Lawn libraries

 When we were out walking in our Ottawa neighbourhood some weeks ago we noticed a little building on a pole on a suburban lawn near the street. It was too small for a bird house, and certainly not a mail box, since we are all using community boxes now. Up close we saw that the structure had a little door, which, when we opened it, revealed about fifteen books,, including some recent novels,  Home-lettered on the door was "Lexington Library."

Turned out that it was a lawn library. Apparently they are sprouting all over.  The homeowner heard about another one in Ottawa, thought it was a good idea, built the little structure, and started it off with some books that he was thinking of putting in the recycling bin. 

The idea is that neighbours and passers-by can leave books and take books at will.  During the month or so that the Lexington Library has been up and running, there has been a complete turnover in the contents.  It encourages neighbourliness, decluttering, recycling, and reading, and saves people the trouble of carting unwanted books to the public library. it's also nice to get something for free. The public library accepts book donations but resells them.  My earlier donations to the LL - Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and a book by John Berends, have been snapped up. Today  Roger contributed a book by Christopher Hedges, and I came away with a heavily annotated book by Bart Ehrman.

Grove's young adult novel

My review of The Adventure of Leonard Broadus, by Frederick Philip Grove, published by Rock's |Mills Press, Oakville, ON, appears in Canadian Materials magazine, Volume XXII, No. 31, April 15, 2016  See https://www.umanitoba.ca/vol22/no31,theadventureofleonardbroadus.html

recent publications

My review of Mary Razzell's Taking  a Chance on Love was published in the online magazine Canadian Materials, Volume XXII, No. 3, April 8, 2016

My poem "Evasion" is in Verse Afire, the tri-annual publication of The Ontario Poetry Society,  Vol. 2, May-Sept. issue, ISSN 1715-0280  Contact the Ontario Poetry Society at #10, 65 Spring Garden Ave., Toronto M2N 6H9 or visit its web page for information about poetry contests.

review in Canadian Materials

My review of the young adult novel, Before the New Moon Rises, appears in Canadian Materials

 CM . . . . Volume XXII Number 28 . . . . March 25, 2016

review: What's Yours is Mine

My review of Tom Slee's book, What's Yours is Mine, has just been published in Compulsive Reader. The link is below:
http://www.compulsivereader.com/2016/03/25/a-review-of-whats-yours-is-mine-by-tom-slee/

Winnipeg after the General Strike, a new book

 http://www.compulsivereader.com/2016/03/11/a-review-of-were-going-to-run-this-city-by-stefan-epp-koop/

Above is the link to my review in Compulsive Reader of Stefan Epp-Koop's book, "We're Going to Run This City, about municipal politics in Winnipeg in the decades following the General Strike of 1919.