266 pages
University of Warwick Press
Reviewed by Christine Hearn

As the editors point out, it’s a long way from the Caribbean to Simon Fraser University. And one might ask how and why communications professor Robert Anderson and alumna Karis Hiebert (BSc’91) got involved in a project so far from home.

Anderson was project sociologist in the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Forestry Project. Hiebert, now a senior planner for the City of Vancouver, was a co-op student who worked as the assistant coordinator for the Conference on Environmental Institutions held on St. Vincent in 1991. It was the co-op job that led to the editing of this book. Hiebert describes the editing as an on-and-off 15-year labour of love worked on with Anderson and Richard Grove as she completed a master’s degree at MIT, worked as a planner in Thailand, and then returned to Vancouver.

The Fire and The Holy Forest
Professor emeritus Robin Blaser’s collected essays (The Fire) and his collected poems (The Holy Forest) are newly released from the University of California Press, meticulously edited by Miriam Nichols of the University of the Fraser Valley. Blaser has had a huge influence on Vancouver’s literary scene for the past 40 years.

The Law of Dreams
Peter Behrens, who teaches PRAXIS screenwriting workshops, wins a Governor General’s Award for his novel The Law of Dreams. The movies Cadillac Girls and Kayla were both made from screenplays by Behrens. 

Bakunin: The Creative Passion
Labour historian Mark Leier is a recent dean’s medal winner and is also recipient of an excellence in teaching award. This, his fifth book, is a definitive look at Russian anarchist Michael Bakunin. 

Waterfront: The Illustrated Maritime Story of Greater Vancouver
James P. Delgado (PhD’06) wins the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice award at the B.C. Book Awards and is co-winner of the 2006 City of Vancouver Book Award for this lavish book.
<www.jamesdelgado.com> 

Stanley Park’s Secret: The Forgotten Families of the Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch and Brockton Point
The other co-winner of the 2006 City of Vancouver Book Award is historian Jean Barman who teaches in the Seniors Program. The book uncovers a suppressed history of First Nations occupation of Stanley Park.

Age-Proof Your Brain
Charter student Tony Buzan, first president of the SFU student council, is turning to the huge boomer generation with this new book. He’s turning to youth with another new one, The Buzan Study Skills Handbook: The Shortcut to Success in Your Studies with Mind Mapping, Speed Reading and Winning Memory Techniques. Buzan is the author or co-author of more than 85 books; the Times of London says he “will do for the brain what Stephen Hawking did for the universe.” 
<www.buzanworld.com> .aq

Column Art photo scan: courtesy Erik Tofsrud

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