Reference

Three Pagodas Pass: A Roundabout Journey to Burma

Getting to Burma on the cheap is a formidable task. And who but a weathered adventurer could, as author George Fetherling tells it, “hitch a ride” for a few thousand nautical miles aboard a rotting ... Read More »

January 7, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Reference

Beyond Fate

By Margaret Visser

Margaret Visser writes playful books about serious subjects. Whether it’s table manners (Much Depends on Dinner) or our behaviour in church (The Geometry of Love), she unearths the hidden motivations that underlie our most common ... Read More »

January 7, 2004 | Filed under: Reference

Lost Province: Adventures in a Moldovan Family

By Stephen Henighan

You would be correct to assume that the Soviet Union crumbled back in 1991 – sort of. Though most of the statues of Lenin have disappeared, the desperation and economic hopelessness that characterized life for ... Read More »

January 7, 2004 | Filed under: Reference

Croatia: Travels in an Undiscovered Country

By Tony Fabijancic

Tony Fabijancic, a Canadian educator and writer with Croatian roots, forgoes the usual blend of ethnography, historical writing, and travel journalism in this short, sweet examination of Croatian culture.The eloquent opening chapter focuses on the ... Read More »

December 1, 2003 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Reference

The Original Canadian City Dweller’s Almanac: Facts, Rants, Anecdotes and Unsupported assertions for Urban Residents

By Hal Niedzviecki and Darren Wershler-Henry

In answer to the ongoing success of The Farmer’s Almanac for rural readers comes The Original Canadian City Dweller’s Almanac, a quirky, occasionally amusing potpourri of facts, rants, and anecdotes for theurban global villager. Like ... Read More »

December 1, 2003 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Reference

Timbit Nation: A Hitchhiker’s View of Canada

By John Stackhouse

The idea behind Timbit Nation was for John Stackhouse, former New Delhi correspondent for The Globe and Mail, to see his own country as a foreigner might see it. After almost eight years of reporting ... Read More »

November 26, 2003 | Filed under: Reference

Awol: Tales for Travel-inspired Minds

By Jennifer Barclay and Amy Logan, eds.

What a good idea: compile brief, true travel narratives from a selection of well-known and up-and-coming Canadian novelists, poets, editors, and journalists. With AWOL, editors Jennifer Barclay and Amy Logan have outdone themselves. Their selections ... Read More »

November 26, 2003 | Filed under: Reference

The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists

By Taras Grescoe

These are grim times for travel writing. The glory years, of course, were 1980s and ’90s, when countless authors set out in search of a share of the riches discovered by giants like Bruce Chatwin ... Read More »

November 26, 2003 | Filed under: Reference

A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books

By Deirdre Baker and Ken Setterington

There are abundant British and American guides to children’s books, but it’s extremely rare to find Canadian titles in their pages. If for no other reason than national pride, we needed McClelland & Stewart’s A ... Read More »

November 25, 2003 | Filed under: Reference