Special Collections
Blindness and Visual Impairment Special Collection
Description: A collection featuring biographies, memoirs, fiction and non-fiction by and about members of the blind community. #disability
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Have Dog, Will Travel
by Stephen KuusistoIn a lyrical love letter to guide dogs everywhere, a blind poet shares his delightful story of how a guide dog changed his life and helped him discover a newfound appreciation for travel and independence.
Stephen Kuusisto was born legally blind—but he was also raised in the 1950s and taught to deny his blindness in order to "pass" as sighted. Stephen attended public school, rode a bike, and read books pressed right up against his nose. As an adult, he coped with his limited vision by becoming a professor in a small college town, memorizing routes for all of the places he needed to be. Then, at the age of 38, he was laid off. With no other job opportunities in his vicinity, he would have to travel to find work.
This is how he found himself at Guiding Eyes paired with a Labrador named Corky. In this vivid and lyrical memoir, Stephen Kuusisto recounts how an incredible partnership with a guide dog changed his life and the heart-stopping, wondrous adventure that began for him in midlife. Profound and deeply moving, this is a spiritual journey, the story of discovering that life with a guide dog is both a method and a state of mind.
The One He's Been Looking For
by Joanna SimsHe'd finally discovered his muse just as he was losing his sight. Joanna Sims tells the romantic story of a closed-off photographer who opens up for the love he's always needed in her latest book, The One He's Been Looking For! World-famous photographer Ian Sterling had been searching for the perfect woman. And when he finally spotted Jordan Brand he simply had to have her. Her photos would mark his final work. His life as he knew it was slipping through his fingers. The man who bestowed beauty on the world was losing his sight. For rebellious artist Jordan, becoming someone's inspiration should have been laughable. Yet being with Ian made her ridiculously happy. Knowing of the difficult road he was traveling made her love him even more. But Ian refused to pass his disorder along to childrenleaving Jordan to choose between the man who held her heart and the family she'd always wanted .
The Book of Memory
by Petina GappahThe story that you have asked me to tell you does not begin with the pitiful ugliness of Lloyd’s death. It begins on a long-ago day in August when the sun seared my blistered face and I was nine years old and my father and mother sold me to a strange man.Memory, the narrator of Petina Gappah’s The Book of Memory, is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, after being sentenced for murder. As part of her appeal, her lawyer insists that she write down what happened as she remembers it. The death penalty is a mandatory sentence for murder, and Memory is, both literally and metaphorically, writing for her life. As her story unfolds, Memory reveals that she has been tried and convicted for the murder of Lloyd Hendricks, her adopted father. But who was Lloyd Hendricks? Why does Memory feel no remorse for his death? And did everything happen exactly as she remembers?Moving between the townships of the poor and the suburbs of the rich, and between past and present, the 2009 Guardian First Book Award–winning writer Petina Gappah weaves a compelling tale of love, obsession, the relentlessness of fate, and the treachery of memory.
Sugar Pop Moon
by John FlorioJersey Leo is the quintessential outsider--an albino of mixed race. Known as "Snowball" on the street, he makes a living as the bartender at a mob-run speakeasy in Prohibition-era Hell's Kitchen. Being neither black nor white, he has no group to call his own. His own mother abandoned him as a baby. And his father-a former boxing champ with his own secrets-disapproves of Jersey's work at a dive owned by one of New York's most notorious gangsters. So when he inadvertently purchases counterfeit moonshine ("sugar pop moon") with his boss's money-a potentially fatal mistake-he must go undercover to track down the bootlegger who took him in. The clues lead to Philadelphia, where he runs into a cleaver-swinging madman out for his femurs and a cold-blooded gangster holed up on a Christmas-tree farm. Now with a price on his head in two cities, Jersey seeks help from the only man he can trust, his father. As the two delve into the origins of the mysterious sugar pop moon, stunning secrets about Jersey's past come to light. To ensure his future, Jersey must face his past, even if it means that life will never return to normal.
Blind Moon Alley
by John FlorioIt's Prohibition. It's Philadelphia. And Jersey Leo doesn't fit in. Jersey is an albino of mixed race. Known as "Snowball" on the street, he tends bar at a speakeasy the locals call the Ink Well. There, he's considered a hero for having saved the life of a young boy. But when his old grade school buddy, Aaron Garvey, calls from death row and asks for one last favor, all hell breaks loose.Jersey finds himself running from a band of crooked cops, hiding an escaped convict in the Ink Well, and reuniting with his grammar school crush--the now sultry Myra Banks, who has shed a club foot and become a speakeasy siren. Through it all, Jersey tries to safeguard the Ink Well with no help other than his ragtag group of friends: his ex-boxing-champion father, Ernie Leo; the street-savvy Johalis; a dim-witted dockworker named Homer; and the dubious palm reader Madame Curio. With them, Jersey digs for the truth about his friend Aaron Garvey--and winds up discovering a few things about himself.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Blackmoor
by Edward HoganBeth is an albino, half blind, and given to looking at the world out of the corner of her eye. Her neighbours in the Derbyshire town of Blackmoor have always thought she was 'touched', and when a series of bizarre happenings shake the very foundations of the village, they are confirmed in their opinion that Beth is an ill omen. The neighbours say that Beth eats dirt from the flowerbeds, and that smoke rises from her lawn. By the end of the year, she is dead. A decade later her son, Vincent, treated like a bad omen by his father George is living in a pleasant suburb miles from Blackmoor. There the bird-watching teenager stumbles towards the buried secrets of his mother's life and death in the abandoned village. It's the story of a community that fell apart, a young woman whose face didn't fit, and a past that refuses to go away.
The Book of Chameleons
by Jose Eduardo Agualusa and Daniel HahnFélix Ventura trades in an unusual commodity; he is a dealer in memories, clandestinely selling new pasts to people whose futures are secure and who lack only a good lineage to complete their lives. In this completely original murder mystery, where people are not who they seem and the briefest of connections leads to the forging of entirely new histories, a bookish albino, a beautiful woman, a mysterious foreigner, and a witty talking lizard come together to discover the truth of their lives. Set in Angola, Agualusa's tale darts from tormented past to dream-filled present with a lightness that belies the savage history of a country in which many have something to forget -- and to hide. A brilliant American debut by one of the most lauded writers in the Portuguese-speaking world, this is a beautifully written and always surprising tale of race, truth, and the transformative power of creativity.
Zebra Crossing
by Meg VandermerweGhost. Ape. Living dead. Young Chipo has been called many names, but to her mother - Zimbabwe 's most loyal Manchester United supporter - she had always just been Chipo, meaning gift. On the eve of the World Cup, Chipo and her brother flee to Cape Town hoping for a better life and to share in the excitement of the greatest sporting event ever to take place in Africa. But the Mother City's infamous Long Street is a dangerous place for an illegal immigrant and albino. Soon Chipo is caught up in a get-rich-quick scheme organized by her brother and the terrifying Dr Ongani. Exploiting gamblers' superstitions about albinism, they plan to make money and get out before rumors of looming xenophobic attacks become reality. But their scheming has devastating consequences.
Nectar
by Lily PriorRamona Drottoveo, an albino, is a chambermaid at a lush Italian estate. Distinguished by the intoxicating scent she exudes, Ramona is despised by all women and adored by all men, whose inexhaustible lust she eagerly satisfies. Life changes when her husband dies after discovering his bride with another man on their wedding night. Blamed for his death, Ramona and her lover are exiled to the neighboring city of Naples. There, Ramona's life is transformed once again by the birth of a daughter, Blandina, who "steals" her mother's scent. No longer able to seduce men into blind submission, Ramona humbly returns to the estate to an unexpected welcome -- and revenge. A hilarious and naughty celebration of the senses and the strange places they can lead us, Nectar explores the mystery of sexual attraction and the frivolous nature of divine justice.
Vision Dreams
by Anthony CandelaIn this dystopian novella, Anthony Candela, a self-described “Trekker” and “secular humanist”, shows us the extremes to which societies will go if sufficiently frightened, especially if science and technology permit it. Individuals will do likewise in order to achieve, if not happiness, then at least relief from tyranny. In this story, the narrator, who both hovers above the action and is totally immersed in it, tells of the lengths he and his three co-adventurers go to achieve their goals. One wants an even chance at life and, oh yes, to be a star baseball player; another wants to fly. A third seeks true artistic sensuality, and the fourth wants nothing more than the Freudian essentials of success at love and work. Unfortunately the society they live in has hunkered down, devoting nearly all of its resources to self-protection and very little to everyday human comforts—all except for a small group of scientists who appear to be bucking the system.
Ultimately by extraction, this novella increases our understanding of what it means to live in a society that is supportive of its citizens’ daily happiness and humanity. Perhaps after reading it, you will be more on guard against what can happen when nations decide to be hypervigilant. As the plot unfolds, you will see the lengths to which people will go to achieve their humanity. In the midst of the subtle kinds of strife that leads many to live lives of quiet desperation, there are heroes willing to take risks.
Candle in the Window
by Christina DoddLady Saura of Roget lives a lonely life of servitude-her fortune controlled by her cruel, unscrupulous stepfather. Yet it is she who has been called upon to brighten the days of Sir William of Miraval, a proud and noble knight who once swore to live or perish by the sword . . . until his world was engulfed in agonizing darkness. Summoned to Sir William's castle, the raven-haired innocent is soon overcome by desire and love for the magnificent, golden warrior who has quickly laid siege to her heart. But there is grave danger awaiting them both just beyond the castle walls . . . and a dear and deadly price to be paid for surrendering to a fiery, all-consuming love.
All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr*NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti* Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure&’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum&’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure&’s converge. Doerr&’s &“stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors&” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer &“whose sentences never fail to thrill&” (Los Angeles Times).
Blind Fear
by Hilary NormanHeld captive in a dark room in New York State, a young woman is at the mercy of a killer. As guide-dog trainer Joanna finds herself fighting her attraction to blind sculptor Jack Donovan she also begins to feel dangerously unwelcome. Meanwhile, another object of beauty is being stalked ...'Hilary Norman specialises in creepy thrillers and this one is just as gripping as her previous work' Woman's Own
Home Before Dark
by Susan WiggsShe left her child behind, but couldn't let her goAs an irresponsible young mother, Jessie Ryder knew she'd never be able to give her newborn the stable family that her older sister could, and the security her child deserved. So Luz and her husband adopted little Lila and told her Jessie was but a distant aunt.Sixteen years later, having traveled the world with the winds of remorse at her back, Jessie is suspending her photojournalism career to return home-even if it means throwing her sister's world into turmoil.Where life once seemed filled with boundless opportunity, Jessie is now on a journey to redeem her careless past, bringing with her a terrible burden. Jessie's arrival is destined to expose the secrets and lies that barely held her daughter's adoptive family together to begin with, yet the truth can do so much more than just hurt. It can bring you home to a new kind of honesty, shedding its light into the deepest corners of the heart.
Friendship Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
by Lisa Verge HigginsTOP THREE REASONS TO VISIT EUROPE: 1. Explore foreign cultures2. Sample outstanding food3. Desperately flee impending personal crisisLenny left his wife, Monique, a bucket list of things they'd dreamed of doing together before cancer took his life. For four years, she ignored it, too busy raising their daughter to consider the painful task of resurrecting shattered dreams. But when her next-door neighbor, Judy, starts a slow slide into a personal crisis, and another friend, Becky, receives shocking news about her future, Monique realizes that Lenny's legacy could be a gift to three women in desperate need of a new perspective.Whisking her friends away on adventures from London to Paris, from Monaco to Milan, she is determined to follow the bucket list to the letter-until one eventful evening knocks the three friends off the beaten path. Caught up in adventures of their own making, they begin to understand: Sometimes getting lost is the only way to find what you're really looking for.
Cutting Cords
by Mickie B. AshlingWhen Sloan Driscoll and Cole Fujiwara become reluctant roommates, neither man is willing to share too much. Sloan is instantly attracted to Cole but knows it's a hopeless cause; Cole has a steady girlfriend. But one night they share a joint, and Cole opens a window neither anticipated.
A relationship may be impossible--both men are living with heart-breaking secrets. While Sloan is smart, sassy, and a brilliant graphic artist, he's also a pothead with severe body image problems. Cole, a former major league pitcher, has his own personal crisis: he's going blind. Sloan and Cole are suffering on so many levels, they might not realize that the ultimate salvation could be within each other's arms.
Sequence
by Arun LakraTheo has been named Time Magazine's Luckiest Man Alive. For twenty consecutive years he has successfully bet double or nothing on the Super Bowl coin toss. And he's getting ready to risk millions on the twenty-first when he is confronted by Cynthia, a young woman who claims to have figured out his mathematical secret. Stem-cell researcher and professor Dr. Guzman is on the verge of a groundbreaking discovery. She's also learned that one of her students has defied probability to get all 150 multiple-choice questions wrong on his genetics exam, but it's not until he shows up to her office in the middle of the night that she's able to determine if it's simply bad luck. The two narratives intertwine like a fragment of DNA to examine the interplay between logic and metaphysics, science and faith, luck and probability. Belief systems clash, ideas mutate, and order springs from chaos. With razor-sharp wit and playful language, Sequence asks, in our lives, in our universe, and even in our stories, does order matter?
South of Surrender
by Laura KayeShe's the only one who can see through his golden boy façade to the broken god within...Chrysander Notos, Supreme God of the South Wind and Summer, is on a mission: save Eurus from his death sentence, and prove his troubled brother can be redeemed. But Eurus fights back, triggering vicious summer storms that threaten the mortal realm, dangerously drain Chrys, and earn the ire of the Olympic gods who ordered Eurus dead.Laney Summerlyn refuses to give up her grandfather's horse farm, despite her deteriorating vision. More than ever, she needs the organized routine of her life at Summerlyn Stables, until a ferocious storm brings an impossible-and beautiful-creature crashing down from the heavens.Injured while fighting Eurus, Chrys finds himself at the mercy of a mortal woman whose compassion and acceptance he can't resist. As they surrender to the passion flaring between them, immortal enemies close in, forcing Chrys to choose between his brother and the only woman who's ever loved the real him.
Dr. Devereux's Proposal
by Margaret McdonaghIt's the sexy French accent that captures physiotherapist Laurie's attention-even before she's seen the gorgeous new doctor in Penhally Bay!Dr Gabe Devereux has come to the idyllic Cornish town to escape life-instead he walks straight into the heart of the community. And there's one woman who intrigues him more than most.Laurie is overawed by Gabe's attention. But she doesn't want her secret to force him to stay. Little does Laurie realize that, as her sight declines, Gabe is ready to lead her up the aisle and be her one and only guiding light...forever.
Adam & Eve - The Garden of Sins
by Francesco Falconi and Georgiana BulanceaTwo different worlds, two lonely souls that are going to meet. Sofia is the last descendant of the Spanish family of Alvarez. For years she has lived segregated in a villa in Florence. Rarely does she leave the house, she spies the world from the window of her room. She dreams it, wishes it, and yet she hates it. But mostly she hates The Left Sofia. So does she call that part of her face which was disfigured because of a fire in the garden of the villa when she was just a child. A silly game with her brother Alejandro, a small fire burning near a dry scrub. Terrible consequences that forever changed her future. Because in that garden Sofia has not only lost the perfection of her beauty, but also her brother Alejandro. Lorenzo lives on the outskirts of Florence with his father. At the age of eight he contracted a terrible degenerative disease that, day after day, made him blind. Since then, the world of Lorenzo became a chiaroscuro of light and shadow that vibrate to the music. Music, in fact, is his only reason for living. The cello is his only voice. One day, Lorenzo and Sofia meet in the Boboli Gardens, just in front of the statues of Adam and Eve. They get to know each other, they befriend. Day after day, their relationship turns into something deeper and more complicated. A perfect and inviolable feeling. A blind and sincere love. But the world around them, the desire to see beyond the shadows and enjoy the beauty is too great temptation that can disrupt even that Eden of love ...
Snowfall (Novella)
by Mary Ann RiversMary Ann Rivers delivers the moving story of a woman who must confront a life-changing event, and the man who helps her view the world in a different light--just in time for Christmas. When Jenny Wright becomes involved in an online romance with someone she knows only as "C," she can't get enough of their erotic conversation. Flirting online helps Jenny temporarily escape confronting the innumerable changes to her life as she slowly loses her vision. It's easier having a relationship with someone behind a computer screen, someone with whom she doesn't have to share every intimate detail of her life. Jenny's occupational therapist, Evan Carlisle-Ford, is helping her prepare for the challenges ahead. But the forthright, trustworthy man can no longer ignore his growing attraction to his fiercely intelligent client. His only option is to end their professional relationship . . . and embrace a romantic one. Now Jenny must choose between the safe, anonymous "C"--or the flesh-and-blood Evan, whose heated kisses can melt snow faster than it can fall. And after receiving an unexpected present for Christmas, Jenny just may find the courage to let down her defenses and trust--in herself, and in the possibility of lasting love. Includes a special message from the editor, as well as an excerpt from another Loveswept title.
What Milo Saw
by Virginia MacgregorA BIG story about a small boy who sees the world a little differently.
Milo curled his thumb and forefinger together to make a small hole and held his fingers up to Al's eyes.
'Look through here. That's what I see. Kind of, only worse.''Wow, that must be amazing.'Milo shrugged. 'Not really.''I mean, it makes you focus, doesn't it? I bet you see all kinds of stuff that other people miss.'
Nine-year-old Milo Moon has retinitis pigmentosa: his eyes are slowly failing and he will eventually go blind. But for now he sees the world through a pin hole and notices things other people don't. When Milo's beloved gran succumbs to dementia and moves into a nursing home, Milo soon realises there's something wrong at the home. So with just Tripi, the nursing home's cook, and Hamlet, his pet pig, to help, Milo sets out on a mission to expose the nursing home and the sinister Nurse Thornhill.
Insightful, wise and surprising, What Milo Saw is filled with big ideas and simple truths. Milo sees the world in a very special way and it will be impossible for you not to fall in love with him and then share his story with everyone you know.
Dante's Poison
by Lynne RaimondoBlind psychiatrist Mark Angelotti has just enrolled in a drug trial that holds out hope of restoring his eyesight when he again becomes entangled in a case that is rocking the Chicago legal community. After defending the manufacturer of the powerful antipsychotic drug Lucitrol against product-liability claims, attorney Jane Barrett has become somewhat of an expert on the controversial medication. So when her lover, investigative journalist Rory Gallagher, collapses from a fatal dose of the same drug, it falls to Hallie Sanchez, Barrett's oldest friend, to defend her on murder charges. Amid growing doubts about her friend's innocence, Hallie recruits Mark Angelotti to help her discredit the testimony of a crucial eyewitness. The pair succeeds in obtaining Barrett's release, but at a dreadful price. Mark sets out to investigate who else may have wanted the journalist out of the way. As he gets closer to the truth, he realizes the killer is still on the loose. But two questions remain for Mark: Will the drug trial succeed in restoring his eyesight? More important, will he live long enough to see this case to its end?From the Trade Paperback edition.
Enticed
by Kathleen DanteSpecial ops agent Dillon Gavin is taking a break from his demanding schedule when his life takes an unexpected-and complicated-turn. Her name is Jordan Kane, a beautiful artist. Legally blind, she paints with her inner eye-which affords her an uncanny, and sometimes breathtaking, clairvoyance. What she sees in Dillon-comfortable in an unpredictable world of intrigue, espionage, and brute violence-is the kind of man that an artistic, gentle soul like Jordan never experienced before. Her sixth sense tells her that Dillon wants her. Her common sense says stay away. But from his first sensuous touch in the dark comes an irresistible urge that dares to take Jordan where's she's never gone before.
Little By Little
by Jean LittleJean Little, award winning Canadian author, writes her first book of memoirs. Written with vivid recall of emotions and events, Little's autobiography begins with her early childhood in Taiwan, covers her growing up legally blind, dealing with public school and social problems, and ends with the publication of her first book, Mine for Keeps. Jean Little's work has mainly consisted of children's literature, but she has also written two autobiographies: Little by Little and Stars Come Out Within. Little has been partially blind since birth as a result of scars on her cornea and is frequently accompanied by a guide dog.