 | The Colour of Canada
by Hugh MacLennan,
Little, Brown & Company
pages $8.95 TC
ISBN: 0316542547
|  | Images of Flight
by Clive Hart,
University of California Press
pages $55 TC
ISBN: 0520061365
| | Canada, 1892 Portrait of a Promised Land
by Peter C. Newman,
pages $12.98 TC
ISBN: 0670845752
| | | Toronto Places Elements of Urban Design
by Marc Baraness, Larry Richards, Geoffrey James, Steven Evans,
108 pages $50 TC
ISBN: 0802028349
| | Treasures of the National Archives
by National Archives of Canada Staf,
368 pages $50 TC
ISBN: 0802050220
| | Homage to Heaven, Homage to Earth Chinese Treasures of the Royal Ontario Museum
by Royal Ontario Museum Staff,
256 pages $95 TC
ISBN: 0802058760
| | | The Spirit of Africville
by Africville Genealogical Society, Africville Genealogical Society,
128 pages $19.95 TP
ISBN: 088780084X
| | Morrice Un Don a la Patrie: La Collection G. Blair Laing
by Charles C. Hill,
192 pages $39.95 TP
ISBN: 0888846193
| | Islands of Hope Ontario's Parks & Wilderness
by Bruce Littlejohn, Lori Labatt,
288 pages $35 TC
ISBN: 1895565103
|
Book Review States of the Nation
by John Oughton
Whatever Canada's political future, our past and present have sparked some seasonal successes.
Read more...
|
| Book Review Convincing Performances
by Malcolm Page
Past accomplishments and present ambitions highlight an exciting batch of new drama titles.
Read more...
|
| Book Review Perfect Pitch
by Gary Draper
Reviewers like to hedge their bets. After all, you might be wrong, in which case it's better to err on the side of being too critical rather than too generous in your estimate, or at least covering your assessments with a caveat or two.
Read more...
|
| Book Review Plague Journal
by Allan Casey
No sooner have we digested the pat conclusiveness at the end of the story than the narrator drops an epilogue in our laps that disintegrates all our knowing. Mastery is transformed into mystery.
Read more...
|
 | For Art's Sake
by W. O. Mitchell,
McClelland & Stewart/Tundra Books
pages $27.99 TC
ISBN: 0771060505
|
Book Review Messy Method
by Pat Barclay
Studded with material culled from Mitchell's own "unique, stored past" and moving to a rhythm all its own, 'For Art's Sake' could have been produced by no other writer.
Read more...
|
| Book Review First Casualties
by Heather Robertson
In spite of its portentous title, 'Tapestry of War' focuses on the often tawdry private lives of a tiny group of essentially irrelevant people.
Read more...
|
| Rest Harrow
by Janice K. Keefer,
pages $24.95 TC
ISBN: 0002239930
|
Book Review Lovers of Sorts
by Helen Porter
As I finished 'Rest Harrow', I was happy that this rich, complex story had, finally, satisfied my expectations. But what of those readers who won't make it past the first 100 pages?
Read more...
|
| Book Review Cash Crunch
by Ellen Roseman
Today's money markets are sophisticated, complex, fast-moving, and increasingly intertwined. These books try to explain how the markets break down and why the regulators can't fix them.
Read more...
|
| Book Review Accepting Diversity
by Desmond Morton
Canadian constitutions, Russell argues, have been inherently anti-democratic, designed to bind future generations to respect the wisdom of the drafters and to protect rights or privileges that a heedless democratic majority might be inclined to override.
Read more...
|
 | The Pitch
by Richard Truhlar,
pages $9.95 PT
ISBN: 092054486X
|
Book Review Fact Similes
by Eileen Manion
Richard Truhlar writes unsettling prose. Everything in these pieces moves around with manic intensity: characters dissolve into one another; grotesque fantasies interrupt quotidian anxieties; time expands and contracts.
Read more...
|
| Book Review Fictional Fakes
by Donald Swainson
Books like these raise an important question of ethics. Both Vancouver and Slocum were real people who led real lives, and presumably even dead people should retain some rights. Is it fair to invent, without any evidence, their ambitions and torments?
Read more...
|
| Interviews Voyages Between Worlds
Janette Turner Hospital traverses time as well as space while exploring the outer limits of contemporary sensibility.
Read more...
|
| Letters to Editor Letters to Editor
I just wish that someone (whether the reviewer or the writers themselves) would clear up that most irritating question of false-face masks. Are they cut from live trees or not? And does it really matter how old the trees are?
Read more...
|
| Prose/Poetry Line Screw
by Michael Yates
I picked up in lower peripheral vision fiesh flashing quick as a fish out between the bars. I grabbed the wrist and rolled forward with it.
Read more...
|
| Profiles Heritage Under Siege
by Heather Kirk
Leacock's legacy lives on, but the places associated with him are definitely at risk.
Read more...
|
| Profiles Sorting Through Stories
by David Homel
George Szanto's larger-than-life writings 'Want to entertain the reader variously'.
Read more...
|
| Brud
by K. J. Harvey, Kenneth J. Harvey, Kenneth Harvey,
pages $24.95 TC
ISBN: 0316349771
|  | The Pagan Wall
by David Arnason,
304 pages $19.95 TP
ISBN: 0889223122
|  | Paper, Scissors, Rock
by Ann Decter,
pages $12.95 TP
ISBN: 0889740402
| | | Cairo's Power
by Michael Gripp,
236 pages $5.5 TP
ISBN: 0969623801
|
First Novels First Novels - Lives on the Page
by Douglas Hill
HELEN TURNER's A Fragile Respectability (Nimbus, 442 pages, $16.95 paper) is a lengthy fictionalized memoir and the sort of novel you pray will be good -because if it isn't it's bound to be excruciatingly slow. Turner's heroine, Philippa Jerrold, looks back over many intrinsically interesting experiences, but unfortunately none of her memories really comes alive on the page. The author hasn't discovered the knack of converting life as lived into fiction. Instead the first-person narrative, relyi
Read more...
|
| Field Notes Field Notes - Turning East
by Lynne Luven
During our current national fractiousness, it seems unwise to lapse into "pathetic fallacy," even if it is merely the botanical sort.
Read more...
|
| Field Notes Field Notes - Coren Comes Out
by Anonymous Aesthete
There are several reasons why I threw wide the doors of the journalistic closet. The first is simple ego - I enjoy recognition, am proud of the writings and rantings in the 'Frank' diary, and wanted people to know who was writing it.
Read more...
|
| George Fetherling Last Words - Drawing and Quartering
by Alec McEwen
Shakespeare, for example, can be understood by today's intelligent reader without heavy dependence on a glossary. Meanings and spellings do change over time, but the process should not be forced or indiscriminate.
Read more...
|
| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Pat Barclay
Paci's own urgency and flashes of genuine originality make a strong impression. 'Under the Bridge' reveals a large talent, confined within the boundaries of a familiar story.
Read more...
|
| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Virginia Beaton
Carrier's minute observations of behaviour and scenery are a pleasure to read, but it's hard to escape the feeling that his depiction of Montreal's social classes is too simplistic to be completely believable.
Read more...
|
| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Roger Mason
The human spirit can flower under the basest repression, and Crail's people are human spirits. He shows the small triumphs of their subtle subversions, the moral temper of their courage and indomitability.
Read more...
|
| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Virginia Beaton
While there are moments of charm and humour, the characterizations remain sketchy. Though MacDonald writes splendidly about the wilderness country of northwest Ontario, his book is at best only mildly entertaining.
Read more...
|
| Life Skills
by Marlis Wesseler,
pages $12.95 PF
ISBN: 1550500406
|
Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Roger Mason
Wesseler brings her protagonists vividly to life in the imagined and real worlds they inhabit. Women will read 'Life Skills' with recognition and empathy; many men will be surprised to find that they do, too.
Read more...
|
| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Joyce Marshall
My memory caught up with me as I read, and by the time I reached the tragic ending all mysteries and uncertainties had been solved, a tribute to the force of the writing.
Read more...
|
| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Louise Fabiani
This is an immensely satisfying conclusion to a thought-provoking book: only through healing others - on their terms - can we hope to be healed ourselves.
Read more...
|
| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Laurel Boone
The story of the stolen document is interesting and original, but the lacklustre romance between Harriet and John mutes the excitement, as do all the subplots and secondary characters.
Read more...
|
| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Non-fiction
by Martin Dowding
The seasons and activities Ingstad describes, if limited in variety, are so microscopically detailed that 'In the Land of Feast and Famine' impresses as a fascinating and very readable volume.
Read more...
|
| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Non-fiction
by Helen Porter
The stories are presented in the original Cree with English translations on facing pages, and also in Cree syllabics. The result is a valuable addition to Canadian literature.
Read more...
|
| Brief Reviews Brief Revewis - Non-fiction
by Becky Liddell
Mowbray is skeptical, though usually polite, in assessing the claims of various health reformers, some of which, admittedly, are flakier than pie-crust.
Read more...
|
| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Poetry
by Phil Hall
There are many complicated ways for a book to cause its reader problems, and perhaps books of poetry are particularly problematic because of their generally smaller, more personal, more intense, enigmatic, tighter natures.
Read more...
|
| The Dragon's Pearl
by Julie Lawson, Paul Morin,
32 pages $17.95 TC
ISBN: 0195408438
| | Finster Frets
by Kent Baker, H. Werner Zimmermann, H. Werner Zimmermann, H. Werner Zimmermann,
32 pages $7.95 TP
ISBN: 0195408993
| | The Snowcat
by Dayal K. Khalsa,
pages $5.98 TC
ISBN: 0517176467
| |  | Something from Nothing
by Phoebe Gilman,
Scholastic, Incorporated
32 pages $15.95 TC
ISBN: 0590472801
|  | Two by Two
by Barbara Reid,
Scholastic, Incorporated
pages $4.95 PT
ISBN: 0590649426
|  | A Prairie Alphabet
by Jo Bannatyne-Cugnet, Yvette Moore,
32 pages $19.95 TC
ISBN: 0887762921
| | | My Grandfather Loved the Stars
by Julie Lawson, Judy McLaren,
32 pages $12.95 TC
ISBN: 0888783043
| | When Jeremiah Found Mrs. Ming
by Sharon Jennings, Mireille Levert,
24 pages $15.95 LB
ISBN: 1550372378
| | The Potter
by Jacolyn Caton,
pages $12.95 TC
ISBN: 1550500376
| | | Story of Canada
by Janet Lunn, Christopher Moore, Alan Daniel,
320 pages $29.95 PT
ISBN: 1895555884
|
Children's Books Children's Books - Refrains and Recitals
by Marie Pfohl
Soon I'll have the pleasure of selecting some holiday gifts for my niece and nephew, the only children in my immediate family right now.
Read more...
|
| Children's Books Children's Books - Live and Learn
by Pat Barclay
All nine novels are competently written. Attention has been paid to the development of reasonably rounded characters. Inner and outer conflicts abound and each novel has some distinguishing features that make it special.
Read more...
|
