Bob Lenarduzzi: A Canadian Soccer Story by Bob Lenarduzzi and Jim Taylor. (Harbour Publishing, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Bob Lenarduzzi: A Canadian Soccer Story

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

Once again, Jim Taylor joins me. The legendary sports writer is out with a new book. He co-wrote Bob Lenarduzzi: A Canadian Soccer Story, with you guessed it, Bob Lenarduzzi. We get a great view on soccer, Canadian soccer, Mr. Lenarduzzi’s career on and off the field, and stories of the many colourful characters encountered along the way. Bob Lenarduzzi was a successful soccer player, winning a North American Soccer League Championship with the Whitecaps, he coached the Vancouver 86ers, and is now president of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, the seventeenth club in Major League Soccer. Jim Taylor was around for a lot of those days. Lenarduzzi was 19 when they met. He covered him and wrote about his exploits in his noted columns in papers here and across the country. We’ll get Jim to tell us about this book, which is from Harbour Publishing, why we should read it, and what it was like looking back with Lenarduzzi. Jim Taylor has written thousands of columns, he’s done three times as many radio broadcasts and written over a dozen books. He’s in the CFL and BC Sports Halls of Fame, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Sports Media Canada. Last year he received the Bruce Hutchison Award from the Jack Webster Foundation. We could go on with the superlatives. He’s always a welcome guest on this program. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Jim Taylor; Good morning, Mr. Taylor.

Where There’s Smoke. . . Musings of A Cigarette Smoking Man by William B. Davis. (ECW Press, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Where There’s Smoke

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

The title of the book evokes my next guest’s most famous, iconic role in television, that of the Cigarette Smoking Man or Cancer Man on The X-Files. It’s the role he’s well known for, for better and worse. The book however is more than just a dishy memoir of his years on the science fiction series that was initially shot here in Vancouver. The book discusses the life of William B. Davis, from his upbringing in Ontario, to the development of Canadian theatre in the 1950s and 1960s, his time in the British theatre encountering people like Laurence Olivier and Albert Finney, to his time back in Canada working in Toronto and here in Vancouver, up to his role on The X-Files. It’s a compelling read, as he’s candid about himself, and he’s insightful about his craft, acting in the theatre and on television. He’s perhaps too honest when it comes to discussion of his personal life, his sex life especially, but one wonders what his lovers think. It’s a fascinating and most enjoyable read. The book is called Where There’s Smoke. . . Musings of A Cigarette Smoking Man. It’s published by ECW Press. The website for more is at www.williambdavis.com. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, William Davis; Good morning, Mr. Davis.

A Hard Man to Beat: The Story of Bill White by Howard White. (Harbour Publishing, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: A Hard Man to Beat

The Sunshine Coast: From Gibsons to Powell River by Howard White, with photography by Dean van’t Schip. (Harbour Publishing, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Sunshine Coast

The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver by Chuck Davis. (Harbour Publishing, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

Howard White joins me again. We’re going to talk books with Howard, which is hardly a big surprise, as he’s an accomplished and prize winning author in his own right, as well as, with Mary White, he operates Harbour Publishing. We’ll talk about at least three books now, two that Mr. White has written and that have been re-released with new editions, and a third which he’s published, one we’ve already talked about on the program this past week with Allen Garr, and one that Howard and I spoke about a year ago on the death of the historian Chuck Davis. That book, The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver has just been released, and it’s a very fine achievement. There’s a book launch this Tuesday, 06 December 2011 at the Vancouver Public Library. A book that Howard White wrote in 1983 has recently been reissued as part of the Vancouver 125 Legacy Books series. Brad Cran was on the program a couple of months ago to talk about the series, and Howard’s A Hard Man to Beat is one of those books. It’s an oral history that Howard put together with Bill White, a labour leader, historian, shipyard worker, and from this book, in his own voice, a hell of a raconteur. Bill White was a labour leader in the 1940s and ‘50s when shipbuilding was a booming industry on this coast. The book is a history of those times. The other book we’ll discuss is Howard’s second edition of The Sunshine Coast. It’s a very handsome book that’ll make any coffee table look smart what with its wonderful photographs of the scenic 100-mile stretch of BC’s waterfront from Howe Sound to Desolation Sound, with Gibsons in the south and Powell River in the north. Dean van’t Schip does the photography for this revised edition. A Hard Man to Beat: The Story of Bill White, and The Sunshine Coast: From Gibsons to Powell River are from Harbour Publishing, who also publish The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver. www.harbourpublishing.com is the website for more. In Madeira Park, on BC’s Sunshine Coast, this day, please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Howard White; Good morning, Mr. White.

Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines by Natalie MacLean. (Doubleday, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Unquenchable

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

Natalie MacLean joins me now. The award winning wine critic is widely read having millions of readers in print, and over a hundred thousand people subscribe to her e-newsletter which you can sign up for at www.nataliemaclean.com. On the said website there are all sorts of neat things, such as phone apps and the sort, as well as reviews of all sorts of wine. She’s the author of a new book too, Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines. It’s a highly readable book that’s part guide and part memoir to all sorts of places Germany, Australia, Italy, Argentina, Portugal, South America, and here in Canada. I’ve just started reading it, and as I’ve said when another wine writer was on, I don’t have a taste for wine, but in her lively, witty prose she makes the search for these bargain wines fun and fascinating. Natalie MacLean’s previous book Red, White and Drunk All Over was a bestseller and critically lauded. She’s in Vancouver now, but will return later in the month, Monday, 21 November 2011 at the Fairmont Pacific Rim. For the price of admission, there’ll be wine and cheese and a copy of this new book. Visit www.ticketweb.ca for more information and tickets. The book is published by Doubleday. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Natalie MacLean; Good morning, Ms. MacLean.

Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies, and Aid by Dr. Samantha Nutt. (Signal, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Damned Nations

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

A great read I’m in the midst of is the thoughtful and thought-provoking Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies, and Aid. Its author Dr. Samantha Nutt joins me now. In the book she recounts her life thus far. Her last 15 years or so have been remarkable. She recounts in eye-opening detail being in the war zone, helping mothers and their babies while around her bombs would be going off, and bullets would be fired. In 1995, at the age of 25 as a new medical school graduate, she arrives in Somalia a volunteer for UNICEF. Over next 15 years, she’s in various war torn areas in the world, advocating for children and their families. She joins me now to tell us a bit of what she’s seen and what we ought to see. She writes in this book about issues we should think about, foreign aid and how and where it should be spent, as well as what we should think about when we do give. We also consider how much we spend on militarisation. Dr. Samantha Nutt is a medical doctor and a founder of War Child, an international humanitarian organisation. She’s been at the front line of many of the world’s major crises, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, the Congo, Darfur, Sudan, and Sierra Leone, among other countries. She’s an acclaimed public speaker, and an award-winning humanitarian appointed to the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario. She is a staff physician at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, and she is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. The website for War Child is at www.warchild.ca. The book is published by Signal, which is an imprint of McClelland & Stewart. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, in Vancouver this day, Samantha Nutt; Good morning, Dr. Nutt.

Boy From Nowhere: A Life in Ninety-One Countries by Allan Fotheringham. (Dundurn, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Boy From Nowhere

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

It was Dalton Camp who said that because of my guest now, people read their issues of Maclean’s magazine from back to front. For 27 years from 1976 to 2003, Allan Fotheringham was the back page columnist, skewering as he did and shining a light on the politics and culture of this country in his winning and witty way. Before that he was a long time columnist in the Vancouver Sun and in a number of Southam newspapers, and he’s also appeared regularly in the Toronto Sun, the Globe and Mail, and the National Post. He’s the author of eight previous books, and he’s just come out with his memoirs: Boy From Nowhere: A Life in Ninety-One Countries. He was born in Hearne, Saskatchewan nearly 80 years ago, a town so small, he writes, that they didn’t have a village idiot, everyone took turns. He’s lived in Toronto now for 30 years or more, where he joins me from this morning, but he’s identified as from these parts, being from Vancouver, from British Columbia. I grew up reading Fotheringham in high school in the mid-to-late 1990s, idolising his style on the page and off. I don’t dress as well, and I don’t write anymore, because he does both seemingly so well and so effortlessly, it’s mind-boggling. This new book is a wonderful reminder of what a terrific writer Allan Fotheringham has been for well over fifty years, and how much he’s missed from the regular pages of our press. We’ll discuss this charming book, and this charmed life and career, the recent medical disaster in his life, and how he views the country today. I’ll also get him to remember some giants in this country, namely Jack Webster and Marjorie Nichols. The book is published by Dundurn. I’m very pleased to welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Allan Fotheringham; Good morning, Mr. Fotheringham.

Memoirs of An Addicted Brain: A Neuroscientist Examines His Former Life on Drugs by Marc Lewis, PhD. (Doubleday, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Memoirs of An Addicted Brain

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

I’ve just started an engrossing, accessible, highly readable book, Memoirs of An Addicted Brain: A Neuroscientist Examines His Former Life on Drugs. Its author Marc Lewis joins me now. Dr. Lewis is a distinguished neuroscientist, who for many years was a drug addict himself. He describes in this book how his addictions manifested itself, what happened, and how he eventually overcame all that which affected his early life. Clean for some 30 years now, he’s currently a professor of human developmental psychology at Radboud University in the Netherlands. He was at the University of Toronto for over 20 years. This is a fascinating book in that we get Dr. Lewis’s own story as well as all the science behind what’s really happening to our brains. In that, it’s incredibly accessible. We also attempt to understand addiction more, and not just from an academic and scientist like Dr. Lewis, but from someone who’s literally been there and done that. And it’s not just drugs in this book, we read about our addictions to stuff like love, soap operas, wealth. We’ll get Dr. Lewis to explain more. The website is at www.memoirsofanaddictedbrain.com. The book is published by Doubleday. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Marc Lewis; Good morning, Dr. Lewis.

Walk Like a Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen by Robert J. Wiersema. (Greystone, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Walk Like a Man

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

Robert Wiersema joins me again. His new book, a sort of memoir and a sort of biography and criticism of Bruce Springsteen’s music is called Walk Like a Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen. It’s a great book; a beautiful, thoughtful book about growing up and growing older. I’m not a Springsteen fan. I have ‘Born to Run’ on my iPod, but that’s about it. Sinatra, another singer from New Jersey is more prevalent on my iPod. But Mr. Wiersema writes with such affection, care and honesty about his own life as seen with Springsteen’s music as an underscore, you can’t help but appreciate Springsteen as an artist, cultural icon, celebrity, and the person who illuminates Wiersema’s life, for both the writer and the reader, just a little bit more. Robert J. Wiersema is an independent bookseller in Victoria, and a prolific critic and book reviewer. He’s written two bestselling novels, Before I Wake and Bedtime Story, and was last on to talk about his novella, The World More Full of Weeping. His website is at www.robertjwiersema.com. This book is published by Greystone. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Rob Wiersema; Good morning, Mr. Wiersema.

Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe by Charlotte Gill. (Greystone, and the David Suzuki Foundation, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Eating Dirt

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

A new book, just published is Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe. It’s just been nominated for the richest nonfiction prize here in Canada, the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize. The book’s author Charlotte Gill joins me now. I’ve just started reading the book, and it’s a fascinating look at tree planters, their work, their sense of accomplishments not only after a season of driving seedlings into the ground—in Ms. Gill’s case nearly 20 years, but also years from now as this is the slowest growing of our renewable resources. We get a sense of logging’s impact on this part of the world, the majesty of the environment and the forestry business. The planter is a vital part of the ecological process, as well in the forest industry. Charlotte Gill is the author of a fiction collection called Ladykiller which was nominated for a number of prizes including the Governor General’s Award, and the BC Book Prize for Fiction. She’s planted more than a million trees. The book is published by Greystone and the David Suzuki Foundation. The website for more is at www.charlottegill.com. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Charlotte Gill; Good morning, Ms. Gill.

Stories About the Storytellers: Publishing Alice Munro, Robertson Davies, Alistair MacLeod, Pierre Trudeau and Others by Douglas Gibson. (ECW Press, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Stories About the Storytellers

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

One of the more delightful books of this fall season is the eagerly anticipated Stories About Storytellers from Douglas Gibson. In this country he’s described as a ‘living legend,’ and a ‘publishing icon.’ For over forty years, he has edited and published thousands of Canada’s best books. He joined Macmillan of Canada in 1974 as editorial director, and then became its publisher in 1979. In 1986, he joined McClelland & Stewart as editor and the publisher of books under his own imprint, Douglas Gibson Books. In 1988, he became the Publisher at McClelland & Stewart. In 2004, he went back to concentrate on his imprint, and though he ‘retired’ in 2008 at the age of 65, he publishes under his imprint at M&S still. This book has some incredibly fascinating stories, as well provides a wonderful insight into the book trade. Stories About the Storytellers: Publishing Alice Munro, Robertson Davies, Alistair MacLeod, Pierre Trudeau and Others is published by ECW Press. And this fall, he’s embarking on a book tour across the country to promote this book and share some of the countless stories from his years of publishing. Mr. Gibson will be in Vancouver in October. Tuesday, 18 October 2011 he’ll be headlining an event at the Vancouver International Writers Festival; the next night he’ll be at Bolen Books in Victoria. Check out the website at www.douglasgibsonbooks.com for details on the book and this tour that that takes him across the country. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, in Toronto this day, Douglas Gibson; Good morning, Mr. Gibson.