546, EB74546 McCown's law: the 100 greatest hockey arguments by Bob McCown with David Naylor. 4 v. of braille. Sports talk-radio personality Bob McCown isn't afraid to say what's on his mind. His hockey opinions include: The Leafs haven't won the Stanley Cup in 40 years for a perfectly logical reason: they have the crappiest players; it's time the law put hockey's most violent offenders in something more restrictive than the penalty box; and Slovakia, not Canada, just may be the greatest hockey nation on Earth. 2007.
Travel and Culture in Canada
BR74519, EB74519 Ride the rising wind: one woman's journey across Canada by Barbara Kingscote. 4 v. of braille. In May 1949, at the age of twenty, Barbara Kingscote left her farm in Mascouche, Quebec, and set out for the Pacific Ocean on horseback. Barbara and her equine companion Zazy reached the West Coast just over a year later. After travelling 4,000 miles, she discovered both herself and her country on the journey of a lifetime. 2006.
War
BR74536, EB74536 Fifteen days: stories of bravery, friendship, life and death from inside the new Canadian Army by Christie Blatchford. 5 v. of braille. Blatchford has covered the conflict in Afghanistan as an embedded reporter, and provides observations of military life in the twenty-first century. The troops share their accounts of their desire to serve, their willingness to confront fear and danger on the battlefield, their loyalty towards each other and the heartbreak occasioned by the loss of one of their own. Descriptions of sex, explicit descriptions of violence and some strong language. 2007.
<< back to table of contents