July 27: Soap and Water & Common Sense
“by MariaThe definitive guide to fighting coronaviruses, colds, flus, pandemics, and deadly diseases, from one of North America’s leading public health authorities, now updated with a new introduction on protecting yourself and others from COVID-19.“
“Dr. Bonnie Henry, a leading epidemiologist (microbe hunter) and public health doctor at the forefront of the fight against the worldwide COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, has spent the better part of the last three decades chasing bugs all over the world — from Ebola in Uganda to polio in Pakistan, SARS in Toronto, and the H1N1 influenza outbreak across North America. Now she offers three simple rules to live by: wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough, and stay at home when you have a fever.” – CBC Books
July 21: Extra Virginity
“For millennia, fresh olive oil has been one of life’s necessities-not just as food but also as medicine, a beauty aid, and a vital element of religious ritual. Today’s researchers are continuing to confirm the remarkable, life-giving properties of true extra-virgin, and “extra-virgin Italian” has become the highest standard of quality.”
“But what if this symbol of purity has become deeply corrupt? Starting with an explosive article in The New Yorker, Tom Mueller has become the world’s expert on olive oil and olive oil fraud-a story of globalization, deception, and crime in the food industry from ancient times to the present, and a powerful indictment of today’s lax protections against fake and even toxic food products in the United States. A rich and deliciously readable narrative, Extra Virginity is also an inspiring account of the artisanal producers, chemical analysts, chefs, and food activists who are defending the extraordinary oils that truly deserve the name “extra-virgin.” – Goodreads
July 7: The Lighthouse, the Cat, and the Sea: A Tropical Tale
by Leigh W. Rutledge
“From the author of A Cat’s Little Instruction Book comes this delightfully suspenseful narrative that can best be told around cat-lovers’ campfires. Snuggle up and listen to the tale of Mrs. Moore, an elderly cat who reflects on her adventurous days back in 1899, when she was a stowaway kitten on the schooner Estella Gomez. There, she endures the cruelties of the sailors, who superstitiously believe that cats on board spell D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R. One night the Caribbean seas turn angry, and a terrible storm takes ship and crew in its fury. Washed up on the shore of a mysterious island, Mrs. Moore is befriended by an eccentric, sensitive boy who nurses her back to health. She’s embraced into the warm confines of the lighthouse keeper’s bungalow, enjoying sunny, happy days in her newfound tropical home of Key West. But then a surprise visitor pays a call to the lighthouse, and reawakens Mrs. Moore’s memories of the tempest that claimed the ship.” – Goodreads
June 22: The True Deceiver
The True Deceiver (1982; Swedish: Den ärliga bedragaren, lit. “The Honest Deceiver”) is a novel by Swedish-Finnish author Tove Jansson. It was translated into English by Thomas Teal and won the Best Translated Book Award in 2011.
“Snow has been falling on the village all winter long. It covers windows and piles up in front of doors. The sun rises late and sets early, and even during the day there is little to do but trade tales. This year everybody’s talking about Katri Kling and Anna Aemelin. Katri is a yellow-eyed outcast who lives with her simpleminded brother and a dog she refuses to name. She has no use for the white lies that smooth social intercourse, and she can see straight to the core of any problem. Anna, an elderly children’s book illustrator, appears to be Katri’s opposite: a respected member of the village, if an aloof one. Anna lives in a large empty house, venturing out in the spring to paint exquisitely detailed forest scenes. But Anna has something Katri wants, and to get it Katri will take control of Anna’s life and livelihood. By the time spring arrives, the two women are caught in a conflict of ideals that threatens to strip them of their most cherished illusions.” – New York Times Book Reviews
June 8 – Ghost Sea
“A spellbinding tale of the sea: love, murder, and mysticism: At the turn of the century, a Kwakiutl warrior from British Columbia’s wild northern islands raids an artifact collector’s yacht to reclaim stolen sacred masks. He takes the collector’s wife, Kate, as hostage on his 200-mile canoe voyage home. The collector hires Dugger, a coastal trader living on the edges of the law, to give chase in his ketch with the collector as passenger, but Dugger’s financial salvation comes at a terrible price, for he is Kate’s secret lover. Day and night Dugger sails the uncharted islands, through raging currents and ship-swallowing whirlpools, and the account of his pursuit is interwoven with Kate’s harrowing and erotically charged journey. Based on a true story, this novel reaches its thrilling climax at the last secret, hallucinatory potlatch of the ancient Kwakiutl culture, where the history of a doomed people is melded with the fury of three hearts.” – Amazon.ca
June 1: Lands of Lost Borders
“Kate Harris’ Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road is a compelling, suspenseful, insightful and elegant travel memoir … The book moves seamlessly between the Silk Road adventure and backstory that led up to it … The book also moves easily between narrative and philosophy … There are certainly adventures. Dangerous roads around the Black Sea, mistaken imprisonment in a tea house, visa problems, bad weather, bad roads, hunger, illness, lost bicycles, and the seemingly ever-present kindness of strangers keep the book moving along. And there are certainly digressions into discussions of Darwin, Sagan, Polo, ecology and regional history. Every one of them is a thread you can’t undo … This is one that will have you dreaming.” – Bookmark’s Reviews
Listening In
Listening In is broadcast over Cortes Radio, CKTZ 89.5 FM, on select Mondays at 6:30 PM
“My radio show Listening In is my way of carrying on the rich oral tradition of using the breath to animate* the written word off the page and into the air, in our case into the airwaves, and into the omniscient ear of the Universe. Because the Universe is always listening in. Myself and my special guests will be reading brief sample passages of books written by BC authors, published listed by our smaller presses, with notable exceptions to that rule. So we invite you to stick an ear out and listen in. After all, in all probity, reading is a small political act.” – Francesca Gesualdi
Francesca is a resident of Quadra Island, by way of Italy, Montreal, California and Hawaii. She is member and treasurer of the BC Federation of Writers, www.bcwriters.ca, and has been a contributor to both Cortes Radio and Cortes Currents. Listening in is broadcast on Cortes Radio, CKTZ 89.5 FM.