Herstory Cafe Book Club - Maria Mahoi - Dec 7 2010

Maria Mahoi of the Islands, by Jean Barman. Book Cover. (Vancouver, BC: Transmontanus, New Star Books, 2004).

Another book event coming up December 7th, 2010 - with the Herstory Cafe Book Club at the Rhizome Cafe, 317 Broadway in Vancouver. Note the time - 5 to 6:30 pm.

Food and drink available at the Rhizome (and it's great! I recommend the macaroni and cheese or the perogis, and the ginger beer.)

Read Maria Mahoi of the Islands by Jean Barman ahead of time and discuss it in a friendly atmosphere. Born to a Hawaiian father and a First Nations mother, Maria (pronounced Ma-rye-ah) lived her entire life on the Gulf Island of British Columbia's southwest coast. This book is widely available at local libraries.

Discussion Questions:

1. Jean Barman explains how "hybridity": the intermingling of racial backgrounds - was an integral part of Maria Mahoi's lifestory. How is hybridity important to Maria, her descendents and to the history of BC and of Canada?

2. Several times throughout the book, the author notes that being of hybrid descent was "tougher" for boys/men than girls/women. How did Maria, George Fisher, and the Douglas and Fisher children deal differently with their racial histories?

3. Jean Barman notes that every life has an important history to tell, and that all of us are "agents of change". What does Maria's life story tell us about larger themes in Canadian history? In the history of women? Why is it so important to remember and honour her life?

4. Discuss the survival skills Maria developed throughout her life. How did she and her family survive despite living so close to the economic and social margins?

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.

This weekend's reading...

A Sarah Utter button from my collection. So true! www.buyolympia.com

Saving for this weekend's reading -

The Beauty of the Beasts by Ralph Helfer (Tales of Hollywood's Wild Animal Stars).
The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet by Arturo Perez-Reverte (one of my very favourite writers).
Dead Girls are Easy by Terri Garey

and

A Thoroughly Wicked Woman by Betty Keller (Halfmoon Bay, BC, Canada: Caitlin Press, 2010). This is based on the murder of Thomas Jackson in Vancouver in 1905. His wife, Theresa, his mother in law, Esther Jones, even their two boarders were suspected. Betty Keller is a well known author from British Columbia's Sunshine Coast.

Tonight I'm reading the latest Room Magazine - the Past and Present Issue.

And my 'bus book' this week has been a re-read, Glyphs and Gallows: The Rock Art of Clo-oose and the Wreck of the John Bright by Peter Johnson (Surrey, BC, Canada: Heritage House Publishing Ltd., 1999). A good read - even second time round.