When Mavis Himes, a psychoanalyst with an established practice of over forty years, began to contemplate retirement, she decided to learn to play the cello.From meeting her teacher in an overcrowded café, through the demanding task of cello practice with its persistent strains and stresses on the body, Himes found a growing appreciation of music's power on her own well-being. An unfortunate bicycle accident resulting in serious injuries to her left arm threw her mu...

Dr. Brian Standish isn't happy.His wife thinks he's a misanthropist, but Brian believes he merely hates most people.He never wanted to be a hematologist, or a doctor for that matter. But he is and doesn't like what he sees daily at Kilminster General, his hospital in the west of England: conceit, philandering, and dissembling, with Big Pharma feeding at the trough while acting as a puppeteer for his colleagues. And then there's the ...

Against the Tide recounts the journey of a frail young boy who found his strength in running, sparking his dream of becoming an Olympic athlete.His adventures included lumberjacking in British Columbia and working on a tramp steamer to the Arctic. Running led him to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, where he set a Commonwealth record in the Decathlon.Eschewing the family investment business he pursued a writing career, earning a Ph.D. from Stanford in English Litera...

Fresh Voices from the Periphery is evidence that history matters - not only the study of the past - but also by shedding light on how events of the past have impacted lives in the present. This unique book is a collection of thought-provoking essays written by young people whose families have lived as minorities in various countries in east-central Europe for four generations. They became minorities not because their families migrated to different parts of Europe, but beca...

Stephen Barker was in his mid-thirties and leading a pretty normal life … until his world was turned upside down when he went blind.In this inspiring and humorous memoir, Stephen chronicles how, within a relatively short time span, he had to face the fear and the challenges of blindness and the trauma of losing close family members to cancer.The turning point came when he discovered the Lions Foundation Dog Guides program and was given his “new set of eyes,” a black Labrado...

In this book, Burton Kellock explains how Canadian law teachers, their students, politicians and the general public have been induced to believe that the Canadian Constitution authorizes the Parliament of Canada to impose federal taxes for the purpose of donating the proceeds of those taxes to the governments of the provinces in defiance of the Constitution. The truth is that the Fathers of Confederation decided that this should not and could not be done under the Constitu...

The late Sir John Templeton once said:"To buy when others are despondently selling and to sellwhen others are avidly buying requires the greatest fortitude."Many investors get caught in popular investment themes. They enthusiastically buy near the top, then fearfully sell near the bottom when the market corrects its excess. Conversely, the greatest investment returns in history have been made by be...

CITY gay goes up-country in a nutty, cheesy tale …High up in their condo with the million-dollar lake view, John and Greg’s free-wheeling city dream comes to an end after one too many stolen bicycles. Soon after, the life partners are riding the wave of real estate prices right out of the city.Their rural route ends up turning right down a cattail-lined concession, into the wild green yonder of Southwestern Ontario. On a Century Farm with sixty goats and th...

WILLIAM GAIRDNER has published a dozen books, a half-dozen journal articles, and hundreds of insightful essays online. As a consequence, many eager to read his work, are not sure where to begin. Disruptive Essays was created to help them. It is what some call a "Reader," offering a fascinating and varied selection from his bestselling books, articles, and blogs. The disruptive title was chosen because, as Gairdner warns: "***There Are No Safe Spac...

Lawyer and former Union soldier Richard Montgomery is commissioned to infiltrate a clandestine Confederate operation in Canada in 1864 during the U.S. Civil War. On numerous forays across enemy lines as a courier for former Alabama senator Clement C. Clay, one of the leaders of the Rebel conspiracy, Montgomery relays the word to his Yankee superiors regarding several diabolical Confederate campaigns in Union territory. These include a nefarious attempt to burn down much of New York...

William Gairdner, PhD, is a former Olympic athlete, businessman, and author living near Toronto. He began publishing serious essays and books on political and moral philosophy in mid-life, and among his many bestsellers -- books that have profoundly enriched national dialogue and discussion -- are The Trouble With Canada, The War Against the Family, Canada's Founding Debates, The Book of Absolutes, and The Great Divide: Why Liberals and Conservatives Will Neve...

When Wolfe Cruise buys an old hotel in downtown St. Marys, Ontario, there's a giant pile of weird rocks in the backyard that the previous owner won't stop talking about.Wolfe soon discovers that the barber who kept a shop here had an unusual marketing scheme: bring a special enough rock, get a free haircut. For sixty years, from behind his red-padded & nickel-plated chair, the Barber would mimic, amuse, and draw his customers into his comic play. Now, as Wo...