Complete your

HERE YOU are, with

only a few shopping

days left ‘til Christmas
and no ideas what to get
that ‘special’ person on
your list, (totally weird aunt,
troglodyte brother-in-law,
ete....).

ohn Moore
BOOK-REVIEW

~ Given the subject range offered
by North Shore bookstores, there’s
*"seally no excuse for the Dreaded
“Colorful Scarf or The Tie

-. You'd Least Like To Be Strangled

_ With.

*- Local history/heritage buffs will
“love Vancouver: A City Album
“(Douglas & Mcintyre, $34.95), a
- handsomely produced collage of

\ historical photographs, com-

+ plemented by quotes from diaries,
‘Journals and news media of the
time, compiled and revised by
- Anne Kloppenborg, Alice Niwinski
_and Eve johnson,

" Gregory Edward's Hidden Cities
, Talonbooks, $22.95), gives a
Unique pigeon’ s-eye view of archi-
tectural decoration in both Van-
couver and Victoria. .

“" Suggested walking tours are
; thoughtfully mapped out, but the
‘detail can best be appreciated in

7:these remarkable photos, without
binoculars or a neck brace.

~Don’t overlook the boom in

out-of-the-way B.C. history: Gladys

Young Blyth’s Salmon Canneries
“(Odlichan Books, $19.95), is a me-
_ticulous labor of love recording °
the largely vanished way of life of
the isolated ‘cannery rows’’ of
Our Coast'and small-town historiés;
- Richard Goodacre’s Dunsmuir’s —
.Dream: Ladysmith. The First Fifty
Years (Porcepic Books), can turn a
merely scenic highway drive into
time travel. °
”.A town you might otherwise
. bypass, Ladysmith was once one
of the largest and most important
” ‘cities in B.C., the scene of this.
century’s first major labor con-
frontations when the coal miners
_ challenged the Dunsmuir coal
“barony.

Just when you thought it was
safe to go inte the garden, since
_feverything i is soggy or frozen, five
* local gardeners come out with The
Twelve Month Gardener: A West
*.. Coast Guide (Whitecap Books,

* $19.95). The proud possessor of a
- Black Thumb (if ! tossed a salad, it
turns to compost), |had my

- definitely non-trog brother-in-law

look this one over.

A professional gardener, his

- verdictis a green thumb’s-up: an
excellent year-round guide for
people who'd really rather play
with a trowel than an ice-axe or
ski-poles,

The book also provides net-
working info on local garden clubs
and a calendar of horticultural
€vents.

Children’s books have come a
long way since Mother Goose

‘rhymes and Rackham illustrations;
the current crop are iuicebox- table
books for the Pampers crowd, but
two from Chronicle Books, Linda
Bourke’s Eye Spy. A Mysterious
Alphabet and Weodleigh Hub-
bard’s 2 Is For Dancing: A 1 2 3 of
Actions, with illustrations reminis-
cent of Picasso and Miro, are vi-
sually interesting enough to leave
out on the coffee table for your
adult guests. (We all know some-
one who should enrol in Remedial
Imagination.)

They’re not cheap: $21.50 and
$18.95 respectively, but you
wouldn't want your child to be
afraid to invite his/her preschool
mate in to look at his/her art
books, would you?

For the slightly more mature
crowd, Raincoast Books offers two
from John Muir Publications of

Santa Fe: Extremely Weird
Primates and Extremely Weird
Reptiles (both $12.95), proving
that science-fiction has a long haul
to catch up to Mother Nature in
the Strange Sweepstakes.

If you’re over 12, don’t look at
these; they'll only ruin your ap-
petite for Christmas dinner.

Still stuck for something for that
person you're convinced is living
proof that aliens are among us?

What could more appropriately
express your yuletide sentimc.tts
than John Robert Columbn’s UFOs
Over Canada (Hounslow Press), a
compilation of Canadian ‘‘close
encounters” that proves there is

lists with West Coast fare

no “weirdness gap” hetween us
and our southern neighbors.

Hey, taking the dog for her
midnight walk on Christmas Eve
last year, I’m sure | heard an oddly
familiar voice cry, ‘Warp factor
One, Rudolph!”

Merry Christmas to all, and to all
a gcod night...

Thanks to cruise passenger traffic through the
Port of Vancouver, I’ve been able to build a business
that now employs 50 people. Lots of local companies
can benefit from the cruise industry — from transpor-

tation companies like mine, to food services and

‘retailers. But to be successful, we must be creative and
provide top quality service. This is one way we can
help Vancouver's cruise industry
grow, and create jobs and new

opportunities for the future.

Lug GP

Barry Keys, President, Quick Shuttle Service

Port of Vancouver

Canada’s
Front Door on n the Pacific.