Book Description

With 130 stunning images and photographs to accompany the fascinating and insightful text, The Group of Seven in Western Canada is a unique and outstanding contribution to the history and legacy of Canadian art.

For more than 80 years, the Group of Seven has been Canada's best-known art collective. Founded in 1920, the Group were recognized for their strikingly bold, modernist and colorful images of the Canadian landscape. In creating their art, the Group also contributed greatly to Canada's emerging sense of identity.

While much has been written about the Group, as both a collective and as individual artist, there has never been an examination of their work from an exclusively regional perspective. For the first time, and in conjunction with the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, The Group of Seven in Western Canada explores the influence of the western Canada on their art.

In The Group of Seven in Western Canada, Catharine Mastin, curator of the Group of Seven Glenbow exhibition, along with five other curators and scholars, explore the inspiration and influence of the west on both the Group's artwork and their sense of national identity. A multiplicity of viewpoints are expressed in this book as each author explores the Group's relationship with the West from their own unique point of view. The book focuses on the significant themes and works produced by the Group from artistic, political, geographical, social and cultural perspectives in order to create the first, and most comprehensive, study of the Group's western muse. ... Read more

Book Description

Challenging the notion that Nikkei individuals before and during World War II were helpless pawns manipulated by forces beyond their control, the diverse essays in this rich collection focus on the theme of resistance within Japanese American and Japanese Canadian communities to twentieth-century political, cultural, and legal discrimination. They illustrate how Nikkei groups were mobilized to fight discrimination through assertive legal challenges, community participation, skillful print publicity, and political and economic organization.

Comprised of all-new and original research, this is the first anthology to highlight the contributions and histories of Nikkei within the entire Pacific Northwest, including British Columbia. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

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 book made me laugh and almost made me cry. The characters are too funny and very heart-warming.

This is a book that has no comparison and no equal.
Outstanding! This book was an absolute, heart pounding thrill to read. An epic illustration of the unstopable drive of the human heart and the unyeilding will of man to print his own name across the pages of time. Men and women of a class that survives now, only in the memories or our lost heritage. People with unconquerable spirit and no notion of the impossible. If comparison were possible, this book would be the Bendigo Shafter of non-fiction but even the endless imagination of the great Louis L'Amour could not stand against the unforgiving truth of a land not tamed by man. The writing is clear and descriptive, showing the obvious education and experience of it's author, a man who chose ranching by choice rather than out of necessity. As the pages turn, the reader gets a look into the lives of these mountain men and without effort, we learn to understand each and every character, almost to the point of friendship. Quite an accomplishment in a fast-paced 250 page book. The pride, drive, knowledge, and respect of these men for the world they lived in is unparelleled. Though I was forced to perform certain daily activities, my mind never left the book until I could complete it's last inspiring page and sit breathlesly paralized in awe and admiration of this newly created dream world. This is the greatest book that I have ever been given the pleasure to read and I don't hesitate to say that the next two books I read will be the conclusion to it's sequence.

Hobson gives an excellent account of the way it really is.
This book debunks the cowboy myth and shows the life of a rancher the way it really is. Well written, with tragedy and humor on every page, this book also shows the relationship between man and horse the way it should be. If I hadn't already been there, I'd go looking for a cowboy job now.

Great Canadian History - Simple Elegant Writing
There was a time, that can be recalled by just a few who are still alive, when northern British Columbia Canada was much like the American West. This book describes the adventures involved in surviving and prospering in cattle country. When you are done with the book you will feel that you have learned enough to lead a winter cattle drive through unknown country. As Pan says in the book, "Nothin' to it, nothin at all. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

Mo-no juk sum Makes Good, Eloquently
In anticipation of the lunar new year, I picked up this book. The author had me under his spell by the second page. In his memoir of growing up in the 1940's, as the son of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver's Chinatown, the reader learns that Mr. Choy, while on a promotional book tour in 1995, received a call from a woman who says that she just saw his mother. But his Toisanese mother died nearly two decades earlier, he tells the mysterious caller. No, the caller replies, she means his 'real mother.' And so the memoir and the mystery begin. In descriptive language that is hypnotic and nearly as haunting as a ghost filled home his family lived in, an extremely detailed portrait of his life as a young boy is drawn. In Part 1, his pre-school years are filled with family, Chinglish, mah-jong, lots of single "uncles" to take him for ice cream, nightly Chinese operas (his mother's version are a permanent barrier against pessimism), cowboy films, and his assertively willful tantrums. In Part 2, the author writes of his school years, English and Chinese lessons, stubbornness, truancy, confusion, helplessness, his pet dog, the humiliations his father endured at work, and the other concerns of children. In the last third of the book, Mr. Choy returns as an adult to the mystery of his and explores the hidden secrets of his family. Upon close reading, one learns about the stress of living as an Asian in North America during the War, a time when burials were only allowed in Asian-only cemeteries, when sick Asians were housed in the basement of the hospital, when Asians were offered payments to return to Asia if they promised never to return, and when men were not allowed to bring their families or wives over to the Gold Mountain from across the Pacific. On even closer reading, one can discern how different Chinese identities were crafted in North America by his grandfather, his parents, and finally himself in an in-between'ness third generation. ... Read more

Reviews (26)

GRIPPING READING!
BLACK DEVIL BRIGADE IS AN EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF SMALL UNIT ACTION IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR. JOSEPH SPRINGER GIVES US A GRIPPING, CRAFTSMANLIKE JOB OF PIERCING TOGETHER THE INCREDIBLE EXPLOITS OF THE MEN OF THE 1ST SPEICAL SERVICE FORCE INTO A COLLECTIVE ORAL HISTORY. RECRUITED FROM US AND CANADIAN VOLUNTEERS FOR A SUICIDE MISSION BEHIND THE ENEMY LINES IN NORWAY, THE BOOK COVERS THE UNITS 1942 CONCEPTION TO THEIR 1944 DISBANDMENT IN SOUTHERN FRANCE. THE FORCE WERE THE ELITE OF THE ALLIED FORCED DESPITE THEIR CONTINUED ANONYMITY. TASKED FOR IMPOSSIBLE SPECIAL FORCE MISSIONS, SUCH AS THE NIGHT ASSAULT ON A HUGE MOUNTAIN TOP IN ITALY (ALA THE MOVIE 'THE DEVILS BRIGADE'), THEY STRUCK SHEER TERROR INTO THE VERY HEART OF THEIR ENEMIES, KILLING WELL OVER 12,000 GERMANS, AND ACHIEVING INCREDIBLE RESULTS IN ITALY AND SOUTHERN FRANCE WITH AN EQUALLY INCREDIBLE 600% LOSS RATE. HUMOR, FEAR, HUNGER, COLD, HEAT, AND THE GRATUITOUS HORRORS OF COMBAT ARE RECORDED ON EVERY PAGE. THE FORCEMEN VEIW COMBAT (AND DEATH) IN A VERY UNCOMPLICATED, ABRUPT, AND VERY STRAIGHT FORWARD MANNER. THEIR UNUSUAL ATTITUE IS QUITE PREVELANT FROM COVER TO COVER. THE FORCEMEN SEEM OVERTLY MODEST AT TIMES, ALMOST AS IF THEIR EXTRAORDINARY CAPABILITES WERE THE DAY TO DAY NORM FOR OTHER COMBAT UNITS. THE BLACK DEVIL BRIGADE CAPTURES THE BROTHERHOOD AND HUMAN SPIRIT IN THE ACT OF BRUTAL COMBAT. AND SADLY, YOU WILL LEARN THE PERSONAL AND MOVING DETAILS OF THEIR HORRNEDOUS LOSSES. ULTIMATELY, SPRINGER'S BLACK DEVIL BRIGADE COMES ACROSS AS A REMARKABLE RECORD OF SMALL UNIT ACTION IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

A WWII MASTERPIECE!
The Black Devil Brigade is the compelling account of the 1st Special Service Force as seen through the eyes of the men who were the pioneers of our modern day Special Force units. Simmering first-hand accounts bring the humorous day to day activities of the unit coupled with their terrible and tragic episodes of the war at a very personal level. The book is written is such a style that I found myself emotional attached to the men as most of the stories are powerful and moving. I felt as if I were there and personally knew these men. It's quite simply a passionate masterpiece of Second World War oral history and should be required reading for all infantry ranks.

Excellence Continued
Mr. Springer may have been initially motivated by the desire to honor his uncle (killed serving with the First Special Service Force) but his work honors all who served in that unit. One seldom sees an oral history which tells the story of a unit so well. All the contributions by unit members tell the story without the distractions often found in other compilations. Always engaging, you just don't want to put the book down. Not only does one learn about the unit and individuals who made up that unit but one also learns about the equipment used, how it was acquired, and the soldiers' opinions of its performance. An amazing amount of information presented in a way that also entertains and honors the men who served.

A true tribute
Hats off to Joe Springer....! He did the men of 5-2 and the FSSF an honor. My father was a Lieutenant in 5-2 FSSF and one of the main characters of the book, and Joe's Uncle was one of my father's NCO's who was KIA on Anzio. The personal accounts in the book may sound far fetched and exaggerated. However, this is far from the truth. The exploits of the men of the FSSF are a matter of record. Every man who served in the FSSF is a very unique individual. I got to know many of these gentlemen over the years by attending the annual FSSF reunions. And yes, what an honor and a privilege to just meet and speak with them about WWII and life in general. Every man in the FSSF willingly, and knowingly volunteered to join a unit where the odds of being accepted in the unit is less than 20%, and your chances for survival were even less. Thank You Joe for getting my father to open up regarding his experiences during WWII for your book. It also meant so much to him to honor the men in his command who were taken, that were not only soldiers/warriors, but true friends forever.

YOU CAN'T PUT THIS BOOK DOWN
TAKE ABOUT FIFTY AMERICAN AND CANADIAN WORLD WAR TWO COMBAT VETERANS THAT WILLINGLY VOLUNTEER FOR A WINTER SUICIDE MISSION BEHIND GERMAN LINES. THEY ALL HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF EXPLOSIVES, THEY ARE SKIERS, PARATROOPERS, AND ARE EXPERT SHOOTERS. THEY BECOME THE BEST TRAINED AND HIGHLY MOTIVATED AND FIERCEST SOLDIERS THAT THERE GENERATION AND NATIONS PRODUCED. SEND THEM TO CENTRAL ITALY, ANZIOBEACH, AND SOUTHERN FRANCE WHERE THEY SLAUGHTER FIFTEEN TO TWENTY THOUSAND GERMANS. MORE THAN SIXTY YEARS PASS BY AND THEN THESE SAME FIFTY COMMANDOS INVITE YOU INTO THERE HOMES AND TELL YOU ABOUT THE FUNNY, SAD, AND ASTOUNDING THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO THEM IN COMBAT. THAT IS WHAT THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT. ... Read more

Book Description

In 1959, just one step ahead of the law, Ian Ferguson's parents left the sophisticated big-city life of Edmonton for Fort Vermilion - once a fur-trapping frontier town, now a remote aboriginal settlement in northernmost Alberta. There, Ian and his six brothers and sisters grew up without indoor plumbing, electricity, central heating, or even a radio. Beginning with the dramatic events surrounding his birth (including a paddlewheel ferry heading for destruction, a legendary rowboat trip, and a life-and-death race against time), the richly recalled events of Ferguson's life and a vivid array of characters make for a taut and appealingly idiosyncratic tale. ... Read more

Book Description

Before winning recognition as an artist and writer, Emily Carr served as landlady to an apartment building where she bred English sheep dogs to supplement a meager income. A collection of stories about those hard-working days, The House of All Sorts features vividly portrayed tenants who frequently surprise Carr with their foibles, as well as the beloved canines who provide her with companionship. Carr is at her most acerbic and rueful, but also filled with vitality and an inextinguishable hope. ... Read more

Book Description

Here is the incredible true story of one woman’s fight for survival in the Arctic wilderness.

When she was nine years old, Olive Fredrickson witnessed her mother’s death in the Arctic wilderness.At nineteen, she married a trapper who led her into a perilous life far removed from the comforts of civilization. Told from a harrowing first-person perspective, Fredrickson recounts the hair-raising experiences of her first years in the frozen wasteland that was her husband’s hunting ground.When her attempt to run a farm single-handedly, after her husband’s death, threatened to end in ruin, Fredrickson walked 40 miles alone to the nearest village, in a desperate attempt to obtain food for her starving family by bartering against future crops. It was a life-or-death journey filled with bears, wolves, and unparalleled danger.

THE SILENCE OF THE NORTH is a story of extraordinary adventure, courage, and human determination in the face of impossible odds. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Sad but wonderful
A story of a courageous strong woman. Descriptions of the environment (land & conditions) enticing. I found myself being scared right along side of Olive. A real adventure story.

Action packed,full of suspense story , good for all ages.
A fresh, uncomplicated tale of the people who adventured north in the past. Action packed, engaging and reveling, this book will remain for ever one of my favorite adventure and romance stories. It shows much about how people may face a foreign environment, difficulties, and above all themselves. All comes out in very simple and clear language, with suits the story and the characters divinely.

One of my favorite books and also made for T.V. Movies
This was a favorite, and it was done with no bad words or violence, other than from nature, I loved it and still wonder what happened to Olive and her second husband after they were married and flew off in the airplane. I watch it everytime it comes on tv. I have taped it and shown it many times to company.

A great adventure!`
I loved this book. Very interesting, exciting reading; great for a winter curl-up-by-the-fire book. I especially liked the way Mrs. Fredrickson told, simply and plainly, her story of life in an incredibly harsh North. Some of her experiences were basic survival, and I don't know how she did it. I would recommend this story to anyone who wants to "get out of the rut" of reading the same old thing. It was fabulous! I will read it again and again. ... Read more

Book Description

Newly-wed Jessie Ann Smith left Scotland in February, 1884, and traveled with her orchardist husband, John, to the south western British Columbia community of Spence's Bridge. Thirty-year-old Jessie Ann's strict Presbyterian upbringing and her training as a teacher, musician and banker did little to prepare her for the exciting life she was about to lead as a pioneer in British Columbia's fledgling ranching and fruit industry.

Her story, a love story with an historical twist, begins with her childhood in Scotland and follows her by ship across the Atlantic and by rail across the U.S.A. to the west coast of British Columbia. Her introduction to Canada includes a work train trip through the Fraser Canyon on the then under construction Canadian Pacific Railway. The young couple initially settled at Spence's Bridge where John Smith worked for orchardist, John Murray. However, after an attempt at her husband's life, they left "The Bridge" for a harsh decade of homesteading in an upland valley south of Merritt. In 1897, after the death of John Smith's former employer, the family returned to purchase and rebuild the ailing Spence's Bridge orchard.

John Smith died in 1905, partly as the result of an earlier Granite Creek mining accident. Jessie Ann Smith and her children continued working the Spence's Bridge orchard. For nearly a decade their Grimes Golden apples won top honors in shows in Canada, the U.S.A. and England. King Edward VII sought the apples of the "Widow Smith of Spence's Bridge" at a London Horticultural Show in 1909. The King? Ay, ay - no less than he,
None other than His Majesty;
His car already comes to stand
At Islington's exhibit grand,
Ingenuous to a high degree -
"I've come," he says most graciously,
"Those luscious Golden Grimes to see
Of Widow Smith's from fair B.C."
With dainty taste and polished mien
He deems them fitting for the Queen.
Forthwith he executes command
That they be sent to Buckingham.

With the aid of three of her granddaughters, Jessie Ann Smith began writing her life story in the mid-1930s. Half a century later, Murphy Shewchuk was approached by granddaughter Audrey Ward to help complete the book and it was first published in 1989. It has now been reprinted twice. The latest reprint, in July, 1998, includes corrections on an addendum on the inside back cover. ... Read more

Book Description

A gunner with the 9th Battery, C.F.A. in WWI, the author won a Military Medal at Passchendaele.His five small diaries, reproduced here, comprise an engaging account of his wartime experiences. ... Read more

Book Description

A thought-provoking meditation on the connections between landscape, race, and family.

It was on his third or fourth trip there that the poet C. S. Giscombe grew aware of the space Canada had staked out in his imagination. Giscombe later spent a winter with his family in British Columbia, and his time there provides a lens through which he interrogates his preoccupation with Canada's otherness. Giscombe writes that "border crossings are always sexy. And racial." And so this book is filled with both actual and metaphoric exploration-his travels serve as points of departure for a series of riffs on racial, national, physical, and psychological borders.

At the heart of this book is the author's ambivalent pursuit of John Robert Giscome, a man who may or may not be a relative. John R., as Giscombe calls him, was a black Jamaican explorer who flourished in British Columbia during the last half of the nineteenth century. Giscombe documents the places that John R. passed through, and he uncovers stories about mining, pioneer life, and even cannibalism. Giscombe likes to imagine John R. as a "self-aware outsider," and that symbolic status comes to seem more important-and more interesting-than any historical truth.

Into and Out of Dislocation is an intriguing and wryly told travel memoir by a writer Henry Louis Gates called a "major figure in contemporary African American letters." ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Crossing and re-crossing the border(s)
In his travel memoir/meditation, Into and Out of Dislocation, C.S. Giscombe takes us not just back to the Bristish Columbian landscape of his long poem Giscome Road, but also traces the routes of other journeys and the geography of both "home" and "away from home." With Giscombe, the reader wends her way by bicycle, train, auto, boat and rarely by airplane to Oxford, Jamaica, Victoria, B.C., Prince George, B.C., Vancouver, Seattle, Bloomington, IL, Ithaca, NY, etc. The author sets off on long-distance solo bicycle adventures, his guiding principle seemingly always to push further. Giscombe pays little mind to chronology when meditating on his experiences in various locations. All journeys seem to turn back upon themselves, bump up against other times and places, until they blur together into one continuous quest along the particular edges of landscape, of family and heredity, and of cultural and racial complexity. The author's formal task is to research the "facts" about John R. Giscome, the Jamaican miner, explorer and possible relation whose name graces several geographical features near Prince George, B.C. The "facts" that we finally stumble upon, however, are those of visibility and invisibility with their attendant pleasures, accomodations, and responsibilities. Along the way there is much talk of miscegenation, bears, good and bad restaurants, and even Big Foot. This book is a thinking person's delight. ... Read more

Book Description

In K.D. Lang: All You Get Is Me, Victoria Starr explores the life of the artist who has broken all the rules of pop culture while becoming one of the world's most beloved singers.K.D. Lang: All You Get Is Me traces K.D.'s path from college dropout to pop superstar.Along the way we discover the inner strength and unwavering vision of an artist determined to make her own wild dreams come true.Abridged on two cassettesTold by Delphine Blue ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An excellent history of what life was like in the 1930's
T found this book readable and informable. I read it to find out what life was like on the prairies during the depression. The book painted an accurate and vivid account. I loved the discriptions of the grasshopper plagues. I appreciated the account of life in the relief camps. It is very difficult to get such information. I would like to read more books by this author. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

This book cuts to the heart of what life is all about
Ralph Edwards of lonesome lake is a book about carving out a life for ones family in a remote wilderness. This book is such a contrast to our technical world with cell phones, internet, e mail "Big Box shopping" malls. Our lives are so full but really so empty. I felt an extreme feeling of sadness after having read this book. Ralph Edwards and his wife are now dead after having lived a hard but full life. We all struggle through life with different goals and yet we all have to face death. I felt the sadness of Ralph Edwards when he realised that he was too old to be independant and look after himself. This book has to make us all stop and concider what we are doing and what is the purpose of life. What could possibly be more important than these questions? ... Read more

Book Description

Flo Anderson and her husband Trevor worked as lightkeepers for 20 years, at Lennard Island and then at Barrett Rock, McInnis Island, Green Island and Race Rocks. In this extraordinary memoir Anderson speaks candidly about the challenges of learning to live on an exposed, isolated island where precipitous cliffs and gale-force winds were everday hazards. She also describes the profound joys of living with family in a wild and natural place.Imagine yourself living in complete isolation. Imagine living where there are no stores or mail delivery, no doctors; where there are no schools, leaving you responsible for your children's education; and where treacherous cliffs and gale-force winds are a part of everyday life. This is the life of a lightkeeper as it is vividly recorded by Flo Anderson in her book Lighthouse Chronicles: Twenty Years on the BC Lights. The frustration and the exhilaration, the lonesome seclusion and the peaceful solitude - it's all here in this memoir of one woman's experience of living on the lights and raising her family there.In 1961 Anderson, her husband Trevor and their four children left a life of relative comfort and convenience in Vancouver and moved to Lennard Island, a rocky, windswept light station off the west coast of Vancouver Island. The Andersons worked as lightkeepers for the next twenty years, at Lennard and then at Barrett Rock, McInnis Island, Green Island (BC's northernmost lighthouse) and Race Rocks (BC's southernmost).In Lighthouse Chronicles Anderson captures the essence of this lifestyle. She speaks candidly about the challenges of learning to live on an exposed, isolated island the size of a city block, where, to get through the day, a family has no one to depend upon - except each other. She describes the essential, exacting work of lightkeeping, which will soon become a lost art. She also describes the profound joys of living with a family in a wild and beautiful place - enjoying the tranquillity of hidden coves and private beaches, looking out over a storm-tossed sea blanketed with foam, and watching her children discover, firsthand, the natural wonders of the BC coast. ... Read more

Book Description

Starting with his first patient, a horse, Ben Dlin discovered that rural doctors are called upon to do things that he never dreamed of when he was an intern."I learned that I had to be prepared to do anything, any time and any place, without regard for the hour, the inconvenience, the exhaustion and the absence of assistance."Set in the post-war period of the 1940s and early 50s, Dlin recounts the responsibility of being the one person who is caled upon in emergencies to make split-second decisions that can impact patients and their families for life. "I believed than and I still believe now that every student of medicine should spend time in rural practice. It is the place to discover what you're made of. But more importantly, it is the best place to learn the profession. Within the novice it creates a lifelong humanistic approach to medicine that remains no matter what specialty is pursued. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Highly Recommended
This book is a gem. It is published by an obscure publisher, and is a diamond in the rough. The author must be a remarkable person. He ends up becoming a psychiatrist, and it shows: his memoir is written with compassion and insight. It is one of the best medical memoirs I've ever read (I read a lot!) The book was full of substance (sometimes these memoirs are very light, and can be read in a couple of hours. Not this book.) But I have to emphasize that I thought it was a page-turner and I could *not* put it down. I don't usually write reviews but took the time to do so for this book because I thought it was so extraordinary.

Great read
Country Doctor is a great read. It's fun, interesting, and fast reading. It tells about life in frigid Canada when times were tough (snow blowing in under the door!). Ben tells of himself and others in a way that comes across as truthful--the good and the bad. It's a bit like All Creatures Great and Small in a completely different setting and the multiple stories surround Ben's growing from a kid through adulthood in medical school and beyond.

pioneer of public health in addition to country doctor
Many people do not know that Dr Dlin in addition to his abilities as a doctor, veternarian, dentist etc. was perhaps an unwitting pioneer in the area of "Public Health Crisis Management". The complete story is detailed in the book about a health crisis that threateded to wipe out an amimal (instead of human) community. Dr. Dlin's intervention pre-saged the operations of the modern day M.A.S.H unit - or better, (I'm not sure of the exact name) National Health - Contageous Disease (CDC? - in Atlanta) Center's emergency protocols that have only been in existance for perhaps the last 30 years or so. To whit: Isolation and triage of the sick; team approach (in this case he drafted the local community); assembly line (lined up the animals in rows - each with a nurse/caretaker); got people to bring commercial oxygen cylinders from throughout the community (most farmers had oxygen tanks for welding); Dr.Dlin brought anitbiotics, face masks and other emergency materials in bulk from the local (clinic/hospital?). Then, training everyone in the necessary emergency procedures and building bonfires all around the "operating theatre" for both heat and light through the night (no electric lights then) brought the whole herd thru the crsis losing only the animals who were already dead before Dr. Dlin's intervention - quite simply, as remarkable a "generalship" as any war story I've ever read. There are many other lessons in the book which I feel every medical student in the country would do well to learn - plus these stories are fascinating to the laynan.

Country Doctor review
Ben Dlin's book gave me a real sense of what life would be like growing up in post-World War II rural Canada. His descriptions are so true to life that they run the gamut, from allowing you to smell the delicious scent of his mother's fresh pastries to visualizing the many primitive medical procedures he had to improvise. From the woman with the gigantic stomach tumor that turned out to be constipation caused by her ingesting glass, stones, and other materials which he had to remove manually, to the "ice pick" lobotomy for mental illness, which today could be simply treated by medication, Dlin's description is uncanny. He sets forth in a non-clinical way his struggles to be admitted and graduate from medical school with its highly limited admissions and the medical help he had to give against sub-zero temperatures with little or no medical supplies. He even relates the medical advice and remedies he learned from his mother as a child and utilized them into his practice.

And it's not just people that Ben Dlin took care of but also animals with all kinds of different ailments from broken legs to pregnancy.

The life of this country doctor and his warm, sometimes humorous, and always sincere relationship with his family, friends, co-workers, and patients provides a wonderful depiction of a rural country doctor's practice and the challenges he must meet on a day-to-day basis.

A Must Read For Every Budding Physician
Whether you intend to become a doctor or have simply received medical attention you must read this book. It's a personal account of the author as a young man growing up in the country, becoming a doctor and learning through his experiences as a country doctor the very human side of medicine. This book is filled with the warmth and sensitivity of a truly caring doctor and should serve as an example to all doctors of a truly humanistic approach to medicine. ... Read more

Book Description

The title of artist, writer, and rebel Emily Carr's first book means "Laughing One," the nickname given her by the Native people of Canada's west coast. She returned the favor with Klee Wyck, a collection of 21 "word portraits" of their lives and ways. The memoir describes in witty, vivid detail Carr's visits and travels as she painted their totem poles and villages and got to know a people whose "quiet strength healed my heart." The book is reissued here with restored text and features the original introduction by Ira Dilworth and a new introduction by Carr scholar Kathryn Bridge. ... Read more