Growing Pains: An Autobiography, with a Forward by Ira Dilworth - Emily Carr

There will never be another Canadian artist like Emily Carr, who died at age 73 in 1945 and was an honorary member of the Group of Seven. Genius that she was, today’s audience of art lovers would never get to experience her talent. In these liberal, see-yourself-as-victim-first times, her masterful work would never get off the ground. Her penchant for painting and writing about, and even living with, Canadian aboriginals would be denounced immediately and ferociously by the cultural misappropriation police. More on that later. Thankfully, Carr -- who, though pursued by several potential partners, never married or had children – made it to national treasure-hood.

The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, More Prosperous America – Arthur C. Brooks

It is impossible, as a conservative, not to agree with the thesis of American Enterprise Institute President Arthur C. Brooks in his 250-page, 2015 book, The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, More Prosperous America. It is also, however, hard to adjust to his writing style. Unlike most of his popular contemporaries in the conservative writing community, he has not got a callous or sarcastic bone in his body. I would describe him as a sweet and gentle conservative thinker and writer. He even dares to use the hated liberal term “social justice” to describe his conservative formula for fixing American poverty. But despite his soft demeanour, he certainly knows what he is talking about, arguing convincingly that – regardless of endless pressure from government bureaucrats, the mainstream media and academia for the realization of a hard-left liberal agenda -- conservatives really do have a chance to change society for the better.

Silent Coup: The Removal of a President -- Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin.

This book review is dedicated to my dear friend of 41 years, Elaine Dupont, who died suddenly January 1.
When it comes to past American presidents, none is so intriguing as Richard Milhous Nixon. Paranoid, uncharismatic, vindictive and viciously hated by the liberal establishment, he was a politician with a very long and controversial career. At the same time, he was inarguably one of the most effective American leaders of the 20th century who, on both the foreign and domestic policy sides, succeeded in unprecedented and lasting ways. To wit: he ended the Vietnam War, opened the door to China, and instigated Détente while easing nuclear tensions with the Soviet Union through the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. On American soil, according to the Richard Nixon Foundation Library and Museum website, he was no less effective, introducing measures that put an end to the worst of organized crime, founding the Environmental Protection Agency and initiating and overseeing the peaceful desegregation of southern schools.

Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s Great Betrayal: The Story of Abortion in Canada -- C. Gwendolyn Landolt & Patrick Redmond

What more can be said about Pierre Elliott Trudeau that hasn’t already been written in the 40-odd books on him available on Amazon? According to C. Gwendolyn Landolt and Patrick Redmond -- authors of Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s Great Betrayal: The Story of Abortion in Canada – plenty. Obsessed with getting the Charter passed as the main part of a new, repatriated constitution for the country, Trudeau was tireless and aggressive in designing the foundational document he wanted, one that would both enshrine Canadians’ individual rights -- to be defended by the newly empowered courts -- and still preserve the supremacy of Parliament. That this goal was impossible and contradictory never seemed to bother him, as he insistently and arrogantly pursued his dream, ignoring strenuous and reasonable arguments. But Trudeau’s truculence and discourteousness are not revelations.

Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy, 5th Edition -- Thomas Sowell

Conservative black academic and economist Thomas Sowell, at 88, is a living legend. In my opinion, he should be sought after for comment and advice by every single publication and news program on every single economic, social and political issue facing any country. In my opinion, he gets the answer right virtually every time. A Marxist during his 20s, he reasoned his way out of that cockamamie phase, and ever since he has been forming and sharing his succinct, genius and profound ideas with the world.

Operation Medusa: The Furious Battle That Saved Afghanistan from the Taliban -- David Fraser and Brian Hanington

Killing Taliban terrorists is like playing a game of Whac-A-Mole. It doesn't matter how many times you smash the mole -- in this case, the enemy Taliban -- making it scurry into its dark hiding place. It leaps up again somewhere else, as healthy and energetic as ever, ready to be chased and smacked down again. Like the mole, the Taliban is forever the malevolent underdog. Unlike the mole, it flies out of its hole with deadly force.
   Any soldier who fought the Taliban in the most recent of some 13 Afghanistan wars -- dating back to 1709 -- the one that commenced in October 2001, knows this game well. To this day it is being played out violently in that part of the world, almost two decades after the terrorist organization transformed itself into a murderous insurgency following its quick ouster as an ultra-oppressive Afghanistan government. The fundamentalist Islamic Taliban regime fell fast and early in the 2001 fighting -- which started less than a month following the 9/11 attacks on US soil -- and it "folded like a cheap lawn chair," according to one Ottawa writer, but unfortunately it has never been eradicated.

Disraeli: A Biography -- Stanley Weintraub

Universities are known to whine that their tenured professors don't publish. This could never be said about Pennsylvania State University professor Stanley Weintraub, author of some 40 serious books, many on late 19th century literary giants. But as prolific a writer as Weintraub is, it is a bit of a wonder that his dense 700-page life story of Benjamin Disraeli isn't a smoother read. Though thorough -- detailing the only Jewish British Prime Minister's life from childhood to the exact moment of his death on April 19, 1881, at 76 years old -- Disraeli: A Biography, published first in 1993, is choppy, if precise. Chronicling his years in sequential order, it seems like the author is afraid to omit any trifling fact in the rough source material he employed to complete the work. His liberal use of quotation marks is to the point of excessive, often interrupting the flow of sentences. It's as if the book is meant to be studied as opposed to read leisurely, which perhaps is excusable since the author was an esteemed professor for more than three decades.

Limit(less): A Guide to Optimizing Diagnosis, Management and Outcome in ADHD -- Dr. Alan Berzen

Why on earth would anyone read a book on ADHD, that fad, fake and persistent diagnosis that became wildly popular among teachers and lazy parents about 30 years ago, and that attached to normal but rambunctious kids who had a hard time listening and who couldn't focus in school? For a great reason: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is real, always has been and, fortunately, always will be.
      Why fortunately? According to Toronto Paediatrician Dr. Alan Berzen, author of Limit(less): A Guide to Optimizing Diagnosis, Management, and Outcome in ADHD, people who have the condition -- up to 12 percent of the population -- have a gift which allows them to both hyper-focus and "think outside the box," two positive attributes that can enhance life and come in extremely handy for someone struggling with ADHD's difficult side effects and its co-morbidities.  

A History of the English Speaking Peoples -- Winston S. Churchill

A knowledgeable student of British history I could never be, what with all those Dukes, Earls, Edwards, Elizabeths, Catherines, Mortimers and Somersets, to name only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of titles and families. Who is a Plantagenet, who is a Lancaster, and which color rose won which wars, when? All fascinating, but too much memory work. That's why reading Winston Churchill's A History of the English Speaking Peoples -- particularly The Birth of Britain, the first in the four-volume series -- is so necessary and exhilarating. His narration moves you along as if on a conveyor belt, rapidly story-telling his way through the centuries, revealing each monarch's triumphs, foibles and disasters, describing battles like he was actually there, detailing important information that sits neatly at the back of your mind, ready to be accessed the next time the Black Death or Edward I comes up in polite conversation.

Stirred by a Noble Theme: God's Heart, Israel and the Nations - Annie Elliott

It's not a terribly long book, about 200 pages, but Stirred by a Noble Theme: God's Heart, Israel and the Nations, by Christian pastor and personal friend Annie Elliott, delivers a religious, spiritual and powerful punch, and one overriding message. That message, simply enough and painstakingly documented using Biblical literature, is that the land of Israel, for all eternity, belongs to God and the Jewish people. Period, end of argument.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

For me one of the best parts of reading 19th century British literature is imagining the author's 19th century British experiences and perspectives. Compared to what we now enjoy just over 100 years later, Thomas Hardy's were extremely limited. It's fascinating to picture him, hunched over his desk -- in Higher Brockhampton, Dorset, England, where he lived for all but five of his 87 years -- under a dim, recently-invented electric light bulb, writing with an unperfected, recently-invented ballpoint pen, or possibly with a revolutionary yet antediluvian typewriter. Under such conditions, employing his collective historical knowledge and exceptional talent, he produced dozens of short stories, hundreds of poems and 15 great novels, among them the 1889 masterpiece Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

Most of These Stories are Somewhat True - Jeff Mackwood

The 2015 soft-cover book titled Most of These Stories are Somewhat True (Naughty and Nice), by Ottawa's Jeff Mackwood, is pure delight in 228 pages. Okay, some of it is a little annoying, but then I'm pretty sure that doesn't bother the author, who I only met after the book was published. It could be called an autobiography in 101 vignettes, which together draw the picture of a man who - though he claims to be secretly introverted - comes across as highly confident, mentally healthy, physically strong and tall, extremely smart, competent, articulate, funny, well-travelled, tough and athletic, a guy with a terrific family and an interesting, humorous way of interpreting his own unique experiences. But because of the title, the reader is frequently left asking: Is this true or is it a somewhat bold-faced lie?

The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America 1933 - 1972 - William Manchester

Talk about a trip down memory lane. Every famous and notorious occurrence that took place from the Depression until Watergate -- as well as some not-so-famous events -- is recounted in The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America 1932 - 1972. William Manchester's 1400-page tome, which made the New York Times best seller list in 1975, begins with a long reach back to the darkest days of the darkest decade. It moves forward one excruciating, exciting -- and yes, even the odd boring -- year at a time until, some 40 chapters later, it finishes at the beginning of Richard Nixon's second term as president.

Conservative Confidential: Inside the Fabulous Blue Tent - Fred Litwin

Fred Litwin, a good friend, is a highly intelligent, ambitious, capable and successful Ottawa businessman. He is, as well, a book worm, a news hound, a partisan political activist and a man of integrity with an open mind and an eye for the patently ridiculous. Having said all that, it's a bit of a curiosity that Litwin -- author of the 2015 Conservative Confidential: Inside the Fabulous Blue Tent -- didn't find his way a lot sooner into the amazing turquoise gazebo of the conservative movement. After all, he was coming from the very middle of the absurdly irrational and tottery liberal red pergola.

In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome! - Ann Coulter

Ultraconservative and super-rational pundit Ann Coulter finished her ninth blockbuster -- In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome! -- in time to boost Donald Trump's dipping presidential campaign, the one where he alone has been focussing on immigration problems and solutions, the most pressing issues facing America. She turns a phosphorescent spotlight back onto the Republican, Democratic and media culprits who are helping to destroy America. I know, the claim is extremely harsh, but the brilliant and hilarious Coulter proves her devastating declarations again and again, using her trademark writing tactics: authentic statistics and facts, humour through obvious sarcasm, humour through clear exaggeration, and detailed footnotes, lots of footnotes.

My Shoes are Killing Me - Robyn Sarah

I am convinced the goal of most solemn poems is to remind the reader that a hollow, perpetual depression is lurking just underneath the surface of everyday feelings. Joy is fleeting. True happiness is an illusion for all but children. Contentedness is only for those who don't think too deeply. Those are my thoughts after reading and rereading the 35 poems in My Shoes are Killing Me, the most recent book by award-winning Canadian writer Robyn Sarah. If I am right, then, ironically, Sarah triumphs with My Shoes -- the only book of hers I have ever read -- by igniting especially despondent feelings, the ones rational people presumably spend much of their lives running from. Good work Robyn, you've ruined my day.

An American Life - Ronald Reagan

Though it may seem an odd choice for this summer's reading, President Ronald Reagan's autobiography  -- Am American Life -- contrasts nicely with the chaotic fracas that is US election year 2016. Written in 1990, only two years after he left office, the overall book -- which is 748 pages, though I read it on Kindle -- especially with respect to his profound challenges as a child and a young man, grips the soul and amazes the mind. But it also leaves the reader with a melancholy sense of emptiness, a desolate feeling of dejection and longing. It was sad to regularly look up from the Kindle, stare off into space and remember that those incredible political days are long over. Reagan's near destruction of liberalism seems like a century ago.

What's So Funny?: Lessons from Canada's Leacock Medal for Humour Writing, by Dick Bourgeois Doyle AND Stephen Leacock: Selected and Introduced by Robertson Davies, by Stephen Leacock

Have you ever wondered about the first 67 winners of Canada's Stephen Leacock Award  for Humour? Me neither. Until, that is, I was presented with a delightful book on this very subject -- What's So Funny?:Lessons from Canada's Leacock Medal for Humour Writing  -- written by Dick Bourgeois-Doyle. Don't be put off by his Victorian-inspired name. He is really quite down to earth. And he is an expert on, among other subjects, the history of science and creativity in Canada. Besides writing quite prolifically -- "contributing to many books, articles, TV features and radio programs," as his biographical sketch states on page 253 -- Bourgeois-Doyle works full time in the federal government. He is currently the Secretary General of the National Research Council of Canada.

      You are probably wondering how an elevated public servant -- he was at one time chief of staff and director of communications to the minister of science and technology -- has managed to pull off such time-consuming extra-curricular publication feats. I know it was my first question when I met the author at a summer evening event at Carleton University's MacOdrum Library in 2015. Though the event was forgettable, his answer was not. It was actually his wife who replied, and I paraphrase: "People always ask this. He never uses government time for his outside activities. He is up late every night, writes all weekend and he is very organized and efficient at using his time."

The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration -- Ta-Nehisi Coates

From the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s, America's incarceration rate doubled. By the mid 1990s, it had doubled again. "By 2007 it had reached a historic high of 767 people per 100,000," says author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates in the October 2015 cover story of The Atlantic, in an article entitled "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration." He adds that the United States "now counts for less than 5 percent of the world's inhabitants -- and about 25 percent of its incarcerated inhabitants. In 2000, one in 10 black males between the ages of 20 and 40 was incarcerated -- 10 times the rate of their white peers. In 2010, a third of all black male high-school dropouts between the ages of 20 and 39 were imprisoned, compared with only 13 percent of their white peers."

The Problem of Pain - C.S. Lewis

Published in 1940, The Problem of Pain – the first in a popular
series of six volumes on Christian doctrine written by C.S. Lewis – is a
short, 157-page book that packs a major philosophical punch. For a patient, curious reader -- not normally your humble reviewer -- The Problem is a smoothly articulated, intuitive journey through the mind of a brilliant academic, one who reverted back to his faith in his early thirties after an intense period of informed and thoughtful atheism.