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Booklouse Recommendations for April

admin — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:34:38 +0000

My fellow insects,

Two extraordinary books, this time; one is fiction but has an amazing follow-up story in to-day’s world; and the other is a science based book which is very relevant to to-day’s world.

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones.

This is the story of a little girl living on the island of Bougainville, to the North East of Australia. A revolution is in progress and all the whites have left the island except one man, Mr. Watt, who is married to a native girl. Mr. Watt decides to keep the school open for the children but has only a copy of Great Expectations from which to teach. You’ve guessed it, hence the name of the book Mr. Pip.

The story of the orphan Pip living in this mysterious city of London becomes so fascinating to the children, especially a 13 year old girl named Matilda, that all they want is to take shelter in their minds from the ravages of real life on the island and immerse themselves in Dickens’s story. But too much imagination can be a dangerous thing.

The story is well written in a very good story telling style that will keep you happily turning the pages. Lloyd Jones won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize Best Book Award and was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize for this one.

And now to the modern day part of this story. On your computer, (don’t tell me you don’t have one; if so, go to the library and use one there because you must see this follow-up to the book.) Once in front of the machine, go to Google and type in the words: ‘Coconut revolution’. Up will come a page of listings on the top of which are the words: video results. Click on: Coconut Revolution (2001 50mins) and watch. What a fascinating story. You are now watching the BBC documentary from the very same island where the people have managed to win back control of the south where a huge copper mine had been established by RTZ, the world’s largest mining company. They started their fight back by firing arrows at the helicopter gun ships and making fuel for their truck out of Coconut milk!! There is even another update from when elections were being held on the island and even the rumour of a referendum to decide if they should declare independence from New Guinea.

I went back and read the book again with the video in mind. An interesting experience, to say the least.

Under a Green Sky by Peter D. Ward Ph.D.

More than a couple of hundred million years ago, there was a cataclysmic event which caused the extinction of nearly 97% of all species on earth. This event was called the Permian Extinction. All through the 1990’s and into this century, scientists have been arguing over whether or not this happened due to something large dropping out of the skies or was it caused by something much more sinister happening here on earth.

Don’t worry. You don’t need to be a scientist to understand this book. It is a fascinating chronological discussion by an expert Paleontologist who himself wrote this book, being fresh from his research and subsequent explanation of how the dinosaurs became extinct due to a 10kms wide meteor hitting the earth.

In Under a Green Sky, Peter Ward explains not only the Permian Extinction but also four others of a lesser nature, but none the less, disastrous. The evidence for these ancient cataclysms show very clearly that global warming should not be ignored. Once the oceans start belching the poisonous gas, Hydrogen Sulphide, into a poisoned atmosphere under a sky that is always slightly green and hazy, there is little left but the same dire fate that has overwhelmed this planet several times before.

Some of you may remember a while back when a whole group of people and animals living in the bowl of a long extinct volcano on the west coast of Africa were found dead one morning after the volcano had belched out a cloud of Hydrogen Sulphide during the night, killing every living thing in the area.

Now, once again you have the opportunity to see the essence of this book on video. Go to cbc.ca and click on documentaries. Now look for One Ocean Episode One. This is a fascinating film about this subject and a lot of it is narrated by Peter Ward as he goes about his studies, including some beautiful underwater filming.

Even if you don’t believe in anything to do with global warming, I would urge you to read this book and watch the video. Personally, and for the sake of my grandchildren and their future families, I would rather do something about this now, than leave it for them to have to deal with, by which time it could be a lot more serious.

These two should definitely give you some good chewing till next time,

The Booklouse.

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Booklouse Recommendations for March

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:10:40 +0000

My fellow insects,

As I write this on St.Valentine’s Day, I am hoping that you are not expecting a review of a book about a passionate love affair. Oh, yes, both these books revolve around love, but love in its more diverse patterns.

The Lady in Blue by Javier Sierra

This is another of those fascinating books where the author takes a piece of history, does a lot of research and comes up with an enthralling story of historical fiction. Make sure you read the notes at the end of this book which give the background, including an amazing interview which Sierra had with a monk shortly before he died, to this extraordinary story.

This is a novel based on the well known legend of a young girl dressed in blue who appeared to the native people of South West America in the 1600’s and told them of the coming of the priests who would be spreading the Gospel amongst them, and how they should prepare themselves for baptism. The Lady in Blue who appeared in New Mexico in the 1600’s, had never, during her life time, left either the village in which she was born, nor the monastery that she founded in Spain.

Moving from a young girl in California, to a journalist in Spain, to a monk and several priests in Venice, all in the 1990’s, and back to the legend itself in the 1600’s, Javier Sierra weaves a mystical thread of evidence as to why and how this legend could have possibly been created. The historical characters believe that uncovering the secret behind The Lady in Blue’s bilocations (the ability to be in two places at the same time) will get them closer to their goal, but when one of the priests suddenly dies and a rare manuscript containing the nun’s secrets is stolen, the plot thickens! The conclusion might surprise you.

Javier Sierra is a well known Spanish historian and author who wrote, among other books, The Secret Supper which has been translated into thirty-five languages.

Kenneth Grahame – An Innocent in the Wild Wood

By Alison Prince

In reviewing this book, I have to admit to a bias; my first, and without doubt my favourite children’s book was and still is Wind in the Willows.

This biography by Alison Prince is a remarkably perceptive biography in which she uses previously unpublished materials to uncover the many layers of Kenneth Grahame’s character, ultimately that of Toad of Toad Hall. In writing Wind in the Willows, which is the most famous of his stories, Grahame seems to transfer his very muddled desires into the characters of his novel. He always had this longing to live freely, romping around the English countryside with out a worry in the wonderful world of nature that he so loved. But here we see him as Alison Prince carefully exposes layer upon layer of his character and we can see how his various traits are transformed into the characters of Mole (his son Alistair), Ratty, Toad (himself), Badger and the Weasels who try to take over Toad Hall. It is one of the great ironic twists in the tale of this story that Alistair, his son known as the Mouse, should commit suicide under a train, considering that Grahame had always described trains as the scourge of the countryside.

An incredible love/hate relationship between Grahame and his son Mouse, is exceptionally well portrayed in this biography from the first time that Grahame tells his son a bed time story, through the continuation of those stories all the time that the boy was away from home to the point in time when it is suggested to Grahame that these stories should be published as a book. Adding to the feeling of the unreality of their marriage is the impression that I got that Grahame’s wife, Elspeth Thomson, is simply around because he reluctantly agreed to marry her, against many of his friends recommendations; but, having said that, she is the one who is always there for Alistair and enjoys an intriguing correspondence with him from his boarding school and University. But, as I have mentioned, Alistair was unable to withstand the unreality of his upbringing by these two fantasists.

This is a fine biography well described by the Times Literary Supplement as… “a thoroughly sensible new account of this much-loved, but curiously un-lovable author.”

Happy chewing till next time,

The Booklouse

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Great Books to Read for the New Year

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:51:53 +0000

My fellow insects,

I hope you all had a good Christmas holiday and a jolly New Year; I was in bed by 10:45 p.m. with a good book, and what a book……

Sashenka by Simon Montefiore

……… this is a big, sweeping, romantic adventure of half a century of turbulent Russian history. It is the story of a young girl living in St Petersburg who at the age of 16 becomes a Bolshevik revolutionary during the reign of the Czar in 1916. She has to be ‘bought’ out of jail by her father, the head of a wealthy family, but she continues to help the Bolsheviks, as her mother parties with Rasputin and her other friends. Sashenka marries and has two, children, but then embarks on a love affair that has dreadful consequences. The final part of the book takes place with the third generation in 1994 when a young historian eventually manages to get into the Stalin archives and unravels a horrendous story of betrayal and savage cruelty, but with an ending to the story that will stay with you for a long time.

All through the book, the background details of life in Russia at the time of the Czars and on through the revolution, right up to the collapse of communism, simply add to the enjoyment of Simon Montefiore’s fine writing. For those of you who do not know his work, he has had great success with his two outstanding biographies of Stalin and this is one of the main reasons for the authenticity of this, his first piece of historical fiction. When writing Sashenka, he used a lot of his research work from the Stalin books.

For lovers of historical fiction, and for those of you who, like me, like to learn more history through this fascinating medium – after all, he is a renowned historian – I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. Magnificent.

Corsair by Tim Severin

You may remember that back in October I recommended a book called White Gold by Giles Milton, a wonderful history of the white slave trade to Africa in the late 1600’s. Well, this is a fascinating piece of historical fiction which is centred around the same period in history.

Set in the late 1600’s, Corsair is the story of an Irish young man, Hector Lynch and his sister Elizabeth who are living in a village on the south coast of Ireland when they are both taken by Barbary corsairs and sold at auction in Algiers. At the time of their capture, the Slaves are separated by gender and, after converting to Islam to avoid the worst of the horrors of the slave trade, Hector and another slave, Dan, a Miskito Indian from the Caribbean who has become a friend, have to survive adventures peopled by a series of ferocious historical characters, by their quick witted actions as they become embroiled in the Mediterranean naval wars.

Hecctor’s main concern is the whereabouts of his sister and it is this need that drives him on through shipwrecks and, having escaped from the African slave trade, being re enslaved by French Christians. He eventually finds out the awful truth about what has happened to his sister when he is shipwrecked off the coast of Morocco.

Being written by another well known historian, this book will intrigue you, not only by its story, but also by the meticulous research that has gone into defining the extraordinary characters who are featured all through the book, from a power-crazed sultan through sadistic seamen to fanatical members of the Christian Knightly Orders. Be sure to read the historical notes that Tim Severin provides at the end of this excellent book.

Happy chewing till next time,

The Booklouse

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James Bay Then & Now – January 2010

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:04:04 +0000

Oh, to be Young again…

By Danda Humphreys

Street names in Victoria can make us smile. Who wouldn’t want to be Young again, now that the New Year is here?

Young Street runs between Toronto and Michigan streets on the east side of James Bay. During the 12 years that he lived here, William Alexander George Young made quite an impression on the citizens of this town.

Young was born in England in 1827, the son of a captain in the Royal Navy. Following in his father’s footsteps, he enlisted at the tender age of 14, and worked his way up through the ranks. He was decorated for his services during the Crimean War, then moved to the Foreign Office and became secretary to the newly organized North American Boundary Commission.

He arrived in Victoria in June 1857 and made a favourable impression on his new boss, James Douglas, Chief Factor at the Hudson’s Bay Company headquarters. Douglas, who recognized a bright young fellow when he saw one, wasted no time in persuading him to stay. There wasn’t much social life at Fort Victoria, but naval officers were always welcome, and before long the new arrival was courting the Governor’s pretty young niece.

Eliza Cowan was the daughter of Douglas’s sister Cecelia. Eliza lived with her parents at “Belmont,” a large estate on Esquimalt Harbour. In 1858, three events conspired to create huge changes in the family’s fortunes: Goldseekers poured into Victoria en route to the Fraser River; Eliza’s mother died; and Eliza became the wife of the efficient young administrator who had become her Uncle James’s “right-hand man.” The Youngs set up residence on Superior Street, not far from the Douglas family home.

Shortly afterwards, Douglas appointed Young colonial secretary for British Columbia. Douglas’s duties took him away more often, and he was only too pleased to leave his son-in-law in charge.

Administrative responsibilities in two colonies gave Young considerable authority – and a salary from both. He invested his money wisely, purchased real estate in Esquimalt and up-Island, and campaigned successfully for membership in the Legislative Assembly.

When Douglas retired, in 1864, Young took a one-year leave of absence for a trip to England. On his return, in 1865, he found British Columbia in deep financial trouble. Then he fell afoul of mainland governor Frederick Seymour, who confided to the British government that the Victoria-based Young did not inspire his confidence in connection with mainland interests. Young was replaced.

In May 1869, the Youngs auctioned off most of their possessions and sailed for England. There, Young was knighted by Queen Victoria, then appointed Governor of British Guiana. He died in Accra, in 1885, without ever returning to these shores. But luckily for us, his story stays with us, thanks to that short street in James Bay.

Danda Humphreys is a conference speaker, tour guide, and author of several books about the history of Victoria as well as “Tour Guide Tales,” a collection of true stories written by tour guides about their adventures on the road. See Danda Humphrey’s website for more details.

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Recommendations for Your Christmas Bookshelf

admin — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:55:40 +0000

My fellow insects,

As this will be my Christmas offering to you, I am going to review three books each one of which would make a wonderful present. I believe that a book is such a good present, as it gives both the pleasure of reading to and excites the imagination of, the receiver. Here you have fiction, a memoir and historical fiction.

Imagining Don Giovanni by Anthony Rudel

This is a delightful book not just for those of you that appreciate classical music. This is a wonderful love story full of [passion and drama concerning the composition of the opera Don Giovanni. Knowing, as we do from papers, that Casanova was in Prague at the time that Mozart and his librettist Da Ponte were working on the opera Don Giovanni which was to be based on the scandalous life of Don Juan, Anthony Rudel, son of the famous conductor Julius Rudel, has written an excellent piece of historical fiction.

At the time, Mozart was having a little trouble with the cast of Don Giovanni and their interpretation of the love affairs as portrayed by his music and the words of Da Ponte. It took one of the world’s greatest lovers (if history is to be believed!) to go on stage during the rehearsals and demonstrate how to act out love and passion for your fellow actors. There are some wonderful scenes in this book when Casanova is teaching the actors, at the same time we are treated to Mozart’s strong feelings and longing to be with his wife, Costanze, and family back in Vienna.

This is a story full of passion for other human beings, music and the theatre; it is a marvelous piece of fiction based on fact from which a lot can be learnt and a lot imagined.

The Greek for Love by James Chatto

This is a memoir with a difference. James Chatto is an Englishman who fell in love with a Canadian, Wendy Martin, who became his wife, but not before a passionate and, at times, melancholy love affair takes place starting one summer many years ago on the island of Corfu. You may well have read some of Chatto’s writings in Canadian magazines and newspapers, as he and his family have lived for some time in Toronto as well as on Corfu.

James and Wendy were captivated by the way they were accepted so readily by the locals once they had bought and renovated a ruined house on Corfu, amongst the olive trees and grape vines. The way they did this is very different from certain other stories based in the south of France. They were on Corfu at a time when they could swim naked off a deserted beach which now is surrounded by villas and bijou hotels. The more they learned Greek, the more they enjoyed the social life of the local village and particularly the stories and myths as told by and about the locals on balmy evenings at a table outside the local taverna, where there was always much laughter and plenty of local wine. There are descriptions of wonderful meals (Chatto has published several cook books) of fresh sardines, lamb as only the Greeks know how to cook it and fresh fruit from the surrounding trees.

It isn’t until near the end of the book that a tragedy occurs that brought tears to my eyes for the first time in many, many years of reading all different types of books. Tragic as this part of the book is, it in no way detracts from this wonderful story; indeed, it gives one tremendous faith in human kind and the ability of all of us to survive unwanted and unwarranted tragedies in our lives. This is a delightful memoir, superbly narrated, funny, imaginative and very, very readable.

Angel’s Game by Carlos Zafon

For those of you who haven’t read any Zafon, give yourselves an early Christmas present and go and buy a second hand copy of Shadow of the Wind by Zafon, you will love it. Carlos Ruiz Zafon is a very well known Spanish writer of historical fiction in Europe and has been translated into about 40 languages. As a historian, there is much that can be learnt in a most pleasant way from reading his books.

Angel’s Game is another of Zafon’s books translated by Lucia Graves, Robert Graves’s daughter, and it is this translation that makes for such a fine book for those of us reading it in English – unlike certain other Spanish writings which have been translated using modern idioms even in 18^th century dialogue.

This is the story of a young man, David Martin, who lives in a dark and mysterious house in the centre of Barcelona and spends his time writing cheap and gaudy novels under a pseudonym. He is visited by a French editor who decides to make him an offer. If he will write a most extraordinary book, the like of which has never been seen before, he, the French editor will give David Martin a fortune to do with as he pleases. The house itself features strongly in this story because of its previous owner whose personal belongings are still to be found in a locked room at the back of the haunting house.

Needless to say, not everything is as it seems in this gothic universe of romance, tragedy and mystery all surrounding the passion of books. This is a masterful story and, yes, the Cemetery of Forgotten Books does appear again in this intriguing and well written book.

I wish you all a Very Happy Christmas and good chewing amongst the pages as well as at the festive table. Here’s to 2010!

The Booklouse.

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Booklouse Book Reviews for December

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:55:34 +0000

Image Credit: Chud Tsankov Illustrations

My fellow insects,

I hope you have been enjoying my recommendations and this time I have two books for you, both of which have something of a nautical theme.

High Endeavours by Miles Clark

This book has just about everything anyone could want to chew on between the two covers of any book; adventure, intrigue, an elicit love affair and drama, all laced with an unending inquisitiveness about our world. I am talking about the lives of Miles and Beryl Smeeton, who as I’m sure many of you know, lived for a while on Salt Spring Island.

Written by Miles Clark, who was one of the editors of Yachting Monthly, High Endeavours chronicles the lives of the Smeetons before they fell in love and continues afterwards with their adventures around the world together. By the time they were both fifty, they sat down with a world atlas and discovered that they had crossed every page either together or separately.

This is an amazing story of endurance, courage and a sense of fun, in other words a true sense of adventure, which at one point took them on an eighteen month voyage on their yacht Tzu Hang out of Victoria, BC to Australia which turned into a ten year adventure, with a couple of dismastings thrown in, but they still managed to return and tie up in front of the Empress ten years to the day after they had left.

I will leave you with a note that I found in the front of my second hand copy:

“Dear ….

I’m sure you will find this one of the most interesting, enchanting and inspiring accounts of how life can (sic) be lived! Merry Christmas.”

Kydd by Julian Stockwin

Here we have a wonderful, relatively new, author of the Napoleonic days of naval antics. Different from Forrester, Alexander Kent, Patrick O’Brian, Pope et al, in a major way and that is that the hero in this series, Thomas Kydd, is a wig maker from Surrey who is in a bar one night with a friend having a quiet drink when the press gang arrive and he is swept up and lands on the deck of Duke William, an old line-of-battle ship of the Royal Navy.

The vantage point of the common sailor makes for an excellent twist to the normal stories of this very popular historic fiction genre. It is a while before Thomas Kydd finds out that he loves the life of a sailor but with the help of his friend, who has a very different reason for going to sea, he is soon noticed as a competent seaman who can command the respect of others, except for the usual officer or two who have managed to buy their way into positions of authority, and use it for nefarious purposes.

Julian Stockwin is himself ex Navy and he is one of the few who made it from the lower decks to officer during his time of service which is certain to help in his expression of the feelings of his hero throughout this series.

At the moment there are ten books in this excellent series with the latest having just been published – Invasion.

Good chewing till next time,

The Booklouse.

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Funny Food For Thought

admin — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:19:58 +0000

Image Credit: Anne Taintor

And now a word from a Dreadful Domesticated Damsel in Distress and Kooky Kitchen Klutz, Hermione Catastrophe (who thankfully has never been asked to contribute a recipe to the James Bay Beacon Newspaper, but who if asked, would respond as follows)

Dear Friends of Food,

I sincerely appreciate your invitation to join your recipe exchange list.

Regretably living alone does not inspire an undomesticated feline like me to cook, let alone consume too much of what I am obliged to make in order to sustain myself on planet earth.

If truth be told, I find myself considering options like pitted prunes and a jolt of java for breakfast. They represent an affordable, convenient, and easy-to-open source of food — a healthy snack that keeps one regular and a hot beverage to wash them down.

As for lunch – I try to go out for a bit of a perambulation around my part of the hood, and often check out modestly priced places that offer a bowl of soup and/or a sandwich. Though I do consider myself a slightly adventurous person, I try to avoid exotic dishes whenever possible be it pickled pigs toes, chocolate covered ants, or grilled road kill from the badlands of Alberta.

And for dinner — well, sometimes it involves waiting for an invitation to a free wine tasting plus some appies all of which can be found my neighborhood. More often than not, I adore indulging in a "bran new me" — whether it’s a big bowl of flakes or satisfying hot bowl of oatmeal porridge with a light topping of whipping cream, (the one that supposed to give your cholesterol a hell of a ride).

So, you can see that my tastes in food are rather simple, while my talent for cooking almost non-existent. I attribute this to the fact that during puberty, I failed several important home ec[onomics] courses — cooking (though I did pass the porridge test), and sewing (on a treddle machine, but now since I can’t see well enough to thread a needle, I use carpet tape with glue on both sides to hem my clothes…the few that still fit me of course, although they say "sack dresses" are coming back in style…thank God).

Again, thank you for your thoughtful invitation to join what I am sure promises to be a great opportunity to share some culinary delights. Which reminds me, I must have a word with the Fuck-up Fairy or the Goddess of Glitch to request that perhaps they consider adding a gourmet cooking gene to my DNA when I’m reincarnated…what do you mean you don’t think cats have nine lives?

Best regards from one who simply hates to cook unless my fate depends on it,

The catastrophic culinary clunker

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Food, Fun & Freudian Sips!

admin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:34:18 +0000

Image Credit: Chud Tsankov Illustrations on flickr.com

This month in the "Food for Thought" column, we’ve invited Larry Arnold, (Product Consultant at Spinnaker’s Wine & Beer Merchants and Sips Artisan Bistro at 425 Simcoe Street in James Bay Square) to say a few words about what’s in their larder besides those lovely little libations that complement our loafing about lifestyle that characterizes the neighborhood.

Sips Artisan Bistro is featuring some fine food, fun and Freudian Sips courtesy of Therapy Vineyards from B.C.’s Naramata Bench. So if you’re pressed for time and can’t enjoy a "grape escape", then drop by for a tasting, or pick up a bottle of your favorite "Therapy" and a tapas to go!

Freudian Sip 2008/Salt Spring Island Chevre, Spinnakers Apple Smoked Trout & Strawberry Compote

This pairing is all about acidity! The goat cheese has it, so does the strawberry compote. With a crunch of mouthwatering acidity and heady citrust-mango flavours, the wine hangs in there perfectly, gaining weight and intensity with every sip. As the acid softens, the wine brings out the lovely smoky flavours of the trout and the sweetness of the srawberry. Delicious!

Therapy Vineyards Chardonnay 2008/Smokehouse Cheddar, Verjus Cured Salmon, Pear Butter

Yow, this dish is intense, but so is the wine! Smoke, acidity and sweet fruit, all in perfect balance requires more of the same and the crisp, juicy Okanagan chard more than meets the challenge. Peaches and cream with lovely toasty nuances, plenty of weight and a finish that wraps itself around your palate and just keeps going!

Therapy Vineyards Gewurztraminer 2008/Caraway Cheese, Smoked Sooke Oyster & Apple Chutney

This pairing is all or nothig! the ingredients in the dish are full flavoured, sweet and spicy. The perfect complement to a wine not known for its coquettish nature! Very floral with a slightly oily texture, a heady potpourri of tropical fruit and exotic spice flavours and a long, long soft finish!

Therapy Vineyards Pinot Noir 2007/Tipsy Jill, proscuitto Salami, Strawberry Compote

Good pinot is hard to find But after several thousand samples we think we have found one here! The dish is richly flavoured with a salty, slightly sweet and tart structure that begs another bite. The wine is all about perfectly rip fruit with cherry and spice flavours, a soft wilky texture and enough acidity to stand up to the compote and cut through the richness of the cheese. Superb!

Freud’s Ego 2007/Hot Jill Cheese, Hot Cacciatore Salami, Caramelized Onions

This dish is not for the timid or those with an aversion to heat and spice. It is a full-flavoured take no prisoners assault on your palate that is very, very hot, but absolutely delicious! On the other hand, this richly textured Boreau blend is lush and powerful with layers of sweet fruit and spice flavours, plenty of body and a soft blush of fine grained tannins.

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Booklouse Review For November

admin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:20:52 +0000

Image Credit: Bill Mayer at flickr.com

My fellow insects,

Here are (or is, depending on your approach to collective nouns) another couple of books to add to the pile that you are hopefully enjoying.

The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin

Olga Grushin was born and lived for the first 18 years of her life in Moscow. This is her first novel after settling in America and marrying an American.

This is the story of the Editor in Chief of the main Arts magazine in Moscow who always has to publish glowing critiques about Russian Art whilst secretly admiring works by Van Gogh and others. He spends his evenings alone in his apartment painting in the style of Van Gogh and hides his works, until such time as his cousin turns up unexpectedly for a visit and stays in the apartment.

What is amazing about this book is that, despite being brought up and educated in Russia, Grushin wrote the manuscript in English and the resulting book has been compared to Nabokov and Bulgakov in its style of writing; personally, I never quite understood all the excitement about Nabokov, apart from his unbelievable arrogance concerning other writers. So, Lolita; I remember paying 5 shillings to borrow an illicit copy of Lady Chatterly’s Lover when their Lordships had been locked into the House of Lords to see if we youngsters should be allowed to read it!

Anyway, this is an excellent read concerning life and the Arts under the Communist regime in Russia and being a shorter book, is perfect for those boring lunch breaks. Grushin has another book coming out this fall, Concert Ticket, and I am greatly looking forward to getting my hands on that one.

Speaking of Communists, here’s a great read for the lovers of James Bond, who wondered just how much fiction there was in those stories (personally, I couldn’t have cared less, as long as Bond got the girl, got the villain and still managed to get his hat on the hat stand at the first throw!

Secret Asset by Stella Rimmington

Stella Rimmington was the Head of MI5 or, in other words, she placed real life James Bonds around the world as M. She held this position for around 5 years, so you know that you are reading about authentic situations that are close to the truth when you read her books.

This is an exciting story based on a terrorist plot driven out of an Islamic bookstore in North London, and, in passing, you get a good idea how a surveillance operation works. But this one turns even more interesting when there is a tip-off that a mole is at work in British Intelligence. Will MI5 manage to trap the mole before he/she is able to carry out the terrorist plot? Stella Rimmington writes very well in this genre and certainly has the knack of creating a page-turner based on authenticity.

Funnily enough, her first book At Risk also caused their Lordships some excitement, as they were asked to consider, by the Lower House, whether this book could be published in view of the Official Secrets Act; as if she was about to put her compatriots in danger!

Good chewing till next time,

The Booklouse.

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What is James Bay’s Quality of Life?

admin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:37:13 +0000

The James Bay Neighborhood Association has raised an important question to consider: “What ‘quality of life’ do we enjoy or aspire to as member of Victoria’s oldest neighborhood, James Bay?”

It takes a good deal of courage to ask difficult or thought-provoking questions for which there may be many answers, depending on one’s point of reference, one’s past experience and expectations, as well as one’s attitudes towards life not to mention one’s beliefs about the world and one’s place in it.

One might start the discussion or dialogue among community members by asking, “What is the meaning of “quality of life”?

One definition of quality of life might simply be, “People’s overall well-being”.

Elaborating further on this topic, one might make the observation that quality of life is difficult to measure (whether for an individual, group, or nation) because in addition to material well-being (or standard of living) it includes such intangible components as the quality of the environment, national security, personal safety, as well as political and economic freedoms.

Thus, the goal of an organization might be to work for a community, country or world free of poverty, with poverty defined as a lack of basic human needs, such as food, water, shelter, freedom, access to education, healthcare, or employment.

In other words, poverty may be equated with an inadequate or low quality of life in the eyes of many people. And, thus using this definition, such an social or economic organization might work toward improving quality of life through a variety of means, with the stated goal of reducing poverty, and helping people afford a better quality of life.

Healthcare professionals may refer to “quality of life” as an overall sense of well-being with a strong relation to a person’s health perceptions and ability to function. On a larger scale, quality of life can be viewed as including all aspects of community life that have a direct and quantifiable influence on the physical and mental health of its members. And, they may dedicate themselves by working towards improving the quality of health care by increasing accessibility to affordable and appropriate treatment and prevention of disease. They may also work to reduce negative affects on an individual level, by disease.

Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Quality of Life Research Unit define quality of life as “The degree to which a person enjoys the important possibilities of his or her life”. Their Quality of Life Model is based around the categories “being”, “belonging”, and “becoming” – respectively, that is who one is, how one is connected to one’s environment, and whether one achieves one’s personal goals, hopes, and aspirations.

The term quality of life is also used by politicians and economists to measure the liveability or sustainability of a given city or nation. These measures calculate the liveability of countries and cities around the world, respectively, through a combination of subject life-satisfaction surveys and objective determinants of quality of life such as divorce rates, safety, and infrastructure. Such measures relate more broadly to the population of a city, state, or country, not to the individual level.

So, while it is true that an urban quality of life may include such things as traffic volumes, noise, air and water quality, public safety, and availability of parking, recreational facilities as well as health and social services, it may also include one’s ability to earn an income to sustain oneself, i.e. to pay for one’s food, shelter, and health care.

In this light, one might ask, if health and well-being are considered a quality of life issue, how many James Bay residents do not have a family doctor because of the overall shortage of physicians in Victoria and throughout the province; or, how many have been turned away by the walk-in clinic or James Bay Community Project for whatever reason?

How many people who live in fixed income find it difficult to make ends meet in the face of continually rising food, fuel, pharmaceutical and rental costs? How many young families cannot afford to live in James Bay because they cannot finance the downpayment or the mortgage, let alone cover the maintenance or repair costs and/or strata fees associated with owning a condo or a single-family dwelling?

When these questions are rarely if ever discussed in neighborhood meetings and not even posed in community surveys, it’s difficult to know what or whose quality of life we are talking about.

Perhaps if organizations providing services to the community such as the James Bay Community Project, the James Bay Community School, the James Bay Neighborhood Association, James Bay New Horizons and the James Bay Beacon Newspaper Society would engage in meaningful discussion with members of the community – those who live and work here and invest in the community – they might learn just what quality of life people want in James Bay, as well as what, where, when and how they are prepared to improve it.

In conclusion, maybe it’s time to put aside our pet projects, personal biases, and special-interest group agendas and explore our common ground for sustaining a healthy, safe and caring community. By relying on the formidable nurturing spirit of “all for one and one for all”and valuing the notion that “every little bit counts”…we can perform miracles. After all, isn’t that what make life truly worth living, be it in James Bay or anywhere else for that matter.

And in the interests of promoting further dialogue and discussion, "What does quality of life mean to you? Are you satisfied with the quality of life in James Bay? What things would you like to change that would enhance, improve or increase the quality of life in this community?"

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