Reviews

Notes on a Beermat: Drinking and Why It’s Necessary

Nicholas Pashley doesn’t explicitly say what his intention was in writing Notes on a Beermat, but it becomes quickly apparent. This is an exercise in psychology: Pashley is getting in touch with his inner curmudgeon.Pashley ... Read More »

January 30, 2004 | Filed under: Reference

Getting Started: A Memoir of the 1950s

By William Weintraub

Like the least-known member of a string quartet, William Weintraub’s status as a writer seems destined to remain in the shadows cast by his three more famous friends of the 1950s, Mordecai Richler, Mavis Gallant, ... Read More »

January 30, 2004 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

Odjig: The Art of Daphne Odjig 1966-2000

By Bob Boyer & Carol Podedworny, Daphne Odjig, illus.

Until fairly recently, aboriginal art was considered quaint craftwork, suitable for discussion by ethnologists strictly in terms of its function within aboriginal societies. But over the last few decades, aboriginal art has slowly come to ... Read More »

January 30, 2004 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture

Memos to the Prime Minister: What Canada Could Be in the 21st Century

By Harvey Schachter, ed.

Canadians dissatisfied with the lack of discussion of clear public policy alternatives during last fall’s federal election campaign can rejoice at the arrival of this new resource. In Memos to the Prime Minister, Harvey Schachter ... Read More »

January 30, 2004 | Filed under: Politics & Current Affairs

The Door Is Open: Memoir of a Soup Kitchen Volunteer

By Bart Campbell

The facts of Canadian poverty make for a stunning array of annual academic reports, conferences, and statistics-based treatises, but few provide a face-to-face look at the lost generations who inhabit the skid rows of our ... Read More »

January 30, 2004 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

Crimes of Passion: An Unblinking Look at Murderous Love

By Howard Engel

Howard Engel’s second non-fiction book, Crimes of Passion, is another thematic collection of material relating to death, but this time it is the provocation rather than the process that’s under examination. The assumed link between ... Read More »

January 30, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Politics & Current Affairs

The Swashbucklers: The Story of Canada’s Battling Broadcasters

By Knowlton Nash

One of the great things about living in Canada is the wide range of choices in broadcast content both on the radio and on television. Living so close to the U.S., we’re able to pick ... Read More »

January 30, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Politics & Current Affairs

Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession

By Matthew Hart

Like hard, everlasting roses, there are hundreds of shades of red diamonds alone, from “water” pink to vivid red. As Matthew Hart’s Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession skillfully recounts, gemstone diamonds ... Read More »

January 30, 2004 | Filed under: Science, Technology & Environment

Weird Sex & Snowshoes: And Other Canadian Film Phenomena

By Katherine Monk

Any attempt at defining Canada’s cultural landscape must acknowledge such pioneering works as Northrop Frye’s The Bush Garden and Margaret Atwood’s Survival. Vancouver film critic Katherine Monk recognizes the critical foundations laid down in these ... Read More »

January 30, 2004 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture

★ Galileo’s Mistake: The Archaeology of a Myth

By Wade Rowland

Veteran journalist Wade Rowland follows up the success of Ockham’s Razor with another examination of the conflict between science and faith. In Galileo’s Mistake, Rowland ventures to the very roots of that schism and challenges ... Read More »