King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild – Houghton Mifflin, 1998 – If you’ve ever wondered why so many African countries continue to be in disarray, long after they chucked out the colonial system, this is a book that you should read. King Leopold II of Belgium (1835 – 1909) managed to carve out a huge …
Category: Books
THE LAST GARDEN IN ENGLAND BY JULIA KELLY
The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly, Gallery Books 2021 - What better time spent than enjoying the delights of a resplendent garden? The famous gardens of the world are the result of landscape designers attempting to enhance, harmonize or tame nature in a way that reflects their will. But landscape gardening is a …
THANK YOU JEEVES BY PG WODEHOUSE
THANK YOU, JEEVES BY PG WODEHOUSE, Herbert Jenkins, 1934 - Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves are ranked among the great comic duos in English literature. P.G. Wodehouse wrote thirty-five short stories and eleven novels featuring the two, beginning in 1917 with the short story ‘Extricating Young Gussie’ and finishing in 1974 with the novel …
A GAME OF THRONES BY GEORGE R R MARTIN
GAME OF THRONES BY GEORGE R.R. MARTIN, Bantam Spectra, 1996 – With the book already claiming ‘classic fantasy’ status and HBO making a hash of the series on television, I decided it was time to get acquainted with the ‘Game of Thrones’. It turns out to be one of those fantasies where the lure of …
FABLE BY ADRIENNE YOUNG
Fable by Adrienne Young, Wednesday Books, 2020 - Imagine this - a heroine, having just found true love and her place in a hostile world, finds herself betrayed, beaten, abducted, tied to the mast of a villain’s ship as his vessel heads out to sea. It’s the sort of thing you expect in the beginning/middle …
THE MYSTERY OF RIGHT AND WRONG BY WAYNE JOHNSTON
The Mystery of Right and Wrong by Wayne Johnston, Knopf Canada, 2021 - My first introduction to Wayne Johnston was his book ‘The Colony of Unrequited Dreams’, which I think is as good a book as has ever been written in Canada. ‘The Mystery of Right and Wrong’ is a much more difficult novel than …
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A BATTLE WON BY RUSSELL
A Battle Won by S. Thomas Russell, Berkley Books 2010 - How often do you open a book by an author you don’t know and find a dedication inside to someone you do know? It seems that S. Thomas Russell, like me, lives on Vancouver Island (I assume he must live in or near the …
THE LIGHT THROUGH THE LEAVES BY GLENDY VANDERAH
THE LIGHT THROUGH THE LEAVES BY GLENDY VANDERAH, Lake Union Publishing, 2021 – Here’s a story about one of the more chilling parental nightmares – a baby abduction. Ellis has just seen her husband with another woman. She takes her children to a forested park area where her twins begin fighting and she’s so distraught …
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OPERATION ANGUS BY TERRY FALLIS
Operation Angus by Terry Fallis, McClelland & Stewart, 2021 – Although this is my first foray into the Fallis’ opus, Operation Angus is the third story involving an unlikely set of characters. Angus McLintock is the Member of Parliament for Cumberland-Prescott, Minister of State for International Relations and a former professor of mechanical engineering. The …
THE WHITE SHIP BY CHARLES SPENCER
The White Ship by Charles Spencer, William Collins Publishing, 2020 – Even if you slumbered through your English history lessons, you might vaguely remember 1066 as the momentous year when the Normans under William the Conqueror squashed the Anglo-Saxons at the battle of Hastings and took control of the country. The next date to jog …
Richard's Left Bank 