Eric shows a sensual understanding of a modern relationship. His insight into love and communication between a couple opened many windows of awareness for me.

It is seductive to read Anne Michaels' collected poems as a companion piece to her breath-taking debut novel 'Fugitive Pieces', a fictionialised first-hand account of a young poet who learns how to articulate the horror of his family's past and find redemption though language and the love of a woman. The novel's protagonist writes poems about the persistence of memory, the burden of surviving the Holocaust, and the need for human connection, and a number of poems in this volume explore similar themes. As in 'Fugitive Pieces', Michaels also draws upon her impressive understanding of disparate disciplines including Antarctic exploration, music, geology and mathematics, to make her points. It is as if she has penned a small encyclopedia.

I know of no encyclopedia that can match Michael's liquid turn of phrase, however. Michaels' words fill one's mouth like cold plums: they have a crisp earthy simplicity yet gloriously ooze at the bite.

The underlying theme of many of the poems, as in 'Fugitive Pieces', is the struggle to accept the absurdity of the human condition: the manner in which we are nourished by love, and crave it, yet are inevitably crippled by it when a loved one dies. As Michaels writes in the poem 'Memorium': "The dead leave us starving with mouths full of love...We are orphaned, one by one".

The verse which comprise 'Poems' were originally published in three separate volumes over the space of 13 years, and Michaels has clearly developed her voice in this time. While the earlier poems of 'The Weight of Oranges' are taught and linear, there is something less hurried about the latter poems of 'Skin Divers'. One experiences the sublime sustained pause between the black marks on her page, which contributes depth to her lyric (to coin a musical metaphor which Michaels might well appreciate given her fascination with the piano and the secrets which its playing reveals). The difference between the earlier poems and the latter can be explained by the poet's confidence to dwell a little longer in the image, to explore its possibilities, and to play with cadence and sound.

Each of the poems share, however, Michaels' admirable ability to make the everyday remarkable. She writes of salt, stone and peat, and of mistaking the sea for the sky (in the poem 'Near Ashdod'), yet enables these objects to articulate the yearnings of the human heart. At other times, she finds words and images to articulate the extraordinary - the horrific and ethereal - in terms with which the reader can readily identify. Thus we come to know the psychological scars of a Holocaust survivor and the mind of a Nobel Prize winning physicist mourning her husband. Michaels brings alive events and people - poets, writers, painters, and mathematicians - who have long been dead and makes them breathe again. It is for this reason that I asked my History students to read 'Fugitive Pieces', and will have no hestitation in recommending that they delve into Anne Michaels' book of Poems.

Sixteen years ago the senior author published another pollen atlas of Canadian flora (An Atlas of Airborne Pollen Grains and Common Fungus Spores of Canada, by I. J. Bassett, C. W. Crompton, and J. A. Parmelee. 1978). The present volume is a bit more ambitious than the earlier Canadian work because it contains photographs, a key, and pollen descriptions covering 188 plant taxa from 52 different families. The earlier Bassett et al. (1978) atlas focuses mainly on allergenic pollen and spore types in Canada while the present book focuses exclusively on taxa known to be important nectar and pollen sources for Canadian bees. For palynologists working with unknown pollen types found on the bodies of insects, or in samples from archaeological sites, honey samples, forensic specimens, and Quaternary sediments, almost any pollen key or atlas is valuable. Although most palynologists have access to their own modern pollen reference collections, these collections never cover all the potential taxa one might encounter in various samples. This is why pollen atlases are of immense value. Nevertheless, most pollen keys and atlases have their individual flaws, and this atlas is no exception. Some of the SEM plates (i.e., page 136, 156,164, etc.) in this book are quite good, and show morphological details clearly, however, other SEM plates (i.e., pages 147, 148, 159, 165, etc.) are too light to show clear details or are slightly blurred. My other complaint of the SEM plates are that the pictures of individual pollen grains are too small; one needs to use a magnifying glass to see some of the finer details clearly. The light micrographs also suffer. Most are too light to show contrast and many show few clear details of surface ornamentation or of pollen wall morphology. There are a few typos here and there and some citations (i.e., Pollen Spores instead of Pollen et Spores, Faegri and Iverson instead of Faegri and Iversen, Pollen spectrum of Quebec honeys [by Feller-Demalsy] instead of the actual title of "Le Spectre Pollinique des Miels du Qubec," etc.) On the plus side, all the SEM and light micrographs have convenient bar scales making it easy to determine a pollen grain's size. In addition to a pollen key, individual pollen grain descriptions, and both SEM and light micrographs, the book also contains a small amount of text material. Three pages of text in the introduction briefly explain why the authors wrote the book and gives the reader a very brief overview of palynology--mostly in terms of how it applies to the study of bees and honey. There is also a two-page discussion on how to analyze honey for its pollen content. They discuss three methods: 1) mixing equal parts of honey and hot water, mixing it and then making wet mounts of the solution; 2) heating raw honey until, as they say, it is "molten," then centrifuging the hot honey for two minutes at 2500 rpm before pipetting drops from the surface onto a slide for analysis; and 3) mixing 10 g of raw honey with 25 cc of water, centrifuging it, then using acetolyzation. From our own experience, we find that none of these techniques will provide precise contents of pollen data from honey samples. The first method comes the closest, if a large number of pollen grains are counted (ca. 500+). We find that not all the pollen in all honey samples will rise to the top using the second method. Finally, our own experiments, and ones reported by LUTIER & VAISSIERE (Rev. of Paleobotany and Palynology 78:129-144), reveal that the third extraction method mentioned in this book will not capture all of the pollen found in a honey sample. Would I recommend the purchase of this book? The answer is yes! As mentioned earlier, atlases and pollen keys provide the palynologist with additional information beyond his/her own pollen reference collection. I, for one, consider pollen atlases critical for my own work. The cost of the Canadian atlas is inexpensive by comparison to the cost of some of the other pollen atlases available for sale. However, the other atlas available on Canadian pollen and spore flora (Bassett et al. 1978), also available from the Canada Communication Group-Publishing, is an even better buy.

Postscript to Adventure is truly the appropriate name for the life story of Charles William Gordon. Readers of his novels, written under the pen name Ralph Connor, will recognize the real life events which became the basis for many of his stories. This autobiography tells of Gordon's life on the Canadian fronteer, rise to reknown as an author, service during WWI, and how he had an influence on the course of world events. Just as if in a "Horatio Alger" story, Gordon rose from simple beginnings to become Canada's most beloved author and the contemporary of Prime Ministers and Presidents.

You will find Postscript to Adventure riviting from cover to cover.

As a youngster I was first fascinated by the magic of the biblical account of the first end of the earth. And now, as before, I am awstruck. Timothy Findley has not held back in his confrontation of the ignorance and subsequent treachery involved in faith: placing a science/religion dichotemy in the fabled time and setting, is particulary poignant. Much of the story is truely disturbing, engulfed in stenches and darknesses of different kinds, especially when the two ark factions are established. Noahs actions themselves are not so disturbing, but his all-to-real belief - his heartfelt and sacrimonial conviction - that his actions are justified by god. His god and friend and offerer of impunity. But I did enjoy some of the dark humour, so aptly placed to relieve tension (such as demons shouting their last 'whee!' as they are jettisoned). I do admit that much of the story was beyond me, but such obscurity seems rather fitting for a modern myth. And at the end I find myself relating more strongly then ever to the notion that at the end of every day there is a pertinent dread in the expectation of a brand new tomorrow and a brand new age, a brand new and a very foriegn world. But who is there we can pray for rain? Another great commentary on humanity; a fullfilling read.

This book of plays by Canadian female playwrights is a beautiful portrayal of the issues women face today with society and with themselves. It is jam-packed with monologues for female actors of all ages. The plays are not predicable but rather challenge actors and the medium of theatre altogether. It is a must-buy for any actress or actor (there are a few monologues for men)who is seeking an alternative to the mundane contemporary classics.

Published in 1965, Prochain Episode was written while the author, a Quebec nationalist, was awaiting trial for possession of a stolen car. The book caused a sensation when it was published and immediately catapulted Aquin into the ranks of the literary ey elite of Quebec. A must read for anyone wanting to understand the profound forces at work in Quebec during the the 1960s.

The description of the book given by Amazon is pretty much nonexistent so I'll give you a rundown of what it is. It covers mostly Canadian participation in the War in the Atlantic. If you want to know more about that theatre its a great book. Doesn't focus purely on Canadian forces, it gives a more broad look at the theatre as a whole also. The pictures are great(good captions along with the pics too), and there are lots of them but the book still has lots of good text too. I'd recommend this book to just about anyone who has an interest in the Navy. Whether you know nothing about the battle of the Atlantic or if your a war buff this book is still great. It has quite a few smaller stories mixed in with the broader history. It has a very good balance in my opinion.

Anyway, its a great book. Its a shame that there aren't more reviews and more coverage. People tend to skip over a book when the only thing described about it is its name. I can see why though, I wouldn't have bought it if I were just browsing around the site. But its a good book so give it a try.

Carty is giving a review about the Canadian party system in the past as well as he tries to give a glimpse into the future of Canadian parties. He describes and analyses the collapse of the three old party systems and tries to answer the question how long the fourth party system will be stable. This is a book, which is even for those people interesting who never had done anything in political science. Easy to read and easy to understand.

Recovering Rude reads like a who-done-it with an inconclusive ending, but is, in fact, a political memoir of revolutionary struggles in India and the personal story of the author. The three main characters are Rude, whom we get to know through his diary, Allan, who also writes what appears to be a diary but is, in fact, commenting on the events described in the book and Nina, who is interesting in salvaging the diaries for posterity.

The novel takes us from an upper middle-class neighborhood in Calcutta, where there are bloody clashes between well-to-do students and the police, through a fancy high-rise in Houston which reeks of sulphur all the way to the frozen streets of Montreal, where one lone exile is starving and cold. The language is often terse, sometimes humourous and occasionally tinged with the vocal overtones of Anglo Indians in Calcutta or street kids in the Deep South.

It is a novel that engages our curiosity and makes us want to learn more, not only about what happened to Rude, but also about the revolutionary movement that shook Naxalbari in India in the late sixties. People to whom the term "naxalites" is familiar will also understand the subtext that permeates the novel. The general reader might miss some clues, but will in any case find it an intriguing novel which might whet his appetite for current events.

Highly recommended for history buffs, persons interested in South Asia and the general reader who knows that Indian writers are some of the hottest writers around!