As the weather gets cooler in the autumn months, we start to think about what’s soon to come: shorter days and longer evenings, cold, snow, winter…and the holidays! If you are beginning (or continuing) your holiday shopping this October, be sure to take a moment to browse the Townships Expressions collection on display in the Townshippers’ Association offices… you might just find the perfect gift for someone on your shopping list!
In last week’s column, we featured four of the most recent entries in the Townships Expressions collection. This week, we are featuring a half dozen other new entries. Read on to find out more about books by D.Montgomery MacLean, Nick Fonda and Ann Scowcroft and to learn about publications from the Eastern Townships Resource Centre.
God’s Tin Soldiers is the story of John Cunningham, a young man who has lost his faith in the biblical God, and his high-school girlfriend Yvette. After being separated for five years, John meets Yvette at a dinner party and learns that she has decided to become a nun. He tries to shake her beliefs, at least enough to stop her from shutting herself away from the world and his attentions, and invites her to spend a couple of days during the Christmas holidays with his family at their cottage in the Eastern Townships, near where the couple first met in the 1950s.The discussions between John and Yvette surrounding faith and Christian doctrine take place against a winter wonderland backdrop that includes interesting Christmas celebrations.
In his collection of eleven short stories, told by a variety of characters, Fonda’s “Principals & Other Schoolyard Bullies” addresses the issue of bullying with sensitivity and humour. “For Fonda,” we are told, “bullying is not just limited to physical violence, nor do bullies always look or dress like thugs.” The stories in this collection are thought-provoking and will interest those – educators, students, parents, grandparents – who have, at one point or another, found themselves facing an abuse of power.
The Truth of Houses is a collection of poems by renowned Canadian writer Ann Scowcroft. According to Michael Ondaaje, the poems in the collection “are filled with the intricacies of life – subtle and human, anarchic and generous, intimate as well as far-ranging in their time and geography.” The fifty plus poems in the collection deal with a variety of subjects, and include pieces such as “Wanted”, “True or false: it is dangerous for a mother to expose the root of a lie”, “Observation” and “Winter forecast.”
A number of editions of the “Journal of Eastern Townships Studies” are available through Townships Expressions, including the “Stanstead Historical Society Journal” and the “Colloquium 643: Quebec’s English-speaking communities: current issues and future trends”. The articles included in these journals cover topics ranging from the history of Stanstead to employment trends in the English-speaking community, and from unmet health needs in the English-speaking community to the history of telephone health care consultation in the Eastern Townships.
The Eastern Townships Resource Centre calendar includes 16 beautiful photos drawn from the archives of the resource centre that share small bits of the history of the Eastern Townships with viewers. The profits from the sales of the calendar also go towards a good cause – helping to support the Eastern Townships Resource Centre in its efforts to preserve and document the history of our beautiful region of Quebec: the Eastern Townships.
To learn more about these or other entries in the Expressions collection, visit www.townshippers.qc.ca or contact Cathy Turner, Townships Expressions Coordinator, at 819-566-5717 (toll free: 1-866-566-5717) or expresssions@townshippers.qc.ca
