No comments about The Honourable Member For Vegreville: The Memoirs And Diary Of Anthony Hlynka, MP (Legacies Shared).

No comments about Joseph Brant (The Canadians).

No comments about The Meanderings of the Emily Chesley Reading Circle.

No comments about A Passion for Mountains: The Lives of Don and Phyllis Munday.

No comments about Crossroads Country (Newfoundland history series).

No comments about Troublemaker! (Goodread Biographies).

No comments about Charles Clarke, Pen and Ink Warrior.

2 comments about I Volunteered: Canadian Vietnam Vets Remember.

1. This compelling book brings to light the stories and struggles of some of the 50,000 young Canadians who were recruited to fight in the Vietnam War. The U.S. deliberately recruited them, setting up offices in Plattsburgh and Bellingham near the Canadian border. But the Canadian government doesn't recognize these men as soldiers and hasn't provided any of the support services they should've been getting to cope with what they experienced. Consequently, many have suffered in silence. For some, the pain was too great.

   Despite the subject matter, this book is hard to put down. It reads like a long magazine article rather than a book. It also changed the way I perceive the men who fought in the Vietnam War. It seems that many bought into the U.S. and Hollywood propaganda about wars and being a soldier. When you're 18 years old, that can be pretty powerful.




2. Arial's best chapter is the one detailing all the petty, pubescent, "mine is bigger than yours" chicanery that dogged the creation of the North Wall. This is, sadly, an accurate description of a disgusting mentality that plagues Veterans' groups across North America. No government need fear or listen to these characters, who are too busy fighting amongst themselves to make any kind of difference.

   Arial also brings to light true heroes like Mike "Iceman" Gillholley, and Ed "Edwardo" Johnson. However, there are some errors.

   She writes about the 173rd "Division", the "American" Division, and a Marine "Lieutenant-Corporal." (Should be the 173rd Airborne BRIGADE, the AMERICAL Division and Marine LANCE-Corporal respectively.)

   More seriously, she labels as a "benevolent wannabe" a Central America War survivor who has done more than the average Vietnam Vet to advance the Cause in Canada, while inadvertedly promoting one jabroni whose records are completely devoid of any combat action decorations.

   Arial did good to write about Veterans when she could have well written about immensely more profitable subjects. However, her investigative techniques need work before she reaches the level of Yves Lavigne and Jug Burkett.

No comments about The story of Isaac Brock: General Sir Isaac Brock, K.B. : hero, defender and saviour of Upper Canada 1812 (Canadian heroes series).

No comments about Long Way From Home: The Story of the Sixties Generation in Canada.