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.…
Books, movies and TV reviews
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…