Reviews

Great Canadian Books of the Century

Vancouver Public Library staff were inspired by The New York Public Library’s Books of the Century. Why not a Canadian list of best fiction, drama, poetry, and non-fiction titles? The 133-entry result is a “celebration ... Read More »

February 3, 2004 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

W.O.: The Life of W.O. Mitchell, Beginnings to Who Has Seen the Wind, 1914-1947

By Barbara and Ormond Mitchell

When Quill & Quire printed a list of the top 40 Canadian novels of the 20th century earlier this year, W.O. Mitchell’s Who Has Seen the Wind ranked seventh. Renowned as one of Canada’s great ... Read More »

February 3, 2004 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

★ Baltimore’s Mansion

By Wayne Johnston

"An island to someone who has never left it is the world. An island to someone who has never seen it does not exist.” That quote from Wayne Johnston’s evocative new memoir, Baltimore’s Mansion, succinctly ... Read More »

February 3, 2004 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

★ Sisters in the Wilderness: The Lives of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill

By Charlotte Gray

In taking up the story of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill, Charlotte Gray is dealing with material already familiar to many readers. However, by drawing extensively on their letters, she fills out the existing ... Read More »

February 3, 2004 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

The Oxford Book of Stories by Canadian Women in English

By Rosemary Sullivan, ed.

Introduction to Literary Journalism AssignmentReviewing a Big AnthologyWord limit350 words exactlyGuidelinesThis endeavour may pose intriguing methodological problems for the reviewer, experienced or novice. Should we review the editor? Individual writers? Is there any point in ... Read More »

February 3, 2004 | Filed under: Anthologies

The Adultery Handbook

By Carol Malyon

Anybody who buys Carol Malyon’s The Adultery Handbook thinking that it might be something like Helen Fielding’s The Diary of Bridget Jones is going to be sorely disappointed. Instead of the flip, hip, funny guide ... Read More »

February 3, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Secrets in Water

By Barbara Sapergia

Toronto readers shouldn’t take umbrage that their city serves as Saskatoon writer Barbara Sapergia’s metaphor for spiritual paralysis: even back home on the Prairies, her central characters were unhappy. But it is in Toronto’s Cabbagetown ... Read More »

February 3, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Caring for the Mind: The Comprehensive Guide to Mental Health

By Robert E. Hales, Allen Frances, Dianne Hales

After spending an hour or so perusing the bookshelves at my local big-box, books-by-the-barrel bazaar (where, by the way, I am certain that the health categories into which the books are divided were selected by ... Read More »

February 2, 2004 | Filed under: Science, Technology & Environment