Adult Braille Books – Non-fiction
Biography
BR74559
Jim: a life with AIDS by June Callwood.
4 v. of braille.
In 1984, Jim St. James was diagnosed with AIDS. Since then, his life has been a physical, spiritual and emotional roller coaster. As Canada's longest-surviving AIDS patient, Jim's story is one of strength and encouragement. Strong language and some descriptions of sex. 1988.
BR74541
Hitman: my real life in the cartoon world of wrestling by Bret Hart.
10 v. of braille.
The sixth-born son of the pro wrestling dynasty founded by Stu Hart and his wife Helen, Bret Hart joined the family business as a teen. From his early twenties until he retired at 43, Hart kept an audio diary, recording stories of the wrestling life, the relentless travel, the practical jokes, the sex and drugs, and the real rivalries (as opposed to the staged ones). He details his wrestling belts won, but also the price paid in betrayals, tragic deaths, and his own massive stroke. 2007.
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BR74437
Private demons: the tragic personal life of John A. Macdonald by Patricia Phenix.
5 v. of braille.
Macdonald's personal life was a mix of drugs, booze, women, back-biting, a harsh childhood, an unplanned pregnancy, unchecked social ambition, a child's unpunished murder, a distant Queen Victoria and Louis Riel. Amid all that, Macdonald managed to become prime minister seven times while spearheading a national railroad and pulling errant provinces together into the cohesive whole known today as Canada - and all of this while mostly drunk. 2006.
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Correspondence
BR74552
The staircase letters: an extraordinary friendship at the end of life by Arthur Motyer ; with Elma Gerwin & Carol Shields.
1 v. of braille.
When Elma Gerwin found out in 2001 at the age of 61 that she had cancer, she reached out to two old friends: Arthur Motyer, novelist, teacher, and Elma's university professor forty years ago, and novelist Carol Shields, who was facing her own battle with cancer. Years later, Arthur is the only survivor, and contemplating how Elma's and Carol's correspondence affected him, he brought the letters together and interspersed them with literary references and poetry. 2007.
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History (Canadian)
BR74538
God's mercies: rivalry, betrayal and the dream of discovery by Douglas Hunter.
5 v. of braille.
France's Samuel de Champlain and Englishman Henry Hudson were rival explorers, both searching for the Northwest Passage. For Hudson the search proved fatal, as a mutiny in 1611 saw Hudson, his son, and seven others cast adrift in James Bay, never to be heard from again. In 1613, Champlain set out on a northern journey based on testimony from Nicolas de Vignau, who had spent 1611-12 with the Algonquin and returned to France with an incredible story: he had visited the Northern Sea. What's more, he had seen an English youth, the sole survivor of a shipwreck, held captive by the Nebicerini people as a gift for Champlain. Some descriptions of sex, explicit descriptions of violence and some strong language. 2007.
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Political Science
BR74532
Black mass: apocalyptic religion and the death of utopia by John Gray.
4 v. of braille.
The views that history progresses toward perfection and the millenarian faith in human salvation are as tenacious as they have proven destructive. Sketching the roots of utopianism, Gray emphasizes the similarities between seemingly disparate movements: radical Islam might best be thought of as "Islamo-Jacobinism." We must reconcile ourselves to a world of multiple truths and incompatible freedoms, where there is no overarching meaning and human values and desires can never be fully harmonized. 2007.
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Social Problems
BR74616
A brief history of anxiety (yours & mine) by Patricia Pearson.
2 v. of braille.
Pearson was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder at 23. She traces the roots of her anxiety to her youth, when her diplomat father was posted to India during a war, and genetically to a grandmother whose famous biting wit was likely a manifestation of anxiety and depression. She believes that it is anxiety, not fear, that characterizes our age, and offers some answers as to why, and some solutions on dealing with it based on her own personal battles. 2008.
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