Black Fury, Help Me, I’m Naked: Book One by Donna Miller Published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing Review by Catherine Fuchs $19.95 ISBN 9781894431798 This riveting book takes the reader to knee level to peer into the keyhole of the marriage of the author’s parents. Outwardly they were a good looking and glamorous couple who both tried to hide the abuse that was always smouldering beneath the veneer of their image as “a happy couple.” Their young daughter, Saskatchewan author Donna Miller, gives us a first hand account of what it was like to grow up watching her father physically abuse her mother. Her father, Joe, was a very socially intelligent yet insecure man who was extremely jealous and controlling of her of mother. He was also a textbook abuser, who would explain away his behavior with his unenlightened remarks such as, “ I admit I’ve slapped her, but only when she deserved it.” Worse, he would mock her bruises by saying to her, “You look so beautiful in blue.” His actions did always seem to come back to haunt him though, like the time he slapped her so hard she fell into a coma and lost the twins boys…

Riot Lung by Leah Horlick Published by Thistledown Press (New Leaf Series) Review by Justin Dittrick $9.95 ISBN 978-1-927068-08-3 Leah Horlick’s debut collection of poems, Riot Lung, offers its readers an inspired celebration of urban and small town experience that will perplex, transfix, enlighten, but also move, those coming of age in a radical time. Most of the poems (except one) are written in the confessional mode, that is, in the second-person. The poems are highly evocative, written with a keen eye for imagery and with a rhythm and free stanza structure that the poet has made her own. The range of subjects varies widely, from sex education in a Saskatchewan town to what the lights in St. Louis reveal in a transient moment of wishing. The poems in this collection demonstrate the complexity of feeling that the confessional poem can bring to those with a longing for life in their poetry. The poems blossom with the senses, with breaks that seldom truncate their line, but rather, extend an image’s duration and resonance. This causes the poems to flow without breath, without an inclination to pause or withhold. Yet, the poetic is somehow controlled. The images are free to arise…

Rink Burgers by Todd Devonshire Published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing Review by Keith Foster $19.95 ISBN 978-1-894431-74-3 Stompin’ Tom Connors sang about “The Good Old Hockey Game.” Todd Devonshire, in his Rink Burgers memoir, elaborates on what made the good old hockey game so darn good. When his mother calls to say the family home has been sold, Todd realizes he must rescue his childhood possessions before they are gone forever. He and his wife Dawn sort through boxes of memorabilia and souvenirs as Todd reminisces about his glory days as both a player and fan. The memoir is set in the 1980s in Big River, SK., a community where “news travelled like cops going for donuts.” Todd’s memoir is replete with humour, and his robust imagination realistically recreates the antics of his childhood. His exaggerations are so typical of a youngster. He recalls when, as a six-year-old, he scored his first goal and lost his first tooth on the same day. This coincidence could mean only one thing – he was now a real hockey player! Todd describes his coming of age and explores his relationship with his father, from whom he developed his love of hockey. A…

The Angelic Occurrence by Henry Ripplinger, Published by Pio-Seelos Publishing Review by Gail Jansen-Kesslar $21.95 ISBN 9 780991 710225 Experiencing an “angelic occurrence” may mean different things to different people, but to those fans following Henry Ripplinger’s Angelic Letter series who are eagerly awaiting the release of Book 4 in the six-part series, the angelic occurrence in this case could be the release of the book itself. Released nearly a year after Book 3, Angel of Thanksgiving, The Angelic Occurrence continues to follow the relationship between Henry and Jenny whose paths have taken opposite turns. While books 1 through 3 of the series focused on the relationships that developed first between them as teenagers, and then between them and the other supporting characters, Book 4 looks to highlight a different sort of relationship :the relationship between what actions we take in our lives and the trickle down effect those actions have on not only our lives, but on the lives around us — the relationship between coincidence and serendipity. How influenced are we by the actions of people we may never have met before? How connected are we with one another? And how do our own actions affect those around…

Bone Sense by Laurie Lynn Muirhead Published by Thistledown Press Review by Catherine Fuchs $9.95 ISBN 978-1-927068-07-6 Bone Sense grabs the reader right from the start. Laurie Lynn Muirhead’s poetry is voiced in a rich texture of metaphors in an up-close and frank look at life on a cattle ranch. Laurie Lynn Muirhead tells her story through poetry as she weaves words with an unvarnished truth about the hard life of a rancher’s wife. She rolls out of her “warm dry bed” and takes you along on her early morning walks to the dugout as she begins a long day of daily chores and obligations. Ms. Muirhead’s poetry has the ability to touch all the senses. You can feel the frost on your skin and hear the coyotes howl in the dark as they wait to steal new life from the weak. Author Laurie Lynn Muirhead ranches in Shellbrook, Saskatchewan and she writes her poetry between the calving, the slaughtering, the 4H Fund Raiders and auctions. You will follow her story in poetry as it unfolds through the seasons. Ranching life is certainly not a life for the faint-hearted, but the poetic telling of the tale is for everyone who…

Blood and Salt by Barbara Sapergia Published by Coteau Books Review by Alison Slowski $21.95 ISBN 978-1-55050-513-9 Barbara Sapergia’s latest novel, Blood and Salt, tells the story of Taras Kalyna. Taras, a young Ukrainian man from Halychyna province in Austrian-occupied Ukraine, never expected to wind up on this train. Upon his immigration to Canada in 1914, he finds himself a job at a brick plant in Southern Saskatchewan and plans to find his sweetheart, Halya, and marry her. Suddenly, Taras is pulled from his job and sent on a train to an internment camp in remote Castle Mountain, Alberta. The days are long, work is hard and wearying, and the food is disgusting slop. The wind and cold are biting and fierce, a constant reminder of a crime these immigrant Ukrainian men don’t remember committing. The ever-present guards watch over the poorly dressed prisoners labouring through a harsh Canadian winter. The Canadian government, in an act of incredible injustice, has decided these Ukrainians are “enemy aliens”, and should be in this camp because Canada is at war with Austria. All is not lost, though. As Taras begins to build friendships with the other Ukrainian prisoners, he begins to see life…

Voiceless by Caroline Wissing Published by Thistledown Press Review by Justin Dittrick ISBN 978-1-897235-98-0 $15.95 What is it like not to have a voice? To be unable to share one’s thoughts and feelings with the people one cares about? What is it like to be alone “Out There” and voiceless? Caroline Wissing’s stunning young adult novel, Voiceless, is narrated by Annabel, who was placed in foster care at Noble Spirit Farm. As the witness of a traumatic event, she has lost the ability to speak and must convey her thoughts and feelings with signs and emotional expression. The first half of the novel takes place at Noble Spirit Farm, where Annabel and her foster siblings live in a world once-removed from the violence, alcoholism, and drug-abuse that have had an effect in shaping them. Annabel recalls in shimmering detail what makes a teenager’s life on the farm so special, so formative. She lovingly describes her relationships with her companions, both animal and human, whose idiosyncrasies will seem poignant and familiar to readers of all tastes. Due to an unexpected event, Annabel must leave Noble Spirit Farm with Graydon, her first lover. The second half of the novel is set in…