Sask Books: Euphoria
“Euphoria: A Novel”
Written by Connie Gault
Published by Coteau Books
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$21.00 ISBN 978-1-55050-409-5
It’s no surprise that Connie Gault’s historical novel, “Euphoria: A Novel,” was shortlisted for the 2009 Book of the Year (Saskatchewan Book Awards). With Coteau’s release of “Euphoria,” Gault’s secured her place as one of Saskatchewan’s most talented writers.
The structuring of time and place is especially admirable in this novel. The story itself is what’s sometimes referred to as a quiet novel; the focus is on character development rather than a dramatic plot (though the aftermath of the Regina “cyclone” of 1912 does figure prominently).
The author begins with two central characters – Gladdie and Orillia – and as the story progresses and secrets are scraped away, she simultaneously introduces new characters and illumines the lives of those we’ve already met by teasing out the past.
The initial setting is a Toronto boarding house, and the year is 1891. An illegitimate baby’s born in the house, and immediately after, her teenaged mother “walk[s] off the wharf into Lake Ontario.” Gladdie McConnell, a young employee at the house, is deeply affected by this tragedy, and she’s so concerned with the orphan’s future, she makes it her life’s (other) work to be the child’s surreptitious guardian.
Much of the novel concerns the residents of a Regina boarding house, post-cyclone. Aside from the central figures, there’s Mr. Best, who’s writing a novel about a boarding house; and young Susan, a cyclone survivor found “sitting on the roof of a new Ford automobile …”
“Euphoria” is a finely researched document about how unmarried women could and did live during a certain period in Canadian history. Gault’s nominations are earned.
This book is available at your local bookstore or online at www.skbooks.com
These reviews are provided by the Saskatchewan Publishers Group.
Sask Books: Like the Mimosa
“Like the Mimosa”
by Eusebio L. Koh
Published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing
Reviewed by Cindy Dean-Morrison
$16.95 CDN ISBN 978-1-894431-22-4
“Like the Mimosa” by Filipino-Canadian author Eusebio L. Koh promises an exotic experience. It does not fail. Koh immediately transports the reader into his beloved Filipino world using brilliant descriptions, memorable characters, occasional Filipino words, and humour. He shares intimate truths via stories, poems and essays.
In the short story section we are immediately pulled in by “Soap” which deals with the Japanese occupation of the Philippines at the start of WW II. One might expect dark events, but Koh tells the story from a precocious boy’s viewpoint who has a great sense of humour and humanity. All the stories read as colourful history, studies in family dynamics, and explorations of cultural mores.
Koh writes exquisitely crafted cinquains, sonnets, and free verse poems. He explores love, nature, war, faith and Saskatchewan prairie spirit. Perhaps common poetic themes, but Koh is anything but common in his approach. In fact, the poems are often surprising. Love, for example, is reflected in the poem “Theorems.” Other poems like “Mea Culpa” exude wry humour.
Koh’s essays all focus largely on social justice issues. Essays like “A Colonial Mentality” and “Behind the Ethnic Shield” are powerful examinations of discrimination. What sets Koh apart in this common discussion is his pragmatism. He cites blatant examples of how he has experienced discrimination, but cautions people not to cry racism necessarily. Finally, Koh’s history of Filipino independence is thorough and fascinatingly told.
Ultimately this collection is about the integrity of a people who have survived occupations, colonialism and hard-won independence. This is a book of their truths lovingly told.
This book is available at your local bookstore or online at www.skbooks.com.
Sask Books: Shadow Boxing
“Shadow Boxing”
By Sherie Posesorski
Published by Coteau Books
Reviewed by Shanna Mann
$12.95 ISBN 978-1-55050-406-4
Meet Alice Levitt. She’s a 16-year-old “high functioning depressive” who lives with her egotistical criminal lawyer father. Alice deals with her beloved mother’s death and her disgust of her distant father by working compulsively –she has an A+ average and two part-time jobs. To calm the screams inside her head, Alice cuts herself.
Her only lifeline is her cousin, Chloe, who takes care of her infected cuts and begs her to stop. But Chloe can’t help Alice much when she already has so many problems of her own. In fact, her main value to Alice is to give Alice someone to care for and think about so she won’t have to examine her own questionable behavior.
Like the shadow boxes of the title, Alice’s world is starkly compartmentalized and monochromatic. When events are narrated by Alice, there is a palpable sense of the rage and futility she struggles ceaselessly against. The monocular focus on details like the bag people on the streets, the smell of local Yiddish take-out blended with the acrid stench of the tobacconist’s, and the irrelevant histories of local landmarks demonstrate Alice’s hyper focus on irrelevancies in order to stave off emotional examination.
In this authentically voiced YA novel, Alice bitterly strives to replace her mother in supporting and caring for Chloe, whose own parents are absent. Through the course of the novel, though, she discovers support she never knew was out there, first from strangers, then from people closer to her, and stops isolating herself like a figurine in a shadow box.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE FROM YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM.
These reviews are provided by the Saskatchewan Publishers Group.
Sask Books: Where the Rocks Say Your Name
Where the Rocks say Your Name
by Brenda Hasiuk
Published by Thistledown Press
Review by Elizabeth McGill
$19.95 ISBN-13: 978-1-897235-11-9
The concept of “Where the Rocks Say Your Name” is similar to reality television, but the format is different. Instead of being “made for television”, this reality situation is “made for print”. Brenda Hasuik takes us into a northern mining town where existence is as sharp-edged as the craggy rocks punctuating the rugged landscape.
We are immersed in the lives of three young residents: Toby, who like his father, plunges into the mine shaft to make his living; Ally, who is her mother’s assistant in the bulk food store; and Rina, whose family left war-torn Sarajevo to set up a medical practice in a seemingly safer environment, but where less obvious dangers lurk. The three main characters of Where the Rocks say Your Name are young people whose lifestyles involve partying, hanging out at the pool hall, and having sex, not to be confused with “making love.” Life is fairly straightforward if not wildly exciting until Adam arrives in town. He hides out at his cousin, Ally’s house, in the hopes that the police will not catch up with him. That’s when things get complicated.
This is Hasiuk’s first novel but several of her stories have been published in literary journals. She does not shy away from difficult situations. Readers from the baby boomer era may be gulping for air or raising their eyebrows and blood pressure as the story unfolds. This story could take place in any little town where services and opportunities for recreation are few. People always find a way to amuse themselves. If you enjoy a thought provoking , compellingly honest account of another lifestyle, pick up Where the Rocks say Your Name. You’ll be glad you did.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE FROM YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM.
These reviews are provided by the Saskatchewan Publishers Group.
Sask Books: Frontier Farewell
Frontier Farewell. The 1870s and the End of the Old West
By Garret Wilson
Published by University of Regina
Reviewed by Tim Tokaryk
$19.95 ISBN 978-0-88977-193-2
The hoof prints have long since gone. The imprinted sand and clays quickly re-shaped by time, returned to a landscape dominated by natural grasses and sagebrush. But in cluttered archives and journal scrawlings their imprint remains. The impressions, ideas, hopes, and simple need for survival of the people of Canada’s West are newly amalgamated in Garrett Wilson’s “Frontier Farewell, The 1870s and the End of the Old West.”
In this heavily researched volume, Wilson suggests that this period was pivotal to the shaping of the prairies and Canada as a nation. The Dominion of Canada, fearful of annexation by U.S. expansionismwas incensed in the marking of its territory, particularly along the seemingly arbitrary line of the 49th parallel: a line that didn’t follow any topographical relief or structure, a line determined in a country across an ocean.
Despite what was decided in the mother land thousands of kilometers away or in the nation’s eastern capital, which seemed like another world in and of itself, the reality of determining the right course of action had dramatic and more often than not traumatic effects to the land, to the exploratory venturers, and of course to the aboriginal peoples. Wilson’s attention to detail of the period is intense and striking. Wilson details, for instance, the military tactic of setting prairie fires along the international boundary to separate herds of buffalo or the aboriginals, which is just one of the inglorious examples of the steps toward the inclusion of the west under the umbrella of this nation.
The events leading up to the acquisition of the Canadian west and the Hudson Bay Company’s interest in furthering their needs at the peril of the aboriginal communities are stark reminders of the costs incurred in the building of this nation.
“Frontier Farewell” is a broad examination of the politics, culture, achievements, and characters of survival on the bleak Canadian plains leading up to the turn of the century. There may be a perception that nothing has changed on the grasslands during the centuries of Western knowledge. Wilson’s book, however, belies a different story: a story of courage, deceit, greed, and glory,all the features that make Canada what it is today.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR VISIT WWW.SKBOOKS.COM.
These reviews are provided by the Saskatchewan Publishers Group.
Sask Books: Horses, Hockey, & Haloes
Horses, Hockey and Haloes
by Lori Kohlman
Review by Karen Lawson
$19.95 ISBN 9780981082608
The novel “Horses, Hockey and Haloes” takes the reader on a journey of discovery. Author Lori Kohlman approaches the subject of autism with sensitivity and respect. Her purpose in writing this book is to give the reader an opportunity to learn and understand more about Autism. It is obvious that she has done a great deal of research about this disorder as she tackles the subject in a knowledgeable and informed way. Autism is a neurological condition that causes developmental disabilities. It results in delayed and underdeveloped communication skills and social interactions. Autism is more common in boys and usually becomes apparent before the child is three years old.
This story is set in the fictional town of Prairie Pass SK. The author situates her story here in order to show that Autism can touch the lives of any family, no matter where they live. “Horses, Hockey and Haloes” revolves around a rancher and his family. Sam Duncan is struggling as a single parent to raise his two children. Rebecca is thirteen years old and J. J. is his eight year old autistic son. He is faced with the challenges of trying to run a successful ranch while coping with the issues of a pubescent daughter and the special needs of his autistic son. His domineering mother, Ruth, throws another curve into the family dynamics.
A special education teacher, Eve Ashton, who has a past history with Sam, soon becomes involved with the family. She plays a valuable role as she tries to support Sam and Rebecca and work with J.J.’s unique situation. Eve understands J.J. as no one else ever has and soon becomes very attached to him as well as the rest of the family. Her own personal connection to children with special needs helps her to relate to J. J. and she becomes an integral part of his educational growth. At first skeptical, Sam soon realizes that Eve has J.J.’s best interests at heart and he appreciates her dedication to the development of his son. Before long, a relationship develops between Sam and Eve that changes the course of both their lives.
This gentle story will touch the heart of anyone who has been affected by Autism but more importantly, it will inspire and inform anyone who wants to learn more about this condition.
‘THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR VISIT WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
These reviews are provided by the Saskatchewan Publishers Group.
Sask Books: Black Bear Pastry & Other Delights
Black Bear Pastry & Other Delights
Written by Kathleen K. Coleclough, Illustrations by David Benjoe
Published by Kakwa Publishing
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$10.50 ISBN 978-0-9781555-1-3
In the introduction to the heartwarming children’s book “Black Bear Pastry & Other Delights,” Riceton, SK author Kathleen K. Coleclough shares the unique inspiration for her story. When the writer was a child, her mother owned “a little cookbook” which contained recipes for items like “Baked Moose Nose,” “Pickled Beaver Tail,” and “Black Bear Pastry.” Regarding the latter, only the fat from a black bear that had eaten blueberries was suitable. How, wondered the young Coleclough, could one tell what a bear had eaten? It’s an interesting premise for a children’s story, and after reading this introduction I was eager to discover what would follow.
A writer of Ojibwa, Cree, Assiniboian, and Danish descent (“I’m Indian and Viking,” she tells students during presentations), and a member of the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan, Coleclough weaves cultural references – both overt, via language and illustrations (ie: the main character wears his long hair in braids) and less obvious (ie: the delightful sense of humour that the Metis have been credited with) – through her story.
The protagonist, Kenny, is an imaginative boy who loves his trips with his father – a “city person” who “didn’t like to be reminded of his roots” — to visit his Nookoo and Nimishoo (his grandparents) on the reserve. Kenny learns that his beloved Nookoo, aka Grandma Helen, loved black bear pastry as a child, and the boy decides he wants to make some for her. “Kenny,” the boy’s father says, “you can’t just go to a store and buy a bear.” The child continually implores his father to take him bear hunting, and eventually the father reluctantly agrees to do it “for Nookoo.”
This is a children’s story, yes, with age-appropriate language and credible characters – it was realistic and delightful how often friends and extended family were visiting the grandparents to work together on a mossbag, for example, or help fix an old truck — but it also deals with the “grown-up” issue of traditional vs. contemporary life. Kenny’s father says: “I haven’t hunted since I was your age, Kenny. I live a city life now. I don’t think I’d even remember what to do.” (Indeed, on their expeditions the boy and his father return first with a fish, then a goose. “Nice bear, boy,” a visiting friend jokes.)
David Benjoe’s subtle watercolour illustrations, which feature both the central characters and visitors (including “the gas man” who has come to read the meter), echo the grandparents’ simple way of life. Benjoe, of the Piapot First Nation, now lives in Regina and teaches art.
Curious types like myself are often interested in learning the back stories to published books. How did the writer come up with the idea? And when? Coleclough both satisfies these queries and delivers a poignant tale that I’d highly recommend for the personal libraries of all Saskatchewan youngsters. It offers a sincere representation of Metis culture, but more than that, it tells one heck of a fine story that both children and their elders will adore.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
These reviews are provided by the Saskatchewan Publishers Group.
Sask Books: Yellowgrass
Yellowgrass
Written by Allan Safarik
Published by Hagios Press
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$17.95 ISBN 978-0-9783440-4-7
I am always keenly interested in reading the poems of writers who have selected to live in small Saskatchewan towns – as have I — rather than our largest cities, and seeing how that experience flavours their work. Acclaimed Dundurn, SK writer Allan Safarik is among my favourite poets, and thus it’s always a treat when a new Safarik title turns up and he again illuminates that which is beautiful and profound and right before us, though we ourselves fail to see.
In the past I’ve praised this 2005 winner of the Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry for an eye and ear that pay attention to the smallest of creatures and details, and in his latest book, “Yellowgrass,” published by Hagios Press, Safarik — like a tour guide for the almost invisible and overlooked — again treats readers to his astute sensory perceptions and literary prowess.
First, a few titles from “Yellowgrass”: “All About Dying in Bed,” “Nothing Defines Humanity like the Essential Rat,” “The State of the Insect Economy,” and “Portrait in Grassy Dress.” Ah, we say, skimming the Contents page, here’s a poet who understands that even the title of a work deserves great attention, and we lick our lips at what’s to come.
And what is to come includes lines that read like miniature poems: “The fragrance of night depends upon tree pods,” he writes in “Desert.” From “Moonlight Dogs”: “Far out on the Hutterite meadow\deer jump at the moonlight”.
There’s “A flock of white geese\longer than a train” in the poem “Map of the Road.” And look, in “Mule Deer on the Hanley Road,” how he transforms a barbed-wire fence into poetry, describing it thus: “Thin line of the horizon stapled\along the edge of the wind”.
There’s also much fancy in the book, including talking and dancing animals, giants, and dream fragments. Many of the poems are simply good fun. In “Rumours From Heaven,” Safarik writes: “Everybody\smokes\in heaven\with the\windows shut\to maximize\ the buzz”. Another poem, “Elephant News,” begins: “At the reading room in the Franc[e]s Morrison Library\the elephant can’t find news about his species\in the domestic or foreign press”.
Safarik is also a storyteller, and some of his best pieces – like “Visitors,” “Unknown Details,” and “Neighbour” – relay interesting anecdotes about relationships in a poet’s concise manner. Like the houseflies that often appear in Safarik’s work, we feel like the proverbial “fly on the wall” as he describes scenes of domestic distress and confusion.
It’s clear that the poet also keeps one eye on the larger world, fraught as it is with economic crises, ecological issues, and war. Safarik, then, is the best kind of seer. From the local coffee shop, where directions are imparted (“Follow the gravel\past the Mennonite church\until you reach the canal\then right to the crossroads\for eleven miles\you’ll come out\by Eugene’s barn\near the correction line\From there it’s easy”) to a hotel in Moscow, from prairie grain fields to Baghdad’s streets, Safarik writes deftly about the world we live in and share with the beasts.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
These reviews are provided by the Saskatchewan Publishers Group.
Sask Books: Song Dogs
Song Dogs
By Betty Wilson
Published by Coteau Books
Review by Marie Powell Mendenhall
Price: $ 9.95 CDN ISBN: 1-55050-216-6
Anyone who has heard coyotes yipping and howling across the prairie will have no trouble identifying Betty Wilson’s Song Dogs.
Wilson conveys the story of these animals with humor and understanding, in this nonfiction book for middle grades and older. She describes their unique call as “warnings, greetings, threats and a little hollering just for the heck of it.”
The book follows a young coyote named Silvertip, and other coyotes nearby, as he grows up in a particular section of rural Alberta. Using the traditions of creative nonfiction, Wilson names the coyotes and situates their stories in the gritty realism of their habitat. For instance, Silvertip fights off a bout of distemper, loses his toes in a trap, and survives fever and infection.
Along with his mate Shadow and several other coyotes, Silvertip must fight for survival against man and the hardships of the environment. Wilson pulls no punches about the role of man in their story. The ranchers hunt them with rifles, traps, hounds and snowmobiles. The coyotes must also survive rattlesnakes, winter, starvation, and other trials of the wild.
These playful and resourceful animals punctuate their lives with their voices: “Suddenly the night was alive with coyote song, echoing with ventriloquist’s magic, from family to family, back and forth across the river valley.”
Pencil sketches appear throughout the pages as well. The book was a finalist for the Canadian Library Association book award for children.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR VISIT WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
Sask Books: My Sweet Curiosity
“My Sweet Curiosity”
By Amanda Hale
Published by Thistledown Press
Review by Karen Lawson
$19.95 ISBN 978-1-897235-61-4
Amanda Hale’s third novel is a complex work that combines many different elements and themes. She has taken a variety of threads and woven them into an intricate tapestry that will keep the reader wanting more with every page.
“My Sweet Curiosity” contains several plots and is set not only in different countries but also spans many centuries. The author incorporates historical facts from the sixteenth century with a contemporary story line to create a fast moving saga that contains few boundaries.
The main characters of this novel live in present day Toronto. Talya is a young, energetic, medical student. Dai Ling is a talented cello player. Destiny brings them together and their lives become intertwined. Both young women are the daughters of immigrant parents. This complicates their relationship and adds another layer to the story. Both characters are struggling with their own personal issues and coming to terms with who they are and what their purpose in life is. Talya becomes obsessed not only with Dai Ling, but with a book of anatomical drawings compiled by a doctor by the name of Andreas Vesalius. He was a prominent Italian surgeon who revolutionized the study of medicine and anatomy during the Renaissance period.
“My Sweet Curiosity” flows seamlessly from one time period to another while providing interesting insight into how the physical body is connected to emotions and spirituality. Amanda Hale is a gifted storyteller who has tapped into her own curiosity to create a book that will spark the curiosity in her readers.
This book is available at your local bookstore or online at www.skbooks.com
Sask Books: Waiting for Elvis
Waiting for Elvis
Written by David Elias
Published by Coteau Books
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$21.00 ISBN 9-781550-503944
Winnipeg writer David Elias is making a name for himself as a writer of increasingly interesting books. Coteau Books recently published his fourth, the novel “Waiting for Elvis,” and because I was ardently cheering for these hardluck characters, I had a hard time putting the book down.
This time Elias focuses on the people that own “Betty’s Diner — Home of the Giant Cinnamon Bun,” a typical highway truck-stop, and on those who pass through its humble doors. Truckers and the odd tour bus of casino-patronizing seniors are its major clientele, but Betty and husband Arty’s miscreant son, Tony, and the criminal crowd he chums with, also make appearances. When a strange, mute, and beaten man stumbles into the diner from the surrounding forest, nothing is ever the same again.
For Betty, this is a wonderful thing. As a child she lived a life of relative privilege, and was known as “Elizabeth”. An alcoholic mother living in a squalid Winnipeg flophouse is a constant reminder of how far, and quickly, her life regressed. Now Betty’s bored, and thinks that “a bulldozer might be the best thing that ever happened” to the diner. Her family is a crucible. She has a hard time loving her only child: “She and Arty have made all the rounds with the social worker and psychologists. Put up with all the looks from the teachers and principals at school. Jumped through all the hoops with the probation officers and lawyers and priests. It’s been one thing after another with him right from the start … She could never understand how it happened that he got so bad so fast … Making her cry is what Tony had always done best.” Elias does a laudable job of showing how Tony’s evil and self-destructive ways began at an early age. It’s shocking.
And there are more shocks. Sal, who was horribly abused by his mother’s partner, “Clothespin Harry,” now lives like an animal in the forest beside the highway. He exists on the food travelers discard, and has created a shanty among the trees. But Sal’s ghosts have followed him. He has visions, and nightmares, and has created a “garden of pain” with car accident refuse (twisted metal, shattered glass, chains) which he’s strung from the pines. When his inner pain is too much, he “[Runs] into that garden of pain full tilt … Make it cut … Make it bleed … A crankshaft comes out of nowhere … He tackles a chrome bumper, then a rusted muffler … crushes the muscle and bone of his shoulder and still he will not stop.”
Now here’s the wondrous thing: Elias’s novel is a story of redemption. Betty “Sees there the thing [Sal] carries around with him always, the bold beauty of his quiet humility.” And she makes a kind of unexpected peace with her son.
“Waiting for Elvis” is the kind of book that would inspire much discussion and debate; it would be a terrific title for book clubs.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
Sask Books: Songcatcher
Songcatcher by Aline Perret-Vallée
Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing
Review by Sharon Adam
$16.95 ISBN 978-894431-32-3
“Songcatcher” falls in a new genre that combines autobiography with poetry and essay. It is the story of an ordinary woman who enjoys her life and shares with her audience the blessings gathered over eight decades. A Saskatchewan girl, Aline tells us her story in a very entertaining and enjoyable format.
She begins with her mother’s family and the story of how they ended up in Duck Lake, where Aline’s mother meets her future husband and they begin their own family. The author shares the respect and joy her home-life provided in times that were hard on the prairies. We glimpse the farm life of a young girl and her brothers and sisters. Aline shares stories and poems of her school years and of leaving home in 1949 to become a nun at the Novitiate in St. Hyacinth, Quebec. She then begins a teaching career that sees her move to various locales, including Prince Albert, Spiritwood, The Pas, Laurier, Debden and Swift Current, ending in Wadena.
We learn of a love story that begins in Prince Albert and eventually ends happily with Aline leaving her vocation as a nun to become the wife of Orian Vallée. Aline’s writing is full of her appreciation of life and recounts all the things that enrich her memories. She tells us of her discovery of Toastmasters and how that organization helped her build confidence and make friends.
Visits to her ancestral homelands of Switzerland and France bring new family members into the story, and travels to Quebec and California add even more family branches to her tree. Now a widow, she lives in Saskatoon where she enjoys her family and friends. “Songcatcher” is an enjoyable read for anyone interested in our past—and the lives of the real people who lived it.
This book is available at your local bookstore or online at www.skbooks.com.
Sask Books: Run Like Jäger
“Run Like Jäger”
By Karen Bass
Published by Coteau Books
Review by Marie Powell Mendenhall
Price: $ 12.95 CDN ISBN: 1-55050-377-4
This young adult novel takes us across enemy lines and into the trenches of World War II – from the German side.
Canadian exchange student Kurt Schreiber chooses Germany to improve his German, and to discover why his Opa or grandfather is so silent about the Second World War.
When the school bully Peter calls him a coward like his grandfather, Kurt becomes haunted by dreams and possibilities. He is also falling in love with Marta, his best friend at school.
Marta’s grandfather, Herr Wolfgang Brandt, turns out to have been Opa’s best friend. Brandt, a former town mayor, is writing his memoirs and Kurt convinces him to talk about their wartime experience.
Brandt calls Kurt’s grandfather Jäger, or hunter. They were common soldiers and not members of the dreaded Nazi Secret Service or “SS.” Yet they were trained in the Hitler Youth and believed in the “Führer,” Adolf Hitler.
Karen Bass manages to get inside the head of a German soldier from World War II. Through Brandt’s honest recounting of his experience, from wartime battles to being overcome on the Kanada building site at Auschwitz, Kurt develops a new respect for his grandfather. Readers move with Kurt past blame to greater awareness.
Other threads woven into Kurt’s story include his thoughts as a Canadian high school exchange student in a foreign country, and his growing love for Marta and for his new home.
Karen Bass works a librarian in northern Alberta. “Run Like Jäger” is her first published novel.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR VISIT WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
Sask Books: The Smiling Mask: Truths About Postpartum Depression and Parenthood
“The Smiling Mask: Truths About Postpartum Depression and Parenthood”
By Carla O’Reilly, Elita Paterson, Tania Bird, and Peggy Collins
Published by Purpose to Prosperity Publishing
Review by Marie Powell Mendenhall
Price: $ 24.95 CDN ISBN: 978-0-9781341-3-6
“The Smiling Mask” uses the stories of three women who suffered from postpartum depression (PPD) to create awareness of the issues surrounding this disease.
The book begins with forwards written by mental health experts such as Sally Elliott, perinatal nurse/counselor at Regina YMCA. In the preface, clinical psychologist Marlene Harper identifies some of the controversies and complexities surrounding PPD.
Harper identifies degrees of severity in psychiatric symptoms. Postpartum blues, for example, are mild, including mood swings and confusion lasting up to about 10 days. Postpartum depression is similar to clinical depression and may last up to a year. Postpartum psychosis is a severe, rapid mental illness, usually requiring hospitalization. Harper also discusses potential treatment, including medications and counseling.
In the next three chapters, authors Carla O’Reilly, Elita Paterson, and Tania Bird give an earnest and heart-felt account of their journey through PPD. They discuss the “smiling mask” they used to try and hide their illness, and the difficulty of setting it aside to discuss their real feelings and experiences. These women state their nightmares and fears honestly, and talk about the strong support they received from family and friends.
Following that, the book includes a chapter detailing the points-of-view of their husbands, as retold by Peggy Collins. The book concludes with an interview, a chapter of strategies to help cope with the disease, and a section of notes and references.
One dollar from the cost of the book is donated to four charities chosen by the authors, including women’s shelters, Mental Health, the YMCA/YWCA, and NICU/Mother and Baby Units.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR VISIT WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
Sask Books: Return to Bone Tree Hill
“Return to Bone Tree Hill”
By Kristin Butcher
Published by Thistledown Books
Review by Marie Powell Mendenhall
Price: $ 12.95 CDN ISBN: 1-897235-58-4
This young adult mystery opens with Jessica Lawler’s recurring nightmare: she is 12 years old again, and she can see her friends Charlie and Amanda fighting.
Charlie is shaking Amanda and he won’t let go. Jessica picks up Charlie’s shovel and swings it. Then Charlie is lying on the ground, his hair matted with blood…
At 18, Jessica returns from Australia to visit her grandmother in Victoria, BC, where she grew up. She discovers Charlie went missing on the same day she contracted meningitis. With her memories clouded by illness, Jessica has to wonder: Is the dream true? Did she kill him?
With the help of her best friend Jilly, Jessica pieces together the puzzle of Charlie’s disappearance. The bantering friendship between the two girls and the lingering guilt that drives Jessica are believable and well-developed.
Twists and turns lead the story in several unexpected directions. Symbols like the tree and that well-known Canadian icon, the snow globe, also play a role. Following hunches and clues, the girls uncover community secrets along with Jessica’s memories.
Kristen Butcher unravels the mystery with a writing style that brings out the nightmare atmosphere and draws the reader into the action. For example, she describes the tree with its “branches splayed like outstretched fingers, holding the surrounding countryside close” amid the “sun-bleached stalks of rye grass waving their long spears like vigilant sentries.”
Butcher was born in Winnipeg, and now lives in Campbell River, BC. The former teacher has written 14 books.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR VISIT WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
Sask Books: House Beneath
“House Beneath”
Written by Susan Telfer
Published by Hagios Press
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$17.95 ISBN 978-1-926710-02-0
The title of Susan Telfer’s first collection of poetry, “House Beneath,” is ripe with metaphorical possibilities. It suggests that readers will be privy to a story beneath the official story, that there is – or was – more going on than meets the public eye.
In my reading, I’ve noticed that first books almost constitute a sub-genre within poetry. Often poets air childhood demons in these books; or recount adolescence; first loves and early mistakes; and, quite commonly, their relationship with their parents. The latter is the focus of Telfer’s collection. With both now deceased, she peels back the layers of family.
Being orphaned is a subject Telfer explores in numerous poems, but as she also demonstrates, for all intents and purposes she became “Fatherless,” long before her dad actually died. Already a mother herself, she writes: “I’m weak from chasing toddlers, my hips\still wobbly from childbirth. I can’t carry you.”
Pieces about the stunning west-coast setting in which she lives, the births of her children, and desire also populate this smartly-dressed collection. Telfer lives in Gibsons and teaches high school in Sechelt, BC.
“House Beneath” is published by Hagios Press. The book’s an interesting read for anyone who harbours ghosts in their past, and don’t we one and all?
This book is available at your local bookstore or online at www.skbooks.com
Sask Books: The Cult of Quick Repair
“The Cult of Quick Repair”
Written by Dede Crane
Published by Coteau Books
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$18.95 ISBN 9-781550-503920
There’s a marvelous short story in Victoria, BC writer Dede Crane’s collection, “The Cult of Quick Repair,” about the bizarre circumstances that follow after a man’s one night-stand – the “act” is committed in his marriage bed – with a woman met at a staff party. Called “Raising Blood,” the tale begins with the man’s realization that a menstrual blood stain has been left on the $500 “pure Egyptian cotton” sheets his wife’s just purchased, and when he rinses them in hot water instead of cold, the stain, naturally, sets. The wife will be returning within hours from a business trip, and the race to erase the evidence is on. In the delicious romp that follows, the husband attempts to “raise his own blood” to explain the stain. One thing he tries is “a good hard trip up the stairs.” Crane writes: He “knelt down on the cement landing, and began to draw his knee back and forth. Scrape, scrape, scrape, he thought positively …” But this doesn’t work. An electric knife handily does the trick, but lands him in hospital for surgery to reattach tendons. Crane’s crafted a
brilliant surprise ending. What a play this would make: a sure sell-out.
If this side-splitting story alone isn’t enough to induce readers to pick up the collection, there are several other good reasons to do so. Aside from her obvious gift for humour, Crane’s also adept at writing about the more staid side of life. Many of her main characters – mostly women – find themselves in relationships that leave them wanting. They are mothers who perhaps shouldn’t be; wives who get birthday gifts from their husbands like “an Anne Geddes calendar, a renewal of [a] Canadian Living magazine, a duster made from ostrich feathers and Billy [the talking, Big-mouthed Bass]“. These couples eat “Dinner in front of the news,” and afterward, the husband might challenge his wife to “‘best out of three’ Yahtzee.” This is hardcore realism, and that’s why it works so well.
Crane’s range is admirable. In “Best Friend’s,” the wife of an NHL hockey player must deal with the emotional fallout after he scores a goal and spontaneously kisses a teammate on the lips; the game is televised and the media goes wild. In the title story, a woman’s terminally ill mother insists upon having her “buddha team” – three people who whisper “gobbledygook” into her ear – present as she departs. In the tragic “What Sort of Mother,” a woman leaves her alcoholic husband – the parent her children undeniably prefer – and Crane reveals how the world can be rife with irony and unfairness. “Next” concerns a spicy phone exchange between a woman and the technician who eventually (we’ve all been there) answers the computer helpline: “Now go to file, “the voice says, and before she’s had time to think, the young mother finds herself saying, “You have a sexy voice.”
Read “The Cult of Quick Repair,” and you’ll recognize thoughts and situations you’ve experienced yourself. Crane stick-handles human emotions like a pro.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
Sask Books: The Duty to Consult: New Relationships with Aboriginal Peoples
“The Duty to Consult: New Relationships with Aboriginal Peoples”
By Dwight G. Newman
Published by Purich Publishing
Review by Shanna Mann
$30 ISBN 978-1895830-378
While this is, first and foremost, a scholarly work, the author makes an earnest attempt to present the information in a clear manner. There is no doubt that a layperson would likely benefit from a point-by-point chapter summary, but the absence of Latin terminology and self-referential citations makes it understandable—though it will never be a beach read.
The book explores the legal ramifications and implicit necessities of the so-called “duty to consult,” the duty of the crown to notify, consult, or if necessary include First Nations people in any licensing, sale, or use of land or waters that may affect the rights of Aboriginals.
If you’ve been paying attention to the news over the past decade of Aboriginal rights litigation, many of the cited court cases will be familiar to you—Taku River Tlingit First Nation v. British Columbia, Mikisew Cree First Nation v. Canada, and so on.
It explores the ramifications for First Nation’s bands and organizations as well as for the crown and interested third parties. It notes that many First Nations bands lack resources to properly examine and decide upon their rights in a “consultation situation” and further notes that, in keeping with upholding the honour of the crown, several provinces, including Saskatchewan, have made funds available to bands in order to assist them in the consultation process.
Anticipating further noteworthy changes to Aboriginal case law, the author has stated that “updates on important developments on the duty to consult” will be posted on the publisher’s website.
This book is a readable, understandable, reasonably exhaustive exploration into the rights and implications of the crown’s “New Relationship” with First Nations people.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR VISIT WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
Sask Books: The Way It Was: A Story of My Life
“The Way It Was A Story of My Life”
By Leola Edna May Harron
Self-Published
Reviewed by Gail Jansen Price
$12.95
Anyone who’s ever felt over-worked and underpaid should take a moment to live life in the past lane, through Leola Edna May Harron’s book “The Way it Was A Story of My Life.”
Writing about the joys and hardships faced growing up as a prairie pioneer in the early 1900’s Harron’s simple style at times seems overwrought with seemingly inconsequential detail, yet as the book unfolds, each detail works to paint for the reader, a realistic portrait of what life on the prairies truly was about.
Instead of a glorified portrait of a life with daring adventures, Harron’s clear and vivid memories paint quite a different picture full of hard work, tragedy and a certain dogged determinism needed to survive the harsh Saskatchewan landscape. Any simple pleasures that Harron did experience were remembered as sweet moments that needed to be savoured and treasured for the brief respite from real life that they gave.
Raised by her maternal grandparents after the death of her parents before she was barely four years old, Harron grew up impoverished yet loved by her stoic and hard working grandparents and a ragtag assortment of extended family.
After spending the majority of her youth working alongside her sister and grandmother running a Regina boarding house, her grandmother’s poor health and even poorer finances,required a move that started Harron on a path that took her across the province working from farm to farm as a cook, cleaner, and menial labourer.
With descriptions of what are now historic buildings, events and locations it is a story that laid the foundation for Harron’s own life enabling her to not only overcome the many obstacles that were laid before her, but to grow, thrive and persevere as she married, had children and later was widowed at total of five times.
For older readers of Harron’s tale this memoir will spark some memories of their own lives lived, and take them back to a day when the world was simpler, yet not easier than it is today. For the younger reader it is a chance to glimpse a world that will seem like fiction. Far beyond the usual “I walked five miles to school up hill each way,” tales drummed into them by well-meaning elders, Harron’s story will give youth a true glimpse into the lives led by their ancestors and may even act as a wake-up call to appreciate all it is that they have today.
Originally written simply as a story for her descendants “so that they might know a little of my background and what life was like for me,” Harron’s tale of “joy and contentment” and “sorrow and despair” can teach those who read it to appreciate their lives, and to savour those small moments of pleasure, however fleeting they may be.
While the story of her life may not have boasted world-renowned accomplishments, or award winning moments, her life was and continues to be lived to the fullest, appreciating a common theme that can be seen throughout the story: family, home, love and friendships.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR VISIT WWW.SKBOOKS.COM.
Sask Books: This Is The Nightmare
“This is the Nightmare”
By Adrienne Gruber
Published by Thistledown Press
Reviewed by Carrie Prefontaine
$12.95 ISBN 978-1-897235-52-2
Adrienne Gruber’s “This is the Nightmare” is a collection of deeply reflective poems that will appeal to anyone seeking to understand the complexities of love and language.
“I don’t pick up foreign languages well,” the poet laments in “Dead Language,” and this is a theme carried throughout “Limbo,” the first section of the volume. In these poems, language is most meaningful when it manifests through the physical. In “How I Find You,” for example, emotional pain is written vividly all over the subject’s face.
The poems in section two, “This is the Nightmare” explore grief, carrying forward the complex search for connection, sense of self, and meaningful language. The poems in this section are steeped in loss: for lost loves, for missed opportunities, and for failed attempts at understanding one another. Gruber’s vivid lyricism makes each poem a heart punch.
The deep sense of mourning also shrouds the poems in the third and final section, “Why I Can’t Let Anything Go.” The poetry in this section explores the most familiar and intimate and yet most difficult to navigate bonds: those of family.
“This is The Nightmare” explores the illusions we hold about those we love, or would like to love, or have loved and lost. The fresh and crystalline imagery calls into question the effectiveness of language to convey what we really mean, while simultaneously affirming the power of words in the hands of a skilled wordsmith. Above all else, and without becoming pretentious, the poems offer a new perspective on the nature of our relationships with ourselves and with each other.
This book is available at your local bookstore, or visit www.skbooks.com.
Sask Books: A Terrible Roar of Water
“A Terrible Roar of Water”
by Penny Draper
Published by Coteau Books
Review by Karen Lawson
$8.95 ISBN 978-1-55050-414-9
Penny Draper once again hits the mark with her latest young adult novel in the /Disaster Strikes Series/. This exciting story is set in a remote fishing village in Newfoundland and focuses on the tsunami that hit there on November 18, 1929.
Draper is a gifted writer who understands how to combine historical facts and fiction. It is obvious that she conducts a great deal of in-depth research in order to maintain historical accuracy in her book. Draper weaves a page turner of a story that merges fictional characters and authentic historical facts. She also explores the culture and traditions of a fishing village to show what life was like at that time.
The hero of her tale is Murphy, a twelve year old boy who loves the sea and the life of a fisherman. He lives in a small outport with his aunt, uncle, and cousins. The life of a fisherman is full of struggle and danger but Murphy embraces it with passionate enthusiasm.
Murphy’s life is turned upside down in a matter of minutes one night when his community is demolished by a disaster called a tsunami tidal wave. Homes and buildings are literally torn apart and washed out to sea. Murphy is put to the test and is part of a rescue team that does its best to save as many people as possible. He is forced to grow up fast and live up to the meaning of his name which is “sea warrior”. His love for the sea has been challenged but in his heart he knows that he will do whatever it takes to help rebuild and restore the community after the devastating events of that night. His deep attachment to the sea never falters and he is more determined than ever to become a fisherman.
This book is not only a great adventure story but is also a valuable teaching tool.
This book is available at your local bookstore or online at www.skbooks.com
Sask Books: The Saskatchewan Secret: Folk Healers, Diviners, and Mystics of the Prairies
“The Saskatchewan Secret: Folk Healers, Diviners, and Mystics of the Prairies”
By Jacqueline Moore
Published by Benchmark Press
Review by Shanna Mann
$19.95 ISBN 978-0-9813243-2-6
It was inspiring to read about people with the intestinal fortitude to live unconventional lives. In our scientific, logical world that kind of nonconformity separates us from our fellow man at the same time as we learn the underlying truth– we are more inter-connected than we believe.
Jacqueline Moore wisely advises readers in the preface, “‘Reality’ is a curious word–it sounds undeniable, authoritative, scientific. But it’s a completely subjective concept… These individuals are truthfully depicting their version of reality; however, one’s personal version must not be — can not be — the whole, entire, and complete reality…I would ask that you simply accept that these are other good people’s real experiences; and that you keep an open mind.”
On one hand, many of the stories lined up with my personal beliefs, and perhaps I like the book simply because it makes me feel “right.” But on the other hand, when you read about faith healers invoking the Virgin Mary or Jesus and getting phenomenal results (an event which before reading this book I would have firmly and smugly attributed to group hysteria) and then turn the page and read about a medicine woman invoking spirit guides, boxers healing through touch, or a carpenter neutralizing earth energy, the similarities and coincidences suddenly become too numerous to ignore.
For provoking thought, this book is full of excellent material. What of the dowser who believes that cancer is caused be negative energy running under the places where we sleep? The plant-lady who speaks on behalf of those with no voices–plants. The medicine woman who sees little people– if they’re present in every culture in the world…maybe there is something to the stories. Above all the book forced me to examine the difference between faith, spirituality and religion, and what place these mysteries have in our lives. The boundaries are not where we thought they were, it seems.
This book is available at your local bookstore or online at www.skbooks.com.
Sask Books: Who’s That Man
“Who’s That Man?”
by Marny Duncan-Cary and illustrated by Megan Mansbridge
Published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing
Review by Karen Lawson
ISBN 978-1-894431-38-5 $24.95
Marny Duncan-Cary is a talented singer and songwriter from Lumsden, Saskatchewan. Her first book, “Linger”, was based on an emotional song that she wrote. Once again, Duncan-Cary has taken one of her songs and created a delightful children’s book, entitled “Who’s That Man?” Her story is based on a real event in the author’s own family history. When her grandfather returned home from fighting in World War II, he had never met his five year old son, Gerry, who was Duncan-Cary’s father.
This touching book comes complete with a special gift included – a DVD of her song which is tucked in the back cover. The words and musical score of “Who’s That Man?” are printed on the last pages of the book as an added bonus.
The pages are sprinkled with black and white photos of her father and grandfather taken from the family photo albums during the time that they were separate. These personal mementos add a realistic touch to the story. The illustrations are by talented artist, Megan Mansbridge. Mansbridge is not only a gifted artist but she is a personal friend of the author. Her bright and colourful pictures make the story come alive. She mixes simplicity with rich textures to create a three dimensional effect that seem to jump off the pages.
This personal story is a tribute to the many families that have been altered by war. Duncan-Cary leaves the reader with the message that although war is destructive and separates families, it cannot destroy the unconditional love and special bonds that exist between them.
This book is available at your local bookstore or online at http://www.skbooks.com
Sask Books: Tuckahoe Slidebottle
“Tuckahoe Slidebottle”
by Neil McKinnon
Published by Thistledown Press
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$18.95 ISBN 978-1-897235-07-02
“The town itself is homeless. It lies on the prairie like a drunk on a sidewalk.”
The town is Tuckahoe, a fictional SK community invented by gifted writer Neil McKinnon, and on the strength of these first two sentences, I knew I was going to enjoy his short fiction collection “Tuckahoe Slidebottle”. McKinnon renders a cast of characters simultaneously outrageous and credible; if Tuckahoe were on a map, readers would be flocking there.
I can’t help thinking that the writer wore a smile while penning most of these twenty stories. First, let’s look at the town itself. Tuckahoe’s a place where “Dried potholes slam your teeth as you drive.” There’s the inevitable coffee row, called “The Jury” (“five or six tobacco chewers and sunflower-seed-spitters who met every day to pass judgement on the private lives of others”). And there are wild characters like one-eyed Old Alex, who took off his black eye patch Saturdays and “used a silver dollar to cover the hole where his left eye was supposed to be,” because he believed in dressing up on Saturday nights.
Reverend Davies is the minister at Tuckahoe’s Singing Evangelist Holy Gospel Church; his young wife Abigail is anything but devout. The teen narrator of “Going Blind in Tuckahoe” says: “When she crossed her legs her skirt hiked up until I could see the tops of her nylons. It got me going so much I couldn’t get up when the service was over.”
Constable Dave is the town’s cop three days a week. “The other days he pumps gas down at Mac’s Garage. The town hasn’t got around to buying him a uniform, so he puts on his gas jockey outfit for both jobs.”
It’s impossible not to adore these characters and envy the author’s talent. McKinnon could publish a book of his similes alone: “Keeping something private was like using your hands to scoop water into a hot radiator,” he writes. One character “spoke slow and deliberate, like someone trying to explain nuclear physics to a group of morons,” and stranger Morton Goldsak “strode onto Main Street, walking boldly in well-shined shoes like a banker on a mission of foreclosure.” The man had “a stook of red hair that stood straight up and waved in the breeze like a nervous campfire.”
Outlandish business schemes are common in Tuckahoe. Goldsak, a down-on-his-luck gambler, arrives to start a newspaper, “The Tuckahoe Wind Breaker.” (Ha!) One local eccentric “invested all his money in a scheme to crossbreed a mink and a kangaroo so as to produce a fur coat with pockets.”
The first four stories are narrated by “Obbie” Robertson, whose AWOL cousin stirs up trouble with other men’s wives. Many of these stories concern love, but romance in Tuckahoe might just involve “[holding] the barbed wire for each other.” Time and again, McKinnon’s characters demonstrate that love is “elegant in dreams but awkward in practice.”
This book’s difficult to put down, easy to recommend. You will laugh out loud.
