It amazes me that otherwise educated and articulate scholars and professors, like Rosemary Sullivan, are woefully ignorant of research in sociobiology into the nature of gender. Not only is Sullivan unaware of these studies, but she also seems to either dismiss, or lack knowledge of, the folk wisdom of centuries. She writes well of what she calls the "obsessive" romantic love that women seek, and of their anguish, grief and loss when this love ends. She writes of gifted, strong women who subjugate their own talents and careers to those of men.

She does not factor into her analysis the fact that women, as mammalian creatures, are hardwired physiologically and hormonally for connectedness. Yes, we are more than mere animals, but a good starting point in searching for reasons for women's behavior is to look at our physical makeup. Without women's need to be connected to a man, to bear and to nurture children, to cherish family and community ties, our species would soon become extinct.
At the emotional core of a woman is not just "obsessive" love for a man, not just romantic passion for physical lovemaking, but also the fierce, unending, protecting and nurturing love of a mother for her children.

Women soon learn that they need the structures of society, especially those pertaining to marriage and the family, to sustain their search for personal fulfillment. Wise women (including those who have had to learn the hard way) know that they trespass outside these structures at their own peril.

Yes, romantic love is wonderful, and falling in love is an unforgettable, defining experience; but especially for women, that experience is only the prelude to a rich and satisfying life.

Wonderful, thoughtful book that I wish someone had given me long ago. Why do we fall in love? What does it mean to fall in love? What are we searching for? Intoxicating.

sexy. compelling. engrossing. insightful. and empowering.
we do lose ourselves when we fall in love and I now know what it was. I feel woken up and shaken. I can logically analyze what had happened. I also have to read Wethering Heights again with more clarity.

Interested in all things paranormal, I had goosebumps when I went through the chapters of the book. My family had also had a history of living in haunted houses before, and some of the accounts described in the book were very similar. It is very hard to believe when you have never experienced it. It is somewhat sad to know that ghosts make their presence known as a cry for help. I finished the book in less than two days, it was so compellng!

I loved this book! It is well organized and thought out and conveys a creepy feeling without totally freaking out the reader. The story is about a Canadian family living in a haunted house that they bought and renovated. The story moves along smoothly getting creepier all the time and the author does an excellent job of conveying the confusion and self doubt triggered by supernatural events. I highly recommend this book.

This book was so much fun to read. Dorah L. Williams has written it just perfectly- she draws you in and is so convincing, you will believe every word of this scary tale. This is not a story about demon possession, as so many haunted house stories end up being. In fact, the majority of her ghosts seem to be children, which makes it all the more interesting. It's a good old fashioned ghost story that just happens to be true- and if you read it at night, you'll definitely find yourself looking over your shoulder!

I was impressed with the reviews for this book, enough to buy it, but I was quite dissapointed. Yes, it is well laid out for a beginner, but only two of seven types of birds that have come to feed on seed I've laid on my deck, in Northern California, were in the book. A more comprehensive book would be much more useful.

I am a neophyte birder and this book was perfect as a beginning guide in identifying and recognizing common birds in the western region. The other bird guides I have purchased (National Geographic and Audubon) were exceptional, but for a novice, they presented too much information and too many birds. This book struck a nice, comfortable compromise. The photos of each bird are excellent and provide you a good look at the features and characteristics of each. They also tell you succinctly where the habitat would be and where you would most likely see each bird.

The best feature was that each bird was divided by color. So if you see a Wilson's warbler in your backyard but don't know for certain if your call is correct, you can quickly thumb to the "yellow" section of the book and see all the yellow birds. Thus you can quickly confirm your identification.

This book would have limited, or no value to an experienced birder, but for the beginning birder, this is a fine introduction to the hobby of birding.

While in Quebec, I purchased Stokes: Guide to Birds of North America, eastern region. The Broquet publishers have done a dedicated job translating this guide. I wanted it in French since the species traveling over "language bounderies" would understandably assume different names. What made me select THIS book over others is that it not only included the English/N. American name of the species but also the binomial nomenclature, which many Canadian books were missing.
Even if your French is minimal, I highly recommend this book if your traveling in Quebec because not every aviary identifies these species in English.

The second book by Todd Swift, this volume is beautifully constructed. The poems are lovely and lyrical. Mr. Swift is a dedicated poet, and the book shows it!
Kathleen Spivack.

The second book by this young poet; lovely poems and well arranged. A lyrical collection. Swift is a poet to watch.
Kathleen Spivack

No less breathtaking than the most intimate gaze of Roland Barthes, Swift's new collection of poems dares to go beyond Language by leaving us to dwell, if just for a moment, in a bantam world where we graze upon nostalgia, bend with desire, feed upon the barbiturate that can only be named longing--all the while being soothed by the lifeline of the lyric. Reading Cafe Alibi, we are privileged to visit an autarkic world where the aethetics of desire establish their own sense of time and order. A chilling and stunning read!

Because we forgot to bring the books we already had at home, we had to buy new ones once we arrived in the Canadian Rockies this summer. This one did exactly what we wanted it to: it gave us an idea of which hikes to do (with so much choice and so little time), and they all lived up to what the description promised in the book. We did however sometimes wonder how the author came to rate the hikes easy, moderate or difficult, as we found some that were meant to be easy more difficult and ones that were rated moderate/hard quite easy. Nevertheless: a very good book to give you an appetite for hiking in the Rockies and very helpful when you don't have much time.

These are excellent walks for those on a time budget but who want to see more than the hoard from the latest coach tour. The scenery is so vast that walking further gains little benefit anyway, but it gets you out of the car park and to some breathtaking scenery and peace and quiet. In most cases with very little effort.

If you like photography and if you don't, it tells you the best time of day to see the sights - Use it to plan your holiday - you don't need anything else.

Easy to read, easy on the eye and not too big; the best guide to any area I've visited.

This is the perfect hiking/walking guide for travelers who aren't in the best physical condition. We, along with my parents who are in their 70's, spent an intense 10 days in the parks covered by this book. We took nearly all the hikes that the author noted as his favorites, plus a few more, and had no other hiking guides other than what was available on the Parks Canada web page. We found the book fairly accurate as to photography notes, difficulties, and geographics. For those wanting to take only the shorter or easier hikes, this is a great value of a book.

Trudging through this book was a task, and not something I rather enjoyed. I believe if you are going to read something, you should enjoy it. And this... did nothing for me. If you want to know about Canada, or better yet, the Hudson Bay Company; the Canadian Government offers great links and information that was far more enticing then this novel.

Should be mandatory reading for all highschool and undergraduate history courses. There is absolutely no better account of the founding of North America by Europeans than this. I can't believe that I was unable to find availability of this book in Canada.

This book actually goes far beyond the Hudson Bay Company to tell the history of Western Canada. The real greatness of this book the way the author takes a topic and makes it come alive. For example, when it comes time to discuss pemmicam, the food used by the voyageurs, you get a mini-history of buffalo and how each part of the body is used. These lengthy digressions take away some of the chronological flow of the book, but they are well worth it. If you like to know what it was really like to live in a different place at a different time, this is the book for you.

This is an eclectic collection of short pieces (a little too short and non-narrative to be called short stories) on topics such as Chicken Little, the importance of dumb women in literature, Hamlet from Gertrude's perspectives, war, death, birth and more. There is no doubting, reading this, that Atwood has a feminist bent, but don't let that you scare you off - it is definitely not a ram-down-your-throat version of feminism. Rather, it is a funny, smart and insightful perspective.

I would not recommend this as an introduction to Atwood - a first time reader would probably be better suited to reading one of her novels such as The Blind Assassin or The Handmaid's Tale first. But I think that for readers that have encountered Atwood before, this collection will give you an insight into a fascinating and wryly humourous writer.

Much as I hate to give anything by Margaret Atwood fewer than 5 stars, honesty requires me to say that this collection is uneven and sometimes boring. Flashes of brilliance (_Hamlet_ from Gertrude's perpective is the best) still make it worth reading. What the heck - you'll get through it in an afternoon, and it's MUCH better than most of what's out there.

There is quite a mixture of ``genres'' and moods in the book. Some of them, I do not know how to name these writings, are pure satires and witty criticisms of the crook in every human being and in humanity in general, and others are like a breeze getting free from one's stream of consciousness. I felt this latter type really close to me and discovered why: because they are poems without the traditional poetic form. They can transmit a mood into the reader. Yes, they have no story or obvious message to the mind but rather to the whole human being; not food for the analysing mind but a kind of programs that get all your internal resources arranged into a special pattern which is more visual, that is, you rather wonder at it than think about it because you feel it moving and coming to life in you, than verbal.

This is the kind of in-depth thorough Star Wars collecting book that many in the hobby are craving. The author isn't scared to take on an esoteric, yet fascinating slice of Star Wars collectibles (namely the Canadian Star Wars toy line) and cover everything about it in detail, from common items, to variations, to hard-to-find rarities. Some of the rarest pieces pictured in this book appear nowhere else in print.

This is not the book for the beginning Star Wars collector, however I do not know a single longtime Star Wars collector who does not own this resource. The photography could be a little better, but still captures all the essentials.

I finished reading through James' book this weekend, and I am very impressed with it. The information is displayed in an easy to follow manner, and it works great as a resource guide. It definitely belongs among the reference materials of any vintage Star Wars collector. As a Kenner collector, I also found the book to be full of history about the company. This was a pleasant, and educational surprise.

Dan W. Flarida

KennerToys.com

Attention collectors: There is finally a book which focuses only on the vintage Star Wars line released in Canada. There are many rare and highly sought after toys which came out only in Canada. This book successfully organizes and pictures these Canadian Star Wars toys in order to inform the serious Star Wars collector about these rare and often elusive items. There are hundreds of pictures and a lot of useful information. I would recommend this book to any serious Star Wars collector.

Geat time reading !
I still have 2 questions :
1. What is a Crowbill bird ?
2. No Mosquitos pested the stranded crew ?

A totally gripping true-life adventure, written in 1976 by an 88-year old Glasgow schoolmaster who, prior to serving as an officer in WW1, was one of the survivors of a horrifically mismanaged Arctic expedition. The "Karluk" was one of three vessels involved in an exploration of the Canadian Arctic in 1913, master-minded by one Vilhajalmur Stefansson, a monomaniac fixated on the idea of the Arctic as a friendly environment in which abundant food could be soured. In the event however none of the expedition members received any relevant training in survival skills before setting out. The ships' crews did not expect to winter in the Arctic while the scientific staff, of whom McKinlay was one, were almost all young men straight from University, with no previous Arctic experience. Steffanson's callousness in deserting the Karluk once it was ice-bound, and starting an independent five-year exploration journey without making any attempt to arrange rescue of its crew, almost beggars comprehension. McKinlay's story of misery, squalor, sickness, death, cowardice and heroism over the following year is at times depressing reading, but is always gripping. Of the Karluk's complement of twenty five, eleven died following the break-up of the ship in the ice north of Siberia, in the attempts to reach land and during the subsequent struggle to stay alive under conditions of extreme privation. That any survived is due to the heroism of the Karluk's captain, Robert Bartlett, who with one Eskimo companion managed to reach the Siberian mainland to seek help while the other survivors attempted to eke out an existence on the bleak Wrangel Island. The author's account is understated as regard his own role but it was obviously critical in maintaining morale and cohesion in an ill-assorted group with no real basis for camaraderie and discipline. It is the lack of these two factors that McKinlay found the great difference with his later, albeit terrible, experiences in Flanders, making the Wrangel Island episode incomparably worse. The writing is simple, spare and elegant and sweeps the reader along. It is the narrative of a decent, courageous man and it deserves to live on as a classic or adventure and exploration.

I purchased this book to send to my son who teaches history. I decided I would read it, first. The author was a teacher and was honored that he was selected to take this exploration voyage with so many distinguished scientists. This book will show you what the body and spirit can endure when it has the ardent desire to live; among the survivors is the Eskimo family with two children, ages eleven and three, and a cat. This happened in 1913-1914. It will make you wonder if today's people still have the endurance and the will to survive as seen in this era.

This novel has several flaws (it made me want to grab a great big red pen and get to work). The "duel" scene wasn't worth dragging up to - it shouldn't have been in the last pages. The relationship with the father didn't further the plot in any way and tag-lined somewhere on the edge of the story (To make the book longer? What was the point of this? It added nothing to the main character). Several times in the novel the main character is off on her own doing some task that inevitably fails (finding Basra, finding Evan, etc) and after awhile I wished she would stop bringing us all along with her. The relationship with Amir is left hanging in the middle of the novel after we have spent the first have of the novel meeting him (Why, WHY, does she stay in Toronto??? Why did we meet Amir at all???). My worst pet peeve: Several times in the story Arcadia "bumps" into people in huge, bustling cities. The first time this happens, I can deal with it. The second time it happens, the author points it out; it's not believable, but I give her the benefit of the doubt. However, Catherine Bush does it a THIRD TIME later in the novel with Evan . . . c'mon now. It's no longer a coincidence. It's just contrived. I did enjoy the revelation in the end. . . if only it were better handled and I didn't have to suffer the whole book to get to it.

The events of this book resonated personally, making the story quite a satisfying one to read. Like Arcadia, I have an interest in war studies (being one of the slightly maligned 'peace and conflict' students she mentions). I also fled to a new city (Toronto, ironically) to escape personal pain and with the intention of reinventing myself. I think the book becomes even more compelling as Catherine Bush gradually and often elegantly reveals how Arcadia's constant questions about war and internvention are really manifestations of past psychological pain, as well as means of understaning the meaning of events she yas yet to reconcile. The idea of facing up to one's demons isn't terribly original; however, if you prefer that these stories have an intellectual bent along with a dash of local colour, then this book is worth reading.

In "The Rules of Engagement", Catherine Bush creates a near
flawless meditation of the nature of war and the nature of
love. Arcadia Hearne, the main character, flees from Canada (and two
lovers), then emigrates to England, where she excels at hiding from
the past, allowing only her sister and parents sporadic contact.

Over
the course of this novel, Arcadia has to come to terms with acts of
agression in both her personal life (a duel is fought over her) and in
her professional life (Arcadia works for the Centre for War
Studies). She also comes in to contact with a group which facilitates
escapes for African refugees. As she aids in facilitating these
refugees' flight, Arcadia is compelled to face her demons, and return
to Canada for the first time since her departure a decade
previously.

Bush is a masterful writer, with insights and meditations
of both love and war which are reminiscent of Milan Kundera's
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and
"Immortality." While the correlation between war and love is
present, Bush is skillful in not abusing the power of the metaphor
through overuse or heavy-handedness. Overall, the writing is fresh and
intelligent. The story is utterly believable, and Arcadia Hearne is an
incredible character. Through Arcadia's quirks, and the idiosyncracies
of the people in her life, these people come to life in their own
unique way.

This is an incredibly intelligent novel, and a highly
enjoyable read. If you like Milan Kundera's early novels, you will
definitely enjoy "The Rules of Engagement."