Another "when I was in Winnipeg" story. It all began when Kathy and I decided to go shopping.

Low and behold, St. Vital was also holding the annual used book sale. Encouraged, perhaps, by my amazing find in the science section, I engaged in a thorough hunt through the Christian section.

(My science find was "The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought" TS Kuhn ... I love books that incorporate science and history. My current read is "Deep Simplicity: Bringing order to chaos and complexity" J Gribbin...it's more about bringing history to math than the math to history--although all truly is connected. Next on my wishlist is "Weather Factor: How nature has changed history" E Durschmied. OK, I admit it ... I'm a geek.)

Sorry for the ramble. So I continued my tireless search through the Christian section. Picked up some Merton, a Protestant vs. Catholic relic from the 70's, and the book in question which I purchased for the incredible bargain of 50¢--I kid you not. Kathy did laugh at first, was later incredulous that I was actually spending money on it later, and was more than eager to share my find with the girls that evening.

This book was written by Margaret Clarkson, whom, I have just discovered thanks to google, was born in Melville SK. Now I feel slightly bad for the mocking which will be shortly incurred. The girls feel that the cover art was designed first, and the book written based on the cover. The cover is a glorious 70's-esque female in flowing peasant dress, surrounded by a meadow, gazed skyward, and gently holding her acoustic guitar. Can't you just see it?

Anyways, the girls (i.e. the small group girls from the 'Peg) and I are treating it as the inspiration for the "Summer of the traveling book". Each of us, armed with our own pen colour, will read and comment upon the book content (complete with plenty of "WTF?!?!"s) before forwarding it to the next member. The final destination will be our surrogate mother/small group leader, now in Edmonton. We hope our insight will encourage her in the book she is writing.

Read on for cover art and table of contents.