No comments about Bread Out of Stone: Recollections, Sex, Recognitions, Race, Dreaming, Politics.

2 comments about Ancient Mariner: The Arctic Adventures of Samuel Hearne, the Sailor Who Inspired Coleridge's Masterpiece.

1. This book by Ken McGoogan recalls Peter C. Newman's fascinating books about the Hudson's Bay Company: Caesars of the Wilderness and The Company Adventurers. I think that schoolchildren should be reading these books rather than dry old history tomes. And, if all you have read are these history textbooks, then I suggest you give yourself a chance to revisit these amazing explorers. The story of Samuel Hearne is magnificently told by Ken McGoogan and it will have you thirsting for more stories of the amazing men and women (yes, women!) who lived, fought, loved in a cruel land. It was a book I could not put down.



2. Exploration stories often focus on the tropics. David Livingstone, Albert Russel Wallace, Richard Burton and others are readily recalled. The polar quests of Amundsen, Cook, Peary and Byrd probably follow in popularity. The upper latitudes seem almost overlooked. With little land mass approaching Antarctica and its pole, Canada and Russia are left for investigation by the enquiring mind. Having offered the life of one such wanderer in John Rae, McGoogan now reaches further back in time and place to reveal the life of Samuel Hearne. It's a fine study of a dedicated man.

   McGoogan's lively narrative traces Hearne's Royal Navy career, then follows him to the Hudson's Bay Company [HBC] station of Prince of Wales Fort. With the Canadian Arctic still a terra incognita, various quests were under consideration - the Northwest Passage and/or an inland sea leading to Asia being prime contenders. A more specific ambition arose with indications of a vast copper resource near the Arctic Sea. Hearne pursued this rumour by trekking across the Canadian tundra to find it. Various interludes occurred along the way.

   Hearne's expeditions to the Arctic seem pre-ordained to failure. Having but a hazy notion of what confronted him wasn't a hindrance. Bureaucracy proved the more serious impediment. The British attitude toward indigenous peoples compounded faulty notions of requirements for such a trip. With no idea of how Native Peoples? societies were structured, British HBC agents blundered into one crisis after another. In today's world, for a man to suggest that women must accompany the expedition to perform specialised tasks would bring down the wrath of the Human Rights Commission. In the 18th Century rise of the HBC in Canada women performed essential roles. No Native Peoples? women meant no Native Peoples? men. No men, no expedition. McGoogan explains all these circumstances without apology or condemnation. It's a professional historian's approach, worthy of full praise.

   The other aspect of British imperialism's shortsighted view is the relationships among Canada's Native Peoples. Hearne and others would counsel peace to those who had been warring when the British still painted themselves blue. These animosities were not easily quelled and might break out without warning nor discernible reason. Hearne was confronted with this near the mouth of the Coppermine River. McGoogan, relying on Hearne's own account, describes the massacre of an Inuit settlement leading to the naming of "Bloody Falls". The event remained fixed in Hearne's memory for the remainder of his life.

   Hearne, seeking an ephemeral copper lode, traversed immense stretches of the Canadian North. With various teams, but particularly relying on a Dene negotiator, Matonabbee, Hearne viewed the Arctic Ocean, the first European to reach it overland. The copper wasn't there, nor, in Hearne's opinion, was there any possibility of a Northwest Passage. He saw the Great Slave Lake, but when he later reported on his journey, skeptics were confounded by how far west it lay. Canada's vastness overwhelmed chair-bounded geographers. Hearne wasn't simply seeking mineral wealth. He recorded copious observations on plant and animal life in the region, as well as collecting information on the native peoples. More than just an adventurer, Hearne is credited by McGoogan as being one of earliest naturalists.

   Hearne's return to England was less than satisfactory. An account of his travels netted him not a penny - he died before publication. One event, a likely meeting with Coleridge at a boy's school, may have led Hearne to become the source of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. While the notion is McGoogan's speculative idea, it's plausible enough to be valid. It certainly provided a good, if unexpected, title for the life of an Arctic explorer. McGoogan presents that life vividly, with only minor, forgiveable, embellishments. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

No comments about Pimatisiwin: Walking in a Good Way, A Narrative Inquiry Into Language as Identity.

No comments about Bella Coola Man: More Stories of Clayton Mack.

No comments about Honore Jaxon: Prairie Visionary.

1 comments about Mountain Home: Tales of Seeking a Family Life in Harmony With Nature.

1. Moutain Home was a pleasant little book about a family living in the Canadian Rockies as it said, but something was missing. I felt badly, which was good, about the most well written parts of the book. Such as the one about the loss of the family dog, Tippy. There were other stories about animals and I am an animal person and have lived around some large animals. He told some good ones. The rest of the book was accurate and there, but more like a daily, weekly or event journal. The emotional impact was missing. I was looking for it on the trek across the Mountains to the gathering using an outdated map. Not there either. But I think what really got me was Mom. Yup, I saw her in pictures, and heard a few peeps about one thing or another, but not enough.
   
   If you are going to have a Mountain Home and you start out with three children, one barely a month old, where did the next one come from? Was it born at home? What was Mom doing all this time? How does she spend her time? How does she feel about it? Does she get lonely being the only female over the age of childhood? Things like this would have made the book more interesting. And the kids. How old were they when they began to chop wood? What did they do for fun? What toys did they have?
   
   So why 4 stars. Here is a man trying to raise 4 children in the Canadian Rockies. Both he and his wife are of Native American background. They home school their kids. Teach them the ways of their ancestors(Even though he has a Swiss father and I believe grew up in Europe.)They build, borrow or trade for what they need and finally he turns to writing to supplement their income. Now, that's something to read about, even if I don't appreciate his style of writing. It's also something to applaude, since all of his children have been able to continue their choosen education, travel worldwide, and enjoy experiences that very few of their peers would have dreamed possible.

No comments about Elijah: An Extraordinary Ordinary Hero.

1 comments about My Name's Not Susie: A Life Transformed by Literacy.

1. Anyone who feels that literacy has changed their life should read this book. The author tells of her heart-wrenching, lonely existence as an abused child who was shuttled from one foster home to another until she was adopted by a woman who opened her eyes to the world of reading. The author was able to overcome her less than auspicious beginning to become a professor of English at IUPUI. This story could have been told with much melodrama, but the author tells it in an extremely honest manner and lets the drama of the story come through naturally. She does not beg for sympathy for the circumstances of her childhood. She simply tells the readers how literacy brought her out of a miserable existence and makes a connection with her readers that will, at least for this reader, last forever.

No comments about St. James Guide to Native North American Artists Edition 1..

1 comments about Confessions of a Spiritual Thrillseeker: Medicine Teachings from the Grandmothers.

1. Perhaps fittingly, the science of dreams has billions of practicioners but very few professors! Visionary poet Oriah Mountain Dreamer has impacted many people with her recent poem, "The Invitation". But where did she come from? What is the background of this Mountain Dreamer? A dog-eared copy of this elusive and mysterious text made its way into my hands for a brief time-just long enough for me to read about the trials and tribulations of a young woman (the author) who fights to have her voice heard as she negotiates a life-altering path of ceremony and sorcery for well-intentioned beginners. Is exploration of the shadowy borderline between the seen and unseen accelerating chaotic changes in her life, or is it precipitating them? The seeker is faced with many turbulent decisions and personal dilemmas; and also seeds of light, veiled in darkness. The trickster nature of the coyote permeates the book, which is ultimately an unflinching account of a contemporary quest for ageless wisdom. Read this one with an open mind, and a giving heart. Merrily, merrily, and sometimes unmerrily, life is but a dream!