St. Victor Petroglyphs: The Place of the Living Stone by Tim E.H. Jones and S. Louise Jones Published by The Friends of St. Victor Petroglyphs Review by Keith Foster $22.95 ISBN 978-0-9917298-0-7 As Saskatchewan is the “Land of Living Skies,” so too St. Victor is “The Place of the Living Stone,” a reference to the carvings etched into stone there. These petroglyphs, though hundreds of years old, are still evolving and thus very much alive in the minds of archaeologists. Located in a provincial park near St. Victor, SK, about 35 km south of Assiniboia, the site offers a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside. Among the 340 sandstone carvings are etchings of bison, grizzly bear tracks, hand prints, and human faces. St. Victor Petroglyphs: The Place of the Living Stone contains fascinating facts and details in its 215 pages, with 156 illustrations, mostly black and white photos and sketches, plus 34 in colour. Appendices and references run another 38 pages. In spite of this wealth of information, the authors contend that more research is required even to determine the age of the petroglyphs. Best estimates date their origin from 250 to 1,800 years ago. The authors also surmise that…

Regina’s Warehouse District: Bricks and Mortar – Pride and Passion edited by Richard Wood, et al Published by Biographies Regina Review by Keith Foster $24.95 ISBN 978-0-9731523-5-7 If walls could talk, what tales they’d tell. And if ghosts could speak, what stories they’d share. Regina’s Warehouse District: Bricks and Mortar – Pride and Passion is a collection of historical accounts of the flesh and blood people who lived or worked in Regina’s Warehouse District from early days to the present. It includes the story of James Strathdee, a prominent Regina wholesaler who was found dead with a bullet in his neck and whose ghost is purported to continue to haunt the building that bears his name. Published by Biographies Regina, this book includes “biographies” of buildings and businesses as well as people. It evolved from material compiled by 28 researchers and writers, edited by four editors headed by Richard Wood, who coordinated this massive undertaking. This book is an eye-opener for anyone who thinks they know Regina’s history. Running at more than 280 pages, it consists of sixty bite-size chapters that make easy reading. Each chapter is followed by a list of sources. The book overflows with fascinating factual tidbits….

The Literary History of Saskatchewan. Volume 1 – Beginnings edited by David Carpenter Published by Coteau Books Review by Keith Foster $19.95 ISBN 978-1-55050-515-3 (v. 1) The Literary History of Saskatchewan sets out to be a comprehensive history of literary writing in Saskatchewan. It encompasses a scope as broad as the prairie landscape, with as much variety as the flora and fauna of that landscape. Volume 1 of a three-volume scholarly study, this book focuses on the period covering the oral traditions of First Nations storytellers and early European explorers to the burgeoning Saskatchewan literary world of the 1970s. Over the decades, Saskatchewan has produced a bumper crop of successful authors, many with now-familiar names, such as W.O. Mitchell, Sinclair Ross, Anne Szumigalski and Guy Vanderhaeghe. The book is a collection of eleven essays and four tributes covering all genres of writing, including non-fiction, novels, poetry, and playwriting. It is a collaborative effort by sixteen essayists, virtually all with university backgrounds, under the editorship of David Carpenter, himself an author with clearly established credentials. Carpenter points out in his foreword that the literary centre of Saskatchewan is wherever writers write, whether at a sturdy oak desk, in a cabin alcove,…

Rink Burgers by Todd Devonshire Published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing Review by Keith Foster $19.95 ISBN 978-1-894431-74-3 Stompin’ Tom Connors sang about “The Good Old Hockey Game.” Todd Devonshire, in his Rink Burgers memoir, elaborates on what made the good old hockey game so darn good. When his mother calls to say the family home has been sold, Todd realizes he must rescue his childhood possessions before they are gone forever. He and his wife Dawn sort through boxes of memorabilia and souvenirs as Todd reminisces about his glory days as both a player and fan. The memoir is set in the 1980s in Big River, SK., a community where “news travelled like cops going for donuts.” Todd’s memoir is replete with humour, and his robust imagination realistically recreates the antics of his childhood. His exaggerations are so typical of a youngster. He recalls when, as a six-year-old, he scored his first goal and lost his first tooth on the same day. This coincidence could mean only one thing – he was now a real hockey player! Todd describes his coming of age and explores his relationship with his father, from whom he developed his love of hockey. A…

Thin Pink Lines: My Life as a Nurse & Beyond by Muriel A. Jarvis and Mary E. Vandergoot Published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing Review by Keith Foster $19.95 ISBN 978-1-894431-73-6 Patience pays big dividends, perhaps not all at once, but slowly over time. Muriel Jarvis relates how her patience and persistence paid off in her book, Thin Pink Lines: My Life as a Nurse & Beyond. Nominated for a 2013 Saskatchewan Book Award for non-fiction, the book is written by Mary Vandergoot, based on interviews and conversations with Muriel. Vandergoot writes in the first person, as though Muriel herself is telling the story of her life and accomplishments. Growing up in Kenaston, SK was a quick and brutal learning experience for Muriel, but she applied those life lessons throughout her career as a nurse. Her father died when she was only six and a half, and she had to help her mother, who was then only 26, raise her four younger siblings. A turning point in Muriel’s young life was when she assisted her mother in the birth of a child. She decided then that she wanted to become a nurse. The thin pink lines refer to the long…

Wagons East by Victoria Taylor Published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing Review by Keith Foster $14.95 ISBN 978-1-894431-88-0 Have you ever felt like taking off – to nowhere in particular? That’s what Victoria Taylor and her partner Carl did, virtually on the spur of the moment. It was this spontaneity that led to the great adventure she relates in Wagons East. Following their dream, the couple set out from British Columbia on a cross-country tour, roughing it as they made their way east. They only got as far as Saskatchewan, but they took the scenic route. They travelled by covered wagon, accompanied by their team of horses, Hoss and Tracker, whom Victoria refers to as “the boys.” Plodding along on a wagon seat at three-and-a-half miles an hour provided a different sensation than driving in a car. Victoria uses a chatty, conversational writing style with a wry sense of humour, saying that indoor plumbing consisted of a cold water tank with a tap. She describes crossing a logging bridge with “no side rails and a million miles to the river bottom.” Despite this and other harrowing experiences, she displays an optimistic buoyancy throughout. The couple stopped at farms and ranches…

Our Lamps Were Heavy by Eleanor A. Sinclair Published by DriverWorks Ink Review by Keith Foster $14.95 ISBN 978-0-9879643-3-5 A diary is a good thing to keep; you never know when it might come in handy. Eleanor Sinclair uses extracts from a diary she kept as a nurse in training as the basis for her book, Our Lamps Were Heavy. A retired registered nurse, Sinclair relates the sharp learning curve she experienced as a teen in the 1950s while in training at the Holy Family Hospital and School of Nursing in Prince Albert. She soon learned there was more to nursing than wearing a white uniform. This book is not for the squeamish. While assisting in a delivery, Sinclair witnessed both mother and baby die in childbirth. Then she had to carry the stillborn child to the morgue and clean it for burial. Her narrative slows somewhat when she uses medical terms, but is most lively when she quotes from her diary: “I copied doctor’s orders wrong today and had a baby girl to be circumcised tomorrow. Did I ever get teased.” Sinclair supplements her text with three dozen black and white photos taken while she was training. All the…

Terror on Turtle Creek by Jean Freeman illustrated by RoseMarie Condon Published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing Review by Keith Foster $14.95 ISBN 978-1-894431-77-4 As a longtime admirer of Jean Freeman’s work, I knew I was in for a good read when I saw she was the author of Terror on Turtle Creek. The story follows the exploits of Barry Richards, a youngster prone to anger and negative thoughts, who works hard to avoid work. He volunteers to help fill sandbags when Turtle Creek floods over, but slinks away to relax in an unmoored boat. When it slips into the raging river and starts to sink, Barry struggles to steer himself to a flooded house. There he meets the stranded occupants, Sara McKeever and her three younger siblings, ranging in age from eight to three – Sam, Josh, and Emily—and Emily’s doll, Angelina Poot. Each chapter title is actually a time stamp that allows the reader to follow the story in real time. Teeming with challenges, each chapter ends in suspense. Just as the children are coping with one crisis, another comes crashing down on them. I immediately felt compelled to read the next chapter to see how, or if,…

The Sailor and the Christmas Trees: A True Story by Deana Driver Illustrated by Catherine Folnovic Published by DriverWorks Ink Review by Keith Foster $14.95 ISBN 978-192757002-9 Although a prolific writer with five books and more than 2,000 articles in Canadian newspapers and magazines to her credit, this is Deana Driver’s first children’s book. It is a true story, told in simple language a child can easily understand. The story revolves around John Hanlon, a wireless operator in the Royal Canadian Navy in World War II. His ship, HMCS (His Majesty’s Canadian Ship) Royalmount, was protecting convoys bringing supplies to Britain. Knowing that on the return trip he would be at sea on Christmas Day, Hanlon and three other sailors cut down a few evergreen trees to decorate their frigate. When they found out that another ship was carrying children to safety in Canada, they got close enough to shoot a line across it. One of the trees was then pulled over. “Those children’s eyes were so big as they watched that tree bobbing along the line from our ship to theirs,” Hanlon recalled. “Those children started cheering.” Fifty years later, at a reunion in Calgary, Hanlon met a woman…

The Anatomy of Edouard Beaupré: A Story by Sarah Kathryn York Published by Coteau Books Review by Keith Foster $16.95 ISBN 13:978155050774 Reading The Anatomy of Edouard Beaupré is like venturing into The Twilight Zone. The novel is so well researched and written that it’s hard to tell where facts leave off and fiction begins. Beaupré, the eldest of 20 children, was indeed real. Author Sarah Kathryn York adds further realism to her novel by introducing actual historical characters such as Canadian strongman Louis Cyr. It was impossible for Beaupré to remain inconspicuous. Known as the Willow Bunch Giant, standing at eight feet, three inches, he stood out like a redwood tree in a wheat field. He was still growing when he died at age 23. His size made him an object of ridicule and exploitation throughout his short life. Even in death, he was not free from abuse. His corpse went on public display in a store window in St. Louis, Missouri, and again as an exhibit at the University of Montreal. York revels in imagery, saying that “rags of clouds scrubbed the sky.” A master of metaphor and simile, she peppers her story with literary devices. She describes…