This Weekend's Reads - lots more history

What's to read this weekend?

The Man Game by Lee Henderson - The publisher, Penguin, describes the book thus: "On a recent Vancouver Sunday afternoon, a young man stumbles upon a secret sport invented more than a century before, at the birth of his city. Thus begins The Man Game, Lee Henderson’s epic tale of loved requited and not, that crosses the contemporary and historical in an extravagant, anarchistic retelling of the early days of a pioneer town on the edge of the known world." ("Loved" ?? Oh, never mind...)

Several of my friends loved this book - one not! I'll keep an open mind, I hope.

From The Ampersand, and animator Isaac King, here's a graphic look at 'How to play the Man Game'.

The Nature of Gold: An Environmental History of the Klondike Gold Rush by Kathryn Morse. I'm surprised in a way that I haven't read this already, but I'm looking forward to learning more about Morse's research and her views on 'the Klondike' since this gold rush in the 1890s is a touchstone in Canadian history, particularly in my home city, Vancouver. The Nature of Gold had good reviews when it was first published in 2003. Here's one by Duane Smith of Fort Lewis College, Colorado in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, Summer 2004, 105:2.

And my 'bus book' for the next couple of days? On Potato Mountain: A Chilcotin Mystery by Bruce Fraser - murder and mayhem in British Columbia's Cariboo country. Sounds interesting - and 10% of the books proceeds go to the Access Pro Bono Society of BC which provides free legal clinics around the province. Here's an article about this new book and its author from the Williams Lake Tribune, 24 September 2010.

Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris. just published in paperback, would have been my 'bus book' but I couldn't wait that long. Harper Connelly, the main character, as a child was struck by lightening. From then on, she could sense the dead around her, and 'see' their last moments as they did.

Good read - although there are an awful lot of coincidences - and much worse, now I feel this must be the last in this Harper Connelly mystery series. What a shame! (It must be the fault of those pesky vampires. Garlic anyone?)

One thing though is that apparently a Harper Connelly series will air on CBS next year.