Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Johnson's Life of London

 Johnson's Life of London by Boris Johnson 2011

Johnson’s Life of London is a very interesting and highly readable social history of one of the most exciting world capitals. Author Boris Johnson, the blond-mopped Mayor of London (you have seen him at the Diamond Jubilee and Olympics) presents a history of the city he so evidently loves.  Each chapter covers a different historical era and does this by focusing on a particular person. From Queen Boudica, to Keith Richardson, from Chaucer to Churchill, Johnson’s Life of London spans the eras from Roman times to the current day. Johnson writes with wit and insight. The book discovers London as none of us have seen it before and the journey is both surprising and exhilarating.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Breakfast at the Exit Café

Breakfast at the Exit Café by Wayne Grady and Merilyn Simonds 2010

Each chapter either starts with a W word or an M word depending on which person is writing the chapter. Breakfast at the Exit Café is a personal story told in alternating voices by two writers/travelers (the authors). They go on a road trip from British Columbia around the rim of the U.S.A. The journey helps them find their family roots as well as to explore the impact of geography on culture. The Americans they meet inspire them greatly. They learn a lot of history and geography. The book is comical at times and well written. They run into several problems during their travels but everything comes together in the end. Well written, an interesting read.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: My Maasai Life

My Maasai life: from suburbia to savannah by Robin Wiszowaty 2009

Robin Wiszowaty spent a year living with a Maasai family in a remote village in Kenya. She was taking a course in International Development from the University of Illinois. Robin was the rebellious middle child of an affluent Polish-American family living in a suburb near Chicago. Robin wanted to challenge herself and set out on an adventure. This inspirational memoir chronicles how she embraced the Maasai culture and fell in love with her African family. This young woman introduces the reader to the realities of the harsh and difficult conditions that the Maasi must endure: poverty, high incidence of AIDS/HIV, female/male circumcision, youth crime , violence and early marriage rates for female teens.

Robin develops a special relationship with a young man. Samuel is struggling to support his mother and younger siblings due to the lack of family support from his alcoholic father.

After returning to Chicago after one year in Kenya Robin is trying to find a direction for

her life. She finally gets a job with Free the Children and is eventually promoted to Kenya Projects Director. This job allows Robin to visit her Maasai family and Samuel.

This memoir is a fresh look at the aspirations of today’s youth to become actively involved in helping the youth in Third World countries.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: 101 Places Not to See Before You Die

101 Places Not To See Before You Die by Catherine Price  2010

If you spend time in the library or a bookstore, you will have seen a wide variety of books telling you where to go, what to read, what to eat, what movies to watch, what wines to taste all before you die.  Author Catherine Price was tired of so many books telling her what to do with her precious spare time that she decided to write a book telling you what not to bother seeing or doing.

Her writing style is funny and quick, sometimes silly, and reads like a blog. It is a nice light read if you need a book that you can put down and pick up later without having to refresh your memory. It would be a great book for trivia lovers.

So you can read this book and save yourself time by not going to Time’s Square on New Year’s Eve, or the Beijing Museum of Tap Water, or on an overnight stay in a Korean Temple.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Priceless

Priceless: how I went undercover to rescue the world's stolen treasures by Robert K. Wittman
  
In the world of North American crime, art theft does not rank high on the list of priorities for the FBI. For one man, however, stopping the theft of cultural artifacts is as important as stopping the sale of drugs or solving violent crime cases. Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures is the story of Robert K. Wittman’s FBI career and how he spent years travelling around the globe reclaiming works of art for both museums and personal collections.

Wittman makes a convincing argument for the importance of pursuing the recovery of paintings, sculptures, historic flags, swords, items from archeology sites, and other culturally relevant objects. He notes that their disappearance robs us all of our history, culture, and sense of identity. Wittman details a number of his undercover exploits as he ingratiates himself with members of the criminal underworld to recover works by Rodin, Goya, Rembrandt, and objects such as Geronimo’s eagle feather war bonnet and a crystal ball originally from Beijing’s Forbidden City. He tracks the growth of the fledgling art crime unit within the FBI and its eventual dissolution, while outlining both its successes as well as its failures.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Grounded

Grounded: a down to Earth journey around the world by Seth Stevenson 2010

A thirty-something magazine writer and his lawyer girlfriend decide to quit their jobs and go on an adventure circumnavigating the globe using only ground transportation.

They have two rules: to cross every longitude line and to not take any airplanes. They start and end their adventure in Washington D.C. Our adventurers gain insight into their inner selves and the idiosyncrasies of other travelers that they meet. Seth and Rebecca are very creative and try all kinds of transport to accomplish their goal. They travel on ferries, the Trans Siberian Railroad, bicycles, cars, freighters and a luxury cruise ship. It was a witty and insightful read!

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Lakeland

Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada by Allan Casey 2009

Within Canada's borders are found 60% of the world's lakes, but until Lakeland, few books had been written about them. Nature writer Allan Casey visits 10 lakes, to meet the people who live and work on them, and assess how the lakes have changed over time. The result of this tour is a book both passionate about what is being done to the environment and entertaining in its observations about our Canadian society. He describes how local economies have moved from fishing and lumbering to servicing cottagers and tourists. One year-round resident wonders "How there got to be so many people who can afford million dollar vacation homes to sleep in 20 nights a year." The theme that binds these visits is that our love of our lakes also endangers them. They are being destroyed by rampant over-development and our ever-increasing standard of affluence. One local is quoted saying, "Newcomers think it's beautiful here. They don't know how beautiful it used to be".

Winner of 2010 Governor General’s Award for Non-fiction

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Magic Bus

Magic Bus: On the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to India by Rory MacLean 2009

In the 1960s and early 1970s, hundreds of thousands of young people from North America, Australia and Europe hit the ‘Hippie Trail’, the overland route from Istanbul across Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to India and Nepal. Until the route was closed by the 1979 Iranian revolution, they followed the inspiration of Jack Kerouac and the footsteps of Allen Ginsberg by ramshackle buses, public transit or hitchhiking, and with no guidebooks, ATMs, cell phones, Internet or even reliable maps. Some were looking to follow the Timothy Leary experience of self-discovery with sex, drugs and rock & roll. Others were looking for religious enlightenment, still others just for adventure or to open their minds to other cultures.

Canadian Rory MacLean retraced the Hippie Trail in 2004, searching for the stopping points where the travelers met up for mail, visas and news of the road. On his travels he meets one of the original Flower Children recreating her journey from 40 years ago, finds traces of the Beatles’ stay in Rishikesh, and meets travelers who stayed forever, some having found their spiritual fulfillment and others who burned out on the experience. Along the way he discusses the phenomenon with local people, who reflect on their fond, and not so fond, memories of the Hippie invasion. A colourful and off-beat book of discovery.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Island of the Lost

Island of the Lost by Joan Druett 2007

How well could you survive being shipwrecked on a deserted island? New Zealand maritime historian and writer Joan Druet re-creates not one, but 2 shipwrecks on the same island. In 1864, 2 sailing ships were wrecked by storms on the same island, 300 miles south of New Zealand. The survivors were separated by 20 miles of inhospitable terrain, so they were unaware of each other. Using the ship's logs, newspaper accounts from the time and the sailors' own diaries and memoirs, Druett has created a surprisingly gripping tale that will leave readers amazed at the resourcefulness of one crew and the total ineptitude of the other. She illustrates how each group coped with the hostile conditions and why their respective strategies succeeded or failed by allowing the details of each story to drive the narrative. This makes for an engrossing and spellbinding story. Well-researched and well-written, the author seamlessly weaves their respective stories together, keeping the reader compulsively turning the pages of this engrossing maritime survival saga.

Fiction Pick of the Week: Finding Home

Finding Home by Eric Wright 2007

The underlying plot is simple: middle-aged Will Prentice returns to England for his mother's funeral. Suffering from a mild, mid-life crises, he decides to stay on indefinitely, to revisit his roots, to discover who he is and where he belongs, Canada or England. His driving companion is young Fred, his uncle's grandson, a recent Cambridge graduate, interested in Canadian Studies. As Fred drives Will across England, coast to coast, south to north, Will talks him through a journey across Canada. This juxtaposition creates a wonderful sense of place for both countries, England and Canada. Within this simple framework, Wright has written a tapestry of one part entertaining English travelogue, with the emphasis on tourist traps, and one part witty commentary on Canada's societies and attitudes. Another level of interest is provided by a family mystery: where did his mother hide her wealth? The reader learns that home is not only geography and landscape, but also a state of mind.

Non-Fiction Pick of the Week: Zen and Now

Zen and now : on the trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Mark Richardson 2008

August 1968 Robert Pirsig, his eleven-year-old son, and two friends set out from Minneapolis-St.Paul to motorcycle along the back roads of America to California. This road trip became the inspiration for the cult classic Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. At the heart of the book was praise for pursuing the quality within life: If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well. In 2004, Toronto columnist and author Mark Richardson set out to duplicate this journey. In Zen and Now : on the trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance he talks about his 'cycle, he visits & interviews many of the places and people described in the original book and has some new adventures of his own.

For both those who couldn't finish the original and those who re-read it religiously.