Back Home: A Poetry Collectionby Jesse A. MurrayPublished by Off the Field PublishingReview by Toby A. Welch  $14.99 ISBN 9781777591304 Poetry. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I want to love it as I value the idea and the beauty of it. The dance of the words on the page and in my mind is melodious. But I usually end up disliking it, getting bored before I get more than a dozen pages into a book of poetry. But that was not a problem with Back Home. I devoured each poem and was bummed out when I turned the last page. Poetry is challenging for me as it can be monotonous. Page after page of six or eight lines, all of them a similar length and tone. That did not happen in Back Home, which I found refreshing. Some poems were in paragraph format, some were just a line or two. Most were somewhere in between with almost all of them coming in at one page or less. The variety, length, and style of Murray’s poems kept things spicy. I tried to pick a favourite poem, but that was impossible to do. Two of the ones I loved best had similar titles…

Benny’s Dinosaursby Ashley Vercammen, Illustrated by P Aplinder KaurPublished by Home Style TeachersReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$20.00 ISBN 9781778152924 It’s common for children of a certain age to go through a dinosaur phase—if memory serves, my own son was about seven when he was passionate about dinosaur books, facts and toys. Prolific Saskatchewan writer and Home Style Teachers’ publisher, Ashley Vercammen, has tapped into that possibly universal dinosaur appeal with her colourfully-illustrated softcover Benny’s Dinosaurs. She’s dedicated the book to her “dinosaur-loving nephew, Benny”. On the first page we learn that the titular “Benny” is a paleontologist about to lead a tour because “It’s a field trip day!”. A picnic will also ensue. Dressed in a brown uniform with a ranger-type hat, brown boots and a backpack, the swarthy blond paleontologist introduces us page-by-page to a variety of well and lesser-known dinosaurs in a rainbow of colours, and some of the creatures feature spots, horns and feathers. The story is illustrated by P Aplinder Kaur with playful-looking dinosaurs—Triceratops is green, Kosmoceratops is blue with fifteen horns and spikes, Tyrannosaurus Rex is dark pink—and their polka-dotted eggs. P Aplinder Kaur—also a cartoonist and digital marketer— lives in Kharar, India. Author and…

Going to Seed: Essays on Idleness, Nature & Sustainable Workby Kate J. NevillePublished by University of Regina PressReview by Michelle Shaw$30.95 9781779400000 In this award-winning collection of essays, Kate Neville melds the different areas of her life into a fascinating perspective on our perception of idleness: personal reflections from living in an off-grid cabin in northern BC and her academic life as associate professor in the Department of Political Science and the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto. Neville draws from a wide range of poets, writers, researchers and scientists to reconsider the notion of idleness in a world where our reaction to problems is invariably to accelerate and advance. What if instead, she asks, we “step back and slow down?” In 2020, when Kate Neville found herself living fulltime in her off-grid cabin during the pandemic, she began to ponder the accuracy of the perception that “going to seed“ was something to be avoided at all costs. As a gardener friend protested — “the seed phase… is a time of so much activity. Plants send out compressed packets filled with the energy and nutrients needed to sow new life.” The fact that I was reading this…

The Headmastersby Mark MortonPublished by Shadowpaw PressReview by Toby A. Welch  $26.99 ISBN 9781989398845 Mark Morton has created a fascinating world in The Headmasters. Blue Ring is an interesting place to spend a chunk of time if you are into science-fiction.  The front of this book is so cool – kudos to the cover artist. At first it looks like abstract black and green art but upon closer examination, the top half is a glimpse at the back of a young woman’s head from her shoulders up, her hair in a neat bun. The bottom half is hard to know with certainty but my best guess is that it’s an upside-down view of a creature’s skull. Regardless of what it really is, it’s a beautiful picture and it inspired me to jump straight into The Headmasters.  Unlike my original assumption that ‘Headmasters’ refers to people who are heads of schools, in this book the word refers to hand-sized parasitic entities (for lack of a better word). Headmasters attach to humans, who become their hosts. The Headmasters first made their appearance sixty years before the start of the book, a time when everyone died except for the people at Blue Ring. All remaining humans…

Reflections in a Farmhouse Window: A Prairie Memoir by Marilyn FreyPublished by Marilyn FreyReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$24.95 ISBN 9780981380346 One of the many joys of reading memoir is learning you share certain places, people or experiences with an author. I didn’t anticipate crossovers between my life and Saskatchewan writer Marilyn Frey’s, but I discovered multiple intersections while reading her candid, thought-provoking and beautifully-written book, Reflections in a Farmhouse Window: A Prairie Memoir. Like Frey, I’ve also lived in Middle Lake, Meadow Lake and Saskatoon, but overlapping communities aside, I really connected emotionally to the sixty stories this talented writer shares about her rural upbringing, the joys and trials of family life, weathering major transitions, and knowing when it’s time to take a few moments for oneself. After a long career in banking—from teller beginnings to becoming a District Manager who frequently travelled—Frey now has the time to turn her attention to her passion for writing, and I’m so glad she does. It’s rare to read a first-time, self-published writer’s book that sings the way this one does: it’s clear that Frey has put the time in re: learning the craft of writing. Her use of literary devices (like personification), the…

Squandered: Canada’s Potash Legacyby Eric ClinePublished by University of Regina PressReview by Toby A. Welch  $27.95 ISBN 9780889779693 Squandered: Canada’s Potash Legacy is another thoroughly researched and super interesting read by University of Regina Press. As a bonus, as a Saskatchewanian I always welcome a book that is so geared to our province. That said, it makes sense as fifty percent of the free world’s potash reserves are in Saskatchewan.  I learned so much reading Squandered. Granted, I didn’t know a lot about Canada’s potash industry before I cracked the book open. But I was floored to read about mining companies replacing their petroleum businesses with potash drilling as they made more money than they ever could with oil and gas. Also, Canada is the world’s largest producer and exporter of potash. And potash is the second most important value of production mineral in our country, second only to gold. As for Saskatchewan, potash is our largest export and our potash is the richest in the world.  By the end of the book, I’ll admit I was furious. It’s too lengthy to fully clarify in a review – which is why I highly recommend you read the Squandered! – but the Saskatchewan government did not manage this…