Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Diamond River Books - The Book Blog

The Age of Stupid is an engaging movie I saw this week. Thanks to a screening by the Cowichan Citizens Coalition in Duncan. It stars, according to Steven Spielberg, the best actor in the world. He's talking of Pete Postlethwaite. So what is this movie? I'd describe it as similar to Al Gore's `Inconvenient Truth' with more emotion and less statistics, but it's even more disquieting. If the The Age of Stupid shows us a planet in peril, Wade Davis was in Victoria last week and spoke of people in peril. Wade Davis is the Massey Lecturer for 2009, and although he spoke at length at the University of Victoria, the audience heard a condensed version of the entire Massey Lecture series, as UVIC isn't on the official Massey lecture circuit. The Audience also got a signed copy of Wade Davis' Massey lecture book, `The Wayfinders'. I've been a follower of Wade Davis for many years. I'd just finished reading his first book, the Serpent and the Rainbow, (back in 1986) when he came into a paddle sports store in Victoria where I worked. I have to take some responsibility for selling Wade a traditional red cedar and canvas canoe which he wanted for his home waters in the Stikine Valley of northern British Columbia.

I was at a regular meeting of PEAVI (Professional Editors of Vancouver Island) yesterday evening and listened with rapt attention as mystery author, Nicola Furlong, motivated me with a talk and discussion on E-publishing. In addition to the potential of e-books, she encouraged all the attending editors to set up their own blog. That's why I am writing this. I have my own book, The Mercedes Variation in print, and as a publisher for Diamond River Books, I also have other books in print;
The Sunset Watcher by a local author, Barry Proud - he lives in Victoria. Barry gleaned much of the material for his book from his many years working on development projects in central and South America.
A very successful book is The Polski Affair,
an engaging holocaust novel based upon original research by Abel Shulman on the Hotel Polski's role in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. It's a really great read. Technically it's historical fiction, but it reads like a suspense novel. The tension is real! For a very good in depth review of this book please visit Jew Wishes

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