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-- Nineteen eighty-twoc2012., General, Viking Call No: Bio G427n Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: In 1982 the Commodore 64 computer was introduced, Ronald Reagan survived being shot, the Falkland War started and ended, Michael Jackson released, Thriller, Canada repatriated its Constitution, and the first compact disc was sold in Germany. And thatœs not all. In 1982 I blossomed from a naive fourteen-year-old trying to fit in with the cool kids to something much more: a naive eyeliner-wearing, fifteen-year-old trying to fit in with the cool kids. So writes Jian Ghomeshi in this, his first book, 1982. It is a memoir told across intertwined stories of the songs and musical moments that changed his life. Obsessed with David Bowie ("I wanted to be Bowie,· he recalls), the adolescent Ghomeshi embarks on a Nick Hornbyesque journey to make music the centre of his life. Acceptance meant being cool, and being cool meant being Bowie. And being Bowie meant pointy black boots, eyeliner, and hair gel. Add to that the essential all-black wardrobe and you have two very confused Iranian parents, busy themselves with gaining acceptance in Canada against the backdrop of the revolution in Iran. It is a bittersweet, heartfelt book that recalls awkward moments such as Ghomeshiœs performance as the Ivory· in a school production of Michael Jackson and Paul McCartneyœs Ebony and Ivory; a stakeout where Rush was rehearsing for its world tour; and a memorable day at the Police picnic of 1982. Music is the jumping-off place for Ghomeshi to discuss young love, young heartache, conformity, and the nature of cool. At the same time, 1982 is an entertaining cultural history of a crazy era of glam, glitter, and gender-bending fads and fashions. And it is definitely the first rock memoir by a Persian-Canadian new waver.
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2021., Gallery Books Call No: NEW Bio M888a Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Bob Mortimer's life was trundling along happily until suddenly in 2015 he was diagnosed with a heart condition that required immediate surgery and forced him to cancel an upcoming tour. The episode unnerved him, but forced him to reflect on his life so far. This is the framework for his hilarious and moving memoir, And Away.
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2020., Adult, Simon & Schuster Call No: Bio T784a Edition: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Longtime Jeopardy! host and television icon Alex Trebek reflects on his life and career Since debuting as the host of Jeopardy! in 1984, Alex Trebek has been something like a family member to millions of television viewers, bringing entertainment and education into their homes five nights a week. Last year, he made the stunning announcement that he had been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. What followed was an incredible outpouring of love and kindness. Social media was flooded with messages of support, and the Jeopardy! studio received boxes of cards and letters offering guidance, encouragement, and prayers. For over three decades, Trebek had resisted countless appeals to write a book about his life. Yet he was moved so much by all the goodwill, he felt compelled to finally share his story. “I want people to know a little more about the person they have been cheering on for the past year,” he writes in The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life. The book combines illuminating personal anecdotes with Trebek’s thoughts on a range of topics, including marriage, parenthood, education, success, spirituality, and philanthropy. Trebek also addresses the questions he gets asked most often by Jeopardy! fans, such as what prompted him to shave his signature mustache, his insights on legendary players like Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer, and his opinion of Will Ferrell’s Saturday Night Live impersonation. The book uses a novel structure inspired by Jeopardy!, with each chapter title in the form of a question, and features dozens of never-before-seen photos that candidly capture Trebek over the years. This wise, charming, and inspiring book is further evidence why Trebek has long been considered one of the most beloved and respected figures in entertainment.
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2016., General, Doubleday Canada Call No: Bio N739b Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: One of the comedy world's fastest-rising stars tells his wild coming of age story during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. Noah provides something deeper than traditional memorists: powerfully funny observations about how farcical political and social systems play out in our lives. Trevor Noah is the host of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, a late-night television talk show on Comedy Central, where he gleefully provides America with its nightly dose of serrated satire. He is a light-footed but cutting observer of the relentless absurdities of politics, nationalism and race - and in particular the craziness of his own young life, which he's lived at the intersections of culture and history. Noah tells his coming of age story with his larger-than-life mother during the last gasps of apartheid-era South Africa and the turbulent years that followed. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. His brilliantly eccentric mother loomed over his life - a comically zealous Christian (they went to church six days a week and three times on Sunday), a savvy hustler who kept food on their table during rough times, and an aggressively involved, if often seriously misguided, parent who set Noah on his bumpy path to stardom. The stories Noah tells are sometimes dark, occasionally bizarre, frequently tender, and always hilarious - whether he's subsisting on caterpillars during months of extreme poverty or making comically pitiful attempts at teenage romance in a color-obsessed world; whether's he's being thrown into jail as the hapless fall guy for a crime he didn't commit or being thrown by his mother from a speeding car driven by murderous gangsters. Trevor Noah was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2011, he moved to the United States. He was the subject of the 2012 documentary You Laugh But It's True.
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2011., Little, Brown and Co. Call No: Bio F433b Edition: 1st ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon, comedian Tina Fey reveals all, and proves that you're no one until someone calls you bossy.
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2016., Adult, House of Anansi Press Call No: Bio D684f Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Denise Donlon chronicles her early days at MuchMusic during a time when music videos became a medium that would change pop music and popular culture forever. She became the first female president of Sony Music Canada, where she navigated the crisis in the music industry with the rise of Napster and the new digital revolution. She then joined CBC English Radio as General Manager and Executive Director when the corporation absorbed funding cutbacks, leading to mass reductions in people and programming and leaving a shadow over the future of Canada's national public broadcaster. She shares colourful and entertaining stories of growing up tall, flat, and bullied in east Scarborough. A candid memoir of one woman's journey, navigating corporate culture with integrity, responsibility, and an irrepressible passion to be a force for good.
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-- Here is the deal.2010., Bantam Books Trade Paperbacks Call No: Bio m271h Edition: Bantam Books Trade Paperbacks ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: A frank, funny, no-holds-barred memoir that reveals the Deal or No Deal host's ongoing struggle with OCD and ADHD--and how it has shaped his life and career.
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c2010., General, Simon & Schuster Call No: Bio K87h Edition: 1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: She's just like the rest of us. But she's something different, too. Hoda Kotb grew up in two cultures--one where summers meant playing at the foot of the ancient pyramids and another where she had to meet her junior prom date at the local 7-Eleven to spare them both the wrath of her conservative Egyptian parents. She's traveled the globe for network television, smuggling videotapes in her shoes and stepping along roads riddled with land mines. She's weathered the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and a personal Category 5 as well: divorce and breast cancer in the same year. And if that's not scary enough, she then began cohosting the fourth hour of Today with Kathie Lee Gifford. Her story reads just like Hoda--light, funny, positive, and inspiring.--From publisher description.
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2011., General, It Books Call No: Bio P545h Edition: 1st ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: The beloved TV icon shares the secrets to success and happiness as he has learned them from his innumerable celebrity encounters, friendships and of course, from his relationship with his loving wife and family.
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By Lui, Elaine2014., Random House Canada Call No: Bio L952l Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Most people think Iœm exaggerating at first when I talk about the Chinese Squawking Chicken. But once they actually spend some time with her, they understand. They get it. Right away. Sheœs Chinese, she squawks like a chicken, she is totally nuts, and I am totally dependent on her.When Elaine Lui was growing up, her mother told her, Why do you need to prepare for the good things that happen? Theyœre good. They wonœt hurt you. My job is to prepare you for the hard times, and teach you how to avoid them, whenever possible.· Neither traditionally Eastern nor conventionally Western, the Squawking Chicken raised her daughter drawing on Chinese fortune-telling, feng shui blackmail, good old-fashioned ghost stories, and shame and embarrassment in equal measure. And despite years of chafing against her motherœs parenting style, Elaine came to recognize the hidden wisdomand immeasurable valuein her rather unorthodox upbringing.Listen to the Squawking Chicken lays bare the playbook of unusual advice and warnings used to teach Elaine about hard work (Miss Hong Kong is a whore·), humility (I should have given birth to a piece of barbecue pork·), love and friendship, family loyalty (Whereœs my money?·), style and deportment (Donœt be low classy·), finding oneœs own voice (Walk like an elephant, squawk like a chicken·) among other essentials. Along the way, Elaine poignantly reveals how her mother earned the nickname Tsiahng Gai· or squawking chicken· growing up in Hong Kong, enduring and rising from the ashes of her own hard times.Listen to the Squawking Chicken is a loving mother-daughter memoir that will have readers laughing out loud, gasping in shock, and reconsidering the honesty and guts it takes to be a parent.
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c2010., Crown Publishers Call No: BLK Bio O62k Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Based on three years of research and reporting as well as 850 interviews with sources, many of whom have never before spoken for publication, Oprah is the first comprehensive biography of one of the most influential, powerful, and admired public figures of our time. Anyone who is a fan of Oprah Winfrey or who has followed her extraordinary life and career will be fascinated and newly informed by the closely observed, detailed, and well-rounded portrait of her provided by Kitty Kelley's exhaustively researched book. Readers will come away with a greater appreciation of who Oprah really is beyond her public persona and a fuller understanding of her important place in American cultural history.--From publisher description.
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2023., Doubleday Canada Call No: NEW Bio M553r Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Rick Mercer is back--again!--with the eagerly awaited sequel to his bestselling memoir. At the end of his memoir, Talking to Canadians, Rick Mercer was poised to make the biggest leap yet in his extraordinary career. Having overcome a serious lack of promise as a schoolboy and risen through the showbiz ranks--as an aspiring actor, star of a surprisingly successful one-man show about the Meech Lake Accord, co-founder of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, creator and star of the dark-comedy sitcom Made in Canada--he was about to tackle his biggest opportunity yet. The Road Years picks up the story at that exciting point, with the greenlighting of what would become Rick Mercer Report. Plans for the show of course included political satire and Rick's patented rants. But Rick and his partner, Gerald Lunz, were also determined to do something that comedy tends to avoid as too challenging: they would emphasize the positive. Rick would travel from coast to coast to coast in search of everything that's best about Canada, especially its people. He found a lot to celebrate, of course, and was rewarded with a huge audience and a run of 15 seasons. The Road Years tells the inside story of that stupendous success. A time when Rick was always heading to another town--or military base, sports centre, national park--to tag moose, hang from a harness (a lot), ride the Train of Death, and countless other joyous and/or reckless assignments. Added to the mix were encounters with the country's great. Every living prime minister. Rock and roll royalty from Rush to Randy Bachman. Olympians and paralympians. A skinny-dipping Bob Rae, a goal-keeping Margaret Atwood, a joint-rolling Pierre Berton. Along the way he even found the time to co-found and champion the charity Spread the Net, which has gone on to save more lives than any malaria medicine. Join the celebration, and revive a wealth of happy memories, with what is Rick Mercer's funniest, most fascinating book yet.
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c2004., Random House Call No: Bio P326p Edition: 1st ed. Availability:1 of 1 At Your LibraryClick here to watch Click here to view More...
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2021., Adult, Doubleday Canada Call No: Bio M554t Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Canada's beloved comic genius tells his own story for the first time. What is Rick Mercer going to do now? That was the question on everyone's lips when the beloved comedian retired his hugely successful TV show after 15 seasons—and at the peak of its popularity. The answer came not long after, when he roared back in a new role as stand-up-comedian, playing to sold-out houses wherever he appeared. And then Covid-19 struck. And his legions of fans began asking again: What is Rick Mercer going to do now? Well, for one thing, he's been writing a comic masterpiece. For the first time, this most private of public figures has turned the spotlight on himself, in a memoir that's as revealing as it is hilarious. In riveting anecdotal style, Rick charts his rise from highly unpromising schoolboy (in his reports "the word 'disappointment' appeared a fair bit") to the heights of TV fame. Along the way came an amazing break when, not long out of his teens, his one-man show Show Me the Button, I'll Push It. Or, Charles Lynch Must Die, became an overnight sensation—thanks in part to a bizarre ambush by its target, Charles Lynch himself. That's one story you won’t soon forget, and this book is full of them. There's a tale of how little Rick helped himself to a tree from the neighbours' garden that's set to become a new Christmas classic. There's Rick the aspiring actor, braving "the scariest thing I have ever done in my life" by performing with the Newfoundland Shakespeare Company; unforgettable scenes with politicians of every variety, from Jean Chretien to George W. Bush to Stockwell Day; and a wealth of behind-the-scenes revelations about the origins and making of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Made in Canada, and Talking to Americans. All leading of course to the greenlighting of that mega-hit, Rick Mercer Report . . . It's a life so packed with incident (did we mention Bosnia and Kabul?) and laughter we can only hope that a future answer to "What is Rick Mercer going to do now?" is: "Write volume two.
