You know you’re in trouble when the Dalai Lama is praying for you As a child, JeanDavid Blanc always dreamt of flying. A successful entrepreneur, he took up powered paragliding as soon as he had the means; at the drop of a hat, he would head off to experience the unique sensation of floating over the most remote and breathtaking scenery in the world. In January 2011, he left Paris for Nepal for an expedition across the Himalayas. During the course of a paragliding flight in Nepal, the weather suddenly turned, and amid a thick cloud cover, he crashed into the face of a mountain. Holding on to little more than a bush, he realized his situation was precarious, but—fortunately—the fog prevented him from seeing just how steep and sheer the drop beneath him was. He sent an SOS back to camp with his GPS coordinates, but the weather was going to make any rescue attempt difficult. As he waited for help and tried to adjust to his perilous situation, he began to receive text messages on his cellphone from oblivious friends back in Paris. What gives you the strength to keep going when you have nothing left? What do you say in your last text message to your daughter? Three Days in Nepal is by turns thrilling, moving, nail-biting and humorous—the tale of a man who was hanging over a precipice, facing death in one of the most beautiful places in the world, and was determined, against all odds, to survive and return home.

Amazing people who have built our present and are shaping our tomorrowUsing the successful format of How the Scots Invented Canada, Ken McGoogan takes the reader on a compelling journey throughthe lives of fifty accomplished Canadians born in the 20th century who have changed—and often continue to change—the great wide world. He discovers an astonishing array of activists, humanitarians, visionaries, scientists and inventors, all of whom have made an impact internationally. From Tommy Douglas, Pierre Trudeau, John Kenneth Galbraith, Naomi Klein, Marshall McLuhan, Stephen Lewis and Roméo Dallaire to Glenn Gould, David Suzuki, Mike Lazaridis, Margaret Atwood, Oscar Peterson, Leonard Cohen and thirty-seven others, Ken McGoogan shows us why and how Canadians move in the wider world as influencers and agents of progressive change. Say hello to fifty Canadians who are shaping the future.

Not long ago, seventeen-year-old Carley Allison had it all. She was on the edge of fame as a singer and composer. She was reaching for the highest levels as a competitive skater. She had a brand-new boyfriend and a golden future waiting after graduation. Her world came crashing down when she was diagnosed with a rare kind of cancer in her trachea. Her case, doctors said, was one in 3.5 billion. Faced with an uncertain new future, Carley did what she always did: she rose to the challenge. Cancer treatment tested her, but Carley was fearless and strong. Told she might never sing again, Carley beat the odds and performed on television for an audience of millions. ?Ladies and gentlemen,? the announcer said, introducing her, ?The voice you're about to hear is a miracle ...? Carley died before her twenty-first birthday, but her memory lives on in the countless people she touched with her courage. Bestselling author Alice Kuipers (Me & Me, Life on the Refrigerator Door) weaves their stories with the blog Carley kept in the final months of her life. These many voices --- plus plenty of Carley's texts and photos --- show her transformation from ordinary to extraordinary, and convey her personal rules for living well in the worst of times. Some readers will know Carley already, whether from videos she shared on YouTube, from her heroic public performances, or from the internationally-acclaimed movie Kiss and Cry inspired by Carley's story and starring her real-life friend Sarah Fisher (Degrassi) This tribute to her life and legacy will appeal to her admirers and inspire those who are meeting Carley for the first time. Always Smile is a book that will linger and resonate in a reader's heart.

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.  In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annex” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and amusing, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short. Praise for The Diary of a Young Girl “A truly remarkable book.”—The New York Times “One of the most moving personal documents to come out of World War II.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “There may be no better way to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II than to reread The Diary of a Young Girl, a testament to an indestructible nobility of spirit in the face of pure evil.”—Chicago Tribune “The single most compelling personal account of the Holocaust . . . remains astonishing and excruciating.”—The New York Times Book Review “How brilliantly Anne Frank captures the self-conscious alienation and naïve self-absorption of adolescence.”—Newsday

"Mark Twain's autobiography is a classic of American letters, to be ranked with the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Adams. . . . It has the marks of greatness in it—style, scope, imagination, laughter, tragedy." —From the Introduction by Charles Neider Mark Twain was a figure larger than life: massive in talent, eruptive in temperament, unpredictable in his actions. He crafted stories of heroism, adventure, tragedy, and comedy that reflected the changing America of the time, and he tells his own story with the same flair he brought to his fiction. Writing this autobiography on his deathbed, Twain vowed to be "free and frank and unembarrassed" in the recounting of his life and his experiences. With an introduction by Charles Neider, and featuring sixteen pages of photographs, this edition was the first to arrange Twain's autobiographical writings in chronological order, and it presents a man who is more than a match for the expanding America of riverboats, gold rushes, and the vast westward movement that provided the material for his beloved novels.

The Awakening of Malcolm X is a powerful narrative account of the activist's adolescent years in jail, written by his daughter Ilyasah Shabazz along with 2019 Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe award-winning author, Tiffany D. Jackson. Here is an intimate look at Malcolm X's young adult years. While this book chronologically follows X: A Novel, it can be read as a stand-alone historical novel that invites larger discussions on black power, prison reform, and civil rights.

Fifty-seven incredible stories from hockey's biggest names, greatest characters and unsung heroes Essential reading for every fan, Beauties is a collection of the best stories that players tell each other. Grab a seat with TSN's James Duthie as hockey's finest relive highs, lows and hilarious moments on and off the ice from superstars, journeymen, coaches, referees, broadcasters, agents, and hockey moms and dads. In Beauties, you'll find out: · How Sidney Crosby's most unusual nickname came to be · How Steve Stamkos's dad accidentally stole Steve Yzerman's car · How Paul "Biznasty" Bissonette almost had the Arizona Coyotes kicked out of a Winnipeg hotel on game day · How Wayne Gretzky's greatest one-liner may have turned around the Stanley Cup Final in 1985 · About the night that Hayley Wickenheiser went blind · Why the St. Louis Blues credit Laila Anderson, a brave young girl, for their Stanley Cup win · What Bobby Orr said the first time he saw Connor McDavid play at a rink in Toronto And more!

Adapted from the adult memoir, this father-son story explores how boys become men, and quite specifically, how Ta-Nehisi Coates became Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates grew up in the tumultuous 1980's in Baltimore, known as the murder capital back then. With seven siblings, four mothers, and one highly unconventional father: Paul Coates, a larger-than-life Vietnam Vet, Black Panther, Afrocentric scholar, Ta-Nehisi's coming of age story is gripping and lays bare the struggles of inner-city kids. With candor, Ta-Nehisi Coates details the challenges on the streets and within one's family, especially the eternal struggle for peace between a father and son and the important role family plays in such circumstances.

Jazz Jennings is one of the youngest and most prominent voices in the national discussion about gender identity. At the age of five, Jazz transitioned to life as a girl, with the support of her parents. A year later, her parents allowed her to share her incredible journey in her first Barbara Walters interview, aired at a time when the public was much less knowledgeable or accepting of the transgender community. This groundbreaking interview was followed over the years by other high-profile interviews, a documentary, the launch of her YouTube channel, a picture book, and her own reality TV series--I Am Jazz--making her one of the most recognizable activists for transgender teens, children, and adults. In her remarkable memoir, Jazz reflects on these very public experiences and how they have helped shape the mainstream attitude toward the transgender community. But it hasn't all been easy. Jazz has faced many challenges, bullying, discrimination, and rejection, yet she perseveres as she educates others about her life as a transgender teen. Through it all, her family has been beside her on this journey, standing together against those who don't understand the true meaning of tolerance and unconditional love. Now Jazz must learn to navigate the physical, social, and emotional upheavals of adolescence--particularly high school--complicated by the unique challenges of being a transgender teen. Making the journey from girl to woman is never easy--especially when you began your life in a boy's body.

In the summer of 2010, Suleika Jaouad had just graduated from college, preparing, as they say in commencement speeches, to enter the real world. She had fallen in love and moved to Paris to pursue her dream of becoming a war correspondent. The real world she found, however, would take her into a very different kind of conflict zone. It started with an itch--first on her feet, then migrating up her legs--like a thousand mosquito bites. Then came the exhaustion, and the six-hour naps that only seemed to deepen her fatigue. Then came a trip to the doctor and, a few weeks shy of her twenty-third birthday, a diagnosis: leukemia, with a 35 percent chance of survival. Just like that, the life she had imagined for herself was engulfed in flames. By time she boarded a plane home to New York, she had lost her job, her apartment, and her independence. She would spend much of the next four years confined to a hospital bed, fighting for her life. When Suleika finally walked out of the hospital--after three and a half years of chemo, a clinical trial, and a bone marrow transplant--she was, according to the doctors, cured. But as she would soon learn, a cure is not where the work of healing ends; it's where it begins. She had spent the past 1,500 days in desperate pursuit of one goal--to survive. And now that she'd done so, she realized she had no idea how to live. Suleika embarked--with her new best friend, Oscar, a scruffy terrier mutt--on a 100-day, 15,000-mile road trip across the country. She set out to meet some of the strangers who had written to her during her years in the hospital: a teenage girl in Florida also recovering from cancer; a teacher in California grieving the death of her son; a death row inmate in Texas who had also spent years confined in a room. What she learned on this trip is that the divide between the sick and the well doesn't really exist. It is porous, and the vast majority of us will travel back and forth between these realms throughout our lives. Between Two Kingdoms is a profound chronicle of survivorship and a fierce, inspiring exploration of what it means to begin again.