Beef Stroganoff
Beef stroganoff I know how to make. Sliced beef, mushrooms and onions in sour cream sauce, served on broad noodles or rice. Served on potato straws? What even are potato…
Books, movies and TV reviews
The Observer
The acknowledgements didn’t make a lot of sense when I read them before starting The Observer by Marina Endicott. Neither did the author photograph on the back jacket flap. Both…
Horse of Iron
I read Lawrence Scanlan’s Little Horse of Iron: A quest for the Canadian Horse after we’d been thinking of getting an elderly Canadian gelding. Knowing little about the breed, other…
Death at Greenway
Death at Greenway (2021) by Lori Rader-Day is a murder mystery set at the time Agatha Christie was writing her murder mysteries. It’s also set in a house she owned…
J. D. Rogers, Newfoundland
Newfoundland by J. D. Rogers is an essential in your library of Newfoundland Mi’kmaq history. Published in 1911, it is part of A Historical Geography of the British Colonies. I…
West Country Trilogy
I’d heard of the Battle of Jutland, but that’s it. No idea of who, when or where. Now I know, thanks to The Redeemed, third in Tim Pear’s West Country…
One Man’s Journey
Early in my reading of Calvin White’s One Man’s Journey: The Mi'kmaw Revival in Ktaqmkuk, I realized how much I owe Gus White, Calvin’s father. The characteristics that made Calvin…
The Wolves of Winter
Novel by Tyrell Johnson, The Wolves of Winter, 2018 Simon & Schuster A young woman and her family had headed north from the United States, ending up in the Yukon.…
Meghan and Harry
(by Jim Stewart) Meghan and Harry: The real story, by Lady Colin Campbell. It's hard to believe that this book came out in 2020. It is remarkably prescient, as if it had been written yesterday. Anyone interested in British history, Hollywood, celebrity and popular culture, the effect of media and social media on our society
Library Books
In January, when stricter Covid-19 rules resumed, the Sussex Library was open only for pickup of books ordered online. We had not realized this. So when my husband went there…
The Ride of Her Life
In the fall of 1954, a woman decided to leave her home in Maine and, with her little dog, go to California. Annie Wilkins was 63, had been ill, had…
The Birthday Lunch
Maybe it's because Sussex NB is now my hometown. Or maybe it's because Joan Clark wrote an amazing book about family and place. Whatever, I read her 2015 The Birthday…
Jump!
I've wondered what real jockeys think about horse racing novels. Especially those where newcomers - human and horse - manage against all the odds to win THE BIG RACE. It's…
A Great Reckoning
Usually I read an author's acknowledgement page first, even if it's at the back of the book. But when I started A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny, for some reason…
King’s Curse
The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory is about Henry VIII. It was published in 2014. Despite knowing this, I kept checking the publication date because of passages like this: Dear…
The Story of Seabiscuit
The Story of Seabiscuit was released in 1949, only two years after the great racehorse died. It is the story of his life - sort of. His son Sea Sovereign…
Redemption: Shelter Plan B
My impression after reading about Nathan Winograd is that it’s animal shelters that need redemption. He is Director of the No Kill Advocacy Center in the US and is giving…
Dan Patch
Dan Patch was a harness racing horse, a pacer. He was crazy good, they said. 110 years ago, he was the best pacer ever seen. He was a huge celebrity…
Flat Bay, Newfoundland
The Mi'kmaq community of Flat Bay in Bay St. George is on YouTube. Below is a 16 minute documentary about the west coast Newfoundland village (Feb. 2017). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIF_CJ7TMnU You can also…
Pen Name Mysteries
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith and Devoted in Death by J. D. Robb are pen name mysteries by famous authors I've never read. Robert Galbraith is J. K. Rawling…
Super Superdogs!
Came home smelling of strange dogs tonight. I'd been to see the PC Superdogs at London's John Labatt Centre [now Budweiser Gardens]. My dogs are now sitting either side of…
Annabel
Michael Crummey wrote of Kathleen Winter's novel Annabel, "a beautiful book, brimming with heart and uncommon wisdom." That's on the book jacket. It's true. This is a beautiful love story…
Your Blues
If you want to do some social research on the USA of the latter half of the 20th century, read Your Blues Ain't Like Mine. It is a first novel…
Mi’kmaq Images
Ruth Holmes Whitehead's new book Niniskamijinaqik, Ancestral Images: The Mi'kmaq in art and photography is beautiful. If you are interested in Mi'kmaq history, it is also essential. It puts faces…
Nim the Chimp
Project Nim is a film by James Marsh about Nim Chimpsky, the chimp who was raised from infancy as a human in order to explore the learning of language in…
Who’s Kitten Who?
In the mood for a fluffy book, I wondered if Cynthia Baxter's Who's Kitten Who? might be a bit too fluffy based on the cover and title. Still, give it a…
Cat Ladies: The movie
Finally saw the 2009 documentary Cat Ladies and it's well worth watching. What struck me was the ambivalence that all four women felt about what they were doing. They love…
Dog Gone
In Dog Gone, a 'Feather Duster Mystery' by Eileen Key, dogs are disappearing from a boarding kennel. Cleaning lady Belle wants to help her friend, the kennel owner, keep her…
Lost and Found
Lost and Found: Dogs, Cats, and Everyday Heroes at a Country Animal Shelter (1998) is a wonderful book. Elizabeth Hess, a New York City arts journalist and author of Nim…
Yorkie Doodle Dandy
I don’t know much about WWII, and even less about the American campaign in the South Pacific. I learned a lot, and felt it, reading about a Yorkshire Terrier. William…
Dog On It: Review
Dog On It is the first in a mystery series by Spencer Quinn, aka Peter Abrahams. The protagonists are Chet (dog) and Bernie (human). Set in the US Southwest, the…
The Tao of Horses
“If you knew a horse, you could depend on him and if he was going to do something bad, you could depend on him to do that too. I always…
Iditarod Murder: Review
A 1991 mystery novel by Sue Henry, the first in her Alaska Mystery series. Murder on the Iditarod Trail is good (title for Amazon). Several murders. At first I thought…
The Wrong Dog
In the library last week, I found a new-to-me dog mystery writer. Carol Lea Benjamin writes a series featuring private detective Rachel Alexander and her intrepid Pit Bull partner Dashiell…
Fur Babies
I’m reading Michael Schaffer’s very interesting book One Nation Under Dog. He talks about the term “pet parent.” When I first encountered this phrase, I saw it as, yes, a…
The Wolf in the Parlor
It took me a few months to read The Wolf in the Parlor: How the dog came to share your brain by Jon Franklin. It was my ‘morning coffee’ book.…
Lab Mysteries
If you like dogs and mystery novels, or even just one or the other, have a look at J. F. Englert’s Bull Moose Dog Run series. There are three so…
The Acadians: Review
Bill Smallwood takes a complicated period of history and makes it more complicated - and that's good. The Acadians, the first novel in his Abuse of Power series starts in…
Turcotte, the movie
If you live in or are from New Brunswick, if you’re Canadian, if you like horse racing, the NFB has a film for you: Secretariat's Jockey: Ron Turcotte (2013). In…
Queen’s Secret: Review
Last week I saw a book called The Queen's Secret by Charles Templeton. Curious to see if it was by the late Canadian journalist of that name, I pulled it…
Frissell’s The Viking
The Newfoundland Museum, when still on Duckworth Street, had a small collection of films to screen for visitors. The first one I ever showed was The Viking. I had never…
Reading History
Well-written and well-researched historical fiction gives the reader a two-fer: a good story and a history lesson that you may have slept through during school. Recently, I’ve been living in…
Tempting Providence TNL
If you’re near London Ont. you’ve got a couple days left to see a grand play at the Grand Theatre. Tempting Providence, by Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador, runs until Friday…
Dick Francis: A racing life
The back cover of Dick Francis: A Racing Life, a biography by Graham Lord, calls it “warm, affectionate, yet sharp and perceptive.” I usually read the jacket information before starting a…
Francis Family Books
If you had the sad job of picking the topic of the last novel you would write, I don’t think you could choose better than Dick Francis did. Crossfire, co-written…
Drifting into Doom: Book
It was a dark and stormy night when I began reading Earl Pilgrim’s Drifting into Doom: Tragedy at Sea. Winter rain blew at the windows and tree branches hit the…
Tourist Board TV
Last night I watched the first episode of Arctic Air, CBC’s new series set in Yellowknife and surrounding lands. Tonight Republic of Doyle, set in St. John’s, returns for its…
Me & Louis L’Amour
I stayed with my brother for a couple weeks once. I never thought of him as a reader, I was the “bookworm” in the family. But in his living room…
Prime Time
Last month, the new prime time tv programmes were rolled out. Many are good. They threw my life into chaos because I actually wanted to watch them. Person of Interest,…
Finding a new Dick Francis
In need of a book for bedtime reading, looking through bookshelves – and finding a Dick Francis mystery you haven’t read. That is true happiness. I thought sadly that I’d…
Secretariat: The Movie (2010)
The thing that annoyed me most about the movie Secretariat was that the horses playing him were not in the credits. In particular, the one who played him in close-ups…