Book ~ "Toronto Sketches 5: The Way We Were" (1997) Mike Filey

From Goodreads ~ Mike Filey's "The Way We Were" column in the Toronto Sun continues to be one of the paper's most popular features. In "Toronto Sketches 5", Filey brings together some of the best of his columns from 1996 and 1997. 

Each column looks at Toronto as it was, and contributes to our understanding of how Toronto became what it is. Illustrated with photographs of the city's people and places of the past, "Toronto Sketches 5" is a nostalgic journey for the long-time Torontonian, and a voyage of discovery for the newcomer.

Mike Filey had a column in the Toronto Sun for about 30 years and I read it for many years (I like learning about the history of Toronto) ... this book is a compilation of some of his columns.  We learn about the history of the O'Keefe Centre (now the Sony Centre), ringing in 1946, Yonge Street, from Downs View to Downsview, the deadly flu bug of 1918-19, etc.

Even though the book was published in 1997, it was still an interesting book because it dealt with many historical events in Toronto.  Plus since it was published in 1997, it was interesting to see what was going on back then and what has changed. For example, back in 1935 a tunnel was started under the channel making a connection to the Island Airport.  A change in the government had the money promised taken back, the hole was backfilled and the project terminated.  Over the years, the talk of a tunnel kept coming up but according to the book, never happened.  In 2012, 15 years after the book was published, construction started on a pedestrian tunnel to the airport that is supposed to be finished this year.

If you live in Toronto or are from Toronto, you should check it out.  

Book ~ "Succulent Wild Woman" (1997) SARK

From Amazon ~ SARK, an author, artist, and incest survivor with many years of therapy and self-healing behind her, wishes to shine her "beacon of hope to the world" as she encourages and inspires women of all ages to become "succulent." She defines this as transcending past pains and feeling the freedom of full self-expression. Very candidly she shares the tragic, the glorious, the intimate, and the adventurous in her life, dispensing sage advice and a lengthy menu of readily doable suggestions for arousing creativity and nurturing self-discovery.

From www.planetSARK.com ~ This book is my glowing invitation to you -- to live a rich, succulent life! I explore love, sexuality, romance, money, fat, fear and creativity. It's a little bit like reading my diary -- with permission. Succulence is powerFull! and so are we as women.

It is indeed like reading SARK's diary ... it's her honest thoughts and ramblings in her handwriting (printing?) along with doodles.

I first read this book in the summer of 2001 and enjoyed it. It's a fun reminder that we should figure out who we are and love ourselves, surround ourselves with friends and be creative.

I believe that these circles of women around us weave invisible nets of love that carry us when we're weak and sing with us when we're strong.

SARK

Book ~ "The Story So Far ..." (1997) Sheldon Currie

From Amazon ~ These stories take the reader from the sparse, tense writing of the prequel to Glace Bay Miner's Museum, through the author's other stories drawn from his Cape Breton home.

This book is 11 bizarre short stories by a former English prof I had at St. F.X.U back in 1982-83.

One is The Glace Bay Miners' Museum on which the movie Margaret's Museum is based. Another story is Lauchie, Liza and Rory on which the play we saw in August is based.

Book ~ "The Greatest Networker in the World" - John Milton Fogg (1997)

From Amazon.com ~ Fogg’s parable is the story of a young man on the verge of quitting the multilevel marketing business. As he prepares to give his final opportunity meeting, he meets the individual everyone refers to as The Greatest Networker in the World. This man takes in his young counterpart and shows him the trade secrets so he too can become a successful network marketer. The young man soon learns that the trade secrets have very little to do with conventional marketing techniques. In fact, he has to unlearn everything he thought he knew about business. The new paradigm is built around one’s habits of thought and discovering that the secrets to network marketing success are within oneself. The values of responsibility, team building, and caring for one’s downline play a much more important role than competitive promotion and advertising. A critical skill for all marketers is the ability to teach people to teach others.

This book started out pretty good and had promise but it's basically a book about visualization ... if you want a house, picture yourself in the house, etc. So it definitely wasn't what I was expecting so I was disappointed.

Book ~ "Dispatches From The Poverty Line" - Pat Capponi (1997)

From Chapters.ca ~ Pat Capponi’s life has been spent moving between two very different worlds. As a survivor of child abuse, psychiatric illness, and periods of unemployment, she has become intimately familiar with the marginalized world of the sick, the powerless, and the poor. As a social activist, counseller, Crown employee, and author of the highly praised memoir, Upstairs in the Crazy House, she has moved through the world of the affluent and powerful. Now, in the era of downsizing, she, like so many others, has become a victim of budget cuts. Unemployed, long past the end of her benefits, she finds herself once again not just working with the poor but joining their ranks. In the winter of 1996, she began a journal of the effect that conservative fiscal and social policy was having on people like herself.

I'd read this book and Upstairs in the Crazy House in the spring of 1998 when I was volunteering at a distress centre that she was on the board of at that time.

Book ~ "The Mirror" - Marlys Millhiser (1997)

From AllReaders.com ~ When Shay Garrett looks into the grotesque and evil mirror she receives as a gift on her wedding eve, she is drawn back in time, awakening in the same house, but in another body, that of her grandmother, Brandy. The independent and headstrong Brandy is transported as well - from 75 years in the past into her granddaughter, Shay's deserted body. Shay is forced to live the life of her grandmother, being called crazy by all of society and is tortured by knowing the future and being forced to endure it.

I enjoy time travel books so this one interested me. I really enjoyed it. All the sites that I read about it gave it rave reviews. The writing is well-done and moves fairly quickly. It was interesting reading how Shay reacts in Brandy's world and vice versa.

Book ~ "Positive personality profiles: "d-i-s-c-over" personality insights to understand yourself - and others!" - Robert Rohm (1997)

From Amazon.com ~ Using the easily learned "D-I-S-C" system, Dr. Rohm’s Positive Personality Profiles helps readers understand themselves and others. This book will clearly describe key differences in basic personality types, give practical insights into how people respond, provide keys for understanding your children, and explain methods for working with others.

My Marketing Management instructor introduced us to this in Tuesday night's class. Gord and I are both ISDCs:

I ~ People/outgoing
S ~ People/reserved
D ~ Task/outgoing
C ~ Task/reserved

I strengths ~ friendly, compassionate, carefee, talkative, outgoing, enthusiastic, warm, personable, fun

I weaknesses ~ weak-willed, unstable, undisciplined, resltess, loud, undependable, egocentric, exaggerative, frivolous

I under control ~ optimistic, persuasive, excited, communicative, spontaneous, outgoing, expressive, involved, imaginative, warm/friendly

I out of control ~ unrealistic, manipulative, emotional, gossip, impulsive, unfocused, excitable, directionless, daydreaming, purposeless

I Types like ... exposure to people, lots of activity, making people happy, making people laugh, short-term projects, to be on the go, prestige, selling while they play

I Types ... can be "higher than a kite" or "lower than a skunk", have lots of friends, wrongly believe that talking and doing are synonymous, need self-discipline

I Types are ... fun to watch, great starters, poor finishers, likeable, prone to exaggerate, easily excitable

I Types don't like ... being ignored, being ridiculed, being isolated, doing repetitive tasks

I Types want you to be ... fun, responsive, stimulating, postive, upbeat, enthusiastic

Book ~ "Hunger Point: A Novel" (1997) Jillian Medoff

From Amazon. com ~ This novel attempts to unravel the familial and social pressures that drive two sisters into a life of serious food abuse. One survives, the other doesn't. Frannie, though she does not succumb completely to anorexia, is near the breaking point and Hunger Point takes us along on her painful and often funny emotional odyssey of rebirth, detailed with her family's embattled love and her own self-loathing. Food is not the only matter of the body that is treated brilliantly; the author's soul-baring depiction of both the miseries and pleasures of sex from a woman's point of view is unforgettable and occasionally terrifying.

Though it’s not a happy story, I enjoyed this book. I liked the writing style and felt for the main character, Frannie, and all that she went through.