Where You Came From

Anyone picking up Where You Came From expecting a scientifically solemn and medically correct account of the facts of life for pre-schoolers is in for a surprise. In this, a follow-up to Sara O’Leary and ... Read More »

October 29, 2008 | Filed under: Picture Books

Sir Reginald’s Logbook

By Matt Hammill

Though its target readership probably won’t notice, older readers – as in 30-plus years of age – might find that the title character of author/illustrator Matt Hammill’s first book bears a striking resemblance to Uncle ... Read More »

October 29, 2008 | Filed under: Picture Books

Child of Dandelions

By Shenaaz Nanji

In 1972, Idi Amin had a dream in which God told him to expel Uganda’s 80,000 ethnic Indians. They had 90 days to leave. Set during this tumultuous period, Child of Dandelions is a stirring ... Read More »

October 24, 2008

Cypress

By Barbara Klar

Love of place is a staple of poetry. (Seamus Heaney, for instance, would be a very different poet without Irish peat bogs.) All the same, it can be a tough theme to make work over ... Read More »

October 24, 2008 | Filed under: Poetry

It’s Hard Being Queen: The Dusty Springfield Poems

By Jeanette Lynes

In this, her fourth collection, St. Francis Xavier University professor Jeanette Lynes gives us a poetic biography of 1960s diva Dusty Springfield. Lynes is perhaps best known as a funny writer, and while It’s Hard ... Read More »

October 24, 2008 | Filed under: Poetry

Ambrosia: About a Culture

By James Cummins

In Ambrosia, Montreal author James Cummins attempts to give readers a snapshot of the history, music, and culture of electronic dance music while also contextualizing it with other music and art movements throughout history. Using ... Read More »

October 24, 2008 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture

Marie-Anne: The Extraordinary Story of Louis Riel’s Grandmother

By Maggie Siggins

Marie-Anne Lagimodière is an excellent subject for a biography: she was the first white woman to follow her coureur de bois husband into the bush, she witnessed the war between the Hudson’s Bay Company and ... Read More »

October 24, 2008 | Filed under: History

Listening to Trees

By A.K. Hellum

Nostalgic books lamenting the past and the dwindling of our flora and fauna have been thick on the ground recently, and many have been memorable. (Tim Bowling’s The Lost Coast and Terry Glavin’s Waiting for ... Read More »

October 24, 2008 | Filed under: Science, Technology & Environment

Butterfly Mind: Revolution, Recovery, and One Reporter’s Road to Understanding China

By Patrick Brown

The new book by longtime CBC foreign correspondent Patrick Brown could very easily have been three books. First, there are the bare bones of a confessional memoir. Brown is very frank about his struggles with ... Read More »

October 24, 2008 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

Contact Charlie: A Canadian Infantry Company and the Battle of Panjwayi

By Chris Wattie

From May through August 2006, Canadian soldiers fought a running battle against Taliban insurgents in the Panjwayi district southwest of Kandahar, the Afghan provincial capital. In the most intense fighting the Canadian army has conducted ... Read More »