Canada Books

Will Ferguson plows through centuries of Canadian history in Bastards and Boneheads, a book that beautifully judges the personalities that have created and built Canada. This is a book for those who do not think Canadian history is very interesting or eventful. Very colourful personalities have made their will known in both helpful and harmful shaping this country and they come alive within these pages. This book will also shatter the myth of Canadians as "nice" people, because quite often we are not, particularly looking at the Holocaust of the WWII, the Japanese internments, and the relations with First Nations people (such as the chapter on Oka). The author's examination of more recent history, from the October Crisis to Chretien is also very illuminating. In the end how can any book with a chapter called "Ranking the Prime Ministers, From the Great to Mulroney" be all that bad. A wonderful book on a fascinating country. Highly recommended.

Ferguson does a wonderful job making Canadian history, traditionally perceieved as a dull topic, into an enthralling tale of a budding nation, people, and the strange contradiction that is inherent to all things Canadian. The language is simple, yet the ideas are very critical. The humoUr is terrific, yet Ferguson pulls no punches in condemning some of Canada's more shameful history. An excellent primer for anybody interested in Canadian history.

'The Bay of Love and Sorrows' is one of the best books--if not THE best--I've ever read.

Most books tend to be draggy at the start. This is an exception. It sucks you in from the beginning. It sucks you in and makes you feel like you're an observer, watching everything that's going on as the author describes it. You get outraged, you get saddened, you feel relief,...you feel everything as you read through this; and as you get further and further along, you don't want to stop reading.

The characters are human. No one is saintly, everyone has their faults and strengths. The actions and scenery are described very well--sometimes in a few words, sometimes in many words.

More importantly, though, it makes you think about how justice is doled out sometimes--how sometimes those who have nothing to do with what has happened end up suffering before those involved get their just desserts. It also makes you think about how some people will believe anything anyone tells them, without having the audacity and the know-how to question everything.

A definite must-read.

If you've not read any of David Adams Richards' books, you're missing a wonderful experience. Richards is master of the sublime, even when covering gritty topics and plotlines. Such as it is in this title; the characters are imperfect, flawed, some of them disturbed, outcast. This story is a tangled web woven, entrapping the souls it skirts, unravelling their lives as the situation(s) gain momentum. There are truly haunting moments experienced as one absorbs the tale. Although the reader will have affinity with the characters' very human flaws, Richards never allows us to get too close and I believe he does that deliberately; this fiction takes an in-depth look at the shallowness of living on the edge and the waste that it is.

The story will pull you in gently and carry you along with ease - the writing is so good you don't notice it... you simply absorb the story and its characters.

I've been keeping my eyes open for more of this writer's works (I started with his latest "Mercy Among the Children") as he has quickly become one of my fave writers. This is an excellent starter into the rich and dense world of David Adams Richards. Enjoy.

Though he died, sadly and miserably, before I was even born, the greatness of Canada Lee cast a long shadow over my early life on Long Island (a suburb of New York). Lee was but one of the victims of the tragic blacklist, and the HUAC hearings which tore apart the country, especially the entertainment world in which many well-meaning folks had taken part in various charitable organizations before and during World War II only to find themselves suspected of Communism or merely "premature anti-Fascism." It was a time in which, to paraphrase playwright Lillian Hellman, you had to cut your conscience to suit this year's fashions, and such a time may be coming around again. If so, the Canada Lees of today are going to come to a terrible end.

What a world! And yet, as Mona Smith shows us, there is redemption for even the most miserable of us, and Lee was able again and again to triumph over the ingrown and casual racism of the film world by finding parts that made him more than just a grinning servant a la the underrated Stepin Fetchit. He refused to play a servant and thus suffered many privations and was debied many roles, along with his better known compatriot Paul Robeson, also a famous athlete before turning to acting.

Lee's greatest films included Hitchcock's LIFEBOAT, in which he plays the only sane man in a lifeboat filled with hysterical excuses for human beings. This film, written partially by John Steinbeck, is one of those movies that seem more and more central to Hitch's career as time goes by--to Steinbeck's too.

Mona Smith's account of how she came to write the life of Canada Lee, as set forth in her preface, is heartbreaking. Unbelievably, Canada Lee's widow was still alive and was able to share with Ms. Smith a mountain of personal papers. It is trily one of the miracles of the archival process, and it makes her book not only a showbiz biography, but a study in civil rights and in American history and human endurance.

I recommend this book to everyone, of all ages, who wants to learn about redemption and sacrifice.

The story of Mr. Canada Lee is complex and great to read, I had heard of him growing up and I remember watching "Body and Soul" when it came on tv as a child and my family telling me all the great things he had done, and the fact that history until now has reported very little about him, gets me. He contributed a lot to helping others who were not treated fairly. And he also made it possible for stars today to not have to be limited to certain roles. He was a man of courage and stood firm in what he believed, even when others around him abandoned him, he never gave up. I can only hope I can be that strong in my own life.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the novel Beginning of Was. Author Ania Szado takes the reader on an intensely emotional roller-coaster ride in her gripping, well-crafted story of love remembered, lost and found, of one woman's harsh journey through grief that pushes to the limit, to her eventual salvation from despair, the beginning of healing and reconciliation. For Marta Fett, "was" begins with the death of her five-year-old daughter, Asha, in a car accident which also kills her drinking husband and Asha's father, Kurt. The story is told in a smooth interplay of flashbacks to Marta's own traumatic youth, the cruel, sweet recollections of her Asha, and her life in the present as a homeless desperate charity case helping out in a rectory and a dying old woman's home. Ania Szado is a master craftsman with words. Her sentences are rich in imagery and metaphor, her use of words meticulously accurate and expressive. I admire her clever subtlety and amazing ability to tease, as when Marta writes on a piece of paper which she hides inside the hem of a First Communion gown in the final pages of the novel - on one side is the word "believe," and on the other side, "in despair." Which side is to be read first? I LOVE this book and very strongly recommend it.

This is a lovely, short novel, about a woman who must come to
terms with the grief over the loss of her young daughter. The mysteries
of the novel unravel themselves slowly as you begin to gain a
complete picture of the history that haunts the main character and learn
more about the people around her. And just when you think the
journey is complete, something completely surprising happens
toward the end of the novel that is enlightening and incredibly moving.
The writing style is highly imagistic and lyrical, it took a little getting
used to but this is a book mostly about grief and emotions and the
language of the novel conveys these emotions beautifully. A wonderful
novel about coming to terms with life's greatest pains and losses.
Very strongly recommend.

I live in eastern Canada and I saw John Dalla Costa being interviewed on LIVE AT FIVE by Starr Dobson. I was so impressed I had to read the book immediately. And I'm glad I did. It's like a mini bible of the truth of being generous. Most of us can readily say, "Thank you, I'm so thankful!" but hard to say, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" This is just one of the several things I've learned in this book. Another example: Giving an old coat to Salvation Army is charity. To give your new coat to the Salvation is being generous. Authors Lucinda Vardey & John Dalla Costa co-writes this book and they are also husband and wife. Highly recommend. It's a must book to sit in the bathtub or read anywhere to give you inspiration. Then, of course, act upon what you've learned from the book.

This lovely book, although not overtly "religious" until the last
chapter, explicitly offers to a wide audience a spiritual way of giving,
receiving and circulating. Generosity is a profound attitude
that can percolate the whole of life; Lucinda and John offer real-life cameos of generative generosity and show a myriad practical ways in which we can be generous without our own agenda, and offer ourselves to receive the blessings of the Spirit; how circulation in our communities and in the world happens as a result. Like the Light, it shows us our darkness as well as offering illumination. There are challenges here for us all: to be open-hearted, adventurous, fearless, forgiving: to live with "a thinking heart" . The authors tell us that the most generous words in the world are "Thank you" and "I'm sorry"; on the cover is printed a little "Thank you". How beautiful.
Thank you, Lucinda and John, thank you for this book.

this book is extremally well written and has many, many details i would truely recommend this book for not just beginners but everbody . it does not leave out anything and is definitly thone of the best books ive ever read. you should definitely read this book .

this book is extremally well written and has many, many details i would truely recommend this book for not just beginners but everbody . it does not leave out anything and is definitly thone of the best books ive ever read. you should definitely read this book .

Very informative book in full color.
I lots of anchorages I did not know about.

Probably one of the best guides for anchorges on the lower BC coast.

The only way to safely express the feelings Bill Clinton's conduct produces is the editorial cartoon. The man just defies words. So this was a vintage year for cartoonists - and it shows. The cartoons in this book are just great. They canalise wrath into laughter, but also - on social issues - create the awareness that some matters are too serious to be laughed at.

A very good reason to buy this book: it features some of my own work. Really, this is reason enough to buy this excellent volume. Trust me.

Farley's Follies (as the author renames this collection in his foreword) is an enchanting encounter with our Northern Neighbors. After the introduction of the sailing librarian father, and his floating boat-mobile, I was thoroughly locked into the magical land of travel via armchair. Clever illustrations could have (should have?) included a map as these stories take the reader all over Canada: Ontario, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and the tundra of Hudson Bay. Depression refugees, trading the re-invented fishing boat for the prairie ark/schooner, pet owls, a magic mutt, naturalist training, an artic expedition, sailing adventures, amazingly tolerant and encouraging parents, and letters home from WW2, the reader watches the man emerge in this an exceptional compilation.-Mamalinda

Like most Americans, I had never heard of Farley Mowat until I made the association of the Disney film "Never Cry Wolf" with his name on a book spine one day. I loved the movie, so I figured I might as well try out the book.

I adored Never Cry Wolf, but you often hear that a writer has one good book in him (or her), and after that it is all downhill. Furthermore, I looked in the library catalog and Mowat had dozens of titles! I had no idea which ones to try, they had odd titles! So I picked up this reader, to get an idea which of the titles I might want to pick out.

After reading this collection, I decided I wanted to read them all. Mowat is simply the best Canadian writer, and one of the top of this century, in my humble opinion. I have now read five of his books, and my collection continues to grow. Even the books that are represented as children's books (like The Dog Who Wouldn't Be) are a joy to adults as well.

Mowat has the keen eye of observation that Mark Twain had, but without the viciousness of the satire... he is much more coy and subtle in his musings on families and nature. Many of his works involve the Arctic north, Saskatchewan, the high seas, and animals; but I have yet to find a poorly written chapter in any of his works.

If you want some proof that Mowat is worth buying, pick up this Reader and see for yourself. I read a few small portions to my writers club as samples of excellent writing, and they loved it. It reads smoothly, like a storyteller would speak, like a Garrison Keilor tale.

He is a controversial figure, is my understanding. Purportedly, he is not allowed to visit the United States, because in one book he claimed to shoot his rifle at overflying US warplanes. Who knows if this is true; Mowat admits to a bit of freedom in embellishing a tale; which is only right, since it is more fun that way. Don't worry about these details, just read some of it and enjoy it.

The above review is misplaced and was meant to be a review
for another publication of this author's entitled:
Peter Mills of Windsor, Connecticut.

Helen Ullmann is an experienced genealogist and author. Her research and resources are impeccable. Having several of this author's publications, I'm always assured of accuracy of information. This book is most interesting historical review of northern New England and the life and times of that era.