The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
Vintage Canada edition 2007

I am not the most avid of novel readers. In fact, it often takes me quite a long time to start and finish even a good story. This one kept me going like few other novels have. Set in northern Ontario, this superbly crafted story of family rivalry, intense jealousy, and love brings to the fore the best and the worst in human nature. All the characters are believably portrayed. None are all good or all bad. Just like real life. If you are looking for just the right book for a gift (you will want to read it first), this is a great choice for Christmas.

Jim Gerwing

If you know someone who loves food, but has "been there and done that" with all the Michael Pollan and TV superstar chefs' books, here are some more obscure but equally entertaining food books for holiday reading. All are available through Amazon.ca or Chapters.ca.

Kitchen Literacy: How We lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back
by Ann Vileisis

This book tracks the changes in how Western consumers have acquired food over the last hundred years or so, from the 19th century housekeeper who had direct contacts and accounts with farms, dairies, cheesemongers, fishmongers, bakers, and butchers, to the modern grocery shopper who devotes 20 minutes a week to purchasing food, buying it all from the same vast supermarket. Vileisis explains why this happened, and who benefited at each stage. While she does expose certain underhanded dealings by food processors and industry lobby groups, she steers clear of any conspiracy theories and instead shows how, with the guidance of the marketing industry, the North American public has been willingly, even eagerly complicit in the near-thorough industrialization of the food supply. Fascinating, thought-provoking, and at times worrisome, this book would be sure to please anyone even remotely interested in food.

The Contented Poacher
by Elantu B. Veovode

For the squirrel-hating curmudgeon on your gift list, this is an entertaining and folksy account of a lifetime spent harvesting protein on the edge of the law (and good taste). The author veers between redneck and social/environmental activist, detailing mishaps as gleefully as successes and never losing sight of the act of poaching as food provisioning rather than sport. The tone may border on excessively "country", but the detailed and accurate information for anyone wanting to serve up his or her own Squirrel Parmigiana or Duck with Pomegranite Sauce more than makes up for it.

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements
by Sandor Ellix Katz

Part outraged rant, part paean to food activists everywhere, and part snapshot of lifestyles more alternative than you thought possible on this continent, this book is a deep and relatively complete look at the "underground food movements" that are growing in profile and number as more and more people reject big agribusiness and processed food. Katz is a fantastic writer and succeeds at making even the complexities of government, industry, science, genetic research, and market forces as readable and interesting as the colourful and often bizarre entities, individuals and groups, arrayed against them. A must-read for any food activist on your holiday gift list!