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Before we get to the fun part of winter, there’s November. Thankfully, there’s plenty of Canuck lit to get us through it.
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The Citizen’s Guide to Nonviolent Defence: How to Deter Invasion, Defeat Tyranny and Build Democracy
Richard Sandbrook
Douglas & McIntyre
Phew! Some Canadians are breathing easier since the U.S. midterm elections, but not so fast. While the Trump era will end, the threat to Canadian sovereignty is likely to remain. In this “time of monsters,” small and middle powers in Europe, Asia and the Americas are all vulnerable to tyrant-friendly Russian, Chinese and American superpowers.
While the likelihood of invasion appears to be low, many believe the U.S. has already launched destabilization campaigns — supporting separatists in Alberta, for example — and let’s face it, the MAGAs on our doorstep are unstable at best.
Author Richard Sandbrook, vice-president of Science for Peace and emeritus professor of political science at the University of Toronto, is also co-founder of the Canadian Coalition for Nonviolent Defence (NVD). The concept of NVD is simple. Civilian trade unions, arts organizations and other groups need to get together now to plan resistance strategies (protest, non-co-operation and disruption), and look at ways to foment civilian discontent on the other side. Maybe start by making this guide a topic of discussion as a book-club selection.
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Rise After Silence
Dr. Anne Aspler
fEMPOWER Publications
Dr. Anne Aspler has seen profoundly disturbing cases of sexual and domestic violence as an emergency-department physician. She’s seen some horrible things on the home front, too.
Aspler’s father is a serial rapist and pedophile who sexually abused her when she was five years old. Not surprisingly, collecting rape-kit evidence and treating survivors could be triggering, but facing each case head-on and breaking the silence surrounding “private violence” has also brought a form of healing.
Today, Aspler is a strong advocate for victims through EVE (End Violence Everywhere), and much of her work is focused on women’s wellness and brain health.
The Night Witches
Shelly Sanders
HarperCollins
Terrorized Nazi soldiers had a nickname for the Soviet 588th Night Bomber Regiment during the Second World War — Nachthexen, or Night Witches. The all-women regiment flew more than 24,000 missions, destroying physical infrastructure and waging psychological warfare on enemy soldiers who lived in fear of the sound their planes made on approach.
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Author Shelly Sanders (The Night Sparrow), gives them starring roles in her latest historical novel, led by real-life long-distance navigator Marina Raskova, who was dubbed the “Soviet Amelia Earhart.”
Tougher Than the Rest: Stories
Dina Del Bucchia
Arsenal Pulp Press
Nasty, brutal and short, most of these nine stories from Vancouver talent Dina Del Bucchia are also delightfully quirky and darkly funny.
In the bleak near-future, a lonely woman buys a second-hand sex robot in the appliance section of a Sally Ann thrift store. A newly hired junior executive assistant is told her predecessors were buried in work, and soon learns firsthand why there’s been such a large turnover at Platinum Corp. And a woman whose husband is missing and presumed dead gets cryptic advice from a talking wood duck and other creatures at the local park lagoon.
Seagoing Women: At Work
Sara Donnelly
Harbour Publishing
Ever been to sea, Millie? Commercial fishers, sea captains, a kelp farmer, an underwater videographer, Arctic researcher and a few dozen more women talk about their lives and their work on the water. Journalist Sara Donnelly didn’t have to do a lot of research to understand why the 33 women profiled here love the ocean. Her own seagoing experience includes commercial fishing and search-and-rescue work with the Canadian Coast Guard.
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