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Biography and Memoir July 2017
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The Hard Way Out : My Life With the Hells Angels and Why I Turned Against Them
by Jerry Langton
The shocking true story of a Canadian biker turned informant. Dave Atwell was a regular suburban Canadian kid who rose to the heights of society, rubbing elbows with billionaires as a personal security specialist before getting involved with some of the country's most notorious gangsters as a member of first the Para-Dice Riders and then the Hells Angels. He was sergeant-at-arms for Toronto's notorious Downtown chapter of the Hells Angels, and he saw it all: the drug trafficking, the violence and the structure of the organization. First his involvement with the gang cost him his career in personal security, and then it threatened to cost him everything. Atwell opted to work with the police, becoming the highest-ranking Hells Angel in history to co-operate with law enforcement. Wearing the gang's colours as a soldier among the men who called him a brother, Atwell reported the Hells Angels' activities to law enforcement. He risked his life providing valuable information aimed at taking down the club. In the harrowing and revelatory The Hard Way Out, Atwell retraces his days living a dual life as both biker and informant, surrounded by major drug trafficking and the violent, paranoid and increasingly suspicious bikers who stood to lose their livelihoods and potentially their freedom unless they found the rat they knew was hidden in their midst.
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Where I Live Now : A Journey through Love and Loss to Healing and Hope
by Sharon Butala
An intimate and uplifting book about finding renewal and hope through grief and loss. When Sharon Butala's husband, Peter, died unexpectedly, she found herself with no place to call home. Torn by grief and loss, she fled the ranchlands of southwest Saskatchewan and moved to the city, leaving almost everything behind. A lifetime of possessions was reduced to a few boxes of books, clothes, and keepsakes. But a lifetime of experience went with her, and a limitless well of memory--of personal failures, of a marriage that everybody said would not last but did, of the unbreakable bonds of family. Reinventing herself in an urban landscape was painful, and facing her new life as a widow tested her very being. Yet out of this hard-won new existence comes an astonishingly frank, compassionate and moving memoir that offers not only solace and hope but inspiration to those who endure profound loss.
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Hard Road : Bernie Guindon and the Reign of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club
by Peter Edwards
You could call Bernie Guindon the Sonny Barger of Canadian bikers (but not to his face). The founder of Satan's Choice, Guindon led what was in the 1960s the second-largest biker club in the world (after the Hells Angels, which Bernie would join briefly in the early 2000s) to national prominence and international infamy. His life wasn't all bikes and crime. He was also a medalist in boxing for Canada at the Pan Am Games. That tension between the very rough life he was born into and the possibility for success in the straight world (and how aspirations in each fed his success in the other) layer Guindon's story, one of the great untold stories in biker history. Friends from the biker world and Guindon's family have given extensive interviews for Hard Road , including his son, Harley, a convict and outlaw biker himself.
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The stranger in the woods : the extraordinary story of the last true hermit
by Michael Finkel
Documents the true story of a man who endured a hardscrabble, isolated existence in a tent in the Maine woods, never speaking with others and surviving by stealing supplies from nearby cabins, for 27 years, in a portrait that illuminates the survival means he developed and the reasons behind his solitary life.
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| An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris HadfieldAfter watching the Apollo 11 moon landing on television, nine-year-old Chris Hadfield knew absolutely that he wanted to be an astronaut. It was a lofty dream -- for one thing, his native Canada had no space program. Nevertheless, Hadfield achieved his goal, becoming one of his country's few military test pilots before launching a distinguished career at NASA. His inspiring memoir is packed with fascinating details about the International Space Station and everyday life as an astronaut. |
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| A House in the Sky: A Memoir by Amanda Lindhout and Sara CorbettCanadian journalist Amanda Lindhout had an avid desire to travel from the time she was young. Early in her journalism career, she went to Somalia with her friend Nigel Brennan, an Australian photographer. There, they were kidnapped by bandits who demanded impossible sums for ransom and kept them shackled, starved, and in filthy conditions for 15 months. This "well-honed, harrowing account" (Publishers Weekly) details their ordeal and explains how Lindhout found the strength to persevere. |
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| Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man by William Shatner with David FisherIn Leonard, Montreal-born actor William ("Captain Kirk") Shatner offers an absorbing remembrance of his friendship with Leonard ("Spock") Nimoy. Unusual for actors, their on-set camaraderie deepened into lifelong devotion through movies and trekker conventions. Shatner's moving reflections will delight general biography readers as well as fans of the Star Trek universe. |
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| Talking with My Mouth Full: My Life as a Professional Eater by Gail SimmonsIn this "straightforward and relaxed" (Kirkus Reviews) memoir, Toronto native Gail Simmons, a host and judge on television's Top Chef programs, relates details about her life and describes jobs that led her to her current work. If you're curious about the phenomenon of celebrity chefs and internationally famous restaurants, you'll appreciate Talking with My Mouth Full, and you may want to follow up with Padma Lakshmi's Love, Loss, and What We Ate. |
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| Instant Mom by Nia VardalosThe Winnipeg-born and raised actress Nia Vardalos, who wrote and starred in the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding, enjoyed a happy and productive life, but she longed to be a mother. After years of unsuccessful fertility treatments, she and her husband decided to try the foster-to-adopt plan and (with 14 hours' notice) became the parents of an energetic three-year-old. You'll laugh out loud at Instant Mom, whether you're looking for glimpses of Hollywood behind the scenes or funny and touching parenting adventures. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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