Reviews (10)

An amazing memoir
I can count on one hand the number of books that have truly and wholly transported me to another time and place. The Last Gentleman Adventurer easily joins the work of Jack London and Herman Melville in this regard, with the happy and astonishing distinction of being a true account rather than fiction. The author, Edward Maurice writes with a rare kind of insight, humane and honest. His adventures are at once breathtaking and sobering. My only regret is that this was his only book.

The Dawn of His Life but the Twilight of an Era
Edward Beauclerk Maurice, in his waning years, looked back on his first job, a job so distant in time and space that it might as well have been hundreds of years ago:In the 1930s, Maurice was recruited as a teenager to run one of the last fur-trading outposts in Arctic Canada operated by the Hudson Bay Company.Dropped off in a tiny Inuit village with a year's worth of trading supplies, he is meant by the Company to be both purveyor and parent to the local people.Of course, as an unexperienced teenager he had no skills for either role, and it is only through the benevolence of the villagers that he is able to cope.
Coming of Age in the Arctic
"The Last Gentleman Adventurer" is a delightful, even beautiful account by Edward Maurice of his time as a young clerk for the Hudson's Bay Company in the Canadian Arctic of the 1930's.Maurice was working literally at the intersection of the Inuit and European worlds.We are most fortunate as readers that the author was unjaded, exceptionally observant, and open to the possibilities of life in that time and place.
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Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Adventurers & Explorers    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography And Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. Canada    9. Canada, Northern    10. Customs & Traditions    11. Description and travel    12. Discovery And Exploration (General)    13. Explorers    14. Frontier and pioneer life    15. Inuit    16. Maurice, Edward Beauclerk    17. Personal Memoirs    18. Polar Regions    19. Social life and customs    20. Biography & Autobiography / Adventurers & Explorers   

Reviews (16)

Great Reviews of It Stops with Me
"This book is incredible." Louise Erdrich
PEN Opposes Public Library ConsideringBook Ban of It Stops with Me in Author's Hometown
December 14, 2005
"Story of survival and triumph" pick for Book Special
Reviewer Jennifer Lefkowitz chose "It Stops with Me" as the Book Special for "Girlfriends Magazine" November 2005 issue, p. 58 with two color photos of Touchette's art.
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Subjects:  1. Artists    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography & Autobiography / Women    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Children of alcoholics    8. Dreams    9. General    10. Individual Artist    11. Social Science / Native American Studies    12. Touchette, Charleen    13. United States    14. Victims of family violence    15. Women    16. Adult children of alcoholics    17. Biography & Autobiography / General    18. Canada    19. Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies    20. Indian women    21. Psychological aspects    22. Social Science    23. Women artists   

Reviews (1)

A fabulous book
For over thirty years, Canadian photojournalist Fred Bruemmer has lived with and photographed the Arctic peoples of North America, and in this book he draws on his numerous experiences to fashion poignant and moving memoir of his life in the North and the many people who he has met.This is a book that for someone like myself, who has a limited understanding of this region, will give them new understanding and deeper insight into its past and the lives of the peoples who have inhabited it for countless generations. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography/Autobiography    2. Native American Anthropology    3. Biography: general    4. Canada    5. Ethnography   

Reviews (4)

Amazing, as always
No matter how many books he writes, Farley Mowat continues to amaze his fans. His non-fiction is never dry or uninspiring, though he's a talented fiction writer as well, and this faithful reader of his work is certainly not disappointed. Thank you again, Mr. Mowat for your great writing. It is truly appreciated!
A priceless look into a word that is probably gone forever.
A book I could not put down. It is a well written insight into a world that none of us will ever experience. Mr. Mowat is a great story teller and anational treasure. Anyone who is interested in the least about people and lands of the north must read this book.

Another outstanding book by Farley Mowat
Farley Mowat has been one of my favorite authors since I was in 6th grade in the early 1960s. I ordered a copy of "Two Against the North" from the Arrow Book Club and read it over and over. The story of two boys from different cultures trying to survive winter in the barrens was riveting to me, a gal firmly stuck in the suburbs. Mowat's descriptions of glacial landforms in that book remained with me and were recalled with every earth science and geology lesson I ever took. (The book can be found in some libraries under the title "Lost in the Barrens"--a great read for a middle schooler curious about the world outside familiar places.) Part of what I loved about No Man's River was that the journeys described were clearly the basis for many aspects of "Lost in the Barrens"--kind of like an echo of an old favorite. Mowat is the consummate story teller--reading his books makes you want to sit around a campfire with him for several hours hearing spin his yarns. One of my favorite quotes comes from him--"Never let the facts get in the way of a good story." No Man's River has jaw-dropping adventure as well as thought provoking commentary on the clash of vastly different cultures. Enjoy! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adventurers & Explorers    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Canada - General    5. Canada - Post-Confederation (1867-)    6. Discovery And Exploration (General)    7. History - General History    8. Native American    9. Personal Memoirs   

Reviews (2)

An Unrequited Love Between Two Cultures.
This memoir is full of reflections of the time he spent almost thirty years ago in the Arctic where he'd gone to listen to an old man tell "stories," myths, folk tales, some of which I think he made up.It is about a Japanese woman eleven years older (had the ages been reversed, it might (probably would) have made a difference) than he, who is also there to translate the same stories into Japense for a publishing concern.They formed a close relationship and he learned from her and her battle with cancer.
From the Frozen Land of Churchill (Manitoba)
Although the title may sound like Norman is on an ego trip, he's really talking about another human being, a woman with whom he was once quite close, a woman he met, as Rex Harrison did Kay Kendall, while she was dying.Her name?Helen Tanizaki.Norman was a junior and Tanizaki a senior translator and Arctic analyst, and the two of them had met up in God's own country, Manitoba Canada, to transcribe
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Canada    6. Canada - General    7. Folklore    8. Folklorists    9. Inuit    10. Japan    11. Literary    12. Norman, Howard - Prose & Criticism    13. Personal Memoirs    14. Tanizaki, Helen,    15. d. 1978    16. Literary Criticism & Collections / General   

Reviews (1)

Dragging down Tekakwitha?
This is not a biography of the humble young Mohawk woman whose courage, holiness, faith, and purity earned her (as thousands who know and love her truly believe) that place in Heaven.This book, in the author's own paraphrased words, is meant to "bring Tekakwitha down from heaven."(And it is part of a gloomy trend to do just that - to as much as one can to bring one's subject down.) And, thankfully, despite over two hundred pages of trying, he has not succeeded in dragging her down.
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Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Canada - General    3. Canada - Pre-Confederation (to 1867)    4. History    5. History: World    6. Native American    7. Religious    8. History / Canada / Pre-Confederation (to 1867)    9. History, Other | History of Religion   

Reviews (4)

I couldn't put it down
This book was a delight to read. Mr. Houston's admiration for the Inuit cultureis evident on every page. Many of the passages and stories are thought provoking and educational. I especially enjoyed his descriptions ofbewilderment turned to enlightenment by such unassuming teachers.

A really good book
Really enjoyable.This man's interraelationship with a disappearing culture and the hurdles he faced in the Arctic wilderness are tangible and detailed.Mostly this book is about a youth (his own) - lost but still remembered.I read Joseph Conrad's Youth at the same time and the themeswere quite similar.

"Yes, but is it Art?"
First this is a book about art.If you have ever wondered how those most beautiful Eskimo sculptures and prints have found their way to your local gallery; this book tells you how. Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Canada - History - 20th Century (General)    3. Ethnic Cultures - Native Americans    4. Inuit    5. Inuit art    6. Material culture    7. Native American    8. Native American Anthropology    9. Social life and customs    10. Sociology    11. American history: from c 1900 -    12. Canada    13. Folklore    14. Indigenous peoples    15. North America   

Reviews (14)

Mesmerizing Tale of the Eskimos
The audio CD is outstanding...indeed the best I have ever listened to. For one thing, the narrator is marvelous in recreating both the 1930's world of France and Frozen Canada. I can't think of any other book or audio that so successfully transported me into an alien culture. Considering that there are quite a few films and books about Eskimos, why buy this one written 70 years ago?Answer: the literary quality of this work surpasses the prose of the last quarter century.When you listen to the narrator weave his tale, it mirrors the experience of hearing a tobacco chewing explorer slowly recounting his adventures in the wild. The story dives deep into the interior life of the author as much as it details an ethnographic examination of (primitive) Inuit life.The myths and values of the Eskimos contrast sharply with the borgeouis morals of a gentleman of Paris. For example, in Eskimo culture, there is little concept of private property...that's why an Eskimo man will let you borrow his wife or a snow knife.Language in the arctic is far more concrete.A polar bear is HE WHO HAS NO SHADOW.Far away, in the cold Arctic, author Grontran De Poncins learns what it means to be human, a man preeminently. This is a romance, a classic reminiscent of Robinson Crusoe. If you buy the audio CD, you will not be disappointed.

Good descriptions, bad insights
I would recommend potential readers of this book see the Amazon review by "Rugby007" of another book by Poncins called "From a Chinese City : In the Heart of Peacetime Vietnam" which provides insights into this author and his background.
A Magical Book
This is a magical book which I first read when I was young.It inspired in me dreams of adventure which I did not follow, but which became a part of my inner life.Now that I am old, I am reading Kabloona again so that I can remember that I once was young. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th Century Description And Travel    2. Arctic regions    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Canada    5. Description and travel    6. Essays & Travelogues    7. Ethnic Cultures - Native Americans    8. Inuit    9. Netsilik Eskimos    10. Primitive Society    11. Social life and customs    12. Travel    13. Biography & Autobiography / General    14. Travel & holiday guides   

Reviews (6)

Master Storyteller
The Truth about Stories, a Native Narrative,
Stories can change your life
This book is fantastic! The first chapter alone is a must read for everyone you know, and could change your life.About how the kinds of stories we tell can be paradigm-shifting.Deals with the romanticized notion of native americans (see also Edward Said's book ORIENTALISM), how an invented idea of "indian" has been used and abused by the u.s. in hypocritical ways, and how the stories we hear and tell about ourselves shape our identity.Lots of very sad facts about native american history in its relationship with the US government.The book is set up in a kind of spiral with a recurring story told in different ways at the beginning of each chapter.This book is really for everyone - not just those with an interest in native americans.The stories we are telling in America today are globally destructive and negative - let's start fresh with some positive stories to turn this country around - we are all on this planet together.

If you only read one book this year...
...make it this one.I have thousands of books, I'm a chronic reader....this book is Special.Written with warm heart and acute intelligence, wit and reserve, pathos and philosophy, the book is an absolute jewel.With a spoon full of sugar, the pages turn easily; and without ever once taking the podium, Thomas King makes each one of his readers a smarter, richer person.A Mozart with words.... may he live long and write continuously! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1943-    2. 20th century    3. American fiction    4. Authors, Canadian    5. Biography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. Essays    8. Ethnic Cultures - Native Americans    9. Ethnic Issues    10. Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies    11. Ethnic identity    12. Folklore & Mythology - Storytelling    13. General    14. History and criticism    15. Indian authors    16. Indians in literature    17. Indians of North America    18. King, Thomas,    19. Social Science    20. Sociology    21. American history    22. North America    23. Social Science / Native American Studies   

Reviews (1)

Beautiful
I reviewed this book for circulation in the children's library where I work as an intern. I found it very touching, a first-hand account from a Native American who explains his feelings in a kind, appealing voice for a child. I am purchasing a copy for myself. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography - Cultural Heritage    3. Children's Books/Ages 4-8 Fiction    4. Children: Grades 3-4    5. Cree Indians    6. Juvenile Multicultural Studies    7. Juvenile Nonfiction    8. Juvenile literature    9. Littlechild, George    10. People & Places - Canada/Native Canadian    11. People & Places - United States - Native American    12. Social life and customs   

Reviews (2)

Spirit of Place
If you are interested in the environment which generated the powerful West Coast Native art, the artist, Emily Carr, conjures it up in this original book.Her travels to their coastal villages are translated into these atmospheric essays.

Beautifully written and visualized
this book by Emily Carr gives a very wonderful and descriptive account of the Pacific Northwest along British Columbia's shores. Emily Carr was a very unique woman who defied her times in her interactions with NativePeoples and her adventurous independance. This book details herexplorations among the Queen Charlotte Islands. It is so descriptive itmakes one feel that they are actually on the west coast. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. American Essays    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. British Columbia    6. Canada - General    7. Indians of North America    8. Personal Memoirs    9. Social life and customs    10. Women   

Reviews (1)

Pitseolak: Pictures out of My Life
If you are interested in trying to understand the Inuit sensibility this is a great read. Pitseolak became an artist, drawing pictures of her life, when she was in her fifties, gaining international recognition. Read more

Subjects:  1. Art    2. Art & Art Instruction    3. Artistes    4. Baffin Island    5. Biographies    6. Biography    7. Canada    8. Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies    9. General    10. Inuit art    11. Inuit artists    12. Nunavut    13. Pitseolak    14. Biography: general    15. Individual artists   

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Canada - General    3. Ethnic Cultures - Native Americans    4. Biography: general    5. Kaquitts, Frank   

Reviews (1)

A Canadian Mississauga biography
This is the story of the Reverend Peter Jones,(1802-1856) (Kahkewaquonaby), a Methodist missionary and a Chief of the Mississauga.Read more

Subjects:  1. 1802-1856    2. Biography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Canada    5. Indians of North America    6. Jones, Peter,    7. Kings and rulers    8. Missisauga Indians    9. Native Americans - History    10. Jones, Peter   

Reviews (3)

Indian Residential Schools in CANADA
During the past few years, many books have been written by former boarders of Canadian Residential Schools for natives. Most, if not all, were a means for their author to live through the anger that churned inside because of ill treatment and sexual abuse by the staff. Much to my delight, though, the author of INDIAN SCHOOL DAYS does not write of such events. He describes his educational experience under the tutorship of Jesuit priests and brothers whose purpose was to teach their native boarders the white man's ways and thus make good Christians of them. Throughout the book, the author describes the daily schedule of the school, the teachers' attitudes, the children's reactions, etc. all eye-opening for readers, who were expecting a "tell all tale," a scandal. All considering, the author did benefit from the discipline of the school to the extent that he freely decided to return the Residential School in Spanish, Ontario as a highs chool student after having etched out a living as a trapper for a short while. By that time, the highs chool had been approved by the Canadian government, and many native boys matriculated on a voluntary basis, contrary to their forced entry into the Residential School as small children, who had been "kidnapped" from their parents by order of Canadian Law.
BOARDING SCHOOL
As a daughter of one who attended this very school prior to the author,it brings to light how schooling still affects how my father deals with situations (he is now in his 80s).
A page of history no one wants to see
When most kids skip school they don't get shipped off to a Residential School where they are treated less than human and have to learn quickly to get a long. From the opening sentence you are hooked as the boys armed with slingshots decide not to waste the day in school but go hunting instead. Trouble brews and soon the Indian agent shows up to take little Basil away to Spanish - a small town on the North Shore north of Manitoulin Island. The only problem is the Indian agent - (heartless white men who loved to play God) wanted a "pay" load and up and took the five year old sister of Basil too. Nobody got to say yes or no it was a done deal.To say this book is all serious - well it isn't. Humour comes through again and again these are surviors here people - not victims. Basil was gratefull for the education he got and where it lead him but the out come always depends on the person. What would challenge one person who drive someone else to the edge and over it. The boys rise to the challenge of chicken farming at the school - collecting eggs they'll never get to eat. A page turner for sure, take a closer look at Canada's dirty little secert that is just now being dealt with in court. A follow up list is in the back of the book to tell you what happened to these boys. Excellent read not to be missed ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Ethnic Cultures - Native Americans    5. General    6. Native Americans - History    7. People of Color    8. Biography: political    9. Canada    10. Indigenous peoples   

Reviews (2)

Illustrated throughout with maps and photographs
First Crossing by historian Derek Hayes is the amazing story of Alexander Mackenzie, and his trailblazing journey across the North American continent before civilized society conquered the North American wilderness. Illustrated throughout with maps and photographs in black-and-white and color, the deftly researched and meticulously reported details of Mackenzie's voyage vividly reconstruct an 18th Century expedition of truly insurmountable bravery and pivotally important discovery.

Not much new!
OK, there is some new information here.Mostly it seems that Hayes has helped illustrate the travels of Mackenzie, something that was not available previously.Barry Gough's book is notoriously lacking in any illustration of Mackenzie's voyages and Mackenzie's own book is virtually without useful illustration.Maybe having read the previous two books makes me jaded but Mackenzie's voyages can only be retold so many times. Read more

Subjects:  1. 1763-1820    2. 18th century    3. Atlases - General    4. Biography    5. Canada - General    6. Description and travel    7. Expeditions & Discoveries    8. Explorers    9. History    10. History - General History    11. History: World    12. Indians of North America    13. Mackenzie, Alexander,    14. North American    15. Northwest, Canadian    16. Overland journeys to the Pacific    17. Sir,    18. Mackenzie, Alexander   

Subjects:  1. 1887-1949    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography - Cultural Heritage    4. Biography & Autobiography - Sports & Recreation    5. Canada    6. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Biography    7. Children: Grades 1-2    8. Indians of North America    9. Juvenile Nonfiction    10. Longboat, Tom,    11. Runners (Sports)    12. Sports & Recreation - Olympics    13. Biography & Autobiography    14. Juvenile Nonfiction / Sports & Recreation / Olympics    15. Sports & Outdoor Recreation   

Subjects:  1. 1953-    2. 20th century    3. Authors, Canadian    4. Biography    5. Black American Sociology    6. Brand, Dionne,    7. Canada    8. Essays    9. Race And Ethnic Relations    10. Social conditions    11. Sociology    12. Sociology - General    13. West Indians    14. Women, Black    15. Brand, Dionne   

Subjects:  1. Canada    2. Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies    3. Form - Essays    4. Humor    5. Indians of North America    6. Mixed descent    7. Ojibwa Indians    8. People of Color    9. Biography & Autobiography / People of Color   

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Canada    6. General    7. Indians, Treatment of    8. Maracle, Lee    9. Metis women    10. Mâetis    11. Mâetis women    12. Native American Sociology    13. Social conditions    14. Women    15. Biography & Autobiography / General    16. Metis