Non-Fiction Books
Offers a fascinating glimpse into this world of outlandish costumes and outspoken emotions, wrenching sacrifices and shocking scandals, heartbreaking failures and glamorous achievements. This survey covers everything from the simple joy of Spanish folk dances to the controversy surrounding ballroom dancing's quest for recognition as an Olympic sport. More than 100 full-color photographs capture the style and panache of this unique phenomenon.
Building a decent retirement nest-egg is hard work.… Ensuring it’s there when you need it can be just as challenging. Every RRSP owner watched in horror as the stock market fell steeply during 2008. With company pension plans tapped out and employers filing for bankruptcy, the security of an adequate and guaranteed pension has become a thing of the past for most Canadians. It is not enough to build retirement savings during your working years—it has become just as important to guard them from economic turnarounds, expensive investments, and greedy advisers. In The Skeptical Investor, John Lawrence Reynolds, author of the bestselling The Naked Investor, uses real-life examples and his characteristic wry humour to lift the curtain concealing questionable investment industry policies and how to avoid the potholes on the road to retirement.
An interactive quiz helps pinpoint your retirement needs! Your down-to-earth guide to building wealth with a Registered Retirement Savings Plan. This friendly guide shows you how to take full advantage of the tax benefits of RRSPs and RRIFs— and take control of your financial future. You get easy-to-understand explanations of those complicated rules, plus solid advice on investment options— including tips on stocks, bonds, mutual funds, GICs, and more. Discover how to: Understand the tax benefits of RRSPs Choose the best investment options for you Achieve maximum growth for your RRSP Keep up with RRSP rules Switch to an RRIF when you retire
Furnishes a behind-the-scenes glimpse of some of the world's most notorious secret societies, chronicling the origins and history, initiations and rituals, beliefs and activities, secret signs, members, and influence of the Freemasons, the Kabbalah, the Mafia, the Yakuza, the Priory of Sion, Skull & Bones, and others. Reprint.
Frank O’Dea is no stranger to overcoming crisis. He was a victim of abuse as a teenager and at twenty-four, a homeless alcoholic. But he was able to turn his life around and become a successful businessman while creating a family. Now he’s sharing the lessons he’s learned, offering guidelines that anyone can follow to help him or her through crises. Most people believe that a crisis descends suddenly and unexpectedly. In fact, they tend to build right in front of our eyes. But the emotional impact makes taking even the smallest step difficult, when a big leap is often needed. Here are proven techniques for dealing with any crisis, which O’Dea argues is just another term for change. Understanding that a crisis need not affect your happiness, that it is not necessarily a change for the worse, makes us already better equipped to handle it. The crisis is a curve in the road, not a dead end.
"Twenty years ago, if you had the right connections in this town you could kill most anybody you wanted and get away with it." - Del Smith Sevierville, Tennessee and its neighboring communities-Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg-were attractive, God-fearing examples of ideal small-town USA. But only on the surface. When a black Jeep carrying the battered body of a young man plunged over a cliff in nearby Smoky Mountains National Park, it launched more than an investigation into a particularly brutal murder. It also provided an award-winning mystery novelist-who doggedly pursued the story behind the first-degree murder conviction of his oldest friend's son-with tales of tawdry ambition and sexual exploitation. They include massive drug deals, orgies in a hillside mansion, vengeful legal maneuvers, the occasional suspicious death and a cast of characters worthy of a Tennessee Williams drama. Among them are: a District Attorney intent on riding a murder conviction all the way to Congress; a God-fearing, gun-toting preacher's son who described his wife's sexual escapades in X-rated detail on the pages of his own newspaper; a wealthy bank president whose generous nature led to his violent death; an unfortunate drug dealer whose final reward was ejection from an aircraft two thousand feet above the ocean; and Alicia Shayne Lovera, a former high school Junior Miss who would stop at nothing to persuade her many lovers to help kill her college professor husband. In Mad Notions, John Lawrence Reynolds strips away layers of lies, deception and hypocrisy to expose the dark side of the American dream in a story that grows ever more fascinating and bizarre on its way to a stunning conclusion.
Petro (Peter) Jacyk survived two of the most horrendous events of the 20th century: the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s, instigated by Stalin and responsible for the deaths of untold millions, and waves of invasion and slaughter from Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. Fleeing postwar Europe in 1949, he arrived in Canada with seven dollars in his pocket and horrific images in his memory. His adopted country would inspire a deep and lifelong love in Jacyk. Here at last, as he put it, he was free to live and free to succeed.” Through the Toronto building and land development firm he founded, he established himself as an economic and cultural powerhouse. Exacting in his dealings with others, yet a generous mentor, he sought excellence in all of his pursuits. In time, the man who had begun as a poor-penny immigrant” became one of the country’s most prominent philanthropists, donating substantial portions of his wealth to projects dedicated to Ukrainian history, language, and culture. Universities such as Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Toronto benefited from his largesse. Leaving Home celebrates the life of a remarkable man determined to make a positive impact on an often-hostile world.
This is tale of true crime that will shake every reader's faith in the integrity and principles of the investment industry.
273 pages of excellent text, with many great photos. This book is a political memoir with punch, combining drama, poignancy, and humor. This is an immensely readable account from an immensely engaging political figure. First Edition.
As President and CEO of Canada's largest and most influential airline, Robert Milton has presided over the most tumultuous period of the airline industry's history. He gives us his forthright, brutally honest views about the challenges of his job, as well as his vision for Air Canada as it restructures itself into a cost-competitive, full-service airline. Milton goes behind the boardroom doors to reveal the truth about events in the past decade. In addition, Milton explains what drives his passion for this business and offers a fascinating glimpse into the workings of a major airline. Milton is admired by many as an industry visionary and brilliant airline strategist, and his impact on the international airline industry has been significant. This book is sure to appeal to anyone interested in what makes the man tick or in what the future holds for Air Canada.
Revised and Updated Over 6 million Canadians control more than $500 billion in RRSP and RRIF investments . . . or do they? Do RRSP owners support an industry that feeds on the fear and ignorance of Canadians ill-prepared to manage their retirement assets? While claiming professional status, financial advisors are salespeople often more closely aligned with mutual fund marketers and bond dealers than with their own clients. What's more, the industry insists on a policy of self-regulation, unhindered by direct government supervision. The Naked Investor sounds a wake-up call for Canadians. Through real-life stories, it exposes the dark side of the investment industry, revealing the tactics of greedy brokers and advisors, voracious banks and mutual fund operators, and outright embezzlers. Written with sly humour, The Naked Investor will disturb both an industry that appears more focused on building wealth for itself than for its clients and RRSP investors whose trust too often is misplaced—with devastating consequences.
For entrepreneur Frank O’Dea, it was a long road from street life to the high life. Born in Montreal to an upper-middle class family, Frank’s life took a downturn as a young man when he was sexually assaulted by a priest. He began drinking at an early age and was soon destitute, living in degradation on the streets of Toronto. By way of a sympathetic employer, the Salvation Army, and Alcoholics Anonymous, O’Dea quit drinking and started a small business that developed into the Second Cup coffee chain. Over the years, his philanthropic activities extended to AIDS fundraising, child literacy in the Third World, and landmine removal. His message is simple: HOPE, VISION, ACTION.
He was an irrepressible Newfoundlander who counted presidents and prime ministers among his friends, often teetered on the edge of bankruptcy and remains a legend among all who knew him. Craig Laurence Dobbin almost drowned while salvaging metal from shipwrecks in the St. John's harbour, his first business venture. Back on solid ground, he built a small empire with real estate ventures. Dobbin invested in a helicopter to carry him to remote salmon pools, and within a decade the single craft had grown into CHC Helicopters, a public corporation earning hundreds of millions of dollars annually. With ambition, unlimited charm and an outrageous capacity for risk-taking, Dobbin shaped CHC into the largest operation of its kind in the world. Along the way he survived a near-fatal helicopter crash, a lung transplant and constant predictions that he and his company were doomed to failure. He defied them all, creating a global economic powerhouse headquartered in St. John's and having, in the words of one colleague, "more fun in a week than most people enjoy in a year." When he died in October 2006, Craig Dobbin left a legacy of business and personal achievements unmatched by any Canadian of his time.