Unveil Works
Books and recommendations by faculty, alumni,
and
students.
 En
Blanc et Noir
Duo-pianists and husband and wife Charles Foreman and Kathleen van
Mourik perform as a team across the province, and the pair has released
their
first CD. En blanc et noir is the title track and only major work composer
Claude Debussy wrote for two pianos. Two other composers are featured,
each of which again only created a single piece to be played by two
pianos alone. Foreman and van Mourik have included Camille Saint-Saens’s “Variations
on a Theme by Beethoven” and Francis Poulenc’s “Sonata
for Two Pianos.”
Foreman, a professor in the Department of Music, and van Mourik
also organize the Mountain View International Festival of Song—the
country’s only summer music festival devoted to art song and chamber
music with voice.
 Grizzly
Lies
By Eileen Coughlan
Eileen Coughlan, MA’94, draws on her background in psychology
and her love of research to develop the plots and characters in her mystery
novels. With her second book, Grizzly Lies, (Sumach Press), she was able
to include her passion for hiking and skiing in the Rocky Mountains as
the tale is set in Banff.
In the novel, a young woman retreats to the idyllic town from Toronto.
But not long after her arrival, her landlord turns up dead and her
neighbour disappears. Is she next? Small-town legend mixed with dark
secrets and
the conflicting worlds of conservation and big-game hunting make this
a true western Canadian mystery.
Coughlan lives in Calgary. She has been a writing instructor, communications
consultant, and freelance writer.
 Shelter
from the Storm
Most Albertans have seen a storm roll in over the prairies at one point,
so they can appreciate the cover image from Shelter from the Storm:
The Photographs of Kirk Gittings (Ethel Hess). Gittings, MFA’83,
has called New Mexico home for more than 45 years and has released
a stunning collection of images taken from across his state. Filled
with photos in colour and black and white, the book explores the landscape
and architecture of the ‘land of enchantment.’
Calgary’s Grand Story Two of Calgary’s most prominent landmarks, the Grand Theatre and
the Lougheed Building, are at the centre of the story of Calgary’s
history, according to professor Donald Smith. Smith mixes the city’s
business and cultural history to sketch the urban biography of Calgary
from 1912 to the province’s centennial year. (University of Calgary
Press)
Personal Recommendations
 Larissa
Lai
Novelist and PhD student
Best books I’ve read in the last while:
Nalo Hopkinson’s The Salt Roads and Kelly Link’s Stranger
Things Happen
Books I’m dying to read: Dionne Brand’s What We All Long
For and Ruth Ozeki’s All Over Creation
 Ian
Samuels, BA'98
Poet and artistic associate for Wordfest: Banff-Calgary International
Writers Festival
A book that’s currently fresh in my mind and that I’ve read
most recently—and one that I certainly recommend without reservation—is
Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road. It’s a World War I epic that
beautifully ties together a narrative of modern warfare with one of Ojibwa
spirituality, driven by interesting characters and evocative writing
that brilliantly captures the horrors of war and its aftermath. A fantastic
read.
 Bart
Beaty
Assistant professor, Faculty of
Communication and Culture
Volumes 1 and 2 of Darwyn Cooke’s The New Frontier invites
readers to be nostalgic about the future we once envisioned. Set in the
immediate postwar years, Cook leads some of America’s iconic heroes
(including Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash) through a Cold War
tale that re-images the sense of wonder and endless possibility of an
earlier age.
U
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