Deadly Slipper is a romance.  Not in the Fabio-on-the-cover sense, but in how the author sensually describes the food, geography, and botany of the Dordogne, a southern region of France.  She loves the food.  She loves the plants.  She loves the people.  Never mind the murder mystery!

In fact, there is a mystery.  Almost twenty years ago, Mara’s sister disappeared while camping in the Dordogne region.  Mara has moved from Quebec and intermittently pursues the trail.  When she discovers a camera she is sure belonged to her sister, she develops the pictures.  The smudged and faded photos show wild orchids.  Could an orchid expert trace her sister’s path?  Enter Julian, a reluctant participant in the search. Julian, too, is an ex-pat and has found his way from Great Britain to settle in the little town of Grissac.  He is a landscaper and amateur orchidologist.

Finely detailed and researched, Deadly Slipper is a horticulturalist’s delight, revealing the inside story of orchidologist’s endeavors and the quirky personalities of the French with their petty territorial skirmishes for notoriety.  Balancing a healthy mix of heroes and villains, the author leads the reader on an intricate chase of bizarre characters and nefarious motives, as Mara draws closer to the heart of Bedie’s disappearance.  The infamous Lady’s Slipper assumes a deadly presence, its rare beauty the key that unlocks a cunning murder. 

Not only is Deadly Slipper a good literary mystery, it is really a fun book to read.  Filled with an exotic cast of characters - from the local bogeyman and his mother, who is even scarier than her son, to the bizarre Sauvignac family, (the local nobility), to Julian Wood’s fanatic orchid hunting nemesis and competitor, and the regulars down at Chez Nous, the town’s cafe/bar/gourmet restaurant, plus a French police inspector and his lads, these personages all enrich the narrative.

The horticulture tidbits are fascinating, and I’m no gardener.  The description of food, wine, the gorgeous countryside - c’est tres magnifique!  The setting is France!  There is even some romancing going on in between gruesome discoveries.  You cannot go wrong, especially if you’re looking for something different in sleuthing.

Media Reviews

“Laden with local color. . . . A moody and elegant suspense story.” - The Washington Post Book World

“Transporting. . . . A cross between Peter Mayle and The Orchid Thief.” - Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Turn down the AC before you start this spooky thriller-it’ll give you chills.” - Cosmopolitan

“Deadly Slipper is full of vicarious thrills, offering sensory indulgences of the floral and culinary kind, with a dash of romance as spice. Lovingly written, with a sensuous style that lingers over the enticing or mouthwatering detail. . . . The real drama is on the dinner plate.” - San Francisco Chronicle

Not since Nero Wolfe has such a fragrant combination of orchid lore and suspense found its way into a mystery novel.” - Booklist

About The Author

Michelle Wan was born in Kunming, China, grew up in the United States, and has lived in India, England, France, and Brazil. She and her husband, a tropical horticulturalist, visit the Dordogne annually to photograph and chart wild orchids. They live in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.  Click here to visit Michelle Wan’s website for a look at the rest of the novels in the series.

Death in the Dordogne Series

Book 1 - Deadly Slipper: A Novel of Death in The Dordogne (2005)

Book 2 - The Orchid Shroud (2006)

Book 3 - A Twist of Orchids (2008)

Book 4 - Kill For an Orchid (2010)

FLOOD TIDE opens with Dirk Pitt on vacation.  Why do you think that is not going to last long?  Because quite simply, he’s Dirk Pitt, and wherever he travels adventure just seems to follow.  In this tale of a Chinese billionaire who plans to divert the mighty Mississippi in order to expand his illegal smuggling ring, find a treasure lost at sea nearly half a century ago, and, incidentally, split the U.S. into three countries controlled by China, Cussler’s American version of James Bond struggles to save the day.  All his trusty sidekicks are here, including Al Giordino, a regular partner in Pitt’s underwater adventures, and Admiral Sandecker, the NUMA commander.  This time there’s a beautiful Chinese American INS agent as the love interest, and a mendacious American president, too.

The usual Pitt parade follows: underwater scraps, a surface shootout with a Chinese destroyer, and a battle in bayou country, from all of which Pitt emerges victorious, naturally.  The final showdown on the bottom of a “great lake” typifies the zany nautical-martial scenes that Cussler purveys and millions consume.  Flood Tide is a romp of speedy storytelling and great fun that will tickle Pitt and Cussler’s many fans, as well as readers new to this author who may find themselves stranded on the tarmac or tanning on Caribbean beaches.

Dirk Pitt is the ultimate man of action: always ready for any challenge, always prepared to pit quick wits and brawn against an intractable problem.

Media Reviews

Marvelously entertaining…. Full of action, intrigue and beautiful women. - San Antonio Express News

Pure Cussler, pure fun….The action just keeps accelerating. - San Francisco Examiner

This bombastically scripted tale will satisfy Cussler faithfuls. - Booklist Review

Click here to vIsit Cussler’s official NUMA website or click here to visit Clive Cussler books.

Meet the Troutmans.  Hattie’s boyfriend has just dumped her, her sister Min’s back in the psych ward, and Min’s kids, Logan and Thebes, are not talking and talking way too much, respectively.  Then there’s the past, in which Min tried to kill Hattie once and to kill herself a lot, in which Min threw the kids’ father out of the house, in which Hattie dropped out of school, in which Logan and his friends kidnapped a friend and drove around town with him in the trunk, and in which Thebes frequently impersonated their insane mom in order to cut class.

When Hattie returns to take care of her niece and nephew, she’s rapidly freaked out by the realization that the responsibility is in fact far greater than she’d expected, and she decides to take the kids in the family van to find their father, last heard to be running an idiosyncratic art gallery in South Dakota.  What ensues is a remarkable journey across the United States, as aunt and kids discover one another to be both far crazier and far more normal than any of them thought.

Miriam Toews is considered one of Canada’s best writers.  The considerable charm of Miriam Toews’ fiction comes, in part, from her ability to create characters in situations of long-term duress with a brilliantly emulsified mix of repression and humour, punctuated by bursts of real emotion. In this, her first novel since nabbing the Governor General’s Award for A Complicated Kindness, Toews’ unsunny topic is mental illness - something on the periphery of, but never so solidly confronted in, her previous work.

She fills the Troutmans’ American travels with funny details about roadside signs, odd amusements and cheap motels.  Mostly, though, she uses the rickety van as a venue for her characters to engage in hilarious dialogue that sometimes veers into the heartbreaking.  Toews is a master at conveying the crushing potential of conversation, with all of its unfortunate pauses and stutters and double meanings.  At one point, Hattie notes, “Conversing with children is a fine art, I realized. An art form that demands large amounts of both honesty and misdirection … a gradual release of information like time-controlled vitamins.”

Toews also has an uncanny ability to write in a playful and ironic way, while maintaining a sweet (and sometimes lovably sappy) tone.  She’s not afraid to throw in pop culture and literary references (Mudhoney, “Rosemary’s Baby,” George Saunders, “The Grapes of Wrath”) and then paint a tear-jerking memory of Hattie and Min.

Awards

WINNER 2008    - Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
NOMINEE 2009  - Orange Prize
FINALIST 2008   - Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction
FINALIST 2008   - McNally Robinson Book of the Year

Media Reviews

In this completely captivating book, Miriam Toews has created some of the most engaging characters in Canadian literature: Hattie, Logan and Thebes are bewildered, hopeful, angry, and most of all, absolutely alive.  Full of richly skewed, richly funny detail, The Flying Troutmans is a uniquely affecting novel. - from the Hardcover edition

Toews’s gift for writing precocious children and the story’s antic momentum redeem the familiar set-up, and if the ending feels a bit rushed, it’s largely because it’s tough to let Toews’s characters go. - Publishers Weekly

Toews (A Complicated Kindness, 2004) excels here at comedic sophistication, all while masterfully embedding explorations of madness, truth, and the immense sorrow that comes from caring for someone who is derailed by mania’s devious tug. - 2008 Booklist

“Toews’s writing is a unique collision of sadness and humour. . . . The Flying Troutmans is a dark story but it is also a never-ending series of hilarious adventures.” - Ottawa Citizen

“Engaging, humorous, grim, and redemptive, this is essential reading.” - Library Journal

“It’s darkly funny, bursting at the seams with quirky characters and off-kilter pop culture references that rival Douglas Coupland’s for their incisive wit.” - The Vancouver Sun

“Toews may have invented a new genre, the romantic-depressive comedy, at which she excels.”- Toronto Star

“Toews has a terrific ability to capture the mix of irony and innocence in a smart child’s mind. . . . She balances heartbreak with laugh-out-loud wit.” - Edmonton Journal

“Toews writes . . . in a high-energy original voice filled with love, fear, humour and originality.  Miriam Toews is an extraordinarily gifted writer, one who writes with unsentimental compassion for her people and an honest understanding of their past, the tectonic shifts of their present and variables of their future.” -The Globe and Mail

About the Author

Miriam Toews is the author of three previous novels: Summer of My Amazing Luck, A Boy of Good Breeding, and A Complicated Kindness (winner of the 2004 Governor’s General Award for fiction) and one work of non-fiction: Swing Low: A Life.  She lives in Winnipeg.

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In his beautiful memoir, The Time of My Life, legendary actor Patrick Swayze along with his wife Lisa Niemi, poignantly looks back on his life and career.  In vivid detail, Patrick describes his Texas upbringing, his personal struggles, his rise to fame with North and South, his commercial breakthroughs in Dirty Dancing and Ghost, and the soul mate who’s stood by his side through it all: his wife, writer and director Lisa Niemi.

Growing up in Texas in the fifties and sixties, Swayze was very energetic and multi-talented from the very beginning - engaging in football, gymnastics, music, and dance.  He first met his future wife Lisa, when she was fifteen and taking dancing lessons from his mother.  The pair were later re-united in New York, where Swayze was pursuing a ballet career.  However, due to a severe knee injury dating back to his high school days, Patrick had to quit ballet and turn to a path that would ultimately make him a celebrity - acting.

After starring in a couple of musicals, Swayze contacted an L.A. based talent manager who had Texas roots and knew his mother. This resulted in Swayze’s Broadway portrayal of Danny Zucko in “Grease,” and Swayze’s rocky relocation to Los Angeles. Through it all, Lisa was by his side as they struggled to survive on little money by freelancing in carpentry and waiting for Patrick’s acting career to take off.  Patrick Swayze was a three-time Golden Globe-nominated actor best known for his leading-man roles in two of the most beloved pictures of all time: “Ghost” and “Dirty Dancing.”  Along with these high grossing, history-making films, many of his other movies,such as ”City of Light” and “Road House” have achieved a cult following, and his television series, “The Beast,” was a critical success.

Patrick and Lisa’s marriage is a journey of two lives intertwined and lived as one - throughout their years in Hollywood and at home on their working ranch outside Los Angeles, and culminating in the hope and wisdom they’ve imparted to all who know them.  Some of the things included were intimate such as Lisa’s letters and Patrick’s memories of losing his father and later his unborn child. I found this book very well-written and hard to put down.  Overall, this memoir is a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at a Hollywood life and a remarkable love, life of a Hollywood heartthrob whose iconic movie performances and great personality will be remembered for a long time to come.

The Time of My Life is both entertainment and inspiration.  This book will open the door for families, individuals, and husbands and wives to grow, bond, and discover entirely new levels of love and sharing, proving that life shouldn’t be lived as a series of endings, but rather as the beginning of greater strength and love.

Patrick Swayze died with family at his side on September 14, 2009, at age 57, twenty months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  His memoir was published on September 28, 2009.

An extraordinary and moving reading experience, HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT is an exploration of eight women of yesterday and today, who join together in a uniquely female experience.  As they gather year after year, their stories, their wisdom, their lives, form the pattern from which all of us draw warmth and comfort for ourselves and piece together an  quilt of their own imaginative devising.  And as they stitch, we listen to the stories they have to tell of their successes and failures, their lives and loves, their dreams, desires, and the surprise and sometimes joy of living. 

Like a quilt, this novel fuses different stories concerning a group of older women who sew together in a small California town. The narrator is a granddaughter who overhears them; she reports on and forges a unity out of these diverse lives in the story that closes the novel. Critics praise the work’s structure, which mimics the idea of community explored in the stories.

Imaginative in concept and execution, Otto’s remarkable first novel is designed with deliberate analogies to quilt-making; like the scraps of fabric that make up a quilt, a series of neat vignettes reveal the lives of eight members of a woman’s sewing group in a small California town, in portraits that include their families and neighbors.  Each chapter is followed by a short set of “Instructions” which provide lucid explanations of the histories, designs and techniques of various quilt patterns that reflect and symbolize the conditions of the characters’ lives.  The instructions also carry a subtext: assemble and stitch a quilt as you would build and sustain a human relationship.

The women who form Otto’s narrative quilt include two sisters whose love for each other survives sexual betrayal; a fearless teenager who loses her determination to lead a free, unfettered life when she traps herself into marriage; a half-black woman who cannot escape her heritage; a wife who forgives her husband’s flagrant affairs.  The narrative touches on the larger issues of war, prejudice and the economic condition of women and concludes with a description of the Crazy Quilt, “the pattern with the least amount of discipline and the greatest measure of emotion”.

I felt that this was a wonderful read.  The book, like a beautiful quilt, was a wonderful way to stitch together the lives of these amazing women.  How wonderful would it be to talk to the women in your life (Grandmothers, Aunts, Great Aunts, Cousins) and find the quilt pattern of their lives. 

Editorial Reviews

Otto’s remarkable debut, a series of vignettes that cumulatively reveal the lives of eight members of a women’s sewing group, spent seven weeks on PW’s hardcover bestseller list and was a Literary Guild alternate. - Publisher’s Weekly

“Intensely thoughtful…honest…intelligent….The book spans half a century and addresses not only (these women’s) histories but also their children’s, their lovers’, their country’s, and, in the process, their gender’s.” - San Francisco Chronicle

Remarkable…It is a tribute to an art form that allowed women self-expression even when society did not. Above all, though it is an affirmation of the strength and power of individual lives, and the way they cannot help fitting together.- The New York Times Book Review

How To Make An American Quilt was made into a major motion picture which came out in the fall of 1995 starring Maya Angelou, Winona Ryder, and Rip Torn.

About The Author

Whitney Otto of wrote the short story that she expanded into, How to Make an American Quilt, when she was working on an MFA at the University of California at Irvine., Now You See Her, and The Passion Dream Book.  A native of California, she lives with her husband and son in Portland, Oregon.

BROKEN is the sixth book in the Otherworld Series.  In this thrilling novel from the author of Industrial Magic, a pregnant werewolf may have unwittingly unleashed Jack the Ripper on the twenty-first century - and become his next target.

Ever since she discovered she’s pregnant, Elena Michaels has been on edge.  After all, she’s never heard of another living female werewolf, let alone one who’s given birth.  But thankfully, her expertise is needed to retrieve a stolen letter allegedly written by Jack the Ripper.  As a distraction, the job seems simple enough - only the letter contains a portal to Victorian London’s underworld, which Elena inadvertently triggers - unleashing a vicious killer and a pair of zombie thugs.

Now Elena must find a way to seal the portal before the unwelcome visitors get what they’re looking for - which, for some unknown reason, is Elena.

Armstrong has an outstanding grasp of the world she writes in.  The modern world is very much what we expect and her descriptions of the way the Otherworld works and how it functions within our own is exceptional.  Weaving a modern tale with the historical Jack the Ripper mythos lends the story a dose of excitement and edge and helps to make this unbelievable story infinitely more believable.  Yet even more helpful in engaging the reader are the characters.  Each of them is so well-defined and given such well-executed individual voices that it is hard not to become involved with their stories and to feel a kinship with them.

BROKEN is a mixture of dark adventure, horror, passion, history and humor. Armstrong’s writing is clear and captivating, and she does nothing to hold back the quick pace of a great story.  She has been compared to Laurell K. Hamilton and that is a very accurate comparison, to be sure, but without question her work has the strength to stand on its own merits.

We all have a creature in us, a darker side of ourselves that sometimes can’t be held back.  Armstrong shows us through Elena and her fellow werewolves that they, too, are creatures.  Literally. Yet they, like us, feel love and loss, and even surrounded by millions of people, one can still feel isolated, alone and different.

Click here to go to Kelley Armstrong’s official website.

The Nine Days Queen, by Karleen Bradford

Summary: The true story of Lady Jane Grey who, at sixteen, ruled as Queen of England for nine days before being accused of treason. After the death of her cousin, Edward, Lady Jane Grey is forced to accept the crown of England. But her reign lasts only nine days as Edward’s eldest sister, Mary, challenges Jane for the throne. Jane is locked in the Tower of London, where she awaits her execution. The Nine Days Queen is the true story of a bright and intelligent young woman who was manipulated and betrayed by the ambitious people around her. This new edition of a classic novel combining royalty and history includes new historical notes and will appeal to young fans of The Royal Diaries series. 

There Will Be Wolves, by Karleen Bradford

Summary: The daughter of an apothecary and the owner of a secret book of healing arts, Ursula is determined to become a great healer, but her ambition makes her an outsider in the Holy Roman Empire. When she is accused of witchcraft and sentenced to burn at the stake, she is given one chance to save herself: she must march in the People’s Crusade to the holy city of Jerusalem.  

Kiss The Dust, by Elizabeth Laid

Summary: Tara is an ordinary teenager. Although her country is caught up in a war, the fighting seeems far away. It hasn’t really touched her. Until now. The secret police are closing in. Tara and her family must flee to the mountains with only the few things they can carry. But their journey is only just beginning. Will anywhere feel like home again? 

Winter Of Fire, by Sherryl Jordan

Summary: A world destroyed by fire is saved from ice by a charismatic young woman who has powers beyond those of any living human being.

The Spiderwick Chronicles, by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

Summary: It all started with a mysterious letter left at a tiny bookstore for authors Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. Its closing lines: “We just want people to know about this. The stuff that has happened to us could happen to anyone.” Little could they imagine the remarkable adventure that awaited them as they followed Jared, Simon, and Mallory Grace and a strange old book into a world filled with elves, goblins, dwarves, trolls, and a fantastical menagerie of other creatures. The oddest part is in entering that world, they didn’t leave this one!    Five captivating books!   One thrilling adventure! 

Book 1: The Field Guide; Book 2: The Seeing Stone; Book 3: Lucinda’s Secret; Book 4: The Ironwood Tree; Book 5: The Wrath of Mulgarath

Beyond The Spiderwick Chronicles, by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

Summary: The Spiderwick Chroniclesleave the old-fashioned charm of New England far behind and head south for some fiendish faerie fun in the hot Florida sun. Eleven-year-old Nicholas Vargas onlythinkshis life has been turned upside down after his developer father remarries and moves his new wife and daughter into the soon-to-be completed Mangrove Hollow.But an “expedition” to a nearby lake turns up a little nixie with a giant problem - the huge, lumbering, fire-breathing variety - and it’s up to Nick; his stepsister, Laurie; and his big brother, Julian (plus a familiar face from the originalSpiderwick Chronicles) to figure out the best way to stop a host of rampaging giants before all of Florida goes up in smoke.

 Book 1: The Nexies Song; Book 2: A Giant Problem; Book 3: The Wyrm King

Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer

Summary: Isabella Swan’s move to Forks, a perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. When she meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen–a vampire–her life takes a thrilling and terrifying romantic turn.

Adult Fiction:

The Book of Tomorrow, by Cecelia Ahern

The Accidental Family, by Rowan Coleman

A Wee Christams Homicide, by Kaitlyn Dunnett

Shades of Blue, by Karen Kingsbury

Dexter by Design, by Jeff Lindsay

Dexter In The Dark, by Jeff Lindsay

Bite Marks - A Vampire Testament, by Terence Taylor

Adult Non Fiction:

The Massage Bible: the difinitive guide to soothing aches and pains, by Susan Mumford

  

Independence Days: a guide to sustainable food storage and preservation, by Sharon Astyk

 

Summary:  In just a few decades, America’s approach to food has changed radically from the self-sufficiency of our grandparents to the convenience foods of mega-supermarkets. The recent economic crisis has seen millions of North Americans move from being middle class to poor, and from poor to hungry. At the same time, the trend to eating locally is shifting from being a pricey fringe activity to an essential element of getting by. But how can you eat locally not just when the farmers markets are bountiful, but how year-round? Who really knows anymore how to eat outside of the supermarket, and who really knows how to eat a diet based on easily stored and home preserved foods?

 

 

New Vegetarian: more than 75 fresh, contemporary recipes for pasta, tagines, curies, soup, stews, and desserts, by Robin Asbell

 

Summary:  With a look as fresh as the recipes themselves, New Vegetarian is full of modern, flavorful food for the 30 million Americans (more every day!) who are vegetarians. More than 75 delicious and simple dishes span a wide range of cuisines and cultures-from Vietnamese Pho with Tofu to Baked Creamy Squash Pasta with Arugula. Best of all, the dessert chapter includes goodies so luscious even the most die-hard dairy fans won’t suspect these sweet treats are vegan!

 

 

 

1000 Vegan Recipes, by Robin Robertson

 

Summary:  Whether you’re a new to vegan cooking, a long-time vegan, or someone who is just trying to eat meatless meals a few times a week, this is the book for you. You will have a lifetime of recipes and inspiration. These delicious recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in between, are cholesterol-free, low in saturated fat, and high in fiber and complex carbohydrates. You’ll get crowd-pleasing appetizers and snacks like Mango-Avocado Spring Rolls and Savory Artichoke Squares and family favorites like Vegan Margarita Pizza and Baked Mac and Cheeze. Best of all, Robertson gives you an endless variety of recipes from a diverse range of cultures. There is something in this book for everyone’s taste!

 

 

Lidia Cooks From The Heart, by Lidia Bastianich

 

Summary:  In this inspiring new book, Lidia Bastianich awakens in us a new respect for food and for the people who produce it in the little-known parts of Italy that she explores. All of the recipes reflect the regions from which they spring, and in translating them to our home kitchens, Lidia passes on time-honored techniques and wonderful, uncomplicated recipes for dishes bursting with different regional flavors the kind of elemental, good family cooking that is particularly appreciated today. This is just a sampling of the many delights Lidia has uncovered. All the recipes she shares with us in this rich feast of a book represent the work of the local people and friends with whom she made intimate contact the farmers, shepherds, foragers, and artisans who produce local cheeses, meats, olive oils, and wines. And in addition, her daughter, Tanya, takes us on side trips in each of the twelve regions to share her love of the country and its art.

 

My Bread: the revolutionary no-work, no-knead method, by Jim Lahey

 

Summary:  New York’s premier baker shares his no-knead, slow-rise fermentation method for baking rustic, deep-flavored bread in a home oven.

 

 

 

 

Leadership Mastery: how to challenge yourself and others to greatness, by Dale Carnegie Training

 

Summary:  “Leadership Mastery” teaches those in positions of leadership how to identify their strengths, build relationships, solve problems creatively, and motivate people.

 

 

 

 

I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas: gifts, decorations, and recipes that use less and mean more, by Anna Getty

 

Summary:  This holiday season, Getty–environmental advocate, writer, television personality, mother, and chef–helps families reduce their carbon footprint and save money without sacrificing style or tradition. 60 color photographs.

 

 

 

 

 

Lily Chin’s Knitting Tips & Tricks : shortcuts and techniques every knitter should know, by Lilly Chin

 

Summary:  Toss Lily into your project bag and bring her stitching savvy, troubleshooting techniques, and no-frills know-how wherever your knitting takes you! Knitters of every level will love Lily Chin’s Knitting Tips & Tricks for its simple solutions to everyday knitting problems. Covering everything from knitting standards and conventions to working with various types of yarns to fixing stitch mistakes.

 

 

 

 

The Time of My Life, by Patrick Swayze

 

Summary:  In vivid detail, the thirty-year veteran of stage and screen describes his Texas upbringing, his personal struggles, his rise to fame with North and South, his commercial breakthroughs in “Dirty Dancing” and “Ghost,” and the soul mate who’s stood by his side through it all: his wife, writer and director Lisa Niemi.

 

 

 

 

Women on Ice: the early years of women’s hockey in Western Canada, by Wayne Norton

 

Summary:  This is the first book to focus upon the vibrant world of women’s ice hockey in western Canada during the First World War and the 1920s. The Vancouver Amazons, with their championship laurels and their association with hockey’s famous Patrick brothers, were the most famous, but were only one of a number of women’s hockey teams that met during the annual Banff winter carnivals to compete for the women’s ice hockey championship of western Canada. With the support of more than three dozen photographs, many of which are published here for the first time, Women on Ice follows the fortunes of the Vancouver women as they encountered teams from Victoria and New Westminster and the powerful squads from Calgary and Edmonton — teams that deserve to be legendary, but are now largely forgotten. Also profiled are teams from what was the geographic heart of women’s hockey in British Columbia until the First World War, the Kootenays, as well as some of the dominant teams of the post-war years from Alberta. The curious decline of women’s hockey in the 1930s consigned to obscurity the history of these and of all women’s teams in western Canada. Women on Ice attempts to rescue some of that fascinating history..

 

 

The Shakespeare Encyclopedia: the complete guide to the man and his works, by A. D. Cousins

 

Summary:  Authoritative, visually exciting, and entertaining guide to all things Shakespeare, explaining the themes, plots, and contexts of his works, their literary and cultural significance, and uncovering some of the mystery of the man himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eragon, the first novel in the Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini, is a story about a 15 year old farm boy, Eragon, who finds a dazzling sapphire-blue stone which, as it is revealed later, is in fact an egg that hatches a blue-scaled dragon.  The dragon, Saphira, establishes an unbreakable bond with the young man who learns that he is the only dragon-rider to have come into existence in many years; and that he will have to choose whether to resist the evil king/dragon-rider Galbatorix or surrender and join him.  With his home destroyed and his uncle murdered by the Ra’zac (evil dragon hunters employed by Galbatorix) Eragon sets out on a journey with his mentor, Brom, to learn the dragon riding craft and enact his revenge on the Ra’zac.  In essence, Eragon has all the traditional ingredients that make a fantasy novel enjoyable. 

The novel’s pace is quick and exciting throughout most of the book.  Packed with action and magic, Eragon is a fun read.  The only lag was the desperate last-leg of Eragon’s journey.  However, once the travelers reached the Varden and new adventures ensued.

Paolini shines at creating interesting characters without a great deal of depth.  In particular, Eragon is rather flat, vacillating between being heroic, cocky, reckless, and petulant.  Saphira, Murtagh, Solembum, and Arya yield the promise of further development, and hopefully their characters will reveal more complexity in the later novels of the trilogy.  Additionally, Paolini’s dialogue is quite good with a few exceptions during which he dips into “noble speech” (all but saying, Thou art mine enemy).  What is obviously his true style, the more natural conversation, constitutes the majority of dialogue in the novel and is better suited to the overall writing style.

The Eldest, book 2, was published in 2005.  Fox released their movie adaptaion of Eragon in December 2006.

Early in 2007, as Christopher was writing Brisingr, he realized that the plot and characters demanded more space than could fit in one volume and that a fourth book would be necessary to give each story element the attention it deserved.  What began as the Inheritance trilogy became the Inheritance cycle. Book Three, Brisingr, will be published on September 20, 2008, and Book Four will complete the story that Christopher envisioned years ago when he first outlined the adventure.

Media Reviews

A New York Times Bestseller

A USA Today Bestseller

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller

A Book Sense Bestseller

 ”An authentic work of great talent.” - The New York Times Book Review

“Christopher Paolini make[s] literary magic with his precocious debut.” - People

“Unusual, powerful, fresh, and fluid.” - Booklist, Starred

“An auspicious beginning to both career and series.” - Publishers Weekly

Click here to enter Eragon’s world of Alagaesia, the oficial website of Christopher Paolini.