The Boy From Buzwah: A Life in Indian Educationby Cecil KingPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Toby A. Welch$29.95 ISBN 9780889778504 I’ll admit it – I live in a bubble. I have a routine life that is cozy. That said, when something comes my way that pushes me out of my comfort zone, I love it! The Boy From Buzwah did just that – it ripped me out of my sheltered life and deposited me into a fascinating new world that I thoroughly enjoyed reading about. This book is the self-written memoir of Cecil King. King grew up in Buzwah on the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island in Ontario. A residential school survivor, King moved to Toronto to earn his teaching degree before spending his career striving for much-needed changes in Indigenous education.  I am not a fan of the current trend to write memoirs with a timeline that jumps all over the place, skipping around from current day to birth to young adult, back to childhood and everywhere in between. Thankfully King avoided any of that and The Boy From Buzwah unfolds in seamless chronological order. We start with King’s childhood attending the Buzwah School before…

Frozen Fury: Agricultural Crops and Hail Damageby Malcolm BucholtzPublished by Wood Dragon BooksReview by Toby A. Welch$19.95 ISBN 9781989078853 Frozen Fury is a “resource for farm operators, agricultural students, and hail adjustors.” Even though I am none of those things, I found this non-fiction book to be informative and fascinating. Anyone with even a remote interest in agriculture as well as the effects of hail on that industry will find this book valuable.  A few interesting tidbits I learned while reading Frozen Fury: – India is the largest mustard grower in the world, followed by Canada – Sunflower originated in northern Mexico and was used as a diuretic and an expectorant – Corn is one of the most difficult crops to hail adjust – If crops are treated with micronutrients after hail damage, they recover faster and better As this book is thorough and contains a great deal of information, I found it a huge help that Bucholtz included a brief summary in bullet points at the end of each chapter. That kept my confusion at bay and helped cement everything I’d just learned.  And I learned a heck of a lot reading Frozen Fury. I had no clue that…

Sariri: Travels Through Boliviaby Ivar MendezPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Toby A. Welch$24.95 ISBN 9781988783796 This is a fascinating read to add to your collection of travel books! You’ll find 20 chapters in Sariri (not counting the introduction, afterword, and glossary.) Each chapter covers a specific place in Bolivia, a terrific way to lay out a book about a country. Close to the front of the book you’ll find a map that pinpoints the location of each chapter – so handy! If you are confused by the title of this book, ‘sariri’ is the Bolivian word for the nature of a traveller – a pilgrim on a spiritual quest, a traveller in search of new horizons, adventures, and cultures. That sums up Mendez himself perfectly. Mendez does an amazing job of describing each place he visits in Bolivia without being flowery – I love that! For example, when detailing the houses in the village of Culpina, he writes, “A row of brick houses… are still in use. These small red houses with chimneys look like they belong in an English town rather than in the middle of the Bolivian pampas.” Of all the interesting places Mendez wrote about,…

Duateroby Brad C. AndersonPublished by Shadowpaw Press RepriseReview by Toby A. Welch$23.95 ISBN 9781989398395 I must admit that sci-fi isn’t my go-to choice for fiction. Sure, I loved the X-Files TV show and thoroughly enjoyed reading Ender’s Game and Dune but that was about the extent of it. Duatero changed that – science fiction will now be a genre I regularly reach for.  The title of this book confused me at first – what the heck is a duatero? Is it a sea creature with two legs? Some kind of two-sided crystal? Wrong on both counts. The title of this book is the name of an abandoned Earth colony. The fantastical world that Anderson created in Duatero is a fascinating place to be during the hours it takes to read the book. The main character, Majstro Falchilo Kredo, works furiously to protect Duatero from Malamiko, an ecosystem that is causing the colony’s crops to fail. Malamiko is threatening their way of life in every way; the possibility of Duatero having a future is dire. This well-written ecological apocalyptic tale is spellbinding. It is obvious that Anderson put a tremendous amount of thought and research into Duatero. It is flush with…

Culture in the Kitchen: Recipes from a Multicultural Cooking Seriesby Saskatchewan German CouncilPublished by Saskatchewan German CouncilReview by Toby A. Welch$25.00 ISBN 9780969401698 What the Saskatchewan German Council undertook with this labour-of-love book is to be applauded! Culture in the Kitchen: Recipes from a Multicultural Cooking Series is a cookbook that is broken into 13 chapters, each one focused on the meshing of German food with food from another country or culture. (For example: Germany meets China, Germany meets Ukraine, Germany meets Saskatchewan – you get the picture.)  The true test of any cookbook is its recipes so I gave a bunch of them a try. From the Germany meets Brazil chapter, the arroz carreteiro (wagoner’s rice) was delicious! It tasted similar to a red beans and rice dish that is on my regular rotation and the recipe is a keeper. Next up was the stuffed tomatoes from Germany meets Vietnam. I haven’t had a stuffed tomato in over two decades, something I now regret. This one was full of so many ingredients that melded together perfectly inside the plum tomato – vermicelli, pork, mushrooms, green onions, and a handful of other yummy stuff.  To satisfy my sweet tooth, I…

Stayby Katherine LawrencePublished by Shadowpaw Press RepriseReview by Toby A. Welch$12.95 ISBN 9781989398371 What an intriguing book! Geared for young adult readers, Stay tells the story of what Millie, an 11-year-old girl, is going through in her complicated world. Millie’s parents are struggling in their lives and she is an observer to their turmoil. Her closest confidante is her twin brother, Billy, who was born deceased. It is fascinating to tag along with Millie as she journeys through the pre-teen phase in her life.  Millie is an enchanting main character that I quickly fell in love with. She is precocious and daring, I will give her that. She reads her mother’s racy texts and makes no apologies for doing so. She loves chocolate more than anything in the world. Missing her dad after he moved out of the family home, she dots his aftershave behind her ears. She tries smoking cigarettes. Her strongest desire is to have a dog. Millie’s story is captivating! It took me a few chapters to get used to the format of Stay. I typically read traditionally structured books with full paragraphs consisting of complete sentences. Stay is written in a way that comes off as…

Conserving the Legacy: Wildlife Conservation in Saskatchewan 1905-2005by G. Wayne PepperPublished by Nature SaskatchewanReview by Toby A. Welch$34.95 ISBN 9780921104360 Conserving the Legacy is a physically powerful book. Weighing in at just shy of a hefty one kilogram, it packs a wallop. It is a pleasure to hold. And that is all before you get past the beautiful cover image of a male sharp-tailed grouse sparring. Once inside, it is clear that a massive amount of time, effort, and planning went into this book. It contains a tremendous volume of information detailing how wildlife was maintained during the first century of our province’s history.  In an era when anyone can toss a few random facts together, throw a dozen pages online for sale and call it a book, this piece of work stands out. It rings in at close to 400 awesome and comprehensive pages. The amount of research that went into this book is mind-blowing. Conserving the Legacy was clearly a labour of love for Pepper and it shows on every page. This is a book you can come back to often when looking for information on wildlife conservation. It never fails to inform you of something new.  I…

Mind the Gap: Navigating Your Leadership Journeyby Doug Forsdick, Keri Schwebius, and Heather ThomsonPublished by Wood Dragon BooksReview by Toby A. Welch$19.99 ISBN 9781989078846 Like the title spells out, Mind the Gap covers how to become a more effective leader, but it is much more than that. It is geared towards leadership in the workplace, but those not interested in career leadership advice will also get valuable information from the pages. Additionally, employees will find the information helpful as they contemplate workplace situations. This book is divided into four areas of leadership: ‘focus on you’, ‘plot the course and steer the way’, ‘maneuver within your organization’, and ‘continue the journey’. We read about the differences between managers and leaders, the role your values play in leadership, how to have difficult conversations, and many other aspects of leadership. Each chapter ends with Reflection Questions, a list of questions to get you thinking about your own leadership journey and how you want to grow. They are powerful questions that can lead to hours of contemplation. My favourite chapter is #20: “Getting Sh*t Done.” It shares how to create a system to help you accomplish what needs to get done. It also touches…

Finding Izzyby Sheryl DohertyPublished by Wood Dragon BooksReview by Toby A. Welch$18.99 ISBN 9781989078662 Finding Izzy is a dense book, almost 300 pages with a small font. But that is a great thing for the readers – it gives the author enough space to flesh out an engrossing story that pulls you in from page one.  Speaking of page one, that is where the action begins. In the opening scene, the main character, Izzy, wakes up in a hospital with no idea who she is. She sees a news story on TV about missing Indigenous women and is convinced she is one of them. She shares her theory with the two police officers who are trying to figure out who she is; they aren’t convinced she’s right. Once discharged from the hospital, Izzy is taken to a temporary emergency home in North Vancouver as Family Services believes she is under 18. From there the story takes off as police try to identify her through dental implants, fingerprints, and distinguishing marks.  Although this is a work of fiction, it is fascinating to ride along with the main character on her journey with amnesia. Doherty does a superb job of dropping us…

A Stroke of Grace: A Guide to Understanding and Living With an Acquired Brain Injuryby Julianne HeagyPublished by Wood Dragon BooksReview by Toby A. Welch$19.99 ISBN 9781989078891 This powerful book is a must-add for your to-read list! In a nutshell, Assiniboia-based writer Julianne Heagy suffered a life-changing stroke on her 31st wedding anniversary. This compelling read shares her story. Heagy doesn’t sugarcoat anything in this memoir; she includes all the grisly details.  I appreciate how this book is broken up chronologically. Heagy had her stroke on May 21, 2019, and A Stroke of Grace details one month per chapter. Once Heagy passes the one year anniversary of her stroke, the chapters morph into approximately yearly quarters. This layout allows for a seamless flow of the book with no distracting timeline jumping. While taking us on her journey, Heagy uses a friendly, casual tone with her words; it suits this story perfectly. Aesthetically speaking, this is a beautiful book. The image drawn on the cover carries throughout the book, softening the words. The font the creators picked was an excellent choice, pleasing to read and soft. The size of the font is bigger than you usually find in books although it…