Books and Beyond

Understanding how Russia thinks and acts can seem perplexing to those in the West – but perhaps it’s because we tend to view things from a western perspective. This is particularly evident with events leading up to the Second World War, argues Michael Carley, MA’71, MPhil’76, professor of history at the Université de Montréal. In Stalin’s Gamble: The Search for Allies against Hitler, 1930-1936 – part of a trilogy on Russia’s foreign policy leading up the war – the author reveals Stalin as a foreign policy maker and examines his diplomatic manoeuvrings throughout the 1930s. Stalin’s Gamble: The Search for Allies against Hitler, 1930-1936 is available from University of Toronto Press.

A young artist reunites with her cousin on the muddy banks of Nova Scotia’s Fundy coast where the two spent memorable summers, but the reunion reveals a shared, uncomfortable past. Kettle Harbour is the debut graphic novel by Kyle Vingoe-Cram, MA’14, who explores, through innovative illustrative methods, the reliability of memory and the cascading effects of trauma. Kettle Harbour is available from Conundrum Press.

A couple’s escape from the city to a family farmhouse in northern Ontario leads to an unexpected discovery of a diary from the early 1900s. Behind the Pickle Jar, an historical novel by Wendy McQuaig, Artsci’82, weaves together Canadian history from the turn of the 20th century with the present, providing points of reflection for the woman, in particular, who grapples with her past and modernity. Behind the Pickle Jar is self-published.

J.E.H. MacDonald, one of the members of the Group of Seven and famous for his striking landscapes and views of the Canadian wilderness, is the subject of interest for two Queen’s art conservation alumni: Kate Helwig, MAC’92; and Alison Douglas, BFA’94, MAC’96. In J.E.H. MacDonald Up Close: The Artist’s Materials and Techniques, the authors provide a fresh interpretation of the painter’s artistic development, looking at questions of authenticity and dating. Excerpts from the artist’s diaries, letters, and lectures are used to provide socio-historical context to their in-depth reading of the artist’s paintings as physical objects. J.E.H. MacDonald Up Close: The Artist’s Materials and Techniques is available from Goose Lane Editions.

Inspired by the Icelandic term doom eager, referring to an artist’s feeling of isolation and restlessness when sick with an idea, Queen’s engineer-turned-poet Karl Meade, Sc’85, set about penning a collection of poems about love and grief that convey an insistence that lost loves are never gone. doom eager also includes illustrations by Queen’s alumna Celia Meade (Scott), Sc’86. doom eager is available from Raven Chapbooks.

One evening in 2008, a collection of Queen’s students, faculty, and staff got together at the Grad Club to play music and sing. Today they still play together as The Gertrudes, a Kingston-based “folkestra” that describes itself as “an old-time saloon party travelling through deep space.” They’ve been joined onstage by more than 100 local musicians over the years, and they’ve performed alongside the likes of Ricky Skaggs and Sarah Harmer. Their fifth studio album, Just to Please You, was released in August.

Université de Montréal history professor Michael Jabara Carley, MA’70, PhD’76, draws on archival evidence from the U.S., the U.K., France, and Russia to unearth new evidence of Joseph Stalin’s behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts in the years leading up to the Second World War. In Stalin’s Gamble, released this summer by the University of Toronto Press, he shows how Stalin tried – and ultimately failed – to build a defensive alliance against Hitler.

In 1988, Jimmy Strutton was shot four times in a secluded log cabin on the outskirts of Owen Sound, Ont. Each of the four witnesses at the scene told police a different story, and one of them, Mae McEachern, was charged with murder. McEachern’s defence lawyer, Brian Barrie, Law’76, relies on his own memories, as well as trial transcripts and newspaper articles, to bring the crime and the trial to life in Four Bullets, Four Witnesses, Four Liars, now available from Delve Books.

Most Canadians at the time may not have fought in the First World War, but many of them had a hand in financing it. David Roberts, Artsci’73, MA’75, explores the surprising popularity of war bonds and how the federal government used them to convince Canadians to fund Canada’s military commitment in Boosters and Barkers: Financing Canada’s Involvement in the First World War. It tells the story of six bond drives that together raised almost one-third of the country’s total war costs. Read it now from University of British Columbia Press.

Jamie Lamb, Artsci’96 and Michael Payne, Sc’99, Ed’00, believe “you need four people to make any decision.” And so they invite two friends – often fellow Queen’s alumni – to join them on each episode of their podcast to help them make some important decisions. In “Should I Keep This Record?” – available for download on Spotify – the pair look at old vinyl albums and debate whether or not to keep them. Seasons 1 and 2 featured albums from the 1980s and 1990s, respectively. Season 3 is coming soon. 

Is it better to enact social change by working within the system or through acts of revolution? Moez Surani, Artsci’03, ponders this question in The Legend of Baraffo, a book he began writing in Dr. Carolyn Smart’s creative writing class. It tells the story of Mazzu, a boy who befriends a political prisoner and later grows up to become the mayor of his troubled town. The Legend of Baraffo is available through Book*hug Press. 

One of Canada’s most celebrated contemporary still-life painters, Mary Pratt is best known for transforming everyday objects into iconic images of vulnerability and imperfection. Art historian Anne Koval, Artsci’84, interviewed Pratt extensively and used those interviews as the springboard for Mary Pratt: A Love Affair with Vision. The book is part biography and part in-depth study of Pratt’s life, work, and the issues – gender, feminism, and realism in Canadian art – that informed them both. Available from Goose Lane Editions. 

Former Alumni Review editor Ken Cuthbertson, Arts’74, Law’83, chronicles the 1958 Springhill mine disaster, a workplace incident that still stands as one of Canada’s worst, in Blood on the Coal. At the time, Springhill, N.S., was the quintessential one-industry town whose economic survival depended upon coal. The mine, one of the world’s deepest and most dangerous, continued to operate until disaster struck. The author draws upon archival records as well as interviews with the last surviving miner and his co-workers’ relatives. Available from HarperCollins. 

What do extroverts, dinosaurs, snake-infested marshes, and Mongolia all have in common? They’re all featured subjects on Conversations with Chordates, a podcast launched last fall by Anastasia Shavrova, Artsci’13, MSc’17. While Ms. Shavrova works toward her doctorate in reproductive evolution at the University of New South Wales, she uses the podcast to engage fellow scientists in non-scientific conversations on an eclectic range of topics. You can find it on Spotify, Apple, and SoundCloud.

The planners who design our cities and communities often don’t know if their plans will succeed. Mark Seasons, Artsci’75, a professor of planning at the University of Waterloo, says understanding which practices have worked in the past – and which ones haven’t – can help take the risk out of urban planning. His 2021 book, Evaluating Urban and Regional Plans: From Theory to Practice, shows planners and planning students how to learn from past successes and mistakes to make better decisions in the future.

What enabled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to stand his ground and lead his country so impressively against an invasion at the hands of an aggressive neighbour? Dr. Olga Onuch, Artsci’05, and co-author Henry E. Hale tackle that question in The Zelensky Effect, published earlier this year by Oxford University Press. They learned that the answer is less about a charismatic leader and more about a shared culture and a strong national identity, hard-won after a tumultuous history.