Love Big Country: Tales of Wildfire, Wildlife & Wild Timesby Mark FletcherPublished by YNWPReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$29.95 ISBN 9781778690471 At 398 pages, I harboured reservations about reviewing Love Big Country: Tales of Wildfire, Wildlife & Wild Times, a memoir conveyed in storiesby Mark Fletcher. What if it was dull and/or poorly written? Then I began reading, and before I’d turned the first page, I was rapt, as Fletch...
A Study in Redby Connie GaultPublished by Thistledown PressReview by Brandon Fick$24.95 ISBN 9781771872904 A Study in Red is aptly named. It evokes Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes novel. Literally, the novel is a study of red emotions like lust, anger, and jealousy. Edgar Degas’ painting, Combing the Hair, nicknamed “the big red monster,” is a subject of fascination for one of A Study in Red’s protagonists, the pain...
Another Leaf: A Refugee Storyby Marg Epp as told by Ma They YarePublished by YNWPReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$19.95 ISBN 9781778690310 Ten years ago, while backpacking around Thailand, I visited a Karen village to photograph a woman with gold rings elongating her neck. I knew nothing of Karen culture and was shamelessly after the sheer spectacle. While that experience deserves to be in a “How Not to Be a Culturally Sensitive Traveler�...
Knowledge Under Siege: Charting a Future for UniversitiesEdited by Marc Spooner and James McNinchPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Toby A. Welch $36.95 ISBN 9781779401243 When I turned the last page of this powerhouse book, I felt so many emotions – enlightened, drained, and wiser. I would expect nothing less from a University of Regina Press publication; they always dig deep into the heart of the topics they cov...
U ALIVEby Chelsea CoupalPublished by Thistledown PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$19.95 ISBN 9781771872836 Chelsea Coupal’s second book, U ALIVE, is the most enjoyable poetry collection I’ve read in many moons. The rural Saskatchewan-raised writer and new mother documents—through sensorial and beautifully imagistic poems, mostly written in formal styles (couplets, tercets, quatrains)—a quintessentially prairie childhood; the tr...
Ashme’s Songby Brad C. AndersonPublished by Shadowpaw PressReview by Toby A. Welch $26.99 ISBN 9781998273164 When a Brad C. Anderson book drops into my life, I know I am in for an entertaining ride! I loved his last book, Duatero, so my expectations for Ashme’s Song were high. And it absolutely delivered! Ashme is the main character in this dystopian science fiction novel. An “indigo child” with the ability to manipulate tech...
I Can Do It Afraidby Lynne Harley, Illustrated by Ben YoungPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Sally Meadows$26.95 ISBN 9781778690686 The monarch butterfly shivers as cooler temperatures signal the advent of the fall season in Canada. She instinctively envisions travelling to a warmer place; but before she starts her 3000-mile (~4800-kilometre) migration to the protected oyamel fir forests of central Mexico where she ...
Stitching Our Stories Together: Journeys into Indigenous Social WorkEdited by Jeannine Carrière and Catherine RichardsonPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$34.95 ISBN 9781779400574 The stimulating essays in Stitching Our Stories Together: Journeys into Indigenous Social Work—edited by Métis scholars and thesis supervisors Jeannine Carrière and Catherine Richardson—reveal how nine Métis social work...
Marika and the Auctionby Helen Metella, Illustrated by Hannah Kate MillerPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Sally Meadows$24.95 ISBN 9781778690679 It might be easy to confuse Marika and the Auction with a children’s book. It is a typical picture book size and shape with approximately the same number of pages plus colourful, amusing illustrations. But there is one fundamental difference: this book is a “storybook ...
Spare the Child: Ending Childhood Corporal Punishmentby Ailsa M. WatkinsonPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Toby A. Welch $29.95 ISBN 9781779401045 When a University of Regina Press book lands on my radar, I know with 100% certainty that I’m about to dive into an entertaining and informative read. Enter Spare the Child – another U of R Press title that proves difficult to summarize in just a few parag...
