Book round up
Wintertime reading
Powell River area authors have been prolific in recent months. Here's a roundup of a few books you may wish to consider for those on your Christmas list.
Farther Up the Main is the latest publication in local author Wayne Lutz's Coastal British Columbia Stories.
Lutz's latest offering provides a look at our area through the eyes of a city-folk author who discovers a place where mountains into the sea and lifestyles focus on self-reliance and a different sense of purpose.
Lutz visited Powell River 10 years ago from Los Angeles, and could not leave. He describes his "favourite place in the entire world," into his narratives of outdoor adventure. All titles in Lutz's Coastal British Columbia Stories are published by Powell River Books and are related, yet stand on their own, and can be read in any order.
Adult Child of Hippies by former Powell Riverite Willow Yamauchi (Goddu) is a humorous book about growing up with hippies.
"Come out from behind the bead curtain and stand tall," Willow urges other adult children of hippies. Do you have a name like Willow, River, Oak or Sunshine? Have you ever lived in a commune or done yoga naked with your family? If the answer is yes, then you are an adult child of hippies.
People who grew up eating sprouts and lugging herbal tea in their thermoses to school will delight in Yamauchi's first book.
Beginnings, A Bonnard family novel, is Powell River author Gwen Enquist's latest offering.
Being a novelist wasn't on Gwen's radar until she attended a Powell River Writers' Conference. She has since published three novels, Lazy Water, Phone Calls After and Beginnings.
Her novel Beginnings, a sequel to Phone Calls After, in what is becoming the Bonnard family series. Beginnings picks up the family's life one year after the accident that killed Mathew. All the characters are back and caught up in the drama of contemporary life. Beginnings looks at the challenges of a homeless family, tackles transformative issues and explores what it is that makes a family whole.
Godless Religion looks at how you might explain profound "religious" experiences when you don't believe in God. Local philosophy professor Bob Butkus tackles that subject in his new book. Butkus argues that experiences like watching a stunning sunset, viewing stars spread across endless space, listening to Beethoven, or facing the inevitability of death can form the basis of a religion without belief in God. He also tackles issues that arise from such a belief, such as godless justification for morality and the fear of death in a godless universe. Butkus says the book is the result of nine years of work. "Now I have all the answers!" he jokes. He says he has tried to write it in a way that is approachable and accessible to the general reader, and that the book will appeal to anyone who questions religion or the existence of God.
