Top O' the Mornin' to Ya

 
Happy St. Paddy's Day! Saint Patrick was a 5th century missionary and is a patron saint of Ireland. As a teenager he was captured by Irish pirates and put into slavery, but he didn't seem to hold a grudge - he came back to Ireland to convert the people to Christianity. March 17th is allegedly the day he died. He is famous for reportedly banishing all snakes from Ireland, and is said to have used the shamrock as a metaphor to teach the Holy Trinity. Here's some suggested reading to celebrate Éire:

Saints Behaving Badly: the cutthroats, crooks, trollops, con men, and devil-worshippers who became saints by Thomas J. Craughwell. If you thought saints were perfect, think again. Throughout the years, stories of these holy people become refined and sanitized until they're, well...saintly. Craughwell points out that this isn't quite the whole story. The history of these saints includes theft, rape, and murder, among other sins. Craughwell writes humorously about 32 men and women with colourful pasts, who nonetheless became known for their piety. And yes, Saint Patrick is in here - you'll have to read it to find out why!

Vivid Faces: the revolutionary generation in Ireland, 1890-1923 by R.J. Foster. Ireland has a long history of fighting for independence. On January 1, 1801 it became part of the United Kingdom, ruled directly from London. Nonetheless, Irish rebels kept on with their cause. The Great Famine of the 1840s only added to the feelings of nationalism and the fight for "home rule". Numerous historical events altered Ireland's political landscape since then including the Easter Rising of 1916, when Irish republicans fought to end British rule and establish an Irish republic. Foster delves into the personal lives that shaped the turbulent times in this strongly researched and detailed book.

 Celtic Lightning: how the Scots and the Irish created a Canadian nation by Ken McGoogan. Did you know St. Patrick's Day is an official holiday in Newfoundland? Over 4.5 million Canadians claim Irish ancestry, and the first official recording of Irish appearing here was in Newfoundland in the 1500s. McGoogan divides the book into five sections named after the values he feels the Scots and Irish brought to this country: independence, democracy, pluralism, audacity, and perseverence. The book describes the lives of thirty notable individuals who exemplify these qualities. This is a great read for Canadians who want to understand more of the cultural history and attitudes some of our ancestors carried and passed down to us.

Sláinte!

Laurier Poetry Series - another access point

George Murray describes his latest book of poetry, Diversion, as writing from within the information-saturated world, rather than away from it (Quill & Quire, December 2015). Texting instead of birdwatching; digital billboards instead of boat-access only. Is he taking the opportunity to poke fun at stereotypical CanLit themes? Sure. Are our poets hiking out to remote places with notebooks? Some are, absolutely. But many are not.

Wilfred Laurier University Press has created the Laurier Poetry Series to build access to the diverse works of Canadian poets. As an alternative to anthologies, each book explores a single author: a critic selects 35 poems and writes an introduction; the book then closes with an afterword by the poet. As a reader of poetry, I’m familiar with many of the writers chosen for this series. But not all of them. And sometimes the knowing is only by name. I appreciate the structure of these books for the way they offer a thorough sense of the poet’s style and focus (and how those may have shifted over the years), without being overwhelming. They’re like an introductory class, tucked into a slim volume.

So which poets are we talking about? There are 25 books in the series so far, and we have 11 of them:

Please, no more poetry: the poetry of derek beaulieu / selected by Kit Dobson 

Before the first word: the poetry of Lorna Crozier / selected by Catherine Hunter

All these roads: the poetry of Louis Dudek / selected by Karis Sherer

Sonosyntactics: selected and new poetry of Paul Dutton / selected by Gary Barwin

Plans deranged by time: the poetry of George Fetherling / selected by A.F. Moritz

Guthrie clothing: the poetry of Phil Hall, a selected collage / selected by rob mclennan

Rivering: the poetry of Daphne Marlatt / selected by Susan Knutson

Field marks: the poetry of Don McKay / selected by Méira Cook

Leaving the shade of the middle ground:the poetry of F.R. Scott / selected by Laura Moss

The order in which we do things: the poetry of Tom Wayman / selected by Owen Percy

Chamber music: the poetry of Jan Zwicky / selected by Darren Bifford and Warren Heiti

For those who like birds and humour, try Don McKay. If you want to visit BC, Lesbos and Japan, read Daphne Marlatt. Tom Wayman offers narrative poems about factories and love. And both derek beaulieu and Paul Dutton attend to the page with visual poetry.

Nova Scotia Heritage Day: The Legacy of Joseph Howe

This year on Heritage Day, Nova Scotia honours Joseph Howe. Born in 1804 in Halifax, Howe served as a journalist, politician, premier and lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia before his death in 1873.  Although Howe is perhaps most known across Canada for trying to keep Nova Scotia out of Confederation, he contributed to the creation of many local institutions like the Halifax Public Gardens, and promoted local authors like Thomas Chandler Haliburton in his newspaper, The Novascotian. Howe was a colourful character who could convince almost anybody of his way of thinking: the Canadian Encyclopedia claims that Howe "could use his oratorical powers to influence his compatriots as no other man has ever done."

Today, Howe's most enduring legacy is as a defender of free speech. In 1835, Howe was accused of criminal libel against local magistrates after he accused them of swindling Nova Scotia's citizens out of 30,000 pounds. After spending two days vigorously pleading his own defense he was swiftly acquitted of wrongdoing and thus proclaimed "the press of Nova Scotia is free".  Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

John Ralston Saul's Joseph Howe & the Battle for Freedom of Speech is based on a lecture Saul delivered at King's College School of Journalism in Halifax in 2004. Saul suggests that Howe's fight to expose government corruption through his newspaper contributed to a distinctly Canadian position on freedom of speech and freedom of the press that remains at the heart of smart Canadian journalism today. "In a style that is highly articulate, humorous and emphatic, John Ralston Saul provides a succinct, relevant look at Canadian history, our current whereabouts, and an ambitious rally for participatory democracy and intelligent media for the future." Publisher.

For more information on Joseph Howe, visit the Nova Scotia Heritage Day website.
 
For a full listing of our library holdings on Joseph Howe, please click here. Please note that many of these items are rare or delicate and might require visiting our libraries in person to view the material.

In honour of Joseph Howe, here are a few other books about media freedom:

    
The new censorship : inside the global battle for media freedom by Joel Simon describes the threats to media freedom happening today across the world. "Journalists are increasingly vulnerable to attack by authoritarian governments, militants, criminals, and terrorists, who all seek to use technology, political pressure, and violence to set the global information agenda. Reporting from Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, and Mexico, among other hotspots, Simon finds journalists under threat from all sides. The result is a growing crisis in information―a shortage of the news we need to make sense of our globalized world and fight human rights abuses, manage conflict, and promote accountability." Publisher.

    Compared to many of the abuses facing journalists around the world, journalists working in Canada have much more freedom, but that doesn't mean that we can take the freedom of the press for granted. Mark Bourrie's Kill the messengers : Stephen Harper's assault on your right to know is a critical look at the restrictions placed on access to information by the Harper government."The public's right to know has been undermined by a government that effectively killed Statistics Canada, fired hundreds of scientists and statisticians, gutted Library and Archives Canada and turned freedom of information rules into a joke. Drawing evidence from multiple cases and examples, Bourrie demonstrates how budget cuts have been used to suppress the collection of facts that embarrass the government's position or undermine its ideologically based decision-making. Perhaps most importantly, Bourrie gives advice on how to take back your right to be informed and to be heard." Publisher.

Also written by Mark Bourrie, The fog of war : Censorship of Canada's media in World War Two looks at some of the fascinating stories that were censored in Canada due to concerns for our national security and civilian morale. "In Mark Bourrie's illuminating and well-researched account, we learn about the capture of a Nazi spy-turned-double agent, the Japanese-Canadian editor who would one day help develop Canada's medicare system, the curious chiropractor from Saskatchewan who spilled atomic bomb secrets to a roomful of people and the use of censorship to stop balloon bomb attacks from Japan. The Fog of War investigates the realities of media censorship through the experiences of those deputized to act on behalf of the public and reveals why press censorship in wartime Canada was, at best, a hit-and-miss game." Publisher.

Many of us acknowledge the necessity for some censorship during wartime in order to maintain public safety, but the terrorist attacks of 9/11 have greatly muddied the waters. Free speech in fearful times : after 9/11 in Canada, the U.S., Australia & Europe is an anthology edited by James L. Turk and Allan Manson that delves into the implications of current anti-terror laws on our freedom of expression. "Free Speech in Fearful Times offers a unique perspective on how the laws created to "protect" us can actually harm us. Following the events of 9/11, rashly conceived anti-terror laws were introduced that put civil liberties at risk, and eliminated long-standing legal protections in Canada, the United States, Australia, Europe, and the United Kingdom. Internationally recognized experts analyze the impacts of anti-terror laws and offer solutions to protect freedom of expression, academic freedom, and civil liberties."

#CrazyForCanLit: Best of Canada’s Crime Fiction writers – Part I

No-one outshines Canadian mystery writers!  They are among the bestselling authors and the most widely read.  Here is a selection of my favourites.

Louise Penny – A former CBC broadcaster, Penny left her radio career to take up mystery writing full-time and she hasn’t looked back since.  She  is the author of the Chief Inspector Gamache series.   Penny and her husband and pets live in a small village south of Montreal, quite close to the American border.  Her village sounds remarkably like the Three Pines of her popular mystery novels but without the high crime rate in the fictional village.   I love her books because of the richness of the characters and the wonderful sense of place she evokes. 

Her latest is The Nature of the Beast and it finds Gamache working to solve the apparent accidental death of a young boy in Three Pines.   

Hardly a day goes by when nine year old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf. From alien invasions, to walking trees, to winged beasts in the woods, to dinosaurs spotted in the village of Three Pines, his tales are so extraordinary no one can possibly believe him. Including Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache, who now live in the little Quebec village. But when the boy disappears, the villagers are faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true. And so begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth. What they uncover deep in the forest sets off a sequence of events that leads to murder, leads to an old crime, leads to an old betrayal. - Discover

Gail Bowen – I was introduced to Gail Bowen’s books while our family was living on the Prairies and I have been a huge fan ever since.  I don’t think anyone brings the beauty of the Canadian Prairies, its politics and its challenges to life better than Bowen.  Joanne Kilbourn is the crime solver in this mystery series and it is wonderfully refreshing to find a female protagonist who has aged gracefully and actively into her 50’s.   P.D. James once advised Gail Bowen not to allow Joanne to age but to keep her younger in her books.  Bowen disregarded the advice from the great British crime writer and her series has continued to thrive. 

Her latest book in this series is 12 Rose Street and finds Joanne once again involved in local politics.

Joanne's husband Zack is the leading progressive candidate in a neck-and-neck race, with the existing mayor, for Regina's top job. The tough campaigning is well underway when a disturbing threat disrupts the celebration for the opening of the Racette-Hunter Centre -- a project Zack has been spearheading, intended to benefit the impoverished community of North Central Regina. Joanne soon realizes that sinister interests are working behind the scenes of the election, and another savage act makes clear that someone will stop at nothing to maintain the status quo. The Shreve campaign perseveres, but when Zack's opponents share some shocking information about the past, the revelation sends Joanne reeling. As tensions around the election build, Joanne tries to hold herself together, keep her family intact, and get to the bottom of why a series of violent incidents, seemingly related to the mayoral race, all lead back to a mysterious property in North Central, 12 Rose Street. – Discover

Anne Emery – I first met Anne at an author reading at Keshen Goodman Public Library and her enthusiasm for her work, her love of music, and her multi-faceted characters drew me into the Halifax stories of Monty Collins and Father Brennan Burke.  Their unusual but long standing friendship makes every book in the series well worth the read.  It’s also great to read along and identify local landmarks and events with someone who writes passionately and beautifully about life on the East Coast.

Her latest book in this series is Ruined Abbey and it is a prequel to the popular Collins-Burke series.

"In this prequel to the Collins-Burke series, Father Brennan Burke is home in New York when news of his sister's arrest in London sends him flying across the ocean. The family troubles deepen when Brennan's cousin Conn is charged with the murder of a Special Branch detective and suspected in a terrorist plot against Westminster Abbey. The Burkes come under surveillance by the murdered cop's partner and are caught in a tangle of buried family memories."--bookmanager.com.

Chevy Stevens – I was first introduced to this British Columbia writer by Shelagh Rogers on an episode of “The Next Chapter” on CBC radio.  I have been hooked ever since.  She is now on her 5^th thriller/mystery novel and as far as I’m concerned she just keeps getting better.  Her novels are all stand alone and the only recurring character is a psychiatrist.  This makes it easy to pick up any one of her books and start reading.  For anyone who enjoyed Emma Donoghue’s Room, Chevy Stevens first book Still Missing is a great read-alike.

Her latest is Those Girls and it’s a stay up until you finish page turner.

 
"Life has never been easy for the three Campbell sisters. Jess, Courtney, and Dani live on a remote ranch in Western Canada where they work hard and try to stay out of the way of their father's temper. One night, a fight gets out of hand and the sisters are forced to go on the run, only to get caught in an even worse nightmare when their truck breaks down in a small town. As events spiral out of control they find themselves in a horrifying situation and are left with no choice but to change their names and create new lives. Eighteen years later, they are still trying to forget what happened that summer. But when one of the sisters goes missing, followed closely by her niece, they are pulled back into the past. And this time there's nowhere left to run. – Publisher

Although neither of these authors was born in Canada, we’ve happily adopted Joy Fielding and Kathy Reichs as our own. 

Fielding is a Canadian citizen and a longtime resident of Toronto. Her latest book Someone is Watching kept me up and creeped me out.  The perfect combination!

"After a brutal attack Jade can't shake off the feeling that someone is watching her, monitoring her every move. Even after her half-sister, Claire, and Claire's sassy teenage daughter, Jade, move into her apartment to care for her, their presence does little to ease her overwhelming anxiety. She begins spying on her neighbours through high-powered binoculars, becoming obsessed with the new tenants in the building across from hers. But the strange things she sees only deepen her fears."--bookmanager.com.

Kathy Reichs is an American whose popular Temperance Brennan series goes back and forth between the United States, usually North Carolina, and Montreal.  Reichs does work in Quebec as well as in the U.S. so we’ve happily claimed her as one of our own.  The television series “Bones” is based on the novels with some notable changes.

Her latest novel in the series is Speaking in Bones and it begins in North Carolina with the promise of Montreal visits.

Hazel "Lucky" Strike, an abrasive amateur sleuth who mines the Internet for unsolved missing persons cases, confronts forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan with a tape recording of a terrorized Cora Teague, who's been missing for three years and whose bones sit in Brennan's lab. Initially doubtful of Hazel's veracity, Brennan heads into the mountains of North Carolina where unexplained ghost lights convey meaning for a satanic cult rumored to perform ritual sacrifice. Father G, a defrocked Roman Catholic priest and head of the Jesus Lord Holiness cult, has been leading nocturnal exorcisms for people suffering from multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia. As Brennan struggles to separate fact from hearsay as well as saints from sinners, she literally digs up the truth-particularly when the cult strikes "Lucky" dead. – Library Journal

Stayed tuned for Part II of my list of Canada's best crime writers!

Louise