Spring 2008 Volume 22 - No. 1 - BC BookWorld

36 BC BOOKWORLD SPRING 2008roughened in undercurrentleafpress.cashauna paullcritical books for critical thinkersLIQUID GOLDEnergy Privatization in British ColumbiaJohn Calvertavailable from your local independent bookstoreor contact 902.857.1388 / info@fernpub.ca“John Calvertdebunks theclaims of theprivate energyindustry’sequivalentof snake-oilsalesmen, whileably defendingB.C.’s publicpower heritagethat serves usso well.”- BILL TIELEMAN,columnist andpolitical commentatorwww.fernwoodpublishing.caNew from Black Rose BooksCONCISE GUIDE TO GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTSDaniel Fischlin, Martha NandorfyThis book is an urgently needed and sophisticated reflection on thevital nature of human rights in the 21st century.“In a world facing the growing challenges of globalized apartheid andpandemic poverty, human rights will determine the future...thisbook allows us to reclaim our hope in that future.”—Roger Clark, Amnesty International288 pages, 1-55164-294-8 $24.99MARVELLOUS CENTURY: Archaic Man and theAwakening of ReasonGeorge WoodcockFilled with characters, events, romance, and intrigue, here is a fascinatingjourney through the 6th century B.C. that allows us to experiencethe beauty, savagery and all-encompassing impact of acentury characterized by a cluster of events that changed irrevocablythe way humans looked upon the universe and even upon themselves.256 pages, 1-55164-266-2 $24.99OBSESSION, WITH INTENT: Violence Against WomenLee LakemanObsession, With Intent is an investigative report into one hundredcases of violence against women; in all cases the women tried to gethelp from the system. It reviews 911 procedure, from how the emergencyoperator evaluates the call, to the police, to prosecuting attorney,to court, to sentencing. It is a harrowing account of individualwomen’s stories and the dangers they faced.224 pages, 1-55164-262-X $24.99THE RAGING GRANNIES: Wild Hats, Cheeky Songs,and Witty Actions for a Better WorldCarole RoyThis is the tale of the Raging Grannies: their beginning and growth,the invention of their identity, the bold potential of their activism,the values expressed in their actions and songs, and their impact onissues, stereotypes, media, and people—bursting with adventures,protest songs, photographs, Granny profiles, and Granny wisdom.Available at your local bookstore, or by calling 1-800-565-9523Visit our booth during the Congress Book FairUniversity of British Columbia, May 31st to June 7thFor more great reads check out our website athttp://www.blackrosebooks.netWreck Beachby Carellin BrooksFind it hereTRANSMONTANUS 16Duthie Books on W. 4th AvenuePulpfiction on Main StreetPeople’s Co-op BookstoreMagpie Book & Magazine GalleryBlackberry Books • Black BondUBC Bookstore • Book WarehouseChapters • Indigo Books + Musicchapters.indigo.ca • amazon.comPublished by New Star BooksOUTSIDE THE BOXProud MaryHow the annals of Mary Rice have been resurrectedRaised in theShawnigan areaof Vancouver Island,at Chemainus, byher very English parentsMr. and Mrs. RichmondBeauchamp Halhed,Beryl Mildred Cryer wasborn Beryl MildredHalhed in Auckland,New Zealand in 1889.Having arrived atShawnigan Lake in 1892, shelater maintained the area receivedits name from a hybridword commemorating twoearly Anglo settlers, Shawand Finnegan. She marriedlocal businessman WilliamClaude Cryer and they hadone child.During the Depression, atthe request of the managing editor of theDaily Colonist newspaper in Victoria, shecollected Coast Salish stories fromHul’q’umi’num’ elders, mainly her nextdoor neighbour Mary Rice fromKuper Island, as well as Joe andJennie Wyse, for a series of 60 articlesthat appeared in the Sunday Magazinesupplement.For instance, also co-wrote an articlewith Jennie Wyse (Tstass-Aya) for theDaily Colonist about a battle between theSnunéymuxw of Gabriola Island and theLekwiltok from a century before.Although she was not trained as a journalistor anthropologist, Cryer was carefulto keep track of the sources of thenarratives, enabling ethnographers whocame afterwards to trace their origins andbetter understand their meanings.Her associations with the Coast Salishled to the publication of her book slantedtowards children called The Flying Canoe:Legends of the Cowichans (Victoria:J. Parker Buckle Printing, 1949). Shedied in Welland, Ontario, in 1980.Cryer’s contributions to coastal ethnologywere subsequently edited byChris Arnett for Two Houses Half-Buried in Sand: Oral Traditions of theHul’q’umi’num’ Coast Salish of KuperIsland and Vancouver Island(Talonbooks $24.95). 978-0-88922-555-8✍In his memoir Alone Against the Arctic(Heritage $19.95), AnthonyDalton recalls making a near-fatal solovoyage by small open boataround the west and northcoasts of Arctic Alaska in thesummer of 1984.The narrative records his attemptto make a solo transit ofthe Northwest Passage in orderto appreciate the struggles of anarduous Arctic rescue missionundertaken by three U.S. officersfrom the cutter Bear in1897-98. The threesome set offHul’q’umi’num’ storyteller Mary RiceAnthony Daltonfrom below the Arctic Circle in an effortto drive a herd of 300 reindeer over 1,500miles of frozen tundra and ice to Point Barrow,Alaska.As he undergoes his own ordeal, Daltonrecalls the heroic efforts of the three menwho tried to bring the reindeer herd tothe crews of eight whaling ships strandedin the ice, on the verge of starvation.978-1-894974-33-2✍Rick Antonson’s To Timbuktufor a Haircut (Dundurn $26.95) is anamusing memoir about his intrepid journeyto Mali, via Senegal, to visit the fabledcity, and his resulting determinationto help preserve Timbuktu’s approximately700,000 endangered ancientmanuscripts. The title is derived from afavoured expression of his father wheneverhis two young sons pestered him asto where he was going. Antonson’s fatherwould reply, “I’m going to Timbuktu toget my haircut.”Some fifty years later, Antonson’s longimaginedjourney was undertaken in thewake of his participation in the successfulbid to procure the 2010 Winter Olympicsfor Vancouver/Whistler. “We werestuck. Everyone in the Land Cruiserjumped to the ground to lighten the load.Two weeks earlier I had used my handsto scuff snow from under the wheels of afriend’s Jeep that had got stuck in Canadianmountains. Now, I carved armfulsof sand from behind the Land Cruiser’swheels to achieve the same effect. Wepushed and the vehiclelurched forward. We continuedtoward Essakane. Our vehicle’sshocks abdicated. Itwas an atrocious experience,and I loved it. These hours,as we bore north, wereamong my most memorableexperiences of the land—vast,faraway, uncertain. It waswhat I’d long envisioned Timbuktuto be.” 978-1-55002-805-8