Canada Books

This book is surprisingly funny, full of twists and turns and is so realistic that you can basically close your eyes and see exactly what's happening. There are of course, many sexually disturbing images, but it's still one of my favourite newly discovered Canadian Authors!

Elyse Friedman's novel Then Again is one of those all too rare creatures: an impeccably written literary novel that's funny as hell. It's also extremely moving in parts. Friedman's prose has style, punch, and inventiveness. This book is worth reading just for the story of the poodle ("nature's most perfect food," it was invented in 1872 by Otto Van Plotsberg, apparently). But the bigger issues are where this novel is at -- the characters range from the banal to the grotesque, and the dialogue is brilliant. Fans of the smart and the offbeat will dig this rectangle.

Elyse Friedman's novel Then Again is one of those all too rare creatures: an impeccably written literary novel that's funny as hell. It's also extremely moving in parts. Friedman's prose has style, punch, and inventiveness. This book is worth reading just for the story of the poodle ("nature's most perfect food," it was invented in 1872 by Otto Van Plotsberg, apparently). But the bigger issues are where this novel is at -- the characters range from the banal to the grotesque, and the dialogue is brilliant. Fans of the smart and the offbeat will dig this rectangle.

An interesting perspective on Canadian politics in the latter part of the twentieth century. Preston Manning's bitingly honest take on Canadian politics, the Reform Party, his own leadership and the lack thereof in the Liberal Party provide food for thought. And I'm still chewing. It will make you think, make you reexamine what you thought you knew. It is not what I expected - a rant against the Liberals - but rather is an insightful and thought provoking treatsie on Canadian politics, our responsibilities to democracy and his own experiences. It's fresh and disarming. I highly recommend it to even the staunchest Liberal.

Preston Manning was one of Canada's most important politicians is the late twentieth century. The movement he started emphasizing admirable ideals such as direct democracy and greatly improved ethics legislation was necessary for Canada at a time when cronyism, political patronage and constant conflicts of interest were the order of the day. Also, he pushed for more fiscal accountability after the Mulroney\Trudeau era of careless government spending. Moreover, Manning represented the interests of Western Canada, which was feeling increasingly alienated under the contemptible watch of Pierre Trudeau and later on Brian Mulroney.
All of his admirable initiatives are chronicled in his intriguing autobiography. He discusses what his initiatives were and what brought them about. He also tries to justify his controversial votes in the House of Commons, like when he voted against hate-crime legislation. I really enjoyed reading a book that discussed the life of a man who so greatly changed the Canadian political landscape.
I hope you read this book and enjoy it!
All of his admirable initiatives are chronicled in his intruiging autobigraphy.

Preston Manning writes an open, honest, and mostly unguarded retrospective and prospective look at his political life and Canada's political landscape. I read "The New Canada" many years ago, and it was an obvious vehicle for the Reform Party's advancement, whose purpose seemed to be dispelling rumours and giving people a more honest look at Prairie Populism and gives a brief autobiography. This tome, however, is written by a man without ambitions for votes, or realizing that what he writes could hold himself responsible for the political futures of hundreds of candidates, staff, etc.

I think when he got his haircut in '97, he trimmed the geekiness too, although he maintains that he was never a geek. (He actually says, "geek". Priceless.) He refers to Ron Jeremy as a burned out NHL hockey star who agreed with every point he made on "Off the Record". (I watched that OTR performance. You could just see Manning's uneasiness sitting beside him, although he was very gracious. Even shook his hand. Yekh.) He had a suggested conference for Liberal ethics, in which lunchtime entertainment would be "Jean Chretien sing[ing] an ethical rendition of "I Did it My Way" with Bill Clinton accompaning on saxophone." (Earlier in the conference, Bill Clinton was a guest ethical lecturer with a special seminar for parliamentary interns.)

I appreciate his unguardedness, as he is even quite blunt in describing Stephen Harper. He tears what's left of Stockwell Day apart, blasting him for using his Christianity as a weapon against non-evangelicals. I thought he also developed a good theology of Christian political action in this book. In the past, he would used extended Arminian analogies about Jesus not forcing his will upon anyone, and the cleansing of the Temple narratives as examples of Christian intermingling with politics, etc. In this book he is more detailed and builds more of a solid case of proper Christian political activism, based on Christians influencing politics as salt and light on an individual basis as opposed to organized corporate bases. He challenges Christians to act out their faith seriously, but not to allow the churches to be dragged down to the level of political action groups, or political parties become tools of churches. I would actually like to have him write a strictly theological work developing a theology of holiness, that is, how we are to be not of this world, but separate from it for the purpose of calling the world to reconciliation to God through Christ. I think he could do much damage to the idea that we are Christians in church on Sunday, but our Christianity should get left at the door when we leave. He could also do much damage to bumper-sticker Christianity, and call for a deeper and more genuine life. (He's CM&A, I'm sure he's read Tozer.)

Anyhow, I read this book in one sitting. It's more honest, and thus engaging work than the New Canada. I would recommend it as a book to friend or foe of Preston Manning or the Canadian Alliance.

IT WAS VERY WELL WRITTEN AND THE PICTURES ARE FANTASTIC. IT BROUGHT BACK GREAT MEMORIES AS I TOO OWNED A FARM, IN INDIANA. I AM ON MY WAY TO OWNING A RANCH, SOON, I HOPE AND READING THIS BOOK I LAUGHED AT THE ANTICS OF KIDS AND ANIMALS. I DON'T THINK FARMERS, OTHER THEN THE AMISH WOULD KNOW HOW TO DO ANYTHING IN THOSE PICTURES TODAY HAHAHAH. EVERYTHING WAS DONE BY ANIMAL OR BY HAND. THE PICTURES AND WORDING ARE JUST GREAT. I THINK IT IS A WONDERFUL READ ESPECIALLY SOMEONE WHO LIVED AND WORKED BACK THEN ON THEIR FARM

The pictures alone make this book a "must have" for anyone who grew up on a farm. It brings back warm fuzzy memories.

I loved the book, "This Old Farm". The memories it brought back to me are some that I had forgotten for many years. The writers of "This Old Farm" knew exactly what they were talking about. I could smell the odors, see the colors, feel the grass, hear the sputter of the tractors and machines. It brought tears to my eyes as it brought back memories of my life on a farm while I was growing up.

I really had angst when deciding to read this book. I listened to the audio version and it was so excellent. So creative and different. The conversations between these sheep is so funny and so clever. How they solve the murder of their shepherd was so well done and funny. I loved their comments about the butcher. It may be true or not but to think of sheep discussing their preferences for one type of green over another to munch on or that they might have any preferences about anything was not something I'd think about but I do now. I like all animals so to expand my thinking or imagination about them is always welcome.
If you want to read (or listen to) something different, clever, fun, and have some laughs you can't go wrong with this superb book. I'd give it 10 stars if I could. The reader Josephine Bailey captured the various personalities and was excellent in giving a different type of voice to the human characters and the sheep characters.

It's a very weird, beautiful mirror for us humans. Ladies, please dont wear make-up,when you read this book. Gentlemen, be prepared, it is better then the Life of Brian. I got tears of laughing all the time. One of the rare books, you have to have at home - at least in 3 samples, in order to be able to give it to your highly sophisticated or misanthrop friends. Enjoy.

What a great mystery! Author Leonie Swann brings us into the collective minds and hearts of a herd of sheep, without ever becoming precious or twee. Set in Ireland, the mystery itself is quite good (unlike some animal-based mysteries.) Swann's writing is witty without being pretentious. The sheep are definitely clever and heroic, while staying true to their ovine species, and even the humans are well-rounded and carefully done. A real winner (and you'll never look at a sheep in quite the same way again!)

THREE RIVERS: THE YUKON'S GREAT BOREAL WILDERNESS explores a region of vast wilderness previously unknown to the outside world, but is a major environmental hotspot of modern times as it represents one of the last, key pieces of the boreal region. With the Mackenzie Valley pipeline proposal looming to threaten it, the Three Rivers region is in the news and deserving of this coffee-table survey, which packs in color photos and art and writing by major authors to remind of the region's importance.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

After visiting the yukon(from Australia)and travelling by road I was interested in learning about more inaccessable areas of the Yukon. The book is first and foremost a photographic journey in the great boreal wilderness area by way of the Snake, Bonnet Plume and Wind rivers. The photographs are spectacular but are accompanied by well written text and great descriptive writing by a number of different writers who made the trip. It also is informative where relevent of the history of the area and has just the right balance. The book is a focus on the need to conserve the area, and it successfully does this by "taking you there" and helping you see and feel it for yourself. It does not focus on an anti development theme as such but achieves the environmental focus in a positive and stunning manner.The book is a delight to look at and read and is well set out and captioned. The gwich'in inhabitants of the area and their lives are well integrated into the story and adds to make this a book worth having and revisiting. I can appreciate the care that went into preparing this book so that it is immediately visually stunning but then has wonderful text to read and enjoy and have some appeal to everyone.

A magnificent combination of pictures and text/stories on the Yukon. Great to see such a good book about a part of the world one rarely reads or hears about.

Personally, I feel that this book should be added to the the grade 12 academic calender. This book really shows a bit of all sides of Canadian History, Politics, Family, and virtually every aspect with living in a "Post Troudeau" generation.
Well worth the purchase.

Bravo Zulu to Mr. Gairdner. His book should be read by all Canadians. There's so much great stuff in it that I can't go into the detail here but it exposes the myths and realities of Multiculturalism, Medicare, the courts, the Justice system, Socialism, (the benifits of) Democratic Capitalism and many more.

William Gairdner details methodically the flawed thinking that has taken Canada down the road to it's current mediocre existence. Gairdner ruthlessly gores every sacred cow the elites have created in this country from socialized medicine to official bilingualism and multiculturalism as state policy.

This book will transcend you to a time and place that makes you feel at peace with nature. Merrick's writing is like poetry in motion. You will wish you could have been there to experience the times when he is at one with the universe. The people and places he is writing about no longer exist, which is the greatest pity of all.

I read some of the previous reviews before getting this and some were positive and some negative...I have to say I was very much pleased with the book, excellent story and tale with local dialogue to add an element of adventure and flair. I just really enjoyed the story and to see the hardships people faced...

A fascinating book! A well written account by a man who traveled extensively in the Canadian North in the 1930s, just as the traditional remoteness that had characterized that world was ending with the introduction of planes and other technologies. Merrick was a keen and sympathetic friend of the North, its history and its Native peoples.

This book is a must have for turtle lovers everywhere. It is a clear and concise reference book for the known species of turtles and tortoises in the U.S. and Canada. The authors are both well known scholars in the field of herpetology. Carl Ernst has written many scientific papers on a variety of chelonian species. His partner, Barbour is also well known throughout the reptile world. Being a professional herpetologist, I feel that this was a perfect addition to my collection of books.

Very much detailed description of each and every turtles and tortoises found in the US and Canada, from anatomy to behavior to breeding. It's a must for any experienced chelonian enthusiast. Although, I would not recommend this book to a novice.

For turtle owners everywhere this is a valuable resource to have on the shelf! Of all of my 'turtle books' this one is by far my favorite. Even for a novice multiple turtle owner (that knows how to read) this book will prove worthy of its purchase price because it goes a beyond the standard "get a uv light" material. It teaches you about the turtle in the wild so that you can be better equipped to build an environment as closely related to their preferred location as possible while also explaining their habits along with detailed descriptions to help you identify the turtle with certainty and understand its history. My only wish is that there were a book just like it for the turtles outside of the United States & Canada. I also would have appreciated every picture in color rather than just a few ;)

This book is a good source to balance the word and image of Islam and Muslim in the western world. Muslim is not only in Arabian peninsula or Gulf contries, in fact Indonesia is the largest muslim population in the world. Many pictures on the book can give the different side of Islam in Southeast asia. They don't speak arabic, they don't have big nose,they are short, skiny etc. I recommend this book for the people who wants to know Muslim in Southeast asia without reading a long history book.

But there is unbalance information in the book I noticed, specially information about Indonesian muslim in the introduction. Steve Raymer seems doesn't have a good source that he can get the information about Indonesian muslim. Might be because they are so many and he tries to put it in the same ammount as Malaysian which is only about 1/6 or 1/8 of Indonesian in comparison. It is best if he can consult or clarify his information with the Indonesian sociologists, historians, or scholars in order to validate the information. One of the examples is on second page, the picture doesn't not macth the note (citation). The picture is showing the people who are suplicating, is not always in arabic, but he says those people are reciting the koran. This is just small example.
I recommend people who have this book to check with the Southeast Asian people to clarify the information.
More than that, good work and well done.

As one who's lived in Southeast Asia off and on for the past seven years, the thing that strikes me about the book by Raymer are the brilliant photos, yes. But the way they are put together gives a human face to Southeast Asia's Muslim peoples. A fair and realistic look at them is refreshing in light of many Western reports that tout them all as gun-toting extremists.

Steve Raymer has done an exceptional job at capturing the humanity of Southeast Asian Muslims through the lenses of the faithful camera. The pictures are breathtakingly beautiful, while the accompanying caption and text serve as an easy-to-read commentary especially for those expecting only an excursion into the subject. His attempt at a sympathetic understanding of a culture that is relatively obscure to the average Westerner is commendable; the journalistic objectivity being a salient feature of the book.

Raymer, in my opinion, succeeded in shattering the perpetuated myth surrounding the perception of Muslims. Not only does he cogently disprove the notion of a monolithic Muslim culture across the Muslim world, but he also demonstrates the existence of diversity with which Islam is practiced in this forgotten region. The cognitive image of either a rich Middle-Easterner or a terrorist brandishing an AK-47 so often associated with Islam must now be relegated to the domain of stereotypes. The book is probably a silent apologist for the peace of Islam.

Caveat emptor for those expecting their stereotypes confirmed and prejudices accomodated; the book is sure to frustrate them.

The maxim that a picture is worth a thousand words had never been truer. The picture is now worth millions of humans.

Thank god (and Canada) for Colburn and Sorensen. They crack me up everytime. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't need to move to Canada after this election, but if I do, at least I now know that they control everything anyway.

After reading this book I have a new awe of Canadians. They benevolently have their hands in every part of American society! Who knew that Clamato, The BlackBerry PDA, synchronized swimming and lightbulbs all hail from the Great White North? The book is humorous in how it puts forth the evidence of canuck domination. Peter Jennings, William Shatner and Tommy Chong---all Canadian. Dozens of films that we believe are filmed in the USA--- filmed in Canada. Is everything I know know now thrown into question?
After reading this book I wonder if our upcoming election even matters, if Canada is running the place anyway...I'll still vote, just in case.

I just bought 2 copies of this book for some American friends who are moving to Canada. This is the PERFECT gift for any Canadians or Americans! Its packed with real facts about why Canada is behind everything American's think is great. If the Republicans take over the Oval Office again in 2009, I'm going to study this book so that I can move to Canada and pretend I'm one of 'em, eh?