What Fills Your House Like Smokeby E. McGregorPublished by Thistledown PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$19.95 ISBN 9781771872522 I must admit, the title of E. (Erin) McGregor’s debut poetry collection—What Fills Your House Like Smoke—greatly piqued my interest. I’m partial to similes and metaphors, and McGregor’s title was a poetic hook—what, exactly, does fill this Winnipeg poet’s house with metaphorical smoke? I guessed that butterflies and sweet peas wouldn’t be at the heart of it. McGregor holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, and the sheer variety of poetic forms—prose poems; free verse; quatrains; couplets; concrete; and experimental, sound-oriented pieces—in the book is consistent with the range I’ve seen in other first books by creative writing students. What differentiates McGregor’s poetry, however, is its nearly singular focus on the theme of personal identity; often, first books “free range” across themes and subjects. McGregor’s poems weave pain into a story. McGregor is a “Euro-Settler/Métis,” and in her piece “Weeds”—another metaphor—she begins: “Don’t judge me too harshly/for not understanding the small things/that come with your blood”. In that same poem: “[white people] have me by the roots/it’s confusing”. The poet contends with her lineage, and,…

The Brand of Brotherhoodby T. D. ZummackPublished by Endless Sky BooksReview by Toby A. Welch  $24.99 ISBN 9781989398784 The Brand of Brotherhood starts off with a literal bang. In the brief first chapter, the Warner family experiences a lifetime of struggle. William Warner moves his wife and two young sons west to Nebraska to forge a better life. But drought, poverty, and illness hit hard. The family will never be the same again. Giving up the unachieved dream of a great life in Nebraska, the Warners – who now number three instead of four – head further west to California. But William doesn’t survive the journey, making orphans of twelve-year-old Colt and ten-year-old Brick. Undeterred, the boys continue the trek to Sacramento as their father had planned to start their new lives.  Jim Borden, a retired gunfighter, takes the boys into his care as they travel westward by train. Borden sets the boys up with a solid, routine life – school, work, home, bed – and they flourish. Until they don’t. Brick turns to the outlaw life while Colt is a law-abiding citizen. Brick becomes a successful stagecoach robber, joining a gang of thieves called The Brotherhood, while Colt becomes a landowner. On…

The Good Walk: Creating New Paths on Traditional Prairie Trailsby Matthew R. AndersonPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$27.95 ISBN 9780889779655 Uncanny timing. I recently completed a pilgrimage walk—the 300-kilometer Camino de Santiago (Portuguese Coastal Route)—and not a week after my return from Europe I was reviewing a book about a very different—but much closer to home—set of pilgrimages. The Good Walk: Creating New Paths on Traditional Prairie Trails, by Swift Current-born and raised educator, author and Lutheran minister, Matthew Anderson (who’s also walked the Camino de Santiago), is compelling, exceedingly well-written and researched nonfiction concerning three ambitious Saskatchewan pilgrimages across Treaty 4 and 6 pastures, valleys, roads, ranches and farms, abandoned homesteads, brush belts, villages, First Nations’ reserves and more via the Traders’ Road/NWMP Patrol Trail (2015), the Battleford Trail (2017), and the Frenchman Trail (2018), and creating “healthy new stories” on the journey. “By walking,” Anderson writes, “our group was attempting to pay attention”. These “good walks” were undertaken by an eclectic assemblage—including clergy, writers, Elders, family members, a hydrologist, naturalist Trevor Herriot, and book dedicatee and Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society president Hugh Henry—to connect to the land and its stories while respecting the…

Because Somebody Asked Me To: Observations on History, Literature, and the Passing Sceneby Guy VanderhaeghePublished by Thistledown PressReview by Brandon Fick$25.95 ISBN 9781771872584 Because Somebody Asked Me To: Observations on History, Literature, and the Passing Scene is the first collection of nonfiction published by Guy Vanderhaeghe, one of Canada’s most distinguished writers. On offer are essays, reviews, vignettes, and lectures that explore Vanderhaeghe’s beginnings as a writer, the craft of fiction, amusing life anecdotes, the value of art in society, and the nature of historical fiction. It is a feast of compelling material, a peeling back of the curtain sure to enthrall existing fans of Vanderhaeghe, CanLit enthusiasts, and general readers. In his Author’s Note, Vanderhaeghe states that in gathering the pieces together, which span 1984 to 2023, “it struck me that they bore some resemblance to a spotty, desultory archive of my development as a writer and offered a record of my recurring literary obsessions and foibles.” Whether it is a short recollection or a lengthy lecture, each piece stirs the mind, and any reader of Because Somebody Asked Me To will come away with a strong sense of who Vanderhaeghe is. One of the most intriguing pieces is…

Ghost Hotelby Arthur SladePublished by Shadowpaw Press RepriseReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$14.99 ISBN 9781998273027 Ghost Hotel, the 2nd novel in prolific writer Arthur Slade’s Canadian Chills Series, is a spooky send-up for young readers and—abracadabra—it’s just been re-released. If you’re already a Slade fan, you may remember Ghost Hotel. First published in 2004, Shadowpaw Press Reprise has resurrected it … and lucky you if you have yet to discover it. The tone of this supernatural, middle years’ mystery—featuring junior detective friends “Wart” and Cindy—is light-hearted. Though the youthful leads are wise-crackers and the story’s a hoot, the author’s a serious writer with mad skills: you don’t have over thirty novels published if you’re a dabbler. Disclaimer: I know Arthur Slade. Back in the day, we wrote radio commercials in the same office. I read his first novel, Draugr, when it was still in manuscript form. I attended his wedding. As lovely as these things may be, they don’t matter as far as this review goes, for even if I was inclined to bolster a book on account of a long friendship, there’s no need to here: Slade’s books consistently win awards and fly off the shelves because he is simply…

Baba’s Over the Moonby Marion MutalaPublished by Millennium MarketingReview by Michelle Shaw$19.99 ISBN 9781777371371 Award-winning author Marion Mutala’s new book is, quite literally, a love song to her new grandbaby Oliver. I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing a couple of Mutala’s other books and each one has been a unique delight. In Baba’s Over the Moon, Mutala showcases her skills not only as a writer but also as a singer and songwriter. The book reads like a poem but at the back of the book is a QR code that you can scan that takes you to a page to hear Mutala singing along to an accompanying guitar. If you’re musically inclined, you can follow along as sheet music is also provided. The words of the book are simple and heartfelt. Mutala beautifully blends repetition, rhythm and rhyme to create a wondrous sense of expectation as Baba contemplates the arrival of her new grandbaby. What will he look like? What will his name be? When will he arrive? At the very back of the book there is a colourful word cloud created by Kate Hodgson — all synonyms for the word grandmother, such uGogo, Oma, Baba, Grootmoeder, Kohkom, Abuela, and…

The Genius Hour Projectby Leanne ShirtliffePublished by Thistledown PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$16.95 ISBN 9781771872577 As a sexagenarian, I never imagined I’d so enjoy a novel featuring an eleven-year-old protagonist, but here’s the thing: good literature is good literature, and Leanne Shirtliffe’s juvenile novel, The Genius Hour Project, certainly fits the bill. This engaging and realistic book was a distinct pleasure to read, with compelling characters and interesting relationship dynamics, and a few serious subplots (divorce, depression) that elevate it leagues above many middle-grade novels. It’s refreshing to read a story for this age group that doesn’t rely on slapstick humour or silly hijinks—the cast may be young, but they’re mature and intelligent. Shirtliffe’s a longtime educator, a school counsellor and parent who writes credibly about the school and home life of Francine (aka Frazzy), a self-deprecating only child and audiophile with a passion for vintage vinyl albums like The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers. Frazzy’s mother is the busy mayor of “Riverdale,” and her dad stays at home, upcycles lampshades and sells items at flea markets—he also suffers from depression. The Calgary author’s deft treatment of how this manifests for Dad and how his family and friends deal with it…

ABC…Yes, You Can!by Florence Mudzongo, illustrated by Josiah TaundiPublished by Your Nickel Worth’s PublishingReview by Michelle Shaw$19.95 ISBN 9781778690372 While it is addressed to Black girls, ABC…Yes, You Can! is a gorgeous book that feels like a gift to little girls everywhere. In simple ABC format, it highlights a huge variety of careers and encourages little girls to dream big dreams. The careers cover a huge range, from aeronautical engineer, to DJ and speech pathologist to truck driver. Best of all, it spotlights specific women in each particular field – all of whom are of African descent. Even though I was born and brought up in South Africa, there are so many names that I didn’t recognise, names such as world-class aeronautical engineer, Winifred Byanyima from Uganda and Clémentine Zeregbe Goli, the only female heavy-duty truck driver from the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. The book also includes women such as Sahle-Work Zewede, president of Ethiopia, legendary South African musician Yvonne Chaka Chaka and biologist Dr. Wangari Maathai from Kenya who was the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize. There are also women from America and Canada such as web developer Sofia Ongele, who created her first award-winning…

Dentists Are No Big Dealby Debbie Kesslering and Ashley VercammenPublished by Home Style TeachersReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$25.00 ISBN 9781778152986 Writer and publisher Ashley Vercammen has teamed with another Saskatchewanian, Debbie Kesslering, of Viceroy, on a new title in Vercammen’s “No Big Deal” series of illustrated books for children. Vercammen is also a Registered Behaviour Technician, and it’s this position and her “belief that, with practice, some scary things can become No Big Deal” that are the impetuses behind the series. Kesserling, a mother of four who’s worked with “many World Class Dental Therapists, Dentists, Hygienists and Assistants,” dedicates the story to her “fellow ‘sugar bug catchers’”. The brightly-illustrated tale begins with young, bespeckled Nora waking with a smile to her dad’s announcement that on this “special day,” the girl’s going for a dental check-up. Nora knows that visiting the dentist is “no big deal,” but she’s not sure what the check-up’s about. Her father reminds her that “every morning and night we brush our teeth so we don’t get sugar bugs. But they are very sneaky!” What’s unusual—and wise—is that the father and daughter go through a pre-appointment practice session, and Rosie, “a bright red teddy bear,” gets to…

Debut: An Anthology of Emerging Canadian Writers and ArtistsEdited by Diane FickeriaPublished by Spud PublishingReview by Toby A. Welch  $28.00 ISBN 9781738025503 I love trying out new writers. Their enthusiasm often reaches through their words and grabs me in a way I can’t always find with seasoned writers. After all, your next favourite writer could be one you haven’t read yet. So when Debut crossed my path, I eagerly dove in, excited to experience the works of emerging Canadian writers.  Debut is a collection of five stories by five different writers. Each of the stories is quite different, something I appreciate as it keeps things interesting. Gnomey Birthday is about cryptozoology, the study of things that don’t exist. Think Bigfoot, living garden gnomes, and gremlins. It’s a wacky premise for a short story but it works! Silverbird: A Halfway Home Story involves creatures from folktales, things like wizards, fairies, and daemons (not demons.) Throw in a car chase, a touch of magic, and a detective and you have the makings of an intriguing story. Silver Consequences takes place in the year 4620 when life is different yet also similar. There are still people who drink too much. Archery and swords remain a way to defend yourself. But the world is filled…