National Network for Equitable Library Service

A collection of bitterly hilarious job application letters.

In November of 2001, Glen Heggstad decided to ride his motorcycle to the tip of South America. His journey was interrupted when he was kidnapped at gunpoint by Colombian rebels and held captive for five weeks. Yet even after his traumatic incarceration, Glen did what few others would--finished his trip. Three years later, frustrated by the climate of fear in a media-saturated world and the resulting stranglehold of self-imposed security in the U.S., Glen decided to look for truth on his own terms--on the back of his motorcycle.

A true story of faith and hope from the late night suicide crisis guy. Midnight, Jesus & Me is an at once heartbreaking, provocative, and inspirational collection of true-life tales from J.M. Blaine, that semi-agnostic, evangelical absurdist, existential Christian, licensed psychiatric guy. He invites readers to listen to the secret lives of saints and sinners falling, as he questions the meaning of it all and determines that there are no easy answers.

An unprecedented take on cancer and recovery. Why does cancer have such a deadly hold over our collective imagination? Why do we fear it above all else, even bankruptcy, crime, and sudden death? And why is our dread intensifying, despite the fact that many types of cancer are less common than ever, more curable, and far better understood? Because cancer has become our malignant metaphor, a billboard for our secret sins. We haven't been eating the right food; we have failed to exercise enough; we have buried too much destructive emotion--in short, we have brought the disease upon ourselves.

If you live life without a net, what happens when you fall? Kathleen Cremonesi knew early on she wanted to be different. Determined to avoid following in her mother's footsteps to an ill-fated marriage, Kathleen left Oregon in her early 20s to travel across Europe. On a whim, this former administrative assistant with wanderlust took a job as a dancer in an Italian circus and, working her way up, became an ostrich-riding, shark-taming showgirl. Kathleen bonds with the exotic animals that could strike and kill at any moment, but instead bring her a peace she has never known.

Advice, stories, and inspiration from a revered leader and thinker In these inspiring letters to his grandchildren, David Suzuki speaks passionately about their future. He challenges them to speak out and act on their beliefs, explains why sports are important, decries the lack of elders and grandparents in the lives of many people, especially immigrants, and champions the importance of heroes.

A series of energetic and vivid portraits that capture the character and integrity of rural life

Outsider artist Mendelson Joe is a painter, activist, musician, and renowned “self-taughter.” But to the people living in the sparsely populated region west of Algonquin Park, he is also a neighbour. With his latest book, Joe commemorates his neighbours in a series of portraits whose subjects range from Canadian musical icon Hawksley Workman to the man who installed Joe’s woodstove.

Winner of the Banff Mountain Book Festival Grand Prize and one of the Guardian’s Best Books of 2016.

An intimate narrative exploring the past, present, and future of books

Four seismic shifts have rocked human communication: the invention of writing, the alphabet, mechanical type and the printing press, and digitization. Poised over this fourth transition, e-reader in one hand, perfect-bound book in the other, Merilyn Simonds — author, literary maven, and early adopter — asks herself: what is lost and what is gained as paper turns to pixel?

Whether navigating the backroads of Louisiana or Thuringia, exploring the snowy Quebec woods, or performing onstage at Rush concerts, Neil Peart has stories to tell. His first volume in this series, Far and Away, combined words and images to form an intimate, insightful narrative that won many readers.