Books and Beyond

A few years after earning their medical degrees at Queen’s, Dr. Garry Willard (MED’63) and Dr. Kenneth Bradley (MED’63) became the first two Canadian medical officers deployed in the Vietnam War, performing combat-casualty surgeries near the Demilitarized Zone in the wake of the Tet Offensive. Dr. Willard details their adventures in Into the Dragon’s Jaws: A Canadian Combat Surgeon in the Vietnam War, a candid, dramatic, and often heartwarming look at the human consequences of war, published by Tellwell Talent.  A portion of the proceeds will go toward post-traumatic stress disorder research and treatment.

Ashwini Vasanthakumar, a Queen’s Law associate professor, explores the complex, but often-vital relationships between exiles and their homelands in The Ethics of Exile: A Political Theory of Diaspora, from Oxford University Press. Through a series of case studies, she illustrates how exiles often play important moral and political roles in countering injustices in the countries they’ve left, and asks her readers to think about the responsibilities we have toward those who have been forced to leave their homes.

Catherine Taylor (MSc’16) turned personal tragedy into a heartwarming lesson for young children. She wrote Ava Jean’s Wings, a rhyming story of a young angel who refuses to hide her wings, in 2019 while pregnant with her first child. Although her pregnancy ended in miscarriage, the story ultimately became a children’s book, illustrated by Champa Gunawardana, which Kickstarter recognized with the Project We Love label for its “compelling message and creativity.” The book, which was released in August, encourages children to recognize their unique qualities, use their talents, and be proud of who they are.

A backpacking trip through Soviet-era Estonia and a decades-long career in the tech industry inspired Free Radical, the debut novel by Lawrence Finlay (Artsci’92), which he released under the pseudonym Tyler Black. The book, published by FriesenPress, tells the story of James, a U.K. tech-firm employee who finds himself fighting for his life in the middle of a northeastern European forest, his only support coming from a toy-sized robot with the ability to learn by watching and listening to humans.

After working for more than a quarter century as an educator (and a parent), Jane Kristoffy (Artsci’93 MEd, Toronto) has amassed an arsenal of answers to the questions that keep parents up at night. She shares many of them in Launch Your Kid: How to Promote Your Child’s Academic and Personal Success (Without Being a Helicopter Parent). The book includes tips, tricks, and strategies that parents can use every day to help them “get their kids through school and prepare them for the real world.”

Since September 2020, Elamin Abdelmahmoud (Artsci’11) has been helping Canadians figure out which podcasts to listen to by leading them on a guided tour of some of the internet’s most intriguing aural offerings. Podcast Playlist, which airs weekly on CBC Radio One and can also be found on CBC On Demand, wades through the seemingly endless array of podcasts to serve up curated excerpts exploring a new theme each week.

Michael Kehler (Artsci’84, Ed’85 MEd, Western; PhD, Michigan State) has dedicated his career to challenging definitions of masculinity and assumptions about what it means to be a man. He shared his observations about the intersection of masculinity, education, homophobia, and body image in “Reimagining Masculinity,” his talk at TEDxYYC, in Calgary on June 24. The virtual event was dubbed “Reimagine,” as speakers introduced new perspectives on everything from access and inclusion to scientific literacy to wearable data.

D.J. (Dave) Richardson, Artsci’86 (JD), is the author of In Her Own Footsteps: Flora Ross and Her Struggle for Identity and Independence in the Colonial West, a novel based on a true story. Flora Ross worked as a nurse in the midst of the British/U.S. “Pig War” of 1859, married its American instigator, and then had to find the means to escape an abusive marriage. The book began as a 1985 Queen's history research paper on the San Juan Island boundary dispute. The discovery of Flora’s wedding announcement in an 1859 newspaper triggered a need to view these events of west coast history through Flora’s eyes. This is the first of a planned trilogy about her life.