Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Killer Book About Killer Bug In The Running For The RBC Taylor Prize Timothy Winegard by Herman Silochan This is the last year for the RBC Charles Taylor Prize. The non-fiction Canadian book prize is closing down in March after marking 20-years of rewarding the country’s best authors. The Prize recently announced the last five authors on the shortlist to win the Prize. One of their books, Timothy Winegard’s history of the Mosquito will have Caribbean readers itching to buy insect spray and install bug proof screens. The female mosquito has, through history, killed more people with her bite than all the wars in the history of man. In the Caribbean, where the fears of dengue, malaria, West Nile and sickle cell, grow, the mosquito is to blame. Dr. Winegard is a Sarnia born, hockey-loving historian who now teaches at the Colorado Mesa University. He has served in both the Canadian and British Armed Forces and knows about war. He says the world is losing the battle against ...

RBC Finalist Matti Friedman (Pumpkinflowers) describes his life in the Israeli armed forces as  "beyond the mindset of life in Toronto.” --> review by K.J. Mullins for Weir website Matti Friedman When Matti Friedman moved from Toronto to Israel he thought he had landed on another planet.  He was 17 and he was leaving the world’s most diversity friendly city for a place that  was “so beyond the mindset of life in Toronto.” “I was young enough to roll with the punches,” Friedman said of the move from his safe North York childhood home to the Middle East as we started to talk about the differences between North American and Middle Eastern culture and his current book Pumpkinflowers which has been shortlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction. “I liked the cultural shock. Israel is chaotic with its Middle Eastern culture.” One of the most jarring differences between Canada and Israel is in the military draft. All yo...

Dr. Marc Raboy Raboy's Marconi memoir nominated for the RBC Taylor Prize Feature by K.J. Mullins for Stephen Weir website The rapid rise and steady growth of inventions and patents from Marconi forged the communication world that we live in today. One of the youngest of the early innovators to use sound waves in order to achieve wireless communication Marconi was just in his early 20s when he first blazed on the scene. Marconi's achievements are a marvel and yet the man himself has always been a mystery. In Marc Raboy's book 'Marconi' each aspect of the man's life is examined. Extremely well written this massive tome brings to life the legend of a great man of his time and shows the reader how his insights of wireless communication came to be. The man that author Marc Raboy started to write about when he started the research for his RBC Taylor Prize shortlisted book Marconi is not the same man at all, he found. “I learnt a tremendous amount about ...

IAN BROWN SHORTLISTED 2016 RBC TAYLOR PRIZE Regrets? For journalist Ian Brown there are a few but not for the big things. Ian regrets the book not read, should he read three long classics or just the one he knows he will enjoy, does he have enough time to finish?  Face to face Brown is the kind of man you just want to be friends with; smart, funny, educated and able to hold his own in a conversation. His takes on life have you laughing and thinking at the same time just as they do in his recent memoir ' Sixty, ' shortlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize. In Sixty Ian kept a journal of his 60 th year with a touching honesty that left no wart untouched. Baring his soul was powerful and in many ways liberating for him giving him an outlet to vent all of his emotions of a mentally challenging year. Putting words to paper is what writers do but baring your soul can be like walking into a minefield. Catching a bite at Fresh and Wild during a lunch time interview I...

BOOK SHORTLISTED FOR RBC TAYLOR PRIZE   Canadian David Halton grew up in London during WWII with a father who was rarely home. Matthew Halton was the voice of Canada, sending reports home for the Toronto Star and CBC from the front lines. His stories from the battlefields kept Canadians aware of what was happening daily but today that voice has been largely forgotten, or was until David put ink to paper. Dispatches From The Front brings this extraordinary man to a new generation. Born in Pincher Creek, Alberta Matthew may have grown up with humble means but his parents made sure that their children read the classics, cultivating a love and thirst for knowledge. David reflected how his grandmother had the writing bug reporting for the local paper where Matthew would write his first stories. When at 12 Matthew asked to write for the paper the editor sent him out to cover a local campground as a lark thinking nothing would come of it. Matthew not only covered it but wrote wi...