Sasquatch in British Columbia
A Chronology
of Incidents and Important Events
Christopher
L. Murphy & Thomas Steenburg
Hancock
Publishers
£24.99
In
the 1960s, the fascination with the mysterious
‘Sasquatch’ was arguably at its zenith, a height reached with the help of the
so-called Patterson-Gimlin film, a grainy-piece of cinematic magic that
surfaced in 1967 and depicted a creature, a Bigfoot (or else a fat guy dressed
in what appears to be a modified gorilla suit) walking near the Klamath River
near Orleans, Calif.
Whether this was a hoax or
not, many contemporary Bigfoot-believers insist it is not. And a new book,
which amounts to a catalogue of documented sightings, lends further support to
that famous clip that took hold of so many imaginations and still does today.
According to Bigfoot
chroniclers Christopher L. Murphy and Thomas Steenburg, there were sightings of
the famed hairy upright beast that had been documented in multiple ways long
before 1799.
In fact, strange footprints
locked in time, and in First Nations art, have triggered speculation for
centuries and also provided possible evidence of the existence of an actual sasquatch, or sasquatch-like creature, stretching far back
into recorded history. Then, shortly after Europeans first came to North
America, they began to document strange sightings and strange occurrences
involving a tall ‘beast of unknown species’ in the forests of Northwest
America.
Then from the beginning of
the 19th century onwards, continued sightings and other incidents
further intensified the belief that the legendary creature might indeed be real – neither a myth nor a figment of the imagination. Moreover, with
greatly improved communications, news reports and the arrival of cars,
sightings became ever more frequent moving the sasquatch
from mere myth to the edges of science.
It is this history that
Murphy and Steenburg document so thoroughly and with plenty of occasionally
grainy photos which some readers will regard as
incontrovertible evidence that the sasquatch truly exists as other readers,
though ever interested, will remain skeptical.
Either way, this is a
fascinating read chronicling sighting after sighting and providing the full
historical background of this strange creature that has captured the
imagination of so many for so long.
The Putin Corporation
The Story of
Russia’s Secret Takeover
Yuri Felshtinsky &
Vladimir Pribylovky
Gibson Square Books
£10.99
The
recent rumours raising questions about
the state of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s health are yet another reminder
that the state of the Russian government itself in any era is never what it
seems.
Indeed, as Winston Churchill
so memorably described it in a radio broadcast in October 1939, just two months
after Stalin’s shocking non-aggression pact with Hitler: “I cannot forecast to
you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an
enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.”
And part of the Russian
enigma invariably revolves around the covert operations of the KGB of which
Putin, as an obscure officer formerly stationed in East Berlin, was a member
who, like his comrades, has always worn its secretive cloak.
Which means that, as with
every powerful government controlled by a very few, the palatable image
fashioned for public consumption conceals the real power structure behind the
scenes. Which is the one that Felshtinsky and Pribylovsky have worked so hard
to uncover.
Meticulously researched, The Putin Corporation exposes the self-serving relationship between
Russian oligarchs and Putin who have worked to transform the once mighty power of
Soviet communism into a new configuration that today amounts to corporatist
communism in which the country is run as a massive business by a small core of
shareholders.
Felshinsky should know.
After all, it was Felshtinsky who teamed with the ill-fated Alexander
Litvinenko, the ex-spy who died of poisoning in November 2006, to write Blowing Up Russia. In that book, Litvinenko and Felshtinsky, an historian, detailed how since 1999 the Russian secret
service had been plotting to return to the terror that was the hallmark of the
KGB in the USSR.
In The Putin Corporation, however, Felshtinsky and Pribylovsky detail how,
after his return to the presidency earlier this year, Putin’s position as head
of the ruling elite “Korporatsiya” or “The Corporation” was beginning to appear
unassailable.
But is it?
Today,
Russia is run by a collective leadership – the Kremlin
Corporation's board of directors, so to speak, with Putin as the front man and
public face of an elite group of seasoned bureaucrats, most of whom, like Putin, are veterans of the KGB
and run Russia and control the crown jewels of its economy while Russian
oligarchs living in Britain continue to buy sports clubs, newspapers and
high-security mansions as they sue and even surreptitiously kill each other …
all suggesting a Russian-style prosperity and stability of sorts.
Yet
the swirling rumours that Putin’s carefully cultivated image as an action
figure may now be compromised by an undisclosed condition or illness suggests
that here, too, nothing is as it seems, and that Churchill’s description is as
classically accurate today as it was then.
Regardless,
this is a fast-paced, informative and exciting read you won’t be able to put
down.
Winter
Five Windows on the Season
Adam Gopnik
Quercus Books
£18.99
Originally created for the CBC as a series of lectures on the subject and season of Winter, Montreal-raised writer Adam Gopnik takes us
on an intimate tour of the artists, poets, composers, writers, explorers,
scientists and thinkers who helped shape a new and modern idea of the snowy
period.
Beginning at the dawn of the Romantic era,
perhaps the first time in history when mankind was sufficiently protected from
the cold that the joy, fear, exhilaration, magnetic appeal and mysterious
attractions of winter could be felt as an aesthetic experience rather than a
physical discomfort to be combated and subdued.
Indeed, Gopnik’s captivating narrative shows
how a love of winter has become, for many, part of the modern condition
providing a prism on life itself.
Along the way, Gopnik also shows how a poem by
William Cowper heralds the arrival of the middle class; how snow science leads
to existential questions of God and our place in the world; how the race to the
poles marks the human drive to imprint meaning on a blank space;
and how a bet in 1865 between a St.Moritz hotelier and four Englishmen led to
the birth of winter sports.
And with every step this kaleidoscopic take on
a season dazzles, surprises and entertains. A rich and
pleasurable read.