HOME  |  CONTACT US  |
 


Book Reviews in October 1992 Issue

Whitewash Exposing the Health & Environmental Dangers of Women's Sanitary Products & Disposable Diapers - What You Can Do about It
by Liz Armstrong, Adrienne Scott,

194 pages $12.95 TP
ISBN: 0006377092
The State of Canada's Enviornment
by Enviornment Canada Staff,

694 pages $29.95 TP
ISBN: 0660142376
Bluebird Rescue A Harrowsmith Country Life Nature Guide
by Joan R. Heilman,

48 pages $16.95 LB
ISBN: 0944475272
One Animal among Many Gaia, Goats & Garlic
by David Waltner-Toews,

128 pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 155021067X
The Age of Ecology The Environment on CBC Radio's Ideas
by David Cayley,

272 pages $19.95 TP
ISBN: 1550283499
Plants of Northern British Columbia
by Lone Pine Publishing Staff,

pages $24.95 PT
ISBN: 1551050153
Living Things We Love to Hate Facts, Fantasies, & Fallacies
by Des Kennedy, David Suzuki,

232 pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 1551100193
Culture of Nature North American Landscapes from Disney to the Exxon Valdez
by Alexander Wilson,

Blackwell Publishers
pages $26.95 TP
ISBN: 1557863369
Paving Paradise
pages $0 UN
ISBN: 1895099900
Electric Rivers The Story of the James Bay Project
by Sean McCutcheon,

194 pages $47.99 CT
ISBN: 1895431190
Book Review
Conceiving New Worlds
by Brian Fawcett
There's more to saving the planet than designer sandals and ecologically correct chicken salad.
Read more...
Murder in Montparnasse
by Howard Engel,

pages $6.99 MM
ISBN: 014015728X
My Sister's Keeper
by Nora Kelly,

Saint Martin's Press, Incorporated
224 pages $17.95 TC
ISBN: 0312082681
The Wandering Soul Murders
by Gail Bowen,

Saint Martin's Press, Incorporated
207 pages $19.95 TC
ISBN: 0312105746
Wednesday's Child
by Peter Robinson,

Berkley Publishing Group
320 pages $5.99 MM
ISBN: 0425148343
Lizardskin
by Carsten Stroud,

Bantam Books
384 pages $22 TC
ISBN: 0553089358
A Fine Italian Hand
by Eric Wright,

192 pages $25.95 CT
ISBN: 0684195046
Don't Deal Five Deuces
by Garner, Stuewe,

pages $16.95 PT
ISBN: 0773755446
Flashback
by Ted Wood,

Chivers North America
pages $21.95 TC
ISBN: 0792718194
Runner in the Dark
by John Mills,

pages $29.95 TC
ISBN: 0887508766
Book Review
Detecting Disruption
by Robin Skelton
A round-up of the season's usual - and not so usual - mystery suspects.
Read more...
We Seldom Look on Love
by Barbara Gowdy,

224 pages $18.95 TC
ISBN: 0921051700
Book Review
Perfectly Abnormal
by Eric McCormack
This politically incorrect collection of stories is one of the most enjoyable reads to come my way this year. Qualities that lurked in Barbara Gowdy's two previous books are here brought to the fore.
Read more...
The Tightrope Walker Autobiographical Writings of Anne Wilkinson
by Joan Coldwell,

288 pages $39.95 TC
ISBN: 0802057454
Book Review
Private Necessities
by Joyce Marshall
It is charmingly written and beautifully shaped, the details and curiosities of the life sharply caught and intriguing, but I wish Wilkinson hadn't been quite so determined to present herself as a madcap rich girl with scarcely a thought in her head.
Read more...
The Will of a Nation Awakening the Canadian Spirit
by George Radwanski, Julia Luttrell,

208 pages $22.95 TC
ISBN: 0773726373
Book Review
History Rewritten
by George Galt
This book is long on emotional hand-wringing and short on facts, but who needs facts when they're rewriting history? All you need is indignation and verbiage, and Radwanski and Julia Luttrell blast away with plenty of both.
Read more...
Dragons of Crime
by Jim Dubro,

McClelland & Stewart/Tundra Books
pages $7.99 PT
ISBN: 0771029039
Book Review
Outside the Law
by Michael Coren
Hypocrisy permeates Canadian society to such an extent that the image of a pusillanimous politician or government official denying the truth about ethnic crime has left an indelible and sordid stain on our public life.
Read more...
Things as They Are?
224 pages $26.99
ISBN: 0771086989
Book Review
Wordless Bonds
by Rita Donovan
This is relationship in code, a personalized code built up over years of observation and emulation. Joseph cannot talk meaningfully with his father, but later he does find, and cherishes, a perfect wordless memory of their bond.
Read more...
Girl with the Botticelli Face
by W. D. Valgardson,

pages $24.95 TC
ISBN: 1550540300
Book Review
Man in a Mission
by Carole Giangrande
The novel tells the story of Bob, a lonely middle-aged academic and poet. He has become obsessed with the disappearance of the title character, Sharon, his favourite waitress in a local cafe.
Read more...
The Summer House A Tradition of Leisure
by Amy W. Cross,

238 pages $15.95 TP
ISBN: 0006378897
A Few Acres of Snow Literary & Artistic Images of Canada
by Paul Simpson-Housley, Glen Norcliffe,

277 pages $24.99 TC
ISBN: 1550021575
Book Review
Summer's Bummers
by Fraser Sutherland
In the two decades since Northrop Frye's garrison mentality theory exhausted itself in Margaret Atwood's Survival, much Canadian literary criticism has lived off the French table scraps of deconstruction.
Read more...
Good Bones
by Margaret Atwood,

120 pages $6.95 PT
ISBN: 0771034636
Book Review
Play with Voices
by Gary Draper
If people were cities, Margaret Atwood would be Toronto. Everybody I know has an opinion about Toronto: World Class Metropolis or Hogtown. It's hard to be neutral about Toronto, or objective. Same with Atwood ...
Read more...
A Song for Arbonne
by Guy G. Kay,

NAL/Dutton
496 pages $6.99 TP
ISBN: 0451453328
Book Review
Fantasy from on High
by Douglas Barbour
What makes Guy Gavriel Kay the most interesting writer of high fantasy around today is his willingness and ability to explore new territory in, each new book.
Read more...
A Night at the Opera
by Ray Smith,

240 pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 0889841373
Book Review
Hosenkavalier
by Michael Darling
The journal is replete with themes from von Stumpf's operas, and the musically inclined may have as much fun with these as with the translation of the often ludicrous German surnames that Smith has given his characters.
Read more...
My Father Took a Cake to France
by Cynthia Flood,

184 pages $16.95 TP
ISBN: 0889223106
Fire on the Water An Anthology of Black Nova Scotian Writing
by Clarke,

pages $14.95 PF
ISBN: 091900167X
Book Review
Africadian Heritage
by David MacFarlane
It is a much needed collection of spirituals, poetry, sermons, speeches, and oral and written histories. Its passion - both the passion of the collector and the collected - is difficult to ignore, and its righteousness is compelling.
Read more...
Shampoo Planet
by Doug Coupland, Judith Regan,

World Publications Promotions
304 pages $20 TC
ISBN: 0671755056
Book Review
Malaise of the Mall-Raised
by Brian Fawcett
Coupland is back, a little more glitzed up, but not in the least apologetic about having insulted the elderly, with 'Shampoo Planet'.
Read more...
Niagara: A History of the Falls
by Pierre Berton,

McClelland & Stewart/Tundra Books
pages $29.99 TC
ISBN: 0771012128
Book Review
Over the Brink
by John Doyle
Pierre Berton starts his history of Niagara Falls like this: "In the beginning was the ice." It's a rather cold-footed beginning to a journey all around and under the Falls, and the same plodding pace is maintained throughout the book.
Read more...
Interviews
Editing Ambition
Or, some true stories about how raw manuscripts become polished books.
Read more...
Letters to Editor
Letters to Editor
Why is it that the same cramped conditions (several reviews, each in two brief paragraphs, including quotations) are rarely extended to novels, short-story collections, or works of non-fiction?
Read more...
Prose/Poetry
Running in Circles
by Nikki Barrett
These nights were mine, magical and fired with the energy from sweat and stars. I ran without feeling tired and when I stopped I would dance, the music from my Walkman surrounding me, pouring into my body.
Read more...
Prose/Poetry
The Plateau
by Carellin Brooks
Some days I woke up feeling on top of the world, like being
poised at the crest of a hill ...
Read more...
Prose/Poetry
Welcome to Cairo
by Carellin Brooks
Movements of beginning and ending
this bleached-blond shred ...
Read more...
Profiles
Profile - Mystery Matters
by Holley Rubinsky
Gail Bowen's detective is very Canadian, very female, and committed to restoring order to a threatened world.
Read more...
A Sense of Honour
by Roy French,

264 pages $15.95 TP
ISBN: 0888821409
Sing Me No More
by Lynette Dueck,

pages $12.95 TP
ISBN: 0889740461
The Truth about Marvin Kalish
by Martin S. Cohen,

Ben-Simon Publications
288 pages $13.95 TP
ISBN: 0914539051
Obsessions A Novel
by Daniel Jones,

pages $9.95 TP
ISBN: 0920544878
Knock on Wood
by Rick Blechta,

Castlefield Press
294 pages $19.95 TC
ISBN: 0963255436
Very Palpable Hit
by Marshall,

pages $24.95 TC
ISBN: 1550540262
First Novels
First Novels - Genre Journeys
by Douglas Hill
IN A Sense of Honour (Hounslow, 201 pages, $15.95 paper) Roy French has crammed the IRA, the SAS, the RCMP, the CSIS, the Mossad and something called the Sons of Palestine, as well as the Canadian prime minister, an airplane hijacking, and the city of Brampton, Ontario, into a wildly improbable blow'em-up terrorist thriller. It did keep me reading for an hour or so, but I suspect true fans of the genre will immediately recognize a clone when they see one. The writing is clumsy and fraught with c
Read more...
Field Notes
Field Notes - Polarities and Polemics
by Libby Scheier
All last year I read in the papers how the political-correctness movement was rampant on university campuses, smothering academic freedom and crippling free and open discussion.
Read more...
Field Notes
Field Notes - A Place of Their Own
by Ted Ferguson
On a recent walk through Cabbagetown, I realized that there are no streets or lanes named after the local boy who published 14 books and won a Governor General's Award in 1963 .The absence of civic recognition saddened but didn't surprise me.
Read more...
George Fetherling
Last Words - Tweaking with Pique
by Alec McEwen
The first in a planned series that will include a Science Shelf and a Language Shelf, OWS is a computer accessory, not a substitute for a good knowledge of written English.
Read more...
Far-Seer
by Robert J. Sawyer,

pages $5.99 MM
ISBN: 0441225519
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by John Degen
Sawyer's understanding of both our reptilian predecessors and of astronomy is considerable, and if at times his encyclopedic knowledge produces an encyclopedic writing style, he is careful not to overwhelm his readers.
Read more...
Who Do You Love
by Leon Rooke,

McClelland & Stewart/Tundra Books
pages $4.98 MM
ISBN: 0771077130
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Robin Britt
With all the hot young talent muscling its way onto bookstore shelves these days, it's good to see Leon Rooke keeping pace with a collection of typically delightful short fiction.
Read more...
Political Babble The One Thousand Dumbest Things Ever Said by Politicians
by David Olive,

John\Wiley#& Sons, Incorporated
256 pages $14.95 CT
ISBN: 0471577103
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Non-fiction
by Michael Coren
The only criticism to make of Political Babble is that it concentrates on the United States to a sometimes irksome degree. Stupidity is not confined within national boundaries - the United Nations was created for the sole purpose of proving that to us.
Read more...
Class of '75
by Jack Batten,

pages $27.95 TC
ISBN: 0771591780
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Non-Fiction
by George Kaufman
Batten, as always, displays his talents for storytelling, and he is also cognizant of when he has inserted just enough of himself into his story.
Read more...
Who's Who in Canadian Literature
pages $40 TC
ISBN: 0919981704
Brief Reviews
Breif Reviews - Non-Fiction
by Robin Britt
A cursory check of the book's entries reveals that Michael Coren, Rita Donovan, Douglas Fetherling, George Galt, Terence Green, and Gail Scott are among those not listed, which suggests that there are probably many other omissions.
Read more...
Sweetheart
by Peter McGehee,

Saint Martin's Press, Incorporated
224 pages $8.95 TP
ISBN: 0312093993
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by John Degen
McGehee, whose too short career was built on comic, semi-autobiographical fiction, remains true to his roots with 'Sweetheart'.
Read more...
Worlds in Small
by John R. Colombo,

98 pages $12.95 TC
ISBN: 0921870140
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Kathryn Woodward
The cumulative effect of all this minimalism is to suddenly view your surroundings as a kind of silence punctuated only when necessary by pithy, no-nonsense observations.
Read more...
The Touchstone
by Robyn Sarah,

139 pages $16.95 TP
ISBN: 0887845282
The Empress Has No Closure
by Adeena Karasick,

100 pages $14.95 TP
ISBN: 0889223076
Guerra Prolongada/Protracted War
by Carmen Rodriguez,

112 pages $11.95 TP
ISBN: 0889611718
Poetic Asylum
by Jesus Lopez-Pacheco,

pages $9.95 TP
ISBN: 0919626548
Work of Our Hands
by S. Nelson,

pages $12.95 PT
ISBN: 0919754422
Learning to Breathe
by Richard Stevenson,

102 pages $10.95 TC
ISBN: 0921870116
Alphabet of Desire
by Ken Norris,

70 pages $12 TP
ISBN: 1550221485
The Litmus Body
by Nadine McInnis,

88 pages $12.95 TP
ISBN: 1550820370
Red Centre Journal
by Kevin Roberts,

56 pages $9.95 TP
ISBN: 1862542856
Brief Reviews
Brief Reviews - Poetry
by Becky Liddell
Ken Norris's work is generally pleasant, if not exactly memorable -something like the poetic equivalent of easy-listening music.
Read more...
Kate's Castle
by Julie Lawson, Frances Tyrrell,

32 pages $16.95 TC
ISBN: 019540842X
Midnight on the Farm
by Stephen E. Hume, Regolo Ricci,

24 pages $8.95 TP
ISBN: 0773757252
Chickadee Book of Puzzles & Fun
by D. Perna,

Firefly Books, Limited
pages $4.95 PT
ISBN: 0920445829
The Nutmeg Princess
by Richardo Keens-Douglas, Annouchka G. Galouchko,

32 pages $15.95 LB
ISBN: 1550372394
Jill & the Jogero
by Richard Thompson, Francoise Durham-Moulin,

24 pages $14.95 LB
ISBN: 1550372459
Canadian Postal Workers
by Paulette Bourgeois, Kim LaFave,

32 pages $11.95 TC
ISBN: 155074058X
Circles Shapes in Math, Science & Nature
by Catherine S. Ross, Bill Slavin,

80 pages $12.95 TP
ISBN: 1550740644
Canadian Police Officers
by Paulette Bourgeois, Kim LaFave,

32 pages $4.95 TP
ISBN: 1550741330
Children's Books
Children's Books - Let's BOJ the Neighbours
by Phil Hall
Guest writers for this column tend to shamelessly employ the expertise and verbal gems of their children, and I, too, have been guilty of these same shadowy labour tactics.
Read more...
First Novel Award
Student Writing Awards
Book City / Books in Canada 1992 Student Writing Awards for Poetry and Short Fiction.
Read more...
footer

Home First Novel Award Past Winners Subscription Back Issues Timescroll Advertizing Rates
Amazon.ca/Books in Canada Bestsellers List Books in Issue Books in Department About Us