In A Chosen Path, Frank Oberle continues the amazing story of his remarkable rise from self-educated immigrant to national politician and Cabinet minister. The bestselling first volume of Frank's autobiography, Finding Home, recounted his turbulent youth in Nazi-run Germany and his post-war immigration to Canada. After working for a year and a half--as a baker, logger and miner--he earned enough to bring his future wife, Joan, from their homeland. They eventually settled in the brand-new community of Chetwynd, BC, where he began his political life as a village councillor and later became mayor. In A Chosen Path, we travel with Frank to Ottawa after his election to the House of Commons in 1972 and follow his six-term political career, which culminated in his appointment to Cabinet in 1985--first as Minister of State for Science and Technology, then four years later as Minister of Forestry. On the way, we are treated to incisive, often witty, behind-the-scenes looks at the politicians and issues of the day, along with Frank's straight-shooting assessments of our national leaders and the prime minister's office. Now a thoughtful observer more than a decade removed from that maelstrom of machinations that is Canada's capital, Frank sheds light on what is right and what is wrong in our political world.

In the compelling memoir Hidden Beneath the Thorns, Ingeborg Tismer shares her fascinating journey of what it was like to be an ordinary German citizen during the Nazi regime. As told to her daughter, Gabriele Quinn, Ingeborg provides a glimpse into the world of a young woman who grew up during the reign of the Third Reich on her grandparents' farm with a pacifist mother and rigidly strict father: a father, who in order to put bread on the table, was coerced into joining Hitler's private army, the SA. Interposed with historical chronicles, Ingeborg relays how at the age of ten, she joined the branch of Hitler youth for girls, thrilled to march to the beat of Nazi drums. But Ingeborg's grandparents resisted the Nazis whenever possible and hid Jewish families in a simple hillside dugout; aided by Russian laborers placed on their farm. As the Russians advanced upon Germany in January 1945, Inge's family farm was seized by the Soviets and turned into a Kommondantura, or Field Command Post. A fascinating relationship developed and Inge's family were protected from Russian abuse. Despite this, Ingeborg and the remainder of her family were forced to live within dusty piles of broken bricks, sickly smells, and hungry survivors in the remnants of post-war Berlin when all Germans had to leave the area east of the Oder River. Throughout the book, Ingeborg's story chronicles how Adolf Hitler was able to seize and mold an entire people into a machine of madness and how the sanity of the outside world finally brought it all to an end.

It is 1919, and Europe has been devastated by the First World War. Emil Molt, the managing director of Waldorf-Astoria Cigarette Company in Germany, and his wife Berta wanted to start a school to educate the children of their employees, and turned to their friend Rudolf Steiner for guidance. That would be the start of revolutionary approach to education, now known worldwide as Waldorf education.Sophia Christine Murphy, Emil Molt's grand-daughter, draws on her grandfather's diaries to trace the couple's struggles, betrayals, successes and breakthroughs in the founding and nurturing of the first Waldorf school. Murphy tells the story with grace, ease and objectivity, bringing this remarkable chapter of educational history to life.

National Bestseller The true story that inspired the movie Woman in Gold starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds. Contributor to the Washington Post Anne-Marie O’Connor brilliantly regales us with the galvanizing story of Gustav Klimt’s 1907 masterpiece—the breathtaking portrait of a Viennese Jewish socialite, Adele Bloch-Bauer. The celebrated painting, stolen by Nazis during World War II, subsequently became the subject of a decade-long dispute between her heirs and the Austrian government. When the U.S. Supreme Court became involved in the case, its decision had profound ramifications in the art world. Expertly researched, masterfully told, The Lady in Gold is at once a stunning depiction of fin-de siècle Vienna, a riveting tale of Nazi war crimes, and a fascinating glimpse into the high-stakes workings of the contemporary art world. One of the Best Books of the Year: The Huffington Post, The Christian Science Monitor. Winner of the Marfield National Award for Arts Writing. Winner of a California Book Award.

Franz (Frank) Oberle was nine years old when his family was relocated from Germany to Poland. Once there, he was taken from his parents to an isolated school where adolescents were being indoctrinated into the Hitler Youth. As the tide of war changed, he became a refugee fleeing the Russian advance, arriving in Dresden as the city became the target of the most horrific Allied bombing of the war. Surviving on grass and stolen eggs, Franz and a friend walked 800 kilometres to his ancestral village on the edge of the Black Forest, only to find that his parents had not returned and to face rejection from his remaining family. But the indominable Franz survived amid the disillusioned populace of Germany and, with his youthful sweetheart, dreamed of a new life in a new land. With the blessing of his beloved Hanna (Joan), he set off for Canada, promising to send for her when he was able to provide for her. Their subsequent life together in BC has encompassed tragedy and pure joy, hard work and hard times, failure and triumph, as Frank Oberle rose from self-educated immigrant to acclaimed federal politician. Set against the backdrops of the Second World War and the raw British Columbia frontier, Finding Home covers Frank's fascinating life story up until the time he visited Germany after a decade in Canada. Rich in detail, drama and humour, this is a love story, an inspirational saga and a book that sings the song of the Canadian immigrant.

Beatrice awakens after an eight-hundred-year sleep and travels throughout East Germany with the help of socialist trolley driver Laura Salman.

A brilliant book by Nobel Prize winner Eric R. Kandel, The Age of Insight takes us to Vienna 1900, where leaders in science, medicine, and art began a revolution that changed forever how we think about the human mind—our conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions—and how mind and brain relate to art. At the turn of the century, Vienna was the cultural capital of Europe. Artists and scientists met in glittering salons, where they freely exchanged ideas that led to revolutionary breakthroughs in psychology, brain science, literature, and art. Kandel takes us into the world of Vienna to trace, in rich and rewarding detail, the ideas and advances made then, and their enduring influence today. The Vienna School of Medicine led the way with its realization that truth lies hidden beneath the surface. That principle infused Viennese culture and strongly influenced the other pioneers of Vienna 1900. Sigmund Freud shocked the world with his insights into how our everyday unconscious aggressive and erotic desires are repressed and disguised in symbols, dreams, and behavior. Arthur Schnitzler revealed women’s unconscious sexuality in his novels through his innovative use of the interior monologue. Gustav Klimt, Oscar Kokoschka, and Egon Schiele created startlingly evocative and honest portraits that expressed unconscious lust, desire, anxiety, and the fear of death. Kandel tells the story of how these pioneers—Freud, Schnitzler, Klimt, Kokoschka, and Schiele—inspired by the Vienna School of Medicine, in turn influenced the founders of the Vienna School of Art History to ask pivotal questions such as What does the viewer bring to a work of art? How does the beholder respond to it? These questions prompted new and ongoing discoveries in psychology and brain biology, leading to revelations about how we see and perceive, how we think and feel, and how we respond to and create works of art. Kandel, one of the leading scientific thinkers of our time, places these five innovators in the context of today’s cutting-edge science and gives us a new understanding of the modernist art of Klimt, Kokoschka, and Schiele, as well as the school of thought of Freud and Schnitzler. Reinvigorating the intellectual enquiry that began in Vienna 1900, The Age of Insight is a wonderfully written, superbly researched, and beautifully illustrated book that also provides a foundation for future work in neuroscience and the humanities. It is an extraordinary book from an international leader in neuroscience and intellectual history.