This book is great. It provides a comparative analysis of ways in which the European Convention on Human Rights, the Canadian Charter of Rights and the US Bill of Rights protect (or fail to protect) lesbian and gay rights. It is comprehensive in its approach - the only criticism being that it is now out of date. This is a prblem particularly for the sections of Europe and Canada, as a great deal of improvement in legal protection of lesbians and gay men has occurred in those jurisdictions. But despite this, it is still a very useful book for understanding the development of rights protections in these three jurisdictions. Suitable primarily for lawyers, law students and political scientists - not really for the lay reader.

This is a highly informative book not only for those living on Prince Edward Island but for anyone interested in shipbuilding. Beautifully presented with pictures of ships on one page and informative writing on the opposite page, this is a wonderful piece of literature. I highly recommend it, even as one who has not been to P.E.I.

Friesen stuns with potent, disturbing images, and awakens a yearning for the sacred. His book, which is actually one long poem, is a masterpiece. Friesen captures a longing long denied us--a thirst for a faith--and firmly pulls the reader into this story of a Mennonite farmer's destruction. The farmer is excommunicated (shunned) by his church for questioning an aspect of the Christian faith. The story is told through the eyes of the farmer's brother, usually, but occasionally we see through the eyes of the wife, the children, the townspeople, and, perhaps, a distanced, clinical god. Before this work is dismissed as yet another "to hell with Grandpa's religion" book, it is important to note that the book pays no attention to the validity of the farmer's quandry, but instead focuses on the pain, the isolation, and the loss, of a solitary man in his microcosm

Robert Belton's Sights Of Resistance provides an in-depth analysis of approaches to understanding Canadian visual arts and culture. Chapters provide many case studies for understanding, while an accompanying CDROM provides a glossary of further explanation: a fine marriage of the book/computer worlds.

I enjoyed reading this well researched biography of Sir John George Bourinot. I have used, on occasion, Bourinot's Rules of Order in meetings and this book brought to life for me the historical character behind the original rule book. The biography is well written, with extensive notes, and covers mainly the Victorian age. It was interesting to find he wrote some fiction and had a life outside of his duties as clerk of the House of Commons as a founder and long time secretary to the Royal Society of Canada.

The author is well versed in the various constitutional, historical and developmental aspects of Canada as a nation during the 19th century and wove these into the biography. She provided details on some of the constitutional problems that Bourinot was asked to solve and how he took an interest in procedure in other type meetings outside of parliament. Overall, a very satisfying and educational read.

Jim Lochrie

If you really want to know what life North of 60 is like, read this collection. Admittedly, life in the large towns (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Whitehorse) is like any town, but anyone who has lived up north will know people who live much like Martin.

As if the title wasn't enough, the close up cover photo of a gaping clam leaves nothing to the imagination as MacInnes leads us on a voyage of discovery through this wonderful collection of short poems. From the opening stanza of "Red Flag's a-flying" to the haunting final verse of "On The Blob", "Snatch" knocks "The Vagina Monologues" into the proverbial Wizard's Sleeve.

This book is a joyful celebration of the Books of Moses, rendered in Mayne's carefully crafted verses. Very appropriate for the classroom and family reading.

This book really helped me improve my vocabulary. I've been using the vocabulary scoring system and i've been having a riot with the people at the office playing the word game at the back of the book!

I picked up the Spark Notes for Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" because I am using it for a Science Fiction class I am teaching and I always like to try and pick up most of the study guides that students might, uh, use, in writing their papers (yes, I have had students turn in papers typed up directly from such works). In terms of this small blue volume's contents, here is what you will find:

(1) Plot Overview, a 3-page summary of the entire novel; (2) Character List, which actually provides brief descriptions of 14 characters; (3) Analysis of the Major Characters, providing brief looks at Offred, the Commander, Serena Joy, and Moira; (4) Themes (e.g., Women's Bodies as Political Instruments), Motifs (e.g., Religious Terms Used for Political Purposes) & Symbols (e.g., The Handmaid's Red Habits), each of which are developed enough to give readers an understanding of the concept that could lead to a nice paper without providing enough to actually plagarize (a plus from my perspective); (5) Summary & Analysis of the book, broken down into groups of 3 to 5 chapters at a time, with summaries of each chapter and then a summary of the overall group; (6) Important Quotations Explained looks at five rather long quotations from the book, all of which are set up in the Summary & Analysis section; (7) Key Fact provides a nice three page summary of everything from the novel's genre to Atwood's use of foreshadowing; (8) Study Questions & Essay Topics; and (9) Review & Resources, including a quiz, a glossary of terms, and suggestions for further reading.

Yes, this little blue book created by Harvard students for students everywhere ("Smarter Better Faster") can help you fake having read the book, which is a shame because Atwood is such a great writer. For me the key part is always the analysis and concepts, all of which serve to help students get some critical insights into the work. If they get that from this book rather than me, then that would still qualify as having no insights at all. The final question, of course, is how does this Spark Notes stack up against its Cliff Notes counterpart? I would have to say it comes in a close second, mainly because with regards to "The Handmaid's Tale," Cliff Notes has a chapter by chapter vocabulary list that explains key terms and phrases, which is always a big asset with students reading the novel (Spark Notes has as many titles and terms for the entire book as the other offers up for some of the chapters).