Author: Brian Brett
Publisher: Greystone Books
ISBN: 1771640642
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Get Book Here
Book Description
The acclaimed author’s memoir of life with an African grey parrot offers “a thoughtful and generous celebration of minds and bodies different from our own” (Times Literary Supplement, UK). For thirty years, Brian Brett shared his office and his life with Tuco, a remarkable parrot given to asking questions such as “Whaddya know?” and announcing “Party time!” when guests showed up at Brett’s farm. Although Brett bought Tuco on a whim, he gradually realized the enormous obligation he has to his pet, learning that the parrot is far more complex than he thought. In Tuco and the Scattershot World, Brett not only chronicles his fascinating relationship with Tuco, but uses it to explore the human tendency to “other” the world, abusing birds, landscapes, and each other. Brett sees in Tuco’s otherness a mirror of his own experience contending with Kallman syndrome, a rare genetic condition that made him the target of bullies—and nurtured his affinity for winged creatures. Brett’s meditative digressions touch on topics ranging from the history of birds and dinosaurs to our concepts of knowledge, language, and intelligence—and include commentary from Tuco himself. By turns provocative and deeply moving, Tuco and the Scattershot World “is not a straight memoir—it’s something much more wondrously weird . . . a view of the human predicament that is hilarious, sobering and profound” (Globe & Mail, UK).
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Get Book Here
Book Description
"For thirty years, Brian Brett shared his office and his life with Tuco, a remarkable parrot given to asking such questions as 'Whaddya know?' and announcing 'Party time!' when guests showed up at Bretts farm. Although Brett bought Tuco on a whim as a pet, he gradually realizes the enormous obligation he has to the bird and learns that the parrot is a lot more complex than he thought. Simultaneously a biography of this singular bird and a history of bird/dinosaurs and the human relationship with birds, Tuco also explores how we 'other' the world--abusing birds, landscapes, and each other--including Bretts own experience with a rare genetic condition that turned his early years into an obstacle course of bullying and nurtured his affinity for winged creatures. The book also provides an in-depth examination of our ideas about knowledge, language, and intelligence (including commentary from Tuco himself) and how as we learn more about animal languages and intelligence we continually shift our definitions of them in order to retain our 'superiority.' As Brett says, 'Whaddya know? Not much. I dont even know what knowledge is. I know only the magic... and the mysteries.' By turns provocative, profound, hilarious, and deeply moving, this fascinating memoir will remain with the reader long after the last page has been turned."--From publisher.
Author: Lynne Van Luven
Publisher: Brindle and Glass
ISBN: 1926972384
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Get Book Here
Book Description
Living is a process of continuous transformation: we have been embryos, children, adolescents, thin, fat, sick, better again. And as humans, we are always at odds with at least one part of our bodies. Have we inherited the family nose? Is there nothing to be done for our finicky stomach or our limp hair? In the Flesh is an intelligent, witty, and provocative look at how we think about—and live within—our bodies. The editors and writers in this collection describe, in many voices, what human bodies feel now. Each author’s candid essay focuses on one part of the body, and explores its function, its meanings, and the role it has played in his or her life. Written from both the male and female perspectives, contributors include Caroline Adderson, André Alexis, Taiaiake Alfred, Brian Brett, Trevor Cole, Dede Crane, Lorna Crozier, Candace Fertile, Stephen Gauer, Julian Gunn, Heather Kuttai, Susan Olding, Kate Pullinger, Merilyn Simonds, Richard Steel, Madeleine Thien, Sue Thomas, and Margaret Thompson.
Author: Brian Brett
Publisher: Greystone Books Ltd
ISBN: 1926812387
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Get Book Here
Book Description
The acclaimed author transforms a single day on his small farm into a “gorgeously thoughtful meditation on the natural world” and our place in it (Vancouver Sun). The acclaimed poet and author Brian Brett takes readers on an irreverent and illuminating journey through a day in the life of his small island farm in British Columbia, affectionately named Trauma Farm. With fascinating ruminations on everything from the natural history of farming to the horrors of industrial slaughterhouses, Brett’s day of tending to his farm becomes a Joycean epic of agrarian life. Brett moves from the tending of livestock, poultry, orchards, gardens, machinery, and fields to the social intricacies of rural communities and, finally, to an encounter with a magnificent deer in the silver moonlight of a magical field. Brett understands both tall tales and rigorous science as he explores the small mixed farm—meditating on the perfection of the egg and the nature of soil while also offering a scathing critique of agribusiness. Whether discussing the uses and misuses of gates, examining the energy of seeds, or bantering with his family, farm hands, and neighbors, Brett remains aware of the miracles of life, birth, and death that confront the rural world every day. Trauma Farm was a 2009 book of the year in the Times Literary Supplement and the Globe & Mail, and winner of Writers’ Trust Canadian Non-Fiction Prize.
Author: Paul Howard
Publisher: Greystone Books
ISBN: 1553658183
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Get Book Here
Book Description
For Paul Howard, who has ridden the entire Tour de France route during the race itself—setting off at 4 am each day to avoid being caught by the pros—riding a small mountain-bike race should hold no fear. Still, this isn’t just any mountain-bike race. This is the Tour Divide. Running from Banff in Canada to the Mexican border, the Tour Divide is more than 2,700 miles—500 miles longer than the Tour de France. Its route along the Continental Divide goes through the heart of the Rocky Mountains and involves more than 200,000 feet of ascent—the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest seven times. The other problem is that Howard has never owned a mountain bike—and how will training on the South Downs in southern England prepare him for sleeping rough in the Rockies? Entertaining and engaging, Eat, Sleep, Ride will appeal to avid and aspiring cyclers, as well as fans of adventure/travel narrative with a humorous twist.
Author: Mikael Lindnord
Publisher: Greystone Books
ISBN: 9781771644471
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Get Book Here
Book Description
"First published in the U.K. by Two Roads in 2017"--Title page verso in 2017.
Author: Brian Brett
Publisher: Exile Editions, Ltd.
ISBN: 9781550960204
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 124
Get Book Here
Book Description
This memoir is personal and intense, a vision that is half paradise, half abattoir. It is Brett telling of growing up in the shadow of his peg-legged, strongman potato-peddling father, as he reveals that he is a hermaphrodite - sometimes angelic in his insights and also physically powerful, yet always on the brink of dying. Through excruciating pain in his bones and drug-induced hallucinations, he has stayed alive into his middle years as a storyteller with a huge appetite for life and words - a man of brilliance and courage, who has confronted the essential questions and conundrums of existence.
Author: Andy Merrifield
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1780724624
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Get Book Here
Book Description
'An amazing book... Erudite, acutely observed and spontaneous.' - John Berger 'This is Zen and the Art of Donkey Walking. I cannot imagine a more charming, informative or restful book.' - Jim Crace 'Pleasantly eccentric and elegantly written, suffused with the patient calm of the admired beast.' - New York Observer 'A fond meditation on the calming virtues of donkeyhood and daydreaming... a wistful travelogue.' - The Sunday Times When Andy Merrifield made his first trip to America aged ten, he vowed that one day he would leave his native Liverpool and live in New York. He eventually got there, but his dream quickly turned sour. In 2003, weary of city life, he moved to central France and embarked upon a journey of the soul, walking amid the ruins and spectacular vistas of the Auvergne. This book is the story of that slow pilgrimage, on which his only companion is Gribouille, a tender and intelligent donkey with soft, thick fur on his brow and calm, dark eyes. The purposeful pace of his journey allows Merrifield gradually to confront himself, as well as the larger mysteries of existence - while marvelling at his tranquil surroundings and revelling in the oddities of French rural life. The Wisdom of Donkeys reminds us that observing, being mindful, and being present in the moment are essential to a fulfilled life. It teaches us that enlightenment is all around us if we only take the time to seek it.
Author: Erica Jong
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 146687290X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 286
Get Book Here
Book Description
Fear of Dying is a hilarious, heart wrenching, and beautifully told story about what happens when one woman steps reluctantly into the afternoon of life. Vanessa Wonderman is a gorgeous former actress in her 60's who finds herself balancing between her dying parents, her aging husband and her beloved, pregnant daughter. Although Vanessa considers herself "a happily married woman," the lack of sex in her life makes her feel as if she's losing something too valuable to ignore. So she places an ad for sex on a site called Zipless.com and the life she knew begins to unravel. With the help and counsel of her best friend, Isadora Wing, Vanessa navigates the phishers and pishers, and starts to question if what she's looking for might be close at hand after all. Fear of Dying is a daring and delightful look at what it really takes to be human and female in the 21st century. Wildly funny and searingly honest, this is a book for everyone who has ever been shaken and changed by love.
Author: Brian Brett
Publisher: Saskatoon : Thistledown Press
ISBN: 9781894345538
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 426
Get Book Here
Book Description
In this dazzling "ethical thriller" novelist and poet, Brian Brett and a wildly unreliable narrator employ every trick in the storyteller's arsenal, dancing us from slapstick to horror, from Godel's Proof to oyster hunting, from high comedy to lyric portraits of one of the legendary Gulf Islands, while engaging in a wicked argument with the reader and the world we are losing.