Reviews (7)

It is what it is
Pretty coffee table book...don't buy for the recipes unless you are a professional.I am a chef and have been at several for and five star establishments.I had the pleasure a few years ago to do a banquet with Susur and he is the real deal.Will his techniques translate to the amateur cook looking to learn from his book?No.These are professional recipes designed to be executed by a top class brigade with years of technique and time to prepare the needed mis en place.But as a professional, the way he approaches food as well as the culinary foundation that he has built for himself is unique and will be appreciated by those in the know.What isn't pretentious about a $50 coffee table book?This book gives exposure to a unique and talented chef who is grounded in solid technique and is able to translate that into well presented and balanced dishes that are not silly fusion.Definetly worth a look.

Susur Lee
This book its all about creativity by a man who has been over looked for too many years as one of the worlds Top Chefs.This book is in one simple word "Awesome"

Susur: Some Thoughts on Perfection in Cuisine
Given the acidity of previous reviews, let me start with some background on myself: I am an American not resident in Canada; I am a non-professional chef -- I cook for myself, my family and my friends. I love food, both from the philosophy that one can learn the history of a country or region by learning about its cuisine and from the perspective that I truly believe we are what we eat ... and the miserable record of American health and longevity is directly due to the poor quality of what we consume.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Chinese Cookery    4. Cookery, Canadian    5. Cookery, Chinese    6. Cooking    7. Cooks    8. International And Ethnic Cookery    9. Ontario    10. Personal Memoirs    11. Reference    12. Regional & Ethnic - Canadian    13. Regional & Ethnic - Chinese    14. Toronto   

Reviews (4)

Horseshit...
Not only is the author a bad writer.....jumping from timeline to time line...not able to tell a story in order.....he tries to pose the Hell's Angels as the bad guys. Anyone with a solid head on their shoulders will see thru his rhetoric and realize HA is a stand up orginization that takes care of business like any normal person would. The crimes they were accused of, weren't crimes at all......they were simply the exercising of human rights against agressors that would try to deny said so rights......in fact in the entire book, i found no fault with the Angel's actions, and applaud them for their efforts.

facts and names lacking storytelling
The author have gone though a great deal to find the facts in hundreds of events during many years. He covers hundreds of people. Hundreds of crimes and killings. He could have picked a few events, clubs or people and written their full story. Instead the book hops between people and clubs, between centuries and continents like a school book. Theres no story, but namedropping enough to confuse anyone. Stadnik is one of hundreds of figures skidding though events, none of them with depth. People are shot and stabbed, but you find it difficult to care, since none is in the book for more than a page, and you dont get to know them. It feels disorganised. If it was in cronical order, or at least with chapter names reveiling what every chapter will cover it would be easier. Perhaps its interesting and understandable for the surviving few who were there. If your looking for facts its fine, but its too packed with facts for me. I need a story.

Disturbing Errors for an
This book provides a lot of information on Walter Stadnick and the Canadian Hells Angels along with information on lesser clubs in Canada.The author, Jerry Langton, however, has made numerous disturbing errors in reporting on certain aspects of the Hells Angels and other clubs.Langton reports on page 26 that prospective members (prospects) are awarded the top rocker (Hells Angels) along with the center patch. Langton then states that the prospects recive the bottom rocker which identifies the chapter's geographical location upon earning full membership.THE OPPISITE IS TRUE for the Hells Angels and ALL OTHER CLUBS!It is hard to believe that Lanfton could make such an obvious error in his writing.
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Crime And Criminals    3. Criminology    4. Gang members    5. General    6. History    7. Motorcycle gangs    8. Ontario    9. Quâebec (Province)    10. Sociology    11. True Crime    12. Biography & Autobiography / Military    13. Canada    14. Organized crime   

Reviews (6)

Grass Beyond the Mountains
Pan Phillips had the "Pan Phillips International Airport" at his fishing camp beyond Anahim Lake B.C.For several years, we flew into his little airport between 2 lakes.Pan told us some of the same stories that are in this book.Louis Soukup was one of the first pilots to the area.Louis would fly in, any equipment that Pan needed, on the pontoons of his airplane.This book gives the stories as though you were sitting at the feet of the men who were the first settlers in this area of British Colombia.It is really an adventure to read.

Read It!
We own the Legacy Ranch high in the mountains of Northeastern Utah.For years we have loved the beauty of the unspoiled wilderness. Nursing newborn elk calves, watching Canadian Lynx outside their lairs, and many other adventures have cast us in the mold of lovers of the wilderness.To read the adventures of true cowboys, who started with nothing else but their "grit" and ended up with lives spent plumbing the depths of fun and hard work was one of the top literary experiences of our lives. This book, far better than the sequels, will be part o four Christmas giving this year.

Nothing To It!
Nothing to reading it, that is. This is one of the first nonfictions books I've read that I have ever liked. I got interested in it when I saw the TV show 'Nothing Too Good For A Cowboy' and had to read the books. This bookmade me laugh and almost made me cry. The characters are too funny and veryheart-warming. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. British Columbia    4. Canada    5. Canada - General    6. Cattle trade    7. Cowboys    8. Frontier and pioneer life    9. Historical - General    10. History    11. History: World    12. Regional Subjects - West    13. Fiction / General   

Reviews (1)

Order review
My books wre received in a timely fashion and we were completely satisfied. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Canada    6. Composers & Musicians - Country & Folk    7. Composers & Musicians - General    8. Country And Western Music    9. Country musicians    10. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    11. General    12. Twain, Shania    13. Biography & Autobiography / General   

Reviews (2)

What the Stones Remember
This memoir by one of Canada's best-known poets follows Patrick Lane's first year of recovery from a lifetime of alcoholism, a recovery that unfolds almost entirely in his Vancouver Island garden. The narrative weaves between his present-tense garden and the struggle and brutality that was Lane's past. His poetic voice permeates his storytelling, compelling us to see how the honesty and enchantment of the natural world can save us from our nightmares, our addictions, our terrible losses - if only we will let it.
"A Wound Remembers"
I can't believe I'm the first reviewer to take a stab at WHAT THE STONES REMEMBER, A LIFE REDISCOVERED.Everyone I know is reading this book!It's especially good for people who are just undergoing recovery, those who will recognize and nod with wonder at the pain Lane describes at just waking up and experiencing the little things, the color of your bedroom walls, the feel of the cotton pillowcase under your cheek, as if for the first time, without the sheltering batting of cocaine or alcohol.He thinks of the American poet Weldon Kees who, fueled by despair and drink jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge in the early 1950s, and of Kees' famous zen riddle, "Whatever it is that a wound remembers/ After the healing ends." Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. British Columbia    7. Canada    8. English Canadian Poetry    9. Homes and haunts    10. Lane, Patrick    11. Literary    12. Natural history    13. Poets, Canadian    14. Recovering alcoholics    15. Biography & Autobiography / Literary    16. Biography: general    17. Coping with drug & alcohol abuse    18. English   

Reviews (13)

Well-balanced biography of a phenominal artist
This is a very well-balanced, thorough biography of the Canadian pianist/musician/composer Glenn Gould. Very well written, a joy to read (and a lot easier to read then most of the stuff Glenn wrote himself...)
the mysteries of a perfect art
This unstoppably heartrending biography of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould unveils the mysteries of a perfect art more cogently and beautifully than has any other artist's biography I've ever come across.Kevin Bazzana has opened up Gould's eccentricities and placed them where finally they must sleep - merely deep in the natural whole of one of the inescapable musicians of the 20th century.Those lucky enough to know the meaning of the art of Glenn Gould will always be grateful for that achievement.
This will stand as the definitive biography of Glenn Gould
The definitive biography of the idiosyncratic pianist Glenn Gould, who died of a massive stroke in 1982, nine days after his 50th birthday. Gould is often regarded as an anomaly, outside of any tradition, but this book places him in the context of his upper middle class Protestant upbringing and the cultural milieu of mid-twentieth century Canada.This book also dispels long-held myths about Glenn Gould. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Artists, Architects, Photographers    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Canada    7. Composers & Musicians - Classical Instrumentalists    8. Genres & Styles - Jazz    9. Gould, Glenn    10. History & Criticism - General    11. Musical Instruments - Piano    12. Pianists    13. Biography & Autobiography / Artists, Architects, Photographers    14. Music | Music History, Western | Twentieth Century   

Reviews (6)

Canada, Please Let Dick North finish his quest
Awesome read, very well written with plenty of facts to back up Mr. North's work. You appreciate his passion for a definitive answer to who A.Johnson truely was. It is sad that the Canadian's refused to solve the mystery. Nevertheless, I am one of the believer's John Johnson was the Mad Trapper.

Where' the justice?
Thes is a very interesting story.It is well written and well researched.It was also done by Rudy Weibe and Thomas P.Kelley. Rat River Trapper: Mad or Misanthropic?
It was a bitterly cold December 26, 1931 when four members of the RCMP approached the small cabin of a mysterious trapper named Albert Johnson. There sole intent was to question Johnson about a complaint made by a neighbouring trapper concerning traps that had been tampered with. But without a word, the trapper fired upon the constables, injuring one. Shortly thereafter, Johnson had disappeared into the bush, thus instigating an epic manhunt that would last close to fifty days, and span some 150 miles.Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Criminals    3. General    4. Johnson, Albert,    5. Murder - General    6. Northwest Territories    7. Trappers    8. True Crime    9. True Crime / Espionage    10. d. 1932    11. True Crime / Murder   

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Criminals & Outlaws    3. People of Color    4. Women   

Reviews (2)

Spirit of Place
If you are interested in the environment which generated the powerful West Coast Native art, the artist, Emily Carr, conjures it up in this original book.Her travels to their coastal villages are translated into these atmospheric essays.

Beautifully written and visualized
this book by Emily Carr gives a very wonderful and descriptive account of the Pacific Northwest along British Columbia's shores. Emily Carr was a very unique woman who defied her times in her interactions with NativePeoples and her adventurous independance. This book details herexplorations among the Queen Charlotte Islands. It is so descriptive itmakes one feel that they are actually on the west coast. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. American Essays    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. British Columbia    6. Canada - General    7. Indians of North America    8. Personal Memoirs    9. Social life and customs    10. Women   

Reviews (1)

Pitseolak: Pictures out of My Life
If you are interested in trying to understand the Inuit sensibility this is a great read. Pitseolak became an artist, drawing pictures of her life, when she was in her fifties, gaining international recognition. Read more

Subjects:  1. Art    2. Art & Art Instruction    3. Artistes    4. Baffin Island    5. Biographies    6. Biography    7. Canada    8. Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies    9. General    10. Inuit art    11. Inuit artists    12. Nunavut    13. Pitseolak    14. Biography: general    15. Individual artists   

Subjects:  1. Art    2. Art & Art Instruction    3. Artists, Architects, Photographers    4. Biography    5. Canadian    6. Individual Artist    7. Painters    8. Printmakers    9. Quâebec (Province)    10. Art / Canadian    11. Gagnon, Clarence A., 1881-1942    12. Painters - Quebec (Province) - Biography   

Reviews (2)

A very good stand-alone from Ms. Delany.
Elaine Benson is picking up the pieces of her professional life by helping the rich, elderly, and very independent Moira Madison write her memoirs.Elaine is getting over a husband who left her for a bimbo, after convincing her to give up her own career as a historian in favor of his career as a possible screenwriter.
interesting Canadian amateur sleuth thriller
Elaine Benson wrote two highly regarded biographies of pioneer Canadian women when she fell in love and married.Her husband persuaded her that the money is in screenplays so they teamed up with Elaine doing the research.However, Elaine obtained a divorce and left Hollywood for Toronto and applied for the job of writing the true story of wealthy elderly Miss Moira Madison.She obtains the position, but learns that Donna Smithton had the job for one week before accidentally drowning in nearby Lake Muskoka.
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Subjects:  1. English Canadian Novel And Short Story    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Mystery/ Detective    4. Mystery & Detective - General    5. Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths    6. Mystery/Suspense    7. Suspense    8. Crime & mystery    9. Fiction / Mystery & Detective / General   

Reviews (1)

An Inspiration
I was thoroughly inspired by reading this book. It seemed to me to be a little slow developing at the beginning, due to a fairly complex family history. Even this should be interesting to people who like history from the perspective of people who lived it. It is well organized, and provides a good description of the environment that nurtured this God-inspired writer. Janette Oke's life experiences are so easy to identify with, and her dependence on God so well portrayed that it is an inspiration to me. It is also fascinating to learn how one of my favorite writers arrived at her mission in life. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1935-    2. 20th century    3. Authorship    4. Biography    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. Christian fiction    9. Historical fiction    10. Literary    11. Novelists, Canadian    12. Oke, Janette,    13. Religious    14. Women    15. Oke, Janette   

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. Canada - Pre-Confederation (to 1867)    4. Historical - General    5. History - General History    6. Ships & Shipbuilding - History   

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Canada - General    4. Canada - Pre-Confederation (to 1867)    5. Canada - Territories & Nunavut    6. Ethnologists    7. Frontier and pioneer life    8. Historical - General    9. Mackenzie    10. Northwest Territories    11. Personal Memoirs    12. Pioneers    13. Travel    14. Travel - Foreign    15. Arctic regions    16. Geographical discovery & exploration   

Reviews (1)

Nice overview of an under-appreciated artist...
At just over 100 pages, William Robertson's biography of k.d. lang is an easy read and a concise account of her rise to fame up through her "Ingenue" release. Drawing heavily from both Canadian and American magazine articles, Robertson gives us a revealing look at this eccentric vocalist. Read more

Subjects:  1. (Kathy Dawn),    2. 1961-    3. Biography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Canada    7. Country musicians    8. General    9. Genres & Styles - Country & Bluegrass - General    10. Lang, K. D    11. Lang, K. D.    12. Popular Music    13. Singers    14. Biography: film, television & music    15. Country & western    16. Gay & Lesbian studies   

Reviews (3)

A first-person journey which is stimulating, fun, and never too predictable
Thomas Swick's A Way To See The World: From Texas To Transylvania With A Maverick Traveler isn't your usual travelogue of wild and woolly adventures; for Swick chooses no ordinary path for his journeys. His accounts are unconventional at the least; from attending a hobo convention in Iowa to his search for James Thurber's spirit in Columbus, OH and his entry to the forbidden Cuba on a cultural exchange program. Colorful observations of counter-culture and local color provide a first-person journey which is stimulating, fun, and never too predictable. A fine armchair adventure awaits.
Beyond travel
Tom Swick has written not just an exceptional travel book, but an exceptional book.Period.Horizon broadening, mind opening, amusing, pure pleasure.

The world's mine oyster, which I with pen will open.
Delightful!Thomas Swick's writing is elegant, his observations about the places I've been to are perfect, and his descriptions of places I haven't seen make me feel like I've just been there.Highly recommended. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Canada - Atlantic Provinces    3. Personal Memoirs    4. Swick, Thomas    5. Travel    6. Travelers    7. Travelers' writings, American    8. Voyages and travels    9. Travel / Canada / Atlantic Provinces (NB, NF, NS, PE)   

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Canada - Pre-Confederation (to 1867)    3. General    4. History    5. History: World    6. Correspondence    7. Diaries    8. History / Canada / Pre-Confederation (to 1867)    9. La Vérendrye, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes   

Reviews (6)

Dissapointing
Ordered this because it was suggested by Amazon as a book that might be of interest. This because I am so very fond of David Petersen's writing. Kerasote can't hold a candle to Petersen! He does not enlarge his subject to include any of the larger insights or issues, of which there are many imbedded in the subject of man and nature. From Melville to Petersen, we have struggled to describe and comprehend our relationship to society and nature. Kerasote adds little to the discussion.

Sometimes we need to be wired
Enjoyed this great little book as I always do Kerasote's writing.I wanted to read it because he had written an article in an outdoor magazine 15 years ago on "Camping Beyond Aid" and I wanted to compare his thoughts then and now.
Brilliant Outdoor Writing
This book was the first time I have read Kerasote - I completed it in two sessions.I thought it was brilliantly written.It had an educated style, which means I enjoyed occasionally checking some less common words (but cleverly appropriate)in my dictionary.This was an enthralling account of two basically dissimilar friends undertaking a great canoe trip down the Horton River toward the Arctic Ocean.I just wasn't willing to put the book down until the trip was over - the reader was right there with them.At one stage, I hoped for some photographs to supplement the map in the book - but then again Kerasote's writing was so good that I had a clear word picture of the events.Perhaps this was in keeping with the general theme of making do without everything on a platter?I found the historical notes provided a fascinating context for the modern day adventure.The professionalism of their outdoor skills was evident, and important for such a remote adventure.The potential 'clash' of the satphone was very much secondary to the description of the wonderful river trip itself. Actually, I thought the satphone was skillfully considered from a philosophical viewpoint - it was an issue that is very relevant now to modern mans interaction with serious wilderness adventure. This book was just brilliant stuff. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Canoeing    3. Canoeists    4. Ecology    5. Essays    6. Kerasote, Ted    7. Nature    8. Northwest, Canadian    9. Outdoor Life    10. Sports    11. Sports & Recreation    12. Travel    13. United States    14. Canoeing & kayaking    15. House & Home / General    16. Northwest Territories    17. Travel writing   

Editorial Review

On April 23, 1913, 24-year-old William McKinlay, a teacher of mathematics and science in Scotland, was finishing dinner when a telegram arrived. Legendary Canadian explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, it explained, was planning a four-year Arctic expedition between the northernmost shores of Canada and the North Pole. It was to be "a vast scientific project," McKinlay recalls, "involving studying Eskimos, geological surveys, sounding of uncharted Arctic waters, and a look-out for new islands to be discovered for Britain." McKinlay would be the team's magnetician and meteorologist--if he joined. He never thought twice--never mind that the crew was a motley assemblage of scientists and sailors, many of whom had never seen a polar bear outside a zoo. There was no survival training for the uninitiated. This was the heyday of the Arctic expedition--and "scientists were in great demand to bring back information about ... the poles." Read more

Reviews (10)

Vilhjalmur Stefansson's Secret Disaster
The author was a member of Vilhjalmur Stefansson's Arctic Expedition of 1913, and was on board the main expedition ship Karluk when it was frozen into the ice north of Alaska before the expedition was truly begun. The Karluk (abandoned by Stefansson early on) drifted west almost to Wrangell Island before the ship was crushed.
What is a Crowbill ?
Geat time reading ! A classic of first-hand adventure narrative.
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 ofa 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. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. (1913-1918)    2. Arctic regions    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Canadian Arctic Expedition    5. Discovery And Exploration (General)    6. Discovery and exploration    7. Earth Sciences - Geography    8. Expeditions & Discoveries    9. Karluk (Ship)    10. Polar Regions    11. Special Interest - Adventure    12. Travel    13. Maritime history