Simiakiaby Lori WindowsPublished by Endless Sky BooksReview by Toby A. Welch$24.99 ISBN 9781989398760 I haven’t read a western in years and now I’m wondering why. Simiakia has drawn me back into the genre with gusto! The title of this book initially confused me. What the heck is a simiakia? A cross between a Siamese cat and a Kia Sportage? Nope. For the Indigenous Nez Perce people, it means a belief in themselves, denot...
Cathedral of Stars: A Memoir of Home & Faith on the Moveby Gloria EngelPublished by YNWPReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$24.95 ISBN 9781988783901 Cathedral of Stars: A Memoir of Home & Faith on the Move by SK-born Gloria Engel is utterly fascinating. The stories about her peripatetic life—and constant faith—as a linguist with Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics is indeed hard to put down. The intre...
My Daughter’s Heartby Kim JaskenPublished by Your Nickle’s Worth PublishingReview by Michelle Shaw$24.95 ISBN 9781778690167 Spring of 2020 was a strange and frightening time for everyone. For the Jasken family, the uncertainty of the early days of the pandemic were exacerbated when their eleven-year-old daughter suddenly collapsed, and they discovered the cause was heart failure. Dealing with a desperately ill child in a world where...
The School of the Haunted River by Colleen GerwingPublished by Endless Sky BooksReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$24.99 ISBN 9781989398869 What a surprise. It’s poetic, actually. During my Saskatoon years, each time I’d launch a book, an affable but unassuming woman I knew only by sight would attend and we’d make minimal small talk while she had her copy signed. I moved. Several years passed. I never thought of her again. Last week a n...
The Gnomes of Boundary Bogby Audrey GartnerIllustrated by Sheila KasickPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Michelle Shaw$24.95 ISBN 9781778690181 It was the gorgeous cover that captivated me first, but the gnomes quickly drew me into their magical world. The Gnomes of Boundary Bog is a wonderful collection of stories by first time Saskatchewan author Audrey Gartner. Almost every chapter of the book is told from the pe...
The Emir’s Falconby Matt HughesPublished by Shadowpaw Press PremiereReview by Toby A. Welch$18.99 ISBN 9781989398319 The Emir’s Falcon is a fascinating story from page one to its gratifying conclusion. It centres around Skyrider, a peregrine falcon that university student Bernie has been tending to at a Canadian Wildlife Service facility. Bernie learns that the Government of Canada has decided to give Skyrider to the son of...
Always Another Riverby Daryl SexsmithPublished by YNWPReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$24.95 ISBN 9781778690143 Prince Albert, SK-raised Darryl Sexmith is an avid canoe-tripper and former United Church minister who’s built his community—wherever he’s lived—around his passion for wilderness canoeing and the fellowship group canoe-tripping naturally inspires. Reading Always Another River, his well-written, chronologically-told colle...
Rise Above: Surviving Depressing and Living a Better Lifeby John MelnickPublished by Wood Dragon BooksReview by Toby A. Welch$19.99 ISBN 9781990863110 I truly feel that someone who hasn’t been touched by depression wouldn’t have been able to write this book with as much heart as John Melnick. He has struggled with the mental illness for decades and that experience comes through in every page of Rise Above. In 2002, in the de...
Paddling Pathways: Reflections from a Changing LandscapeEdited by Bob Henderson and Sean BlenkinsopPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$29.95 ISBN 978-1-988783-81-9 This beautifully-bound anthology of 21 essays written by paddlers and edited by educators—and intrepid canoeists and guides—Bob Henderson (ON) and Sean Blenkinsop (BC) deserves a much longer review than this 500-word assessment. In sh...
The Economy of Sparrowsby Trevor HerriotPublished by Thistledown PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$24.95 ISBN 9781771872461 I’m considering what I enjoyed most about award-winning Regina writer, grassland conservationist, and naturalist Trevor Herriot’s first foray into fiction. His debut novel, The Economy of Sparrows, conveys the story of pensioner Nell Rowan, a Saskatchewan-born birder and researcher who—after earning a biology...
