Nothing Sacred by Lori Hahnel Published by Thistledown Press Review by Andréa Ledding $16.95 ISBN 978-1-897235-63-8 Lori Hahnel’s collection of 21 short stories, including the title piece “Nothing Sacred”, skillfully navigates through a working woman, city-gritty, dust devil tour of life rooted in the Canadian prairies and western foothills. Hahnel populates the pages with believable and provocative characters and situations with a strong sense of place, grounded solidly in the exceptional everyday. She questions and probes societal norms, values, and conventions with perception, humour, and sensitivity. Her language is direct and simple; she is a master at the art of “showing, not telling”. The alternating perspectives of mother and daughter in “The Least She Could Do” demonstrate this knack, or the complex depths of loss in the simple statement of a character in “Blue Lake”: “The body must have a memory of its own. I remember things about you I didn’t know I’d forgotten.” Her cast of dozens, almost exclusively female leads speaking in the first person, act as both personal tour guide and societal magnifying glass: examining relationships, roles, and institutions. Each story is an encounter where connections are made, secrets are shared, and insights sparkle out in an…

What We Miss by Glen Sorestad Published by Thistledown Press Review by Andréa Ledding $17.95 ISBN 978-1-897235-75-1 Glen Sorestad, first Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan, infuses his twentieth book of poetry with a strong sense of place combined with gentle wonder. Readers are guided through a landscape both urban and rural, populated with memory, observation, humanity, and the inanimate – personable postcards from the everyday, to be savoured page by page. The book is like a walk with a longstanding companion, sharing thoughtful interior and exterior observations. Many poems contain first-person narrative, creating a tone of intimacy – poem as memoir, poet as friend and mentor , poetry as a fleeting encounter on a remote trail. Divided into three sections, each grouping begins with a quote from another author or public persona, and a journey through season, nature, weather, and a cast of companions – from a robin with “gaudy orange breast/spinning a small sun at us” to “umbrella sky a boundless blue” above, to an old man and his dog encountered daily in a shared walking path ritual. Of particular delight is the third and final section which powerfully mines poetic memory – decades-past childhood in rural Saskatchewan brought effectively…

Birth of a Boom: Lives & Legacies of Saskatchewan Entrepreneurs by Suzanne Paschall Published by Prairie Policy Centre Review by Andréa Ledding $25 ISBN 978-0-9730456-3-5 In this book Suzanne Paschall examines the success of over a dozen Saskatchewan entrepreneurs and their small and mid-sized prairie businesses that helped fuel the “Saskaboom”, an economic upswing which helped our Province outperform most of Canada during a difficult economic time. Paschall’s conversational tone in revealing the people and their success stories creates a readable and even captivating exploration of the business world. Readers can follow people such as Norm Wallace, who as a 19 year-old Irishman immigrated to Canada in 1957 and promptly faked his way into a bank teller position by “translating” and passing off a Gaelic swimming pool certificate as his high school credentials. Wallace later went on to open his own innovative construction company, and is still listing sales of over $20 million annually. Wallace is more than simply a good businessman, though, as he’s given back to a community that’s done so much for him by volunteering and working with felons, families, and the Sasknative Economic Development Corporation. What’s more, Wallace even funded an economic trade mission for four…

White Light Primitive by Andrew Stubbs Published by Hagios Press Review by Andréa Ledding $17.95 ISBN 978-0-9783440-8-5 Breathtaking and profound, White Light Primitive is the first poetry collection of Regina writer and University of Regina English professor Andrew Stubbs, and reads like a collection from a seasoned and well established poet in his prime. Stubbs fills the beautifully written pages with wisdom, diversity, and detail. An author of three other books, a teacher of composition and rhetoric, and a student of Eli Mandel, Stubbs demonstrates his belief in Mandel’s claim that “memory is sacred” throughout the collection. A brief but moving essay opens the book, explaining the inspiration of the first section, “War” – poetry inspired by a shoebox of photographs from his father’s experiences during World War II. In exploring and speculating upon his father’s generational memories – which included the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp – Stubbs carefully crafts language to hand over to the reader delicately rendered snapshots of life based largely around war, memory, and loss. “As I went through my father’s pictures I learned a lesson. You can look straight at a thing and not see it, despite the cool, apparently natural co-operation of…

About Pictures by Terry Fenton Published by Hagios Press Review by Andréa Ledding $20.95 ISBN 978-0-9783440-9-2 About Pictures is just that –a perfect companion for students, collectors, art-lovers, or gallery-aficionados. Reading at the 2009 Saskatchewan Book Awards from this nominated book, Fenton said “It’s about pictures, it’s got pictures, it’s short, and it’s only $20.” All selling-points, but the book covers an impressive range of material in a short span, comprising brief essays interspersed with over 30 beautiful glossy images. Fenton’s portable soft cover edition is a witty companion and tour guide of the art world, drawing from careful research and personal philosophy combined with years of education and experience as gallery director, curator, and critic. It’s a must-have for everyone who likes art, wishes to know more about it, or wants to “brush up” on the basics. Fenton believes in the value of a good question, using them generously before providing answers, while sharing professed favourite works of art. He explains of his title that artist Henri Matisse used the word “pictures” in his quote “Above all, pictures are illusions.”, and Matisse also described art as “something like a good armchair, providing relaxation from physical fatigue” – a likely…

“Family Christmas” by Fawn Nielsen Published by Hear My Heart Books Inc. Review by Andréa Ledding $14.99 978-0-9811367-0-7 This durable coil-bound book, described by the author as a “living journal”, provides a place for families to record family traditions, hopes, dreams, wishes, and even New Year’s Resolutions. Some pages are left blank with only a heading, while others contain lines for family members to write together what the holiday means to them, treasured moments, or memorable gifts. There are pages for planning, recipes, memories, and reflections on the past year. There are spaces to record highlights for both adult and children, and space to reflect on growth, regrets, and accomplishments. Some pages are set aside for family pictures, unique traditions, and even a page for small children to colour. It’s hard to write a review on a book which has yet to be written – each journal will be unique to the family which creates it, beginning with the first page in which they are invited to create an acrostic representing their family name. But it’s easy to imagine families filling out this book together over the holiday season, and being delighted to come across it every subsequent year, tucked…

A Rose Grows: Fighting Cancer, Finding Me by Olga Stefaniuk Published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing Review by Andréa Ledding $16.95 ISBN 978-1-894431-33-0 This memoir starts off by bringing the reader to small town prairie life in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Growing up in the village of Hubbard, the author lives and works at the general store with her parents and siblings. The reader has an enjoyable look into her childhood and family life in a then-bustling railroad village – a glimpse into a bygone era where ‘fast food’ was the barrel of pickled herrings in the front of the general store, and Christmas oranges were mainly prized because their wrappings meant softer paper in the outhouse. After this introduction, the story follows her journey to Saskatoon, career, marriage, two children – and cancer. When Stefaniuk finds a lump in her breast at the age of 42, the reader shares her journey of survival, loss, perseverance, and determination to reach out to others in the midst of her own struggle to not only survive – but thrive. Along the way, Stefaniuk starts local cancer support groups, brings cancer retreats to the province, and makes friends wherever she goes. She carries…