Book Review - Willowdale, Yesterdays Farms, Today's Legacy

I was born in the mid-fifties in Willowdale and lived there until I was twenty four, so when this very new book, Willowdale, Yesterdays Farms, Today's Legacy, came out just this month I grabbed it.

In 1855, Willowdale's post office opened in Jacob Cummer's store on Yonge Street. Today, streets in Toronto's community of Willowdale are peppered with the names of the early farm families of North York, such as the Shepards, Finches, and Kennedys. 

Author Scott Kennedy's intriguing stories embrace the evolution of Willowdale from the earliest acquisition of land to today's urban environment. You will read about combat training for the ill-fated Rebellion of 1837 that took place in the community fields; about Mazo de la Roche's estate, Windrush Hills, which stood at Bayview and Steeles, and is a Zorastrian temple today; about the Kingsdale Jersey Farm, which was located on Bayview until 1972; and about Green Meadows, the estate of "Bud" McDougald, which was the last operating farm in North York.

I read a lot of non-fiction books and must commend the author Scott Kennedy for the amount of work he did to put this book together. It is one of the best researched books I have ever across.

We lived until I was eight on Spring Garden Ave on the North-east side of Bayview and Sheppard before moving to a new home in a very new neighborhood on the east side of Leslie St about half way between Finch and Steeles. The new neighborhood was quaintly call "Hillcrest Village". There was our house, and a couple of streets over Kevin and Craig's parents home, guys that I still am friends with to this day and maybe four or five other homes. The first night a farmer cam and knocked on our door looking for his lost cows.

Turns out Hillcrest Village was built on land originally owned by the Johnston family who had been granted a section of land there by the crown and continued to buy land in the are until they owned most of the area. It seemed the kids ran a series of farms plus a mill. The area was known as the Johnston Family Farms. It was so interesting reading about the history of my own neighborhood where I grew up.

I also really enjoyed the chapter on The Somewhat Bizarre tale of Donald Springer who built a beautiful home in the south-west area of Finch and Leslie. The chapter tells the story of the home he built out out of a barn. I always thought it was a great place! Another chapter Bud McDouglad and Green Meadows I also found extremely interesting. He own the mansion on the east side of Leslie south of Finch. I still remember horses grazing on the side of the hill and the huge race track on the south-west corner of Finch and Leslie he used to train horses.

The book is not only well researched but also very well written. The pictures are great, and if I have a complaint, I only wish there were more of them. Some brought back many memories.

I really don't think the book would be of interest to anyone except those who lived in Willowdale or have an interest in the history of the different neighborhoods of Toronto, but many people have live in Willowdale over the years and I hope this book does very well.

I certainly enjoyed it!

Book Review - "Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont"

I don't remember how but somehow I stumbled upon a series of books put out by Penguin Publishing called Extraordinary Canadians.

There are a couple of books in the series that looked quite interesting so I thought I would start off with Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont by Joseph Boyden, an author who grew up in the same area that I did, Willowdale, which is now part of Toronto.

Louis Riel is regarded by some as a hero and visionary, by others as a madman and misguided religious zealot. The Métis leader who fought for the rights of his people against an encroaching tide of white settlers helped establish the province of Manitoba before escaping to the United States. 

Gabriel Dumont was a successful hunter and Métis chief, a man tested by warfare, a pragmatist who differed from the devout Riel. Giller Prize—winning novelist Joseph Boyden argues that Dumont, part of a delegation that had sought out Riel in exile, may not have foreseen the impact on the Métis cause of bringing Riel home. While making rational demands of Sir John A. Macdonald's government, Riel seemed increasingly overtaken by a messianic mission. His execution in 1885 by the Canadian government still reverberates today. Boyden provides fresh, controversial insight into these two seminal Canadian figures and how they shaped the country.

I know of the North-West Rebellion but have only read one book about it so thought this book would help me understand the conflict better. I was right!

This is an excellent book, told from the viewpoints of both Riel and Dumont. Boyden does a great job of getting into the heads, hearts and souls of the two leaders of the rebellion, allowing the reader to understand who these men were and why they allowed events to unfold as they did.

I had a lot of sympathy for Dumont, who knew a bloody conflict was inevitable and wanted to take the first action, which would bring more Metis and native volunteers to the cause, but just as important, a great supply of arms and ammunition. Riel, though, believed the Metis cause could be fulfilled through a peaceful political resistance which would make Prime Minister John A. MacDonald cave into their demands. Dumont's strategies, even in the midst of a battle, was constantly being vetoed by Riel, always hoping for a more peaceable way.

The North-West Rebellion is an important part of history and Boyden tells the story in a very lively fashion. This is book that I highly recommend!

Book Review - Chris Hadfield, "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth"

 A couple of weeks ago I headed up to Indigos to watch an interview with Chris Hadfield, buy his new book An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, meet him and have my book signed.

It was a thrill and honour to meet him. He's a great talker and, as it turns out, he is a very good writer too!

As Commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield captivated the world with stunning photos and commentary from space. Now, in his first book, Chris offers readers extraordinary stories from his life as an astronaut, and shows how to make the impossible a reality. 

Chris Hadfield decided to become an astronaut after watching the Apollo moon landing with his family on Stag Island, Ontario, when he was nine years old, and it was impossible for Canadians to be astronauts. In 2013, he served as Commander of the International Space Station orbiting the Earth during a five-month mission. 

Written with humour, humility and a profound optimism for the future of space exploration, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth offers readers not just the inspiring story of one man's journey to the ISS, but the opportunity to step into his space-boots and think like an astronaut-and renew their commitment to pursuing their own dreams, big or small.

I can't say enough good things about this book. It is not the usual "look at how great and I am and what I did" kind of book ... but one that has been written by a thoughtful, humble, confident person. He not only tells us what he and others did but how it felt.

He is a good storyteller, whether it is about an emergency, such as finding an angry snake in your plane while your flying, how his eyes started to sting just before going blind for a period of time during a spacewalk, and to how all his training and weeks on the road took a toll on his family. When he came home from a long time of training away, for a few days before leaving again, he started to fell like an outsider visiting his own family and how he fixed that.

Even the very small daily activities we do all do effortlessly and without thought here on earth, takes calculation and practice in space, from brushing your teeth, clipping your nails, sleeping and, of course, the most asked question, how to go to bathroom in space.

I read The Right Stuff about the early days of the space program and saw the movie. I read Lost Moon by astronaut James Lovell about the explosion on Apollo 13 on the way to the moon and saw Ron Howard's Apollo 13, the movie based on the book. An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth is like the third book of a trilogy of space travel during the years.

A great book, one that I give a full four out of four stars! Hmm, stars seem very appropriate here!

Book Review, Blood and Daring by John Boyko

While many people are civil war buffs, I really don't know much about the conflict. I know the Confederate south wanted to secede, went to war, were winning that war for awhile until the defeat at Gettysburg and went on to lose to Grant's army.

I also had no idea on how effect the civil war had on Canada, until I read Blood and Daring by John Boyko.

Blood and Daring will change our views not just of Canada''s relationship with the United States, but of the Civil War, Confederation and Canada itself. 

 In Blood and Daring, lauded historian John Boyko makes a compelling argument that Confederation occurred when and as it did largely because of the pressures of the Civil War. Many readers will be shocked by Canada''s deep connection to the war--Canadians fought in every major battle, supplied arms to the South, and many key Confederate meetings took place on Canadian soil. Boyko gives Americans a new understanding of the North American context of the war, and also shows how the political climate of the time created a more unified Canada, one that was able to successfully oppose American expansion. 

Filled with engaging stories and astonishing facts from previously unaccessed primary sources, Boyko''s fascinating new interpretation of the war will appeal to all readers of history. Blood and Daring will change our views not just of Canada''s relationship with the United States, but of Confederation itself.

Boyko is an interesting writer and manages to bring to life many stories about the war. I really enjoyed the book, learned a lot about the war itself and Canada's role in it. For instance I didn't realize how soon after Lincoln had been elected that the war started or that he was assassinated just days after the wars end. I had heard that Canadians went down and fought in the war, but was surprised that for a country with such a small population that 40,000 Canadians went south to fight. Even more surprising was that they fought for both sides.

One chapter is filled with stories of individuals that fought in the war. One of the most interesting was that of Sarah Emma Edmonds who disguised herself as a man, Franklin Thompson, and joined the Union army as first a nurse, then a spy. There are many more.

Canada was a hotbed of Confederate activity too, something I didn't know.

Finally, I was again surprised to learn how much Canada was coveted by the States. One of the reason that Confederation came about was the desires of the U.S. to take us over. Even after Confederation, the States tried to make a deal with Britain to give Canada to them as payment for selling warships to the Confederates which they called the Alabama claims.

For a civil war buff or somebody interested in Canadian history this is a must read. For everyone else, this is a very interesting and entertaining book!

Book Review - Red Planet Blues

Last year I read two Science Fiction books by Toronto Writer Robert J Sawyer, Mindscan and Flashforward. I enjoyed both so picked up his newest book Red Planet Blues.

Alex Lomax is the one and only private eye working the mean streets of New Klondike, the Martian frontier town that sprang up forty years ago after Simon Weingarten and Denny O'Reilly discovered fossils on the Red Planet. Back on Earth, where anything can be synthesized, the remains of alien life are the most valuable of all collectibles, so shiploads of desperate treasure hunters stampeded to Mars in the Great Martian Fossil Rush. 

Trying to make an honest buck in a dishonest world, Lomax tracks down killers and kidnappers among the failed prospectors, corrupt cops, and a growing population of transfers-lucky stiffs who, after striking paleontological gold, upload their minds into immortal android bodies. But when he uncovers clues to solving the decades-old murders of Weingarten and O'Reilly, along with a journal that may lead to their legendary mother lode of Martian fossils, God only knows what he'll dig up...

Although I really enjoy science fiction, I am not a fan of private detective novels, so going in, I did not know what to expect. The story is interesting enough and with a good ending. If I had any complaints, I found it just a touch long and a little confusing in places but for the most part was an easy enjoyable read. It is not a great book, but a good one.

 For a person who likes sci-fi and detective novels, this book would be a home run for sure!

Book Review - My Way by Paul Anka

Although I have never been a big fan of Paul Anka's, except for his song "Diana", I looked forward to reading his autobiography My Way as I thought it would be a great look into the early days of Rock and Roll.

The smooth, charismatic singer and songwriter in his own words-the long-awaited autobiography that reveals a life that has been much more dramatic than his crooning reveals.

A teen idol of the 1950s who virtually invented the idea of singer-songwriter-heartthrob that still fuels the industry today, Paul Anka's slew of hits-from "Diana" to "Put Your Head on my Shoulder"-earned him a place touring with the major stars of his era, including Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly.

When the British invasion wiped out the style of music that had made him famous, Anka made sure his "wipeout" wasn't the end of his story. An astute businessman and image-builder who didn't let anyone else run his career, he toured the world until returning home for his "comeback", becoming a charter member of the Rat Pack, writing the theme music for The Tonight Show as well as his friend Frank Sinatra's anthem "My Way"...The Times of My Life is bursting with rich, rollicking stories of the people who have been part of Anka''s life.

I really enjoyed  the first half of the book. He doesn't spend too much time recounting memories of being a small child, which I find some autobiographies tend to do, but jumps quickly into Anka trying to make a name for himself as a young teen in Ottawa. I loved the stories about all the stars and  personalities of the 50's and early 60's.

The book starts to bog done when he talks about changing the direction of his career and going to Vegas. I realize that Vegas and touring took up the majority of his life and the story of the start of his life there is interesting, but I feel it is his stories of Sinatra and the Rat Pack really bogged it down. For large parts of the book I felt I was reading a Sinatra biography and not an Anka autobiography.

I found it annoying how the writing would go from past to present tense and back again. This is not Anka's fault but whoever did the proofing and editing of the book.

Anka wrote the song "My Way" for Sinatra, which resurrected  Sinatra's career. He spends a little time about how he came to write the song, give it to Sinatra and his thoughts on singing it himself and others that sang it. I liked his thoughts on Sid Vicious's take on the song:

Although I do like the way Sid Vicious did it. At first I thought he was just goofing on the song. He starts out making fun of it, but then he gets into it, gets swept up in it.. It's as if the song midway reaches out and grabs him by the foot. 

Sid Vicious version isn't my favourite, and I can't say honestly that I would listen to it every week but what he did worked as both a goof and a sincere take on it, which is a pretty amazing accomplishment in and of itself. Sid put himself into the song and he really did do it his way. 

So when Vicious did it, I was pleased to hear that it touched him in some way, that he wanted to make that statement and at the same time I was amused by it. I was flattered that a punk like Sid, wanted to do "My Way," someone who was into music totally different from mine. 

"My Way" is not a bad read, but I found myself quite bored with it by the end.

Book Review - Gail Simmons, "Talking with my Mouth Full"

I am a big an of Top Chef, I know that Gail Simmons is from Toronto, plus I love books about the food industry, so when I saw Talking with my Mouth Full, it became a must read for me!

When Top Chef judge Gail Simmons first graduated from college, she felt hopelessly lost. All her friends were going to graduate school, business school, law school . . . but what was she going to do? Fortunately, a family friend gave her some invaluable advice—make a list of what you love to do, and let that be your guide. Gail wrote down four words:

 Eat. Write. Travel. Cook. 

Little did she know, those four words would become the basis for a career as a professional eater, cook, food critic, magazine editor, and television star. Today, she's the host of Top Chef: Just Desserts, permanent judge on Top Chef, and Special Projects Director at Food & Wine magazine. She travels all over the world, eats extraordinary food, and meets fascinating people. She's living the dream that so many of us who love to cook and eat can only imagine. But how did she get there? Talking with My Mouth Full follows her unusual and inspiring path to success, step-by-step and bite-by-bite. 

I found this to be a very entertaining read. Her love of  food really comes out in all her stories. She does not get too detailed about her life, keeping that high level but does get detailed in the food she has enjoyed. In fact, each chapter starts with a short favorite food memory.

The behind the scenes stories of working her way up through the food industry are interesting and humorous. Of course, my most favorite chapters were the ones where she started on Top Chef and all the behind the scenes stories. On that show, I have always found Padma rather stiff and humorless but Simmons shows the reader a different side of her.

Once Gail Simmons knew what she wanted to do in life, she really went for it. She claims some of it is luck but I felt that she made her own luck.

Talking with my Mouth Full is a fast, entertaining and interesting read.

Book Review - "Full Count: Four Decades Of Blue Jays Baseball"

The Toronto Blue Jays are a baseball franchise that has been around since 1977. That's 36 seasons and two World Series Championships!

Until now, the only book that I have read about the Jays was a 1993 book by Tom Cheek, who at the time had broadcasted every game the Jays had played (he passed away in  2005 and I still miss his voice on the radio during Blue Jays games. He now is now in Cooperstown). The book was Road to Glory about the Jays from inception up to that point.

I just finished Full Count: Four Decades Of Blue Jays Baseball, which although the title suggests is the full story of all 36 seasons, is in fact the story from the Jays winning seasons in the late1980s 'til just before spring training for this 2013 season ... and there is nothing wrong with that.

From one of Canada's top baseball writers and radio hosts: a retrospective of the Toronto Blue Jays on the 20th anniversary of Joe Carter's World Series-winning home run--and a look ahead to what promises to be their most successful season since. A must-have for all Blue Jays fans, and a great read for Toronto and Canadian sports fans in general. 

In Full Count, Jeff Blair takes us back to the days when the Toronto Blue Jays were "the Cadillac of franchises," and shows us exactly what they did right to become baseball's premier club. Then he explores the disappointing aftermath, when the league's fourth-largest market became an also-ran: seemingly destined to languish behind the big-spending Yankees and Red Sox and free-wheeling Rays--until the offseason of 2012. Full Count will appeal not only to casual fans wanting re-live Blue Jays history, but also to the serious baseball fan who wants to know the real details and business decisions that drove the team to the pinnacle, then to mediocrity, and now (hopefully) back to the top once again.

This is Jeff Blair's first book. Although he wanders a little off topic when speaking on a subject and will go off on the odd tangent, I found this to be a very interesting and easy to read book. He has great insight into the goings on behind the scenes of the Blue Jays and is very knowledgeable about baseball in general.

Blair explains well the challenges of running a major league team in Canada, the only non American franchise, as it pertains to a players interest in playing here, foreign exchange on the U.S. dollar, and even work visas for non-American professional athletes.

I found this a very interesting book and if you have not yet read a book on the Blue Jays and want to read about their history, start with Road to Glory and finish with this. Full Count is also an excellent book to read on its own.

Book Review - Stanley Barracks, Toronto's Military Legacy

There is a lone stone building at the south end of Exhibition Place in Toronto. I never thought much about it, as for most of my life it was a marine museum that I had never visited. Then we did a walking tour in April with Muddy York Walking Tours covering the Battle of York and Richard, the owner of the tour company, who pointed out the building and explained how it was the last remaining building of a fort built back in the 1800's. Stanley Barracks

Really! I just had to learn about this!

After doing a little research, I found a book, Stanley Barracks, Toronto`s Military Legacy written by Aldona Sendzikas, who was assistant curator at Historic Fort York and now teaches military history at Western University in London, Ontario.

Stanley Barracks begins with the construction in 1840-41 of the new facility that replaced the then decaying Fort York Barracks. The book recounts the background of the last facility operated by the British military in Toronto and how Canada's own Permanent Force was developed. 

 During the course of the stories told in this history, we learn about Canadian participation in war, including the two world wars and the barracks' use as an internment camp for "enemy aliens"; civil-military relations as Toronto's expansion encroached on the lands and buildings of the barracks; the establishment and growth of Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition; the struggles and discrimination faced by immigrants in Canada in wartime; the employment of the barracks as emergency housing during Toronto's post-war housing shortage; and the origins of Canada's famed Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In short, Stanley Barracks is the story of Toronto.

This a very interesting read. I enjoyed reading about life in Toronto back in the late 1800`s and how the fort contributed to it. Most people know of the internment camps on the west coast during World War 2, but I did not know that Canada also had them in the first world war and the new fort in Toronto was one of the camps.

The "new fort" as it was know was also used to train troops for both wars, train the newly created North West Mounted Police and provided emergency housing after the second world war for returning troops. The book also has many great pictures of the old fort

If you are interested in the history of Toronto or Canada's military history, I would highly recommend this book.

 

Book Review - In Calamity's Wake

This book caught my eye as it is a western, which I enjoy, was written by a Canadian, Natalee Caple from Calgary and is a fiction with a factual historical base. Goodreads had 15 readers give it a 3.79 out of 5. I was quite excited when I downloaded In Calamity's Wake to my Kobo.

Set in the badlands of the North American west in the late 1800s, In Calamity’s Wake tells the story of orphaned Miette’s quest to find her mother, the notorious Calamity Jane. 

Miette is reluctant to meet the woman who abandoned her—whom she knows only as an infamous soldier, drinker and exhibition shooter—but she sets out nonetheless across a landscape peopled with madwomen, thieves, minstrels and ghosts, many of whom add a thread to the story of her famous mother. 

Interspersed with Miette’s story are the stories of Jane as told in legend, history books, dime store novels and by the woman herself. As Miette makes her way to Deadwood, South Dakota, history and myth collide to create a picture of a remarkable woman who shattered the expectations of her time, and a daughter who must confront the truth of her past. 

This definitely is a first for me. I don't think I have ever written a review on a book that I have not finished. Usually I will read two or three chapters and if the book is not grabbing me, move onto another. I know in this book that I made more than half way through before giving up. That's one thing about a Kobo that I enjoy. You know exactly how much you have read. In my case I read 52.1% of the book. More than half way!

I did not enjoy the style of writing and the author does not use quotations which drives me crazy. The story wanders between Miette's journey, flashes back to the her growing up with her father and then to Martha's story, Martha being Calamity Jane. I found that I stopped caring about Miette, enjoyed the odd story about Martha, and didn't like the flashbacks. The last 10 or so pages I read was a chore so I gave up on it.

In Calamity's Wake does get some very good reviews elsewhere. It just is not a book for me.

Book Review - The Power of More, Marnie McBean

I enjoy reading books about motivation and love watching rowing and sculling, always wished I had tried it when I was younger.  So when I saw a book by Marnie McBean, Canada's first three time Olympic Gold Medalists, The Power of More, I had to give it a read.

I remember watching her and her rowing partner Kathleen Heddle on TV winning  a couple of their Olympic Gold medals. 

The Power of More shows readers how to accomplish their goals, big or small, by just doing a little bit more. Whether you are a novice runner who wants to complete a 10k race or an elite athlete after a gold medal, you can achieve your ambition by believing in the importance of doing a little bit more. 

A three-time Olympic champion, McBean explains the effect of breaking down big goals into manageable bits that you can do, as well as the idea that you almost always have a little bit more to give. She discusses the importance of setting goals, the role of communication and teamwork, and the need for motivation, commitment, and accountability. Finally, she dispels the myth that we should expect to be perfect and stresses that both confidence and success are the result of preparation.

I found the book quite interesting. McBean breaks down goals into smaller manageable areas and I must say that I have already taken some ideas from the book and applied them to my own life. I particularly liked the section she wrote on changing goals, not for the same sport or objective, but from one goal to a completely different one and how to accept that change.

As a fan of rowing, I found all the background on training for rowing to prepare for the world championships and Olympics very interesting. As much as I took some of the advice out of the book and was able to apply it to what I do, I found her stories about rowing the most interesting.

I found it a quite good inspirational book.

Book Review - The Penelopiad

I have enjoyed many of Margaret Atwood's books but have not read one in awhile. The idea of The Penelopiad intrigued me.

In Homer's account in The Odyssey, Penelope--wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy--is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife, her story a salutary lesson through the ages. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumors, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay, simultaneously. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters, and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and--curiously--twelve of her maids. 

 In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged maids, asking: "What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?" In Atwood's dazzling, playful retelling, the story becomes as wise and compassionate as it is haunting, and as wildly entertaining as it is disturbing. With wit and verve, drawing on the story-telling and poetic talent for which she herself is renowned, she gives Penelope new life and reality--and sets out to provide an answer to an ancient mystery.

I had never read The Odyssey but Atwood gives a quick summary of the original story at the beginning of the book. It is interesting how the entire story is told by the long dead Penelope who still struggles to determined what happened and why.

The story is told much in the same style as ancient Greek drama's with a chorus line made up of the maids, singing, chanting and filling in some of the blanks in the story and bringing the story seamlessly together. Reminds me of the Greek dramas I took back in high school.

I really enjoyed the story, so much that I might go and read The Odyssey to learn that side of the story. Yes, most people would have done it the other way around but I thank Atwood for making me interested in the original story.

I like it when I read a book or story that takes me into another line of reading. The Penelopiad did this form me.