Temptress

184 pages
Greystone Books
Reviewed by Christine Hearn

All the bad girls – Lilith, Eve, Pandora, Cleopatra, the Sirens, and Lolita – are featured in Jane Billinghurst’s temptingly beautiful book. Billinghurst, who directs SFU’s summer book editing workshop, chronicles beautiful women who aren’t afraid to use what they have to get what they want.

It’s the age-old story of the battle of the sexes, but this time with lavish illustrations, perceptive details, and a compelling analysis. Chapter headings don’t reveal all, but they certainly entice with the packaging: “Mythical Maidens,” “Subversive Seductresses,” “The Femme Fatale,” and “The Ultimate Bitch” – who could resist?

The conclusion? Ah, but that would be telling.
www.douglas-mcintyre.com

Writing Program Writers
Writing program instructor and mentor Caroline Adderson is getting rave reviews for her new novel Sitting Practice. She was nominated for a Governor General’s Award and a Commonwealth Book Prize and won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for her first book, Bad Imaginings.
www.thomas-allen.com/Imprint/Fall_2003/
Sitting_Practice/sitting_practice.html

Another writing program instructor, Karen X. Tulchinsky, mixes family history and fiction in The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky. Tulchinsky is a recent graduate of the prestigious Canadian Film Centre and is a B.C. Film Screenwriter’s Fellow. www.raincoast.com

Writing program participant Janet Warner’s novel Other Sorrows, Other Joys is about the marriage of William Blake and Catherine Boucher. Warner’s writing program instructors include Sally Stiles, Ian Slater, and Fred Candelaria.
www.stmartins.com
www.janetwarner.com

Brain-Bending Book
Calisthenics for the mind can help keep you young, according to Mental Fitness for Life: 7 Steps to Healthy Aging by SFU gerontologists Sandra Cusack and Wendy Thompson. The book is designed for the lay reader and is based on direct research from participants in New Westminster’s Century House. www.keyporter.com

The Carver Experience
Greg Lainsbury (PhD’96) is author of a new book on American short story writer Raymond Carver. The Carver Chronotype: Inside the Life-World of Raymond Carver’s Fiction is part of a series on major literary authors. Lainsbury teaches at Northern Lights College in Fort St. John.

Awards, Awards
Stan Douglas: Every Building on 100 West Hastings, which includes essays by Jeff Sommers (PhD’01), Nick Blomley (geography professor), and Jeff Derksen (assistant English professor), ties for first prize in the 2003 City of Vancouver Book Awards. Earth scientist John Clague’s Vancouver, City on the Edge, is a nominee.
Alison Watt’s The Last Island (see aq, May ’03), wins the 2003 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-fiction. The award recognizes a Canadian writer publishing a first or second book with a Canadian subject or location.
www.harbourpublishing.com

Photo courtesy Uri Cogan	Multi-level Mystery Salt Spring Island poet and novelist Brian Brett (BA’69) receives rave reviews for his mystery Coyote. The Vancouver Sun calls it “one of those rare, hypnotically compelling novels that keeps the reader turning just one more page.” The book is being compared to John Fowles’ classic 1960s The Magus. www.thistledown.sk.ca/
Brian Brett has been honing his skills as a writer since his undergraduate years. Coyote proves his exceptional talent.
	“Brett’s immense skills as a novelist show in the way he maintains taut suspense through a plot that mainly consists of people telling stories to each other.” The Vancouver Sun

The Top Ten Check out the top ten bestsellers by SFU authors or contributors in the SFU Bookstore. aq

Cover scans courtesy Anthea Lee / SFU Continuing Studies

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