A selection of fact and fiction

Topics include women, chemistry, sleep aids, grisly photos and murder.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

If only there were more hours in the day. There are so many good books to read and it's nearly impossible to get to them all. But here are a few recent releases that may prove worthy of some of your valuable time.

Achievements of women

Women play a crucial role in the story of Passover. It is fitting therefore that Biblio Press has just released two books focusing on the achievements of Jewish women throughout history.

Voices of Thinking Jewish Women offers an introduction to 42 noteworthy women, including Sarah Bernhardt, Lillian Hellman, Susan Sontag, Naomi Wolf, Henrietta Szold and Wendy Wasserstein. Compiled by Prudence Wright Holmes, with an introduction by Doris B. Gold, Voices mainly concentrates on Americans, while Remarkable Jewish Women, by Emily Taitz and Sondra Henry, covers a broader range, and touches upon the accomplishments of women from biblical times to the present. Both publications can be ordered through Holmes
and Meier by phoning 800-698-7781 or faxing 203-459-5095. Anyone interested in more information about Biblio Press's other titles, can e-mail [email protected].

Chemistry for every day

On the shelf of most bookstores is a non-fiction title that will appeal to both the scientifically inclined and the merely curious. That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles: 62 All-new Commentaries on the Fascinating Chemistry of Everyday Life (ECW Press, 2002) is by McGill University Prof. Joe Schwarcz. He writes a column for the Montreal Gazette and is a regular on Canada's Discovery Channel, so he knows how to write for the average person. He is able to impart knowledge in an amusing way, picking trivia-like topics and explaining them in, on average, four pages.

Have you ever wondered why Montreal bagels are so wonderfully good? About the origins of some of your favorite soda pops (the cocaine in Coca Cola and the lithium in what became 7 Up)? Where underarm odor comes from? And, of course, why cookies crumble? These are but four of the many chemical questions that Schwarz explores and explains in his latest book, which mixes science and history. For the low-down on the mysteries of chicken soup, however, you'll have to pick up Schwarcz's Radar, Hula Hoops and Playful Pigs.

Have trouble sleeping?

Moving from fact to fiction, but keeping within the chemical realm, a good read is Robert Cohen's novel Inspired Sleep (Vintage Contemporaries, 2002). Protagonist Bonnie Saks suffers from insomnia, most likely the result of her stressful life. She's a single mother with two kids, who is trying to finish her doctoral thesis. She doesn't get paid much and, to make her situation worse, she's pregnant. Enter Ian Ogelvie, an ambitious research scientist. He's heading a three-month sleep study that may help Bonnie in two significant ways: the medicinal product being tested could help her sleep and the compensation being offered to volunteers would ease her financial troubles.

Inspired Sleep is written with dry wit and provides a commentary on the pharmaceutical industry without being preachy or all-condemning. It also offers some keen observations about life in general. For example, in evaluating her contribution to her son's school board, Bonnie notes that she has a reputation for, among other things, being slow to volunteer:

"Doubtless it was all true. She did not feel like a good citizen these days.... It was a shameful thing to admit at this stage in global culture, but she'd about had it with participatory democracy. She'd have been happier writing out a cheque every month and letting paid professionals make all the decisions. Or better, to give herself over, just for a while, to some stern and commanding fascist dictator. To have at least a few of the trains in her life running on time."

Commies vs. capitalists

The newest Sam Klein mystery has been released. The Bolshevik's Revenge (Great Plains Publications, 2002) is the third novel of the series written by Winnipeg-based author, historian and educator Allan Levine. As with the earlier tales – The Blood Libel and Sins of the Suffagette – Levine combines history with murder in The Bolshevik's Revenge, making for an interesting and semi-educational read.

It is 1919 and the Bolsheviks have seized power in Russia. Much of the western world is anticipating a widespread workers' revolt and Winnipeg is in turmoil; the city's economy being shut down by the massive General Strike. When Bill Simon, owner of the Stafford Iron Works Co., is murdered, the tension between the working classes and the capitalist elite rises. Detective Klein must save the day, so to speak.

The references to the city of Winnipeg in The Bolshevik's Revenge will provide "ex-patriates" with nostalgic feelings, especially those who grew up in the North End. And Levine's treatment of the various degrees of capitalist and communist belief are enlightening. One of the main characters, Rivka, starts out an avid labor activist, practically blinded by ideology, but by the end she is more tentative; she wonders how many people will be harmed by her and her peers' actions, no matter how noble their cause.

Levine's non-fiction titles include Scattered Among the Peoples: The Jewish Diaspora in Ten Portraits and Fugitives of the Forest: The Heroic Story of Jewish Resistance and Survival During the Second World War.

A chiller set in Churchill

The small northern town of Churchill, Man., isn't chosen often by authors as the backdrop to their stories, but the setting is perfect for Howard Norman's latest novel, The Haunting of L. (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002). As the name implies, this is a thriller that will send some chills down your spine. But it's more creepy than scary.

The Haunting of L. takes place in the mid-1920s. A young man, Peter Duvett – who's better at writing captions than taking photos – lands a job as the assistant of photographer Vienna Linn. Duvett arrives in Churchill on the night of his new employer's wedding and, well, Mrs. Linn isn't faithful for long. Within months, she and Duvett are having an affair. As their relationship progresses so, too, does our knowledge of Duvett's employer, who arranges gruesome accidents across Canada and then photographs them for the private collection of Londoner Radin Heur.

Norman's story is a page-turner. Unfortunately for Churchill's tourism industry though, it reinforces the image of the town provided by pilot Driscoll Petchey, who befriends Duvett:

"As I was saying, rarely do persons travel up to Churchill, look around and say, 'Home sweet home.' People live there because there's more oxygen. Or to flee some demon or other."

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