The Foxholes at the Borders of Sofa Cushionsby Counce BramptonPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$19.95 ISBN 9781988783994 They say it’s about the journey, not the reward. In the literary world, the reward might be considered the publication of a book. For Saskatoon poet Counce Brampton, a “quiet observer of life” who’s lived most of his adulthood in a group home (as a result of OCD and other mental health issues), my sense is that it’s always been about the journey, yet his first poetry collection, The Foxholes at the Borders of Sofa Cushions, has been published, and it opens with a generous introduction by his friend and mentor, internationally-revered writer Yann Martel. Martel began meeting with Brampton when the former was serving as writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library twenty years ago. The Life of Pi author quickly gleaned that Brampton wasn’t seeking “editorial guidance but affirmation and validation”. Martel continues to provide that today, and explains that “This book is the result of a wish to safeguard what is essentially Counce Brampton’s life work, the mark he will leave”. Interestingly, the poems appear next to images of their first incarnations, handprinted in Brampton’s coiled notebook….

You Are Enough: Activate Your Angels & Magnetize a Soul-FULL Lifeby Lisa DriverPublished by DriverWorks InkReview by Toby A. Welch$24.95 ISBN 9781927570784 Every once in a while a book comes along that you didn’t know you needed but you do. You Are Enough is that book for me. In a very condensed nutshell, this spiritual guidebook covers how to get in touch with your angels so you can let go of your past and your current pressures in order to believe that you are loved and supported (and ultimately that You Are Enough.) Author Lisa Driver helps you accomplish this through the use of spiritual tools like meditations, exercises, and angel activations. It does make sense as you work your way through the book, I promise!  Driver mentions in her introduction that she worked on this book for almost four years and it shows. It is a dense read filled with a tremendous amount of information: that is a great thing for readers who like to delve deep into a topic. Fans of journaling will be pulling out their pens and notebooks as they go through You Are Enough. You’ll find journal prompts scattered throughout the book that are juicy…

Seagull Island: kiyāsko-miniscikosby Myles H. Charles and Miriam KörnerPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Michelle Shaw$22.95 ISBN 9781778690105 Seagull Island: kiyāsko-miniscikos is a beautiful children’s book that celebrates traditional life and blends English and Cree to create a captivating tale of family and their deep connection to nature. One morning Luke’s grandfather wakes him up and tells him they are going for a boat ride for the day – to Seagull Island! When they get there, they see lots and lots of nesting seagulls. Carefully Luke’s mosōm and his kohkom show him how to gather the eggs. Finally, when their pail is full, they thank the seagulls for the eggs and set off. They stop at a nearby island to boil the eggs and have some BLT – bannock, lard and tea. Then it’s home to share the rest of the eggs. Miriam Körner’s illustrations are glorious. The pictures fill most of the double pages which gives the reader a chance to immerse themselves in the visuals of the story. There is lots of attention to detail so children can find the butterflies and count the fish and spot the different types of birds. The 24 page, hard-covered book…

The History Forestby Michael TrusslerPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$19.95 ISBN 9780889778948 Books by multi-genre writer and University of Regina professor of English Michael Trussler make a mark. Take The Sunday Book, a nonfiction title that garnered two awards in the 2023 Saskatchewan Book Awards. Take The History Forest, the poetry collection for which Trussler earned the Poetry Award in the same provincial competition. An admirable trifecta. I read the latter slowly, and twice: it’s dense, philosophical, apocalyptic, and often surreal, and I didn’t always know how to navigate it—something like walking through a forest under the cape of night. To read Trussler is to have one’s mind stretched; I even remembered things I’d forgotten, ie: The Twinkie Defence. This dexterous poet quotes myriad poets and writers; references artworks and philosophers; and had me regularly Googling (ie: Panpyschism; Ordovician; ekistics; hand-wrestler Candy Pain; Zen monk, Kenkō). Even the line and stanza breaks kept me guessing in this experimental book. In Trussler’s poetic universe, a strong sense of humanity’s vulnerability pervades—and the sturdy conviction that we’ve doomed ourselves. There’s a “gasoline haze/above the playground” and “peripatetic plastic straws/washed up on the sand,” will “last far longer than…

Leaving Wisdomby Sharon ButalaPublished by Thistledown PressReview by Toby A. Welch$24.95 ISBN 9781771872362 I first fell in love with Sharon Butala’s writing in the 90s when someone gifted me a copy of her #1 best-selling book The Perfection of the Morning. Since then, I have followed her writing journey closely, devouring almost all of the 20+ books she has penned. Butala’s ability to craft a story that sticks with you long after you’ve turned the last page continues with her latest book, Leaving Wisdom. This is a fascinating novel centered around an intriguing character named Judith. The mother of four adult children, Judith is headed to her own retirement party when she slips on a patch of ice. She whacks her head and suffers a life-altering concussion. Struggling to recover and deal with the memories that her fall seems to have dislodged, she moves from big town Alberta to small town Saskatchewan to be closer to the family farm. What ensues is a wild journey filled with unanswered questions and a woman’s quest for the truth. The book is divided into three parts: Wisdom, Sage, and Jerusalem. Hesitant to give away too much, I’ll just say that the third part…

Nature’s Apprentices: The Magic of the Peatlandsby Elizabeth Bekolay, illustrated by Jennifer Lynn BeckerPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Michelle Shaw$19.95 ISBN 9781778690020 Every so often you come across a book that so inspires you that you want to eagerly hand it out to as many people as possible. This is a book about the importance of the peatlands, which are a type of wetland. It’s a book that’s packed full of fascinating facts and educational resources. But it’s the story — a beautiful blend of ecology, fantasy and the joy of childhood adventures — that draws you in and enchants you. Johnny and Marty are two brothers who spend time with their mother, a biologist, up north every summer in a cabin in the boreal forest. Friends nearby have a daughter Willow, who is about the same age as the boys and the three children love roaming the forest. Willow is fascinated with learning about different types of plants and frequently stops to draw one in her notebook. One day on one of their adventures they hear a flute playing a very old and beautiful melody and the children fall asleep. When they wake up, they discover they…

On the Busy Old RanchWritten by Katelyn Toney, Illustrated by Rebecca AllenPublished by Bluestem BooksReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$20.00 ISBN 9781738802708 Katelyn Toney lives the hectic farmer/rancher lifestyle near Tompkins in southwest Saskatchewan with her husband and four children, and when she noted a lack of children’s books that depict the family’s unique way of life, she wrote one. The illustrated board book, On the Busy Old Ranch, is a 1-10 counting book with full-bleed illustrations by Rebecca Allen, rhyming stanzas, and child-friendly but apt portrayals of diverse ranch families’ chore-filled daily life. In a CTV Regina television interview, Toney said she’d been reading to her kids “every day for the past 15 years,” and noted that there were “not a lot of books showcasing the life we live out here raising cattle on the prairies”. She said that there are many farm and rodeo-themed kids’ books, but what she found “really didn’t depict the lifestyle” she and her family experience. The first page spread sets the book’s tone and two-stanza, rhyming style: On the busy old ranch by the barn in the sun worked a big mama cowgirl and her little cowgirl one. “Feed,” said the mama. “I feed,”…