Local history – Cannonball Read 17

Wedding belle

Once Upon a Wedding by Nancy Millar

October 24, 2021 by Wanderlustful Leave a Comment

Last year I read a graveyard themed Nancy Millar history book (Remember Me as I Pass By) and this year I turned to something lighter, a book about weddings in western Canada. Like Remember Me, Once Upon a Wedding is armchair-light history, a brief romp back through western Canadian weddings from the 1800s through to the 1940s. Millar’s eye is drawn to newspaper announcements of weddings, old family photos and heirloom wedding dresses, and I once again did a lot of googling to see if […]

Book So Nice, He Named It Thrice

New York, New York, New York: Four Decades of Success, Excess, and Transformation by Thomas Dyja

May 3, 2021 by Jake Leave a Comment

I’ve waited a long time for a book like this. I’ve always wanted to know how New York City became NEW YORK CITY! in its modern day form. How it “came back” from its struggling 70s and who benefitted versus who got left behind. I was hoping for something in scope that could synthesize politics with culture. Thomas Dyja does that and so much more in a delightfully readable, single volume. Dense but easy to engage with, this book starts from the beginning of the […]

Poets, politicians and pilots- a journey through local history

Remember me as you pass by by Nancy Millar

December 30, 2020 by Wanderlustful Leave a Comment

Sam McGee was from Tennessee but despite what Robert Service’s famous poem would have you believe, he wasn’t cremated in the Yukon- he’s actually buried in the small town of Beiseker, Alberta, just east of Calgary. How McGee went from goldrush poet’s muse to a dusty prairie graveyard is one of many life stories that Miller touches on her interesting and informative journey through Alberta’s history via its graveyards- her stated intent is to tell stories backward, starting with gravestones she found interesting. Although this […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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