Secrets of the Sprakkar

Secrets of the Sprakkar PDF Author: Eliza Reid
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982174048
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
The Canadian first lady of Iceland pens a book about why this tiny nation is leading the charge in gender equality, in the vein of The Moment of Lift. Iceland is the best place on earth to be a woman—but why? For the past twelve years, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report has ranked Iceland number one on its list of countries closing the gap in equality between men and women. What is it about Iceland that enables its society to make such meaningful progress in this ongoing battle, from electing the world’s first female president to passing legislation specifically designed to help even the playing field at work and at home? The answer is found in the country’s sprakkar, an ancient Icelandic word meaning extraordinary or outstanding women. Eliza Reid—Canadian born and raised, and now first lady of Iceland—examines her adopted homeland’s attitude toward women: the deep-seated cultural sense of fairness, the influence of current and historical role models, and, crucially, the areas where Iceland still has room for improvement. Throughout, she interviews dozens of sprakkar to tell their inspirational stories, and expertly weaves in her own experiences as an immigrant from small-town Canada. The result is an illuminating discussion of what it means to move through the world as a woman and how the rules of society play more of a role in who we view as equal than we may understand. What makes many women’s experiences there so positive? And what can we learn about fairness to benefit our society? Like influential and progressive first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Michelle Obama, Reid uses her platform to bring the best of her nation to the world. Secrets of the Sprakkar is a powerful and atmospheric portrait of a tiny country that could lead the way forward for us all.

Secrets of the Sprakkar

Secrets of the Sprakkar PDF Author: Eliza Reid
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982174048
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Canadian first lady of Iceland pens a book about why this tiny nation is leading the charge in gender equality, in the vein of The Moment of Lift. Iceland is the best place on earth to be a woman—but why? For the past twelve years, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report has ranked Iceland number one on its list of countries closing the gap in equality between men and women. What is it about Iceland that enables its society to make such meaningful progress in this ongoing battle, from electing the world’s first female president to passing legislation specifically designed to help even the playing field at work and at home? The answer is found in the country’s sprakkar, an ancient Icelandic word meaning extraordinary or outstanding women. Eliza Reid—Canadian born and raised, and now first lady of Iceland—examines her adopted homeland’s attitude toward women: the deep-seated cultural sense of fairness, the influence of current and historical role models, and, crucially, the areas where Iceland still has room for improvement. Throughout, she interviews dozens of sprakkar to tell their inspirational stories, and expertly weaves in her own experiences as an immigrant from small-town Canada. The result is an illuminating discussion of what it means to move through the world as a woman and how the rules of society play more of a role in who we view as equal than we may understand. What makes many women’s experiences there so positive? And what can we learn about fairness to benefit our society? Like influential and progressive first ladies Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Michelle Obama, Reid uses her platform to bring the best of her nation to the world. Secrets of the Sprakkar is a powerful and atmospheric portrait of a tiny country that could lead the way forward for us all.

Summary of Eliza Reid's Secrets of the Sprakkar

Summary of Eliza Reid's Secrets of the Sprakkar PDF Author: Everest Media,
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
ISBN: 1669384284
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I moved to Iceland in 2003 when I was twenty-seven years old. I had been in graduate school at Oxford University in England, and I was the first Icelander to attend St. Antony’s, one of the colleges there. I was attracted to Gudni, who was the first Icelander to attend St. Antony’s. #2 Gudni, who was the president of the student association, was also the first divorcee I knew. He had not mentioned his four-year-old daughter before because in the gamut of small talk when students first meet, no one thinks to ask about children. #3 I had a plan to move to Iceland with Gudni. I would be married to him, and we would be legally committed to each other until death do us part. I figured if I was about to move to a remote island where I did not speak the language and did not have a job, I might as well be broke too and make a truly fresh start. #4 I had moved to Iceland to live with my husband, Gudni, in 2003. I had been living out of a backpack, drinking mango lassies, and riding camels, but I was now working and learning the language. I could already see there would be moments that required patience and persistence, but I was enjoying myself.

Perestroika in Paris

Perestroika in Paris PDF Author: Jane Smiley
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 052543609X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a captivating, brilliantly imaginative story of three extraordinary animals—and a young boy—whose lives intersect in Paris in this "feel-good escape” (The New York Times). Paras, short for "Perestroika," is a spirited racehorse at a racetrack west of Paris. One afternoon at dusk, she finds the door of her stall open and—she's a curious filly—wanders all the way to the City of Light. She's dazzled and often mystified by the sights, sounds, and smells around her, but she isn't afraid. Soon she meets an elegant dog, a German shorthaired pointer named Frida, who knows how to get by without attracting the attention of suspicious Parisians. Paras and Frida coexist for a time in the city's lush green spaces, nourished by Frida's strategic trips to the vegetable market. They keep company with two irrepressible ducks and an opinionated raven. But then Paras meets a human boy, Etienne, and discovers a new, otherworldly part of Paris: the ivy-walled house where the boy and his nearly-one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother live in seclusion. As the cold weather nears, the unlikeliest of friendships bloom. But how long can a runaway horse stay undiscovered in Paris? How long can a boy keep her hidden and all to himself? Jane Smiley's beguiling new novel is itself an adventure that celebrates curiosity, ingenuity, and the desire of all creatures for true love and freedom.

Girl in Ice

Girl in Ice PDF Author: Erica Ferencik
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982143037
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"From the author of The River at Night and Into the Jungle comes a harrowing new thriller as a linguist, broken-hearted after the apparent suicide of her glaciologist brother, ventures hundreds of miles north of the Arctic Circle to try to communicate with a young girl who has thawed from the ice alive"--

Foe

Foe PDF Author: Iain Reid
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501103490
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
A taut, psychological mind-bender from the bestselling author of I’m Thinking of Ending Things. We don’t get visitors. Not out here. We never have. Junior and Hen are a quiet married couple. They live a comfortable, solitary life on their farm, far from the city lights, but in close quarters with each other. One day, a stranger from the city arrives with surprising news: Junior has been randomly selected to travel far away from the farm...very far away. The most unusual part? Arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Hen won’t have a chance to miss him at all, because she won’t be left alone—not even for a moment. Hen will have company. Familiar company. Foe examines the nature of domestic relationships, self-determination, and what it means to be (or not to be) a person. An eerily entrancing page-turner, it churns with unease and suspense from the first words to its shocking finale.

Coming Up for Air

Coming Up for Air PDF Author: Sarah Leipciger
Publisher: House of Anansi
ISBN: 1487006519
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
A lyrical, powerful, and richly textured novel about three lives that intertwine across oceans and time. On the banks of the River Seine in 1899, a young woman takes her final breath before plunging into the icy water. Although she does not know it, her decision will set in motion an astonishing chain of events. It will lead to 1950s Norway, where a grieving toy-maker is on the cusp of a transformative invention, all the way to present-day Ottawa Valley in Canada, where a journalist, battling a terrible disease, risks everything for one last chance to live. Taking inspiration from a remarkable true story, Coming Up for Air is a bold, richly imagined novel about the transcendent power of storytelling and the immeasurable impact of every human life. The legacy of the woman at its heart touches the lives of us all today, and this book reveals just how.

Molly Falls to Earth

Molly Falls to Earth PDF Author: Maria Mutch
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501182811
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
"As Molly experiences the singularity of the seizure over the course of seven minutes, she is haunted by her past: memories of love and infidelity, thoughts of her family and her work, and of the city itself. She also reflects on the disappearance of a lover she last saw ten years earlier, his sister, and the secrets that connect all three of them"--

Far to Go

Far to Go PDF Author: Alison Pick
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062034634
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
The Man Booker Prize finalist Far to Go by acclaimed author Alison Pick is historical fiction at its very best. When Czechoslovakia relinquishes the Sudetenland to Hitler, the powerful influence of Nazi propaganda sweeps through towns and villages like a sinister vanguard of the Reich's advancing army. A fiercely patriotic secular Jew, Pavel Bauer is helpless to prevent his world from unraveling as first his government, then his business partners, then his neighbors turn their back on his affluent, once-beloved family. Only the Bauers' adoring governess, Marta, sticks by Pavel, his wife, Anneliese, and their little son, Pepik, bound by her deep affection for her employers and friends. But when Marta learns of their impending betrayal at the hands of her lover, Ernst, Pavel's best friend, she is paralyzed by her own fear of discovery—even as the endangered family for whom she cares so deeply struggles with the most difficult decision of their lives. Interwoven with a present-day narrative that gradually reveals the fate of the Bauer family during and after the war, Far to Go is a riveting family epic, love story, and psychological drama.

Shrewed

Shrewed PDF Author: Elizabeth Renzetti
Publisher: House of Anansi
ISBN: 1487003056
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Why are there so few women in politics? Why is public space, whether it’s the street or social media, still so inhospitable to women? What does Carrie Fisher have to do with Mary Wollstonecraft? And why is a wedding ceremony Satan’s playground? These are some of the questions that bestselling author and acclaimed journalist Elizabeth Renzetti examines in her new collection of original essays. Drawing upon her decades of reporting on feminist issues, Shrewed is a book about feminism’s crossroads. From Hillary Clinton’s failed campaign to the quest for equal pay, from the lessons we can learn from old ladies to the future of feminism in a turbulent world, Renzetti takes a pointed, witty look at how far we’ve come — and how far we have to go. If Nellie McClung and Erma Bombeck had an IVF baby, this book would be the result. If they’d lived at the same time. And in the same country. And if IVF had been invented. Well, you get the point.

An Embarrassment of Critch's

An Embarrassment of Critch's PDF Author: Mark Critch
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735235104
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER The heartfelt and hilarious story of beloved Canadian comedian Mark Critch's journey from Newfoundland to the national stage--and back home again. One of Mark Critch's earliest acting gigs was in a Newfoundland tourist production alongside a cast of displaced fishery workers. Since, he's found increasing opportunities to take his show on the road. In An Embarrassment of Critch's, the star of CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes revisits some of his career's--and the country's--biggest moments, revealing all the things you might not know happened along the way: A wishful rumour spread by Mark's father results in his big break; two bottles of Scotch nearly get him kicked out of a secret Canadian airbase in the United Arab Emirates; and for anyone wondering how to get an interview with the Prime Minister and Bono (yes, that Bono) on the same evening, Critch might recommend a journey to the 2003 Liberal Convention. Critch's top-secret access to all of the funniest behind-the-scenes moments involve many of the charismatic and notorious politicians we love to see blush, including fearless leaders Justin Trudeau, Stephen Harper, Paul Martin, and Jean Chrétien, celebrities such as Pamela Anderson and Robin Williams, and other colourful figures he's met over years of pulling off daring skits at home and abroad. Remember when MP Carolyn Parrish took her boot to George W. Bush's head in an interview? Or when Critch asked Justin Trudeau where the best place to smoke pot on Parliament Hill was before pulling out a joint for them to share? There's more to each of those stories than you know. Though Critch has spent years crisscrossing the country--and the globe--with the explicit aim of causing trouble everywhere he goes, like the best journeys, this one takes him right back home.