When I first went searching through my local bookstore's books in the Gay & Lesbian section I was hoping to find some long and good reads. Then this book hit me.

I have been reading quite a lot of homo erotic books lately, even though my mother considers it disgusting and woulds perfer I read normal erotica.

When the book hit me and I read a few of the stories I was blown away. Not only is it well written, it isn't just mindless sex like some books. (Though I never did mind that...)

And it, like a lot of homo erotica, isn't porn. Would you say a normal romance, with half the pages filled with sex, porn? I don't think so. Don't be put of by editorial reviews. They don't know what they're writing about most of the time.

This is a value for money book and if you're interested in this area of fiction I strongly suggest buying it.

Barwin is the most exciting poet to come out of Canada since Ted Padgett and Ron Berrigan moved to Toronto to start the New Toronto School in the 60s.

The poems in this engaging, inciteful, and energetic collection build on the work created by bpMcCaffery and Steve Nichol of the TISH Research Group and the visionary free-form poetics espoused by Don Bissett and Bill Coles.

Barwin's poems are always inventive and invigorating. Imagine if Seamus Heaney and Tristan Tzara met T.S. Eliot and Rimbaud on a day when the potatoes were on fire. This book would be the result.

This is a fascinating book, full of strange images and unexpected juxtapositions. I was totally unprepared for the earthy/ethereal tension that informs all the poems. Here, in a poem called "Canning Peaches", the narrator observes "peaches in a pile/looking soft as babies' heads/*fontanelle* the spot you couldn't touch." later the image is recaught with the lines "those peaches/coasting dark behind the glass/each one with its floating pit/some hopeless brown brain" A combination of images that's perfect, but unexpected.

Greco knows nature, she observes the birds and plants around her with a painful intensity. In her poems crows are old ladies remembering past romance, crabs play honky-tonk jazz across the beach, spiders are astronauts exploring bathtub. In each poem, I see the everyday in a new way that amuses, disturbs, intrigues. She writes about quiet moment that seem to embody the entire world-- as captured in the title "The Chicken Builds an Empire in An Ocean of Dust", or the lines in "Before The Time of the Angel" that explore the word "Pre-Raphaelite"

she understood the word to mean
before the time of the angel
and wondered if that was something like
how Mary the Virgin had looked
before that angel filled her
with terror and light

"Terror" and "Light" are two perfect words to describe "Rattlesnake Plantain", and when I arrived at these lines I felt like I'd got to the heart of her book. This is book definitely worth reading, and worth buying.

Fortunately for us, the creators of 'RCMP: The March West' have captured the magic and historical significance of the RCMP and a country now called Canada.

A fine contribution to Canadian history.

Lynn-Philip Hodgson, author of 'Inside - Camp X'. lhodgson@idirect.com

I quite enjoyed reading this book, and believe it presents the topic of Alkonkian art in a very interesting manner. I grew up in Sault Ste Marie, in an area with many 'pictographs' and I think this book would be particularly meaningful to those who have grown up on the Canadian Shield and have an appreciation and interest in the history and meaning of the rock art they have seen. In terms of the writing, the book is well researched and referenced, and the writing is interesting and readable by the layperson.

MAN!! I had no idea of what was in store for me when I picked this book from the shelf. I read one page that was kinda funny and I thought it would be good. It turned out the it was so hilarious I was laughing so hard I could barely breath!!! I read the whole book in one day, and I loved it. The sheer stupidity of the book made it even more funny, with jokes about using engine parts to serve food and laying your tongue across the car battery terminals to test the battery. It had a wacky crossword puzzle that only the author could figure out because the clues made no sense, and that made it more funny. I would definately recommend this book. Jonathan Gray Age 14

Nothing earth shaking, but a good reference tool for would-be researchers.

Where to begin? Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote one of my favorite books, "Anne of Green Gables". A book that inspired many lovely childhood dreams. The dreams became a reality when I went to Prince Edward Island in 1998 - Searching for Anne, Green Gables and all the magic of LM Montgomery!

While on the Island I bought a number of books and visited many Anne related sites. All of this made me want more! The other books I read were well written and informative; but, this book about Maud by Alexandra Heilbron grabbed my attention from the very first page. I enjoyed her question and answer approach. This way we got the actual thoughts and feeling of the people she interviews. We did not get the authors (AH) thoughts and feelings on LMM. Once I started reading it was very hard to put down.

I like the fact that Alexandra Heilbron actually went to the Island to do her interviews ; it provided such authenticity to her writing. To actually show pictures of the people she interviewed was something new. And, there were new LMM pictures , a delight to see; when so many other publications use the same photos over and over again.

Towards the back of the book there are examples of some of Maud's ( she preferred being called "Maud") poetry. Charming. There are reviews of Maud's work written at the time of her books publication. There is even a published review that Maud did herself about writing and other authors! As I said, I found it hard to put this book down.

It is obvious from the way the book was written that the author (AH) is well acquainted with her material, many small details add to the charm of the book. I like the physical size of it, too. Large, soft covered and easy to hold when reading.

On a scale of 1 to 10; I give it a 9 1/2. Why not a 10? Because if I give it the highest mark, Ms. Heilbron might not write another LMM book. I sincerely hope she does, this one was a delight!

Repossessing The World: Reading Memoirs By Contemporary Women by Helen M. Buss (Professor of English, University of Calgary) is an eclectic anthology literary criticism of diverse memoirs of a variety of modern women. From analytic insight into "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston to a thoughtful, scholarly discussion of the memoirs written by women as studied in modern academics, Repossessing The World is a fascinating, seminal, challenging, and at times iconoclastic, college-level discourse of the hidden depths in writing by female authors and highly recommended for serious students of women's studies and contemporary literary criticism.

Profusely and beautifully illustrated with full-color photography throughout, Greg McDonnell's Rites Of Passage: A Canadian Railway Retrospective is a welcome celebration of Canada's railroading history and heritage. This wonderful compendium of boiler steam and diesel powered railroad engines showcases the high iron and midnight runs across Canadian prairies form more than thirty-years of train transportation connecting and binding a nation's population centers and vast expanses. Also highly recommended for the railroading enthusiast are Greg McDonnell's previous works: The History Of Canadian Railroads and Passing Trains.