Life From The Ashes

*#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER *Winner, Kobo Emerging Writer Prize Nonfiction *Winner, Indigenous Voices Awards *Winner, High Plains Book Awards *Finalist, CBC Canada Reads *A Globe and Mail Book of the Year *An Indigo Book of the Year *A CBC Best Canadian Nonfiction Book of the Year In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle, once a high school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is. If I can just make it to the next minute...then I might have a chance to live; I might have a chance to be something more than just a struggling crackhead. From the Ashes is a remarkable memoir about hope and resilience, and a revelatory look into the life of a Métis-Cree man who refused to give up. Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster-care system with his two brothers, cut off from all they had known. Eventually the children landed in the home of their paternal grandparents, whose tough-love attitudes quickly resulted in conflicts. Throughout it all, the ghost of Jesse’s drug-addicted father haunted the halls of the house and the memories of every family member. Struggling with all that had happened, Jesse succumbed to a self-destructive cycle of drug and alcohol addiction and petty crime, spending more than a decade on and off the streets, often homeless. Finally, he realized he would die unless he turned his life around. In this heartwarming and heart-wrenching memoir, Jesse Thistle writes honestly and fearlessly about his painful past, the abuse he endured, and how he uncovered the truth about his parents. Through sheer perseverance and education—and newfound love—he found his way back into the circle of his Indigenous culture and family. An eloquent exploration of the impact of prejudice and racism, From the Ashes is, in the end, about how love and support can help us find happiness despite the odds.

How does life go on after losing a child? Life from the Ashes shares the dark and raw story of Shari O’Loughlin’s loss of her 14-year-old son, Connor, who was shockingly killed in an airplane crash on his way home from a four-day vacation. Like all parents, Shari was struck with the most unimaginable nightmare when her family received the soul-numbing news. Parents trying to navigate the perilous journey of traumatic loss know the path is agonizing. Happiness, faith, and wholeness seem reserved for everyone else but them. Shari shares her story to help bring the same unexpected hope and healing she experienced to parents alike. She helps answer questions on how parents can trust again, feel happiness, and have faith after God let their child die. She addresses how to live with this new life, take steps toward healing, and live a more purposeful life after loss. In honor of Connor and her family, Shari shares her path from darkness to light so other parents may better find their way. Although Shari’s story shares the journey after the loss of a child, it contains tools that can help anyone who has suffered a loss of any type move forward in life.

A disturbing yet inspirational account of the author's experiences in Nazi Germany and Poland during the time of the Holocaust.

How is it possible for a young, homeless woman to overcome abuse, endure the foster care system, and rise to prominence to help others? CinderGirl tells Christina Meredith's incredible story of how she overcame these hardships to earn the title of Miss California and become an advocate for the vulnerable. Born into a large, working-class family in upstate New York, Christina endured years of abuse before entering the foster care system as a teenager. With nowhere to turn after she graduated from high school, Christina lived in her car for almost a year, working three jobs to survive. As she prayed in her car every day, Christina had no idea that in just a few years, her suffering would help others find healing. But she did know that she was destined for more, and she refused to give up hope, no matter the circumstance. In CinderGirl, Christina tells her piercing and poignant story of leaving behind homelessness to become Miss California and the founder of a nonprofit organization that provides advocacy for foster care children. With stunning vulnerability, Christina invites us into her childhood home and the heart of a child longing to be loved, challenging us to dig deeper into our own personal courage, even in the most difficult conditions. And in return, you'll learn how to: Dream big, even when you're at rock bottom Embrace the inherent worth that is yours in Christ Jesus Deepen your faith and your relationship with God Praise for CinderGirl: "Christina Meredith's life experience and real-life Cinderella story are beyond inspirational to me, and I'm so proud of her. She is an overcomer like few I've ever read about. But what impresses me the most is her desire to transform the foster care system and use her challenges to better the next generation." --Kristen Dalton-Wolfe, bestselling author and former Miss USA "Christina Meredith's story, which she tells with unique courage, follows a young woman's rise out of vulnerability, homelessness, and abuse to become a soldier, leader, and pillar in her community. Christina's spirited and empathetic soul shines through every page." --Jason Jones, author, activist, film producer

In The Fire and the Ashes, long-time union economist and policy analyst Andrew Jackson looks back on a fascinating career in the labour movement, the NDP, and left politics, combining keen historical analysis with a political manifesto for today. As one of the few trade union economists in Canada, Jackson brings a unique insider perspective and decades of experience to bear on his critical reflections on the history and changing fortunes of the NDP, the failures of neoliberalism, and the waning and recent renewal of the democratic socialist tradition. What plays out is a battle of ideas fought by Jackson and the wider left—one meant to rekindle both political veterans and a new generation of activists who believe that a true democracy cannot exist with great inequalities of wealth and political power, and that social ownership and public investment must be brought squarely into the mainstream.

The author writes about her experiences traveling the U.S in a custom-built, four-wheel-drive motorhome.

Short-listed for the 2003 Red Maple Award and Arthur Ellis Award for best Juvenile Book, commended for the 2003 Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice Selection Shelby Belgarden isn’t exactly thrilled when people start thinking Greg is her boyfriend. After all, she’s more interested in the athletic Nick Jarvis. But one day Greg suddenly becomes more interesting to Shelby – though for all the wrong reasons: Shelby begins to suspect that Greg is responsible for the series of arsons that have occurred in her small New Brunswick town in recent weeks. After finding out that Greg and his father had moved to this town after their old home burnt down – with Greg’s mother inside – Shelby finds Greg’s gasoline-soaked mitten near the scene of the latest arson. Shelby launches her own investigation into the crimes. As she does, she becomes aware that whoever is responsible may have been a victim of sexual abuse.

""In the elegant capital city of Warsaw, the editor Mieczyslaw Grydzewski would come with his two dachshunds to a cafe called Ziemianska."" Thus begins the history of a generation of Polish literati born at the ""fin de siecle,"" They sat in Cafe Ziemianska and believed that the world moved on what they said there. ""Caviar and Ashes"" tells the story of the young avant-gardists of the early 1920s who became the radical Marxists of the late 1920s. They made the choice for Marxism before Stalinism, before socialist realism, before Marxism meant the imposition of Soviet communism in Poland. It ended tragically. Marci Shore begins with this generation's coming of age after the First World War and narrates a half-century-long journey through futurist manifestos and proletarian poetry, Stalinist terror and Nazi genocide, a journey from the literary cafes to the cells of prisons and the corridors of power. Using newly available archival materials from Poland and Russia, as well as from Ukraine and Israel, Shore explores what it meant to live Marxism as a European, an East European, and a Jewish intellectual in the twentieth century.