Margriet Ruurs

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments to discuss this book online with others. If you are a local author, you can submit your book for review. Salt Spring Island Memento by Michael Levy This book is perhaps our island’s best kept secret. I had heard about the book from friends who had seen it but I found it hard to find a copy. Most people I show this book to, have not seen it before. But it is a book that should be on every coffee table on Salt Spring Island. Gorgeous photos showcase the island as the unique, special place in the world it is. I own photo books about Oregon, Alaska, Mongolia, Malaysia. This book is every bit as impressive and attractive.The photos focus on natural beauty and people. You will spot familiar faces as well as …

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments to discuss this book online with others. Owl’s Dream, by Valentina Atton and Sophia Johnson. Written and produced on neighbouring Pender Island, Owl’s Dream is a book of poetry written by Valentina Atton and illustrated by Sophia Johnson. Introduced by Owl, each poem represents a different animal that meets a child. Together, text and illustrations take a young child on a journey through nature. The child meets a fawn, a dragonfly, a lamb and many other animals, both local and foreign, wild and domestic. They all talk to the child, expressing love and encouragement. The poems will be fun to read aloud with a toddler and a parent or educator can use the illustrations for more discussion on how we treat animal…

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments to discuss this book online with others. Ann Eriksson’s latest title, The Performance, was launched at the Salt Spring Public Library. I wasn’t able to attend the launch but the cover looked intriguing. Indeed, once I started to read this novel, I couldn’t put it down. The fictional story is spellbinding and very well written. Placed mostly in Manhattan, the main character is Hana Knight, a young and brilliant pianist. The story of her success and blossoming career in New York is pleasant enough. But new layers of intriguing are added when a homeless woman enters Hana’s life. Fascinated by the seemingly worthless lives of those who have lost homes and family, the author takes us into the world of the homeless,…

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments to discuss this book online with others. Robin Fitzgerald has authored some interesting books. My favourite one is BC’s Butterflies of Concern. This is a guide chockful of beautiful photos and interesting information on everything butterfly. The book is not just intended for identification purposes but has information on life span, habits, food and more of butterflies in several of BC’s regions. Robin’s other self published book is called The Dawning. According to a synopsis provided, this book is for “those who believe in the power of thought.” The book’s short content explains that “This is the story of an incursion that took place in 1996 between Draconians and our own Light Forces.” Both books are …

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments to discuss this book online with others. The Consequence of Memory, Anthony Bruce  If you have been to the Saturday Market, you have likely met Anthony Bruce and his books. After spending parts of his life in South Africa, several other African countries, Columbia, Ecuador, England and Indonesia, Bruce now calls Salt Spring Island home. He uses his experiences working as a surveyor, a pilot, soldier and more to create stories that he publishes to share with a wide audience. The Consequence of Memory is a fictional novel set in Canada and Kenya. The story is that of a Kenyan detective. It involves corruption and greed, a funeral and memories of events long ago. The story switches back and forth as it unra…

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments to discuss this book online with others. The variety of books written on Salt Spring Island is amazing. This month I am sharing with you a sci-fi novel for readers (ages 12 and up) who enjoy fantastical tales of dragon like creatures and other planets. A Disappearance in Damascus, A Story of Friendship and Survival in the Shadow of War by Deborah Campbell Author Deborah Campbell may currently call Salt Spring home, but she has lived in many much more turbulent, less peaceful places. As a journalist writing for Harper's, The Economist, The Guardian and others, she has reported from, and lived in such places as Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, Israel, Palestine, Mexico, Cuba …

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments to discuss this book online with others. The variety of books written on Salt Spring Island is amazing. This month I am sharing with you a sci-fi novel for readers (ages 12 and up) who enjoy fantastical tales of dragon like creatures and other planets. Raptor Night by W. James Dickinson Every fifteen years on Mandeler’s planet there are great black winged creatures, the Raptors, which come in the night to kill and take people away to their distant lair. On his sixteenth birthday, Mandeler is gifted with a remarkable red stone, but it also coincides with the return of the Great Raptors. Driven by his tormented dreams of flying with the Raptors, he sets out on a quest to warn others of the advanci…

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments to discuss this book online with others. Victoria, A Harbour Town History by Gayle Baker An attractive new book is on the market explaining Victoria’s history. This one is not an impressive 2” thick tome. It is not a boring summation of dates and facts. Victoria, A Harbour Town History by Salt Spring Island author Gayle Baker is a lighthearted look at the fascinating evolution of the city. Gayle Baker uses a pleasant, conversational tone to share personal stories of people whose names sound familiar to us because their names are now tied to the streets we know: Douglas, Blanshard, Dunsmuir and so many other men and women who were instrumental in forming the city of know today. How the first European ar…

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments to discuss this book online with others. Many books have been written about Salt Spring’s human history, including that of First Nations and white explorers. In Kanaka Salt Spring author Ted Koppel focuses on the unique history of people coming to the Pacific Northwest from Hawaii. Mention Hawaii and most North Americans picture palm trees and beaches. It is difficult to imagine that people would willingly leave the sunny islands of Polynesia to live in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. Yet during the nineteenth century, hundreds of Hawaiians did just that, mainly to serve the Hudson's Bay Company at fur trading posts from Oregon to Alaska. By the 1880's Kanakas (the Hawaiian word for "human beings…

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments to discuss this book online with others. Book Review: Finding Lien by Bruce Logan is one of the most powerful books I have read in a long time. This exciting novel reads like fiction but, unfortunately, is very much based on true events in Vietnam. The story features a Vietnam War veteran who returns to his old battlefields to try to save the life of a granddaughter he didn’t know he had. It all begins when Peter Trutch receives a letter from a 40-something man in Vietnam named Nguyen Le Ngoc, who claims to be Trutch’s biological son. Trutch is taken aback but recognizes that it’s plausible: in 1971 he was on leave in Nha Trang and met woman named Dream. Now Lien—Trutch’s apparent granddaughter—has vanished,…

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments to discuss this book online with others. Book Review: Writing Alone Together, Journalling in a Circle of Women for Creativity, Compassion and Connection by Wendy Cutler, Lynda Monk and Ahaha Shira. If you have ever considered journalling but never taken the plunge, you might find this book helpful and supportive. Even if you are an avid journal writer, you will find much information to support you in the habit of daily or regular writing. This book is an invitation, by three Salt Spring women, to connect with others in a quest for creativity and friendship. This is not a book that teaches writing structure or how to critique. Rather, through example, the book is a dialogue to engage others in a communal writ…

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments to discuss this book online with others. Perhaps no one knows Salt Spring Island as intimately as Charles Kahn. He might well have covered more of the island on foot than any other person. As the author of Hiking the Gulf Island, Charles is well acquainted with the Gulf Islands' roads, trails, hills and fields. If you are interested in following in Charles’ many footsteps across our island, his book is the undisputed ‘bible’ for both experienced and novice hikers. The book covers hiking trails on all Gulf Islands, including Salt Spring. And Charles Kahn's book Salt Spring, The Story of An Island should be on every book shelf in every house on Salt Spring. Starting with the earliest history of First Natio…

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and/or in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments. Holy Cow!, Hilarious Misadventures in India by Stewart Katz Stewart Katz used to live and work in Toronto. Fed up with the ‘rat race’, he quit his job, gave up his rent-controlled apartment, packed a bag and bought a one way ticket to India. His book Holy Cow! is a fascinating blend of slapstick comedy and serious soul searching. What is a nice Jewish boy going to do in one the world’s most populated countries? How will he adapt from bagels to baba ganoush? Katz dives in at the deep end by taking a public bus to a town called Mahaballipurum. He takes the reader along, not just on this overcrowded bus but on a wild adventure that leads throughout India, via hilarious events to culminate in the life…

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and/or in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments. Owen’s Grandmother and The Little Black Box by Maryanna Gabriel Maryanna Gabriel is an artist living on Salt Spring Island. She has experience working as a graphic designer. Her own grandchild inspired her to write, illustrate and publish this story. As the title indicates, this story is told from the grandmother’s point of view rather than from the grandchild’s. Owen lives far away and can’t see his grandmother as much as he wants to. But when she visits him in person, the visit is much more satisfying than having to communicate through ‘a little black box’ - an iPad, a way of communicating that is quite normal to today’s children but perhaps less so to grandparents. This is a universal story that wi…

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and/or in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments. Sockeye Salmon, their lifecycle and travels, by Brenda Guiled is an attractive first guide for readers of all ages to the mysterious of sockeye salmon. Aimed at young readers, the book is chockful of fascinating facts, including First Nations names and art pertaining to the fish. Brenda Guiled takes the reader along on the entire life’s journey, from newly laid eggs to full grown spawning salmon. Her gentle text encourages the reader to think along and use his or her own creativity by offering coloring pages and questions. The book introduces budding marine scientists to charts and maps, including a map of the Adams and Fraser Rivers where most sockeye salmon originate. This beautifully illustr…

Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and/or in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments. Zabel by Pearl Gray The sub title of this book reads as follows: a warrior queen’s journey from the throne of Armenia to refuge in France. Zabel’s father, King Leo, dies in lesser Armenia in the year 1050. Zabel inherits the throne as well as a scheming bishop as her advisor. The young Queen yearns for someone she can trust as she assumes her new role in a male dominated society. She marries a Crusader and she and her husband eventually get exiled to France. This story reads like fiction but is actually based on nonfiction. After reading an essay on Zabel of Armenia, author Pearl Gray embarked on 11 years of research. She learned much about 12th century women and wove these facts into an engaging, …

Any of us with young children or grandchildren will be familiar with the adventures of Thomas the Tank Engine. But did you know that we have a west coast equivalent? Timmy the Tugboat may have been written in the early ’80’s but the various adventures are still fun to share with children today, especially since kids can recognize their own environment. In Timmy and the Otters, author Jeremy Moray and illustrator Dee Gale share the trip Timmy makes around Bowen Island, to bring fish to help sea gulls rescued from an oil slick. They tug through Montague Channel to Victoria, spend the night in the Inner Harbour and steam back around various local islands toward Tsawwassen. The Salt Spring author/illustrator couple wrote several books in the series, including Timmy The West Coast Tug, Timmy and the Whales and Timmy Ties Up. The books have been published by Harbour Publishing. In addition to the local setting, I enjoyed the detailed and humourous illustrations. These book…

Almost a Lifetime by John McMahon - A young man signs up for military duty at the beginning of World War II. John McMahon, better known as Paddy Mac, lived in Scotland and was eager to do his share in defeating the enemy. He was assigned to the Air Force and learned to fly. Together with his military buddies he sets out on a flight across the Channel, into occupied territory. Over Holland, his small plane is shot down. Miraculously John survives while all others on this mission die in the crash. Helping Dutch hands whisk away a befuddled, scared and disoriented young pilot. But after only a few short hours, the Germans enter the house where he is taken and capture the RAF pilot. Almost a Lifetime is the very detailed account of John McMahon’s years in captivity in a German camp. How did these young men survive their brutal treatment? Almost no food, no warmth, and no comfort to speak of. How did they manage to keep their minds and bodies conditioned and continue to foc…