H.V. Nelles, A Little History of Canada ****

During not one but two vacations in eastern Canada this year, I picked up random tidbits of Canadian history, such as the Halifax Explosion, the expulsion of the Acadians, and the exploration of Lake Superior. I bought this nicely packaged book to help me put these events in context. It was exactly what I was looking for.

I appreciated how the author approached history thematically, not trying to be comprehensive. I found lots of fascinating tidbits throughout the story, even though one of the themes is that Canada came together through sober reflection rather than passion. Inevitably some periods are less interesting than others, but I got a good sense of the sweep.

Helen Phillips, The Need *** 1/2

The Need starts like a thriller: a mother crouches in the bedroom closet with her baby and her four-year-old daughter, because she heard footsteps in the living room. The next chapter introduces some science fiction: the mother works as a paleobiologist at a site where they've discovered plants that don't fit into the accepted fossil record. The chapters in Part 1 alternate between these two scenes, until the mother discovers the identity of the intruder.

A perfect novel maintains a precarious balance between actions that make sense narratively and actions that make sense thematically. The author's main purpose in The Need appears to be to capture the psychological strain of being a parent, and she came up with a creative way to present it. The main character's actions make more sense in pursuit of this theme than they do as realism. For example, her decision to not tell her husband what was happening felt unrealistic to me, but it makes sense when seen through the lens of the theme of motherhood.

Jerry Dennis, The Living Great Lakes *****

The Living Great Lakes is part of a burgeoning genre of books that relate the history and geography of a region by tying it to journeys of the author. My favorite example of the genre is Jonathan Raban's Passage to Juneau, about the Inside Passage of British Columbia and Alaska. The Living Great Lakes is another excellent one.

I bought the book at a bookshop/cafe in Munising, MI, on the shores of Lake Superior. We had just watched a 1000-ft ship travel through the locks at Sault St Marie and were about to sail along the Pictured Rocks National Seashore and to visit Mackinac Island. In other words, I was reading about the region we were traveling in.

Dennis describes three trips he has taken through the Great Lakes: as a participant in the Chicago to Mackinac sailing race, in a voyageur canoe on Lake Superior, and as part of the crew delivering a schooner from Traverse Bay to Bar Harbor Maine. He is able to combine historical narrative, natural history, and personal observation in a seamless way that enhances the feeling of what the area feels like today rather than as a history lesson.

Nate Chinen, Playing Changes ****

Playing Changes is a collection of essays providing an overview of 21st century jazz. The story starts in the 1980s, when the prevailing opinion was that jazz was nearly dead until Wynton Marsalis, Ken Burns, and newly interested cultural institutions saved it by recognizing it as "America's classical music." This view polarized the jazz community, especially since the conservatives seemed to control access to the new sources of funding from Lincoln Center, the MacArthur Foundation, and so on. The avant garde and the hybridizers just continued what they were doing.

I was happy that I knew most of the musicians Chinen discussed; he provided context for my understanding of their styles. I was surprised by the fact that nearly all of them had some degree of formal education in jazz -- the restricted access to institutional resources obviously didn't last.

Playing Changes covers a wide range of styles and subcultures, and offers numerous listening suggestions.