A Bench on Which to Rest: The Diary of an Emigrant, a Novel

A Bench on Which to Rest by Elena Mac-caferri is a simple tale, simply told. In a little more than 100 pages, Climene recounts her journey from her village in the hills of northern Italy ... Read More »

February 5, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Girls Around the House

By M.A.C. Farrant

In her sixth book, Girls Around the House, Sidney, B.C., writer M.A.C. Farrant has created an alter-ego in Marion – fiction writer, mother of three teenage children, and wife – who banters and kvetches amiably ... Read More »

February 5, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Long Stretch

By Linden MacIntyre

Anyone who has spent time in Cape Breton will recognize the presence of ghosts. The island is a region rich in history, mired in tradition, and full of secret stories that all the locals know. ... Read More »

February 5, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Visible Amazement

By Gale Zoë Garnett

According to the publisher, Visible Amazement is “a novel that will redefine Canadian fiction.” While this is almost certainly not the case, it’s nonetheless fast-paced and breezy, a funny coming-of-age chronicle that’s big on story, ... Read More »

February 5, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Highlights: An Illustrated History of Cannabis

By Carol Sherman, Andrew Smith, and Erik Tanner

In an age of fancy drugs that make you happy or hard or want to dance all night, old Mary Jane has been displaced from the pharmaceutical spotlight. But if Highlights: An Illustrated History of ... Read More »

February 5, 2004 | Filed under: History

The Tree Tattoo

By Karen Rivers

Karen Rivers tells an old, old story (middle-aged man, much younger woman), so banal and generic that the three at the centre are identified only by their roles: girl, man, wife. The girl is a ... Read More »

February 5, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Pornographer’s Poem: A Novel

By Michael Turner

The framework for Michael Turner’s novel The Pornographer’s Poem is that of an interview with an unnamed male narrator, the maker of pornographic films in Vancouver. An iconoclastic auteur, transgressor of the boundaries between pornography ... Read More »

February 5, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

What Men Know About Women

By Ron Smith

In this debut collection of six stories and five mini-fictions, poet and publisher Ron Smith explores the complexities of relationships between men and women. The six longer stories are thoughtful and reflective, mainly from the ... Read More »

February 5, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

More Speaking of Sex: What Your Children Need to Know and When They Need to Know It

By Meg Hickling

Those looking to expand the health and science sections of their home libraries this fall should take a closer look at these two books, which are chock-full of useful information and interesting facts delivered in ... Read More »

February 5, 2004 | Filed under: Science, Technology & Environment