Adult Braille Books – Non-fiction
Adventure (Non-fiction)
BR74262
Beyond the horizon: the great race to finish the first human-powered circumnavigation of the planet by Colin Angus.
4 v. of braille.
In June, 2004, Colin Angus left Vancouver on his bicycle, and nearly two years later, he rolled back in, having completed the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe. Angus cycled, skied, and rowed a route that took him to Alaska, across the Bering Sea and the Siberian winter, through Europe from Moscow to Portugal, then across the Atlantic to Costa Rica and home. Along the way he burned through 4,000 chocolate bars, 72 inner tubes, 250 kgs of freeze-dried foods, 31 dorado fish (caught from the sea), 2 offshore rowboats, 4 bicycles, and 80 kgs of clothing - all without polluting the planet. Some strong language. 2007.
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Biography
BR74547
My years as Prime Minister by Jean Chrétien.
5 v. of braille.
By the time he left office, Jean Chrétien had been in politics for forty years. Through the decade 1993 to 2003 he won three majority elections as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Finding the country dangerously in debt and bitterly divided, he describes how his government wiped out the deficit in just four years, helped to defeat the separatists in the cliffhanger Quebec referendum, passed the Clarity Act, and set out to fulfill the economic and social promises his party made in its famous Red Books. 2007.
BR74402
Heart matters by Adrienne Clarkson.
3 v. of braille.
Adrienne Clarkson's family escaped from Japanese-occupied Hong Kong in 1942, arriving in Ottawa. After a long CBC career, she returned in 1999 to Ottawa to become Canada's twenty-sixth and sometimes controversial Governor General. She reflects on her public and private life, including her beautiful but troubled mother, the death of an infant, and the estrangement from her two daughters and their later reunion. 2006.
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BR74431
Causeway: a passage from innocence by Linden MacIntyre.
4 v. of braille.
Linden MacIntyre remembers the day construction started on the Canso Causeway, which would link his Cape Breton village with the mainland. With its grand promises of jobs and riches and progress, the building of the causeway also became a personal icon for MacIntyre, the road that would bring him closer to the father who was always away. His memoir is a coming-of-age story, a portrait of a vanishing way of life, and a reflection on fathers and sons. Some strong language. 2006.
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Cookbooks
BR74041
The G.I. diet cookbook: 200 easy, delicious recipes for permanent weight loss by Rick Gallop.
3 v. of braille.
Offers two hundred nutritious, low-G.I. recipes for breakfasts, lunches, snacks, appetizers, dinners and desserts. There are simple-to-prepare dishes for weekday meals, simmers and roasts for leisurely weekends, and elegant fare for entertaining friends. Includes recipes for Crunchy Granola, Creamy Seafood Chowder, Spinach-stuffed Chicken Breasts and Chocolate Cake with Ganache Icing. 2006.
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Death and Bereavement (Non-fiction)
BR74404
Home with God: in a life that never ends : a wondrous message of love in a final conversation with God by Neale Donald Walsch.
3 v. of braille.
Author of the "Conversations with God" books explores death, dying, and the afterlife. Walsch states that his dialogue with God, addressing life's purpose and passing, reveals that death is a joyful, peaceful experience - not an end, but an act of creation. 2006.
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Disabilities
BR74464
Critical disability theory: essays in philosophy, politics, policy, and law by edited by Dianne Pothier and Richard Devlin.
8 v. of braille.
Twenty-four scholars from a variety of disciplines come together here to identify the problems with traditional approaches to disability and to provide new directions. The essays range from focused empirical and experiential studies of different disabilities, to policy analyses, legal interrogations, and philosophical reconsiderations. 2005.
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Essays
BR74371
What is a Canadian?: forty-three thought-provoking responses by edited by Irvin Studin.
4 v. of braille.
Studin approached leading Canadians from all walks of life - politics, the civil service, academia, literature, journalism, business, the arts - from both official language groups, and from all regions of the country, as well as from the Canadian diaspora, to tell us what they believe defines us. The answers to "What is a Canadian?" range from "someone who crosses the road to get to the middle" to "the citizen of a country badly in need of growing up" to "adaptable. To illustrate, consider the depth and breadth of the Canadian woman's wardrobe". 2006.
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General Non-fiction
BR74040
Getting to maybe: how to change the world by Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman & Michael Quinn Patton.
3 v. of braille.
Many of us want to make the world a better place, but often our good intentions are undermined by the fear that we are so insignificant in the grand scheme of things that nothing we do will actually help. The trick is to stop looking at the discreet elements and start trying to understand the complex relationships between them. By studying real-life examples of social change this way, the authors tease out the rules of engagement between volunteers, leaders, organizations and circumstance. 2006
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History (Canadian)
BR73765
Ghost town stories II: from renegade to ruin along the Red Coat Trail by Johnnie Bachusky.
1 v. of braille.
When the train came west through southern Saskatchewan and Alberta, settlers and then outlaws were quick to follow. They came with high hopes and grand ambitions, but the Depression and a series of natural disasters left them destitute. Author Johnnie Bachusky journeys back to the towns in their heyday to tell the stories of their colourful past. Some descriptions of violence and some strong language. 2003.
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History
BR74286
Web of deceit: the history of Western complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush by Barry M. Lando.
5 v. of braille.
The Iraq invasion of 2003 was only the latest in a long line of episodes of Western manipulation in that country, which owes its existence - and its complex and troubled demographics - to the designs of British imperialists. The brunt of Lando's argument is that the U.S. has routinely played Iraq for profit and strategic advantage yet consistently evaded responsibility for exacerbating the carnage of its destructive wars and humanitarian crises. Descriptions of violence. 2007.
BR73743
The bloody red hand: a journey through truth, myth and terror in Northern Ireland by Derek Lundy.
5 v. of braille.
Author Derek Lundy, bearing in mind that the name "Lundy" is synonymous with traitor in Ulster, delves into the lives of ancestors Robert Lundy, Protestant governor of Derry in 1688, William Steel Dickson, a Protestant preacher of the early 19th century who advocated resisting the English, and Billy Lundy, born in 1890 and the embodiment of what the Ulster Protestants became - a tribe united in their hostility to Catholics and to the prospect of an independent Ireland. 2006.
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Native People (Non-fiction)
BR74377
The long exile by Melania McGrath.
3 v. of braille.
1953. A young and inexperienced Irish-Canadian policeman, Ross Gibson, was asked by the Canadian government to draw up a list of Inuit who were to be experimentally resettled in the uninhabited polar Arctic and left to fend as best they could. Among them was Joseph Flaherty, the son of Robert Flaherty who had shot the film "Nanook of the North" 30 years earlier. 2006.
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Poetry
BR74819
An anthology of verse edited by Roberta A. Charlesworth & Dennis Lee.
6 v. of braille.
A collection of poems by a wide variety of writers, such as Dylan Thomas, Edward Lear, John Keats, Emily Bronte, Robert Frost and W.H. Auden. 1964.
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Psychology
BR74439
This is your brain on music: the science of a human obsession by Daniel J. Levitin.
5 v. of braille.
Neuroscientist and musician investigates the role of music in human evolution and daily life. Examines the science of music from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience. Discusses how the brain processes music, details studies on musical meaning and pleasure, and offers insights into personal perceptions and preferences. 2006.
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Terrorism
BR74418
Satanic purses: money, myth, and misinformation in the war on terror by R.T. Taylor.
7 v. of braille.
Naylor exposes the post 9/11 global War on Islamic Terror as based on myth, misinformation, and even deliberate disinformation - all of it premised on misguided notions about the nature of terrorist financing and the structure and organization of terrorist groups. Naylor believes that the secret agendas behind, and the private interests that profit from, an illusory War on Terror may be far more dangerous than the events that led to it. 2006.
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Travel & Culture
BR73907
Poets and pahlevans: a journey into the heart of Iran by Marcello De Cintio.
3 v. of braille.
Di Cintio prepares for his journey to Iran by taking lessons in Farsi, researching Persian poetry and sharpening his wrestling skills. Once there, he talks politics with men in tea houses, wrestles, and visits sites and shrines associated with great Persian poets, learning that poetry is loved and quoted by everyone from taxi-drivers to students. The mosaic of incidents, encounters, conversations, sights, smells and moments creates a detailed impression of a country and society that will challenge preconceptions. 2006.
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