avg_rating: 3.66
name: Mary Soderstrom
about: Mary Soderstrom is a Montreal-based writer of fiction and non-fiction whose next book--her 18th--Against the Seas: Saving Civilizations from Rising Waters will be published by Dundurn Press in February 2023. It follows in the footsteps of Concrete: From Ancient Origins to a Problematic Future {October 2020. University of Regina Press.} That book brings to life the story of concrete's glorious past, extravagant present and problematic future with careful research, lively anecdote, and thoughtful reflection. In 2019 the Press published her Frenemy Nations: Love and Hate between Neighbo(u)ring States which is an examination of why ten pairs of political entities--ranging from the formerly two Vietnams, through Haiti and the Dominican Republic Mary Soderstrom is a Montreal-based writer of fiction and non-fiction whose next book--her 18th--Against the Seas: Saving Civilizations from Rising Waters will be published by Dundurn Press in February 2023. It follows in the footsteps of Concrete: From Ancient Origins to a Problematic Future {October 2020. University of Regina Press.} That book brings to life the story of concrete's glorious past, extravagant present and problematic future with careful research, lively anecdote, and thoughtful reflection. In 2019 the Press published her Frenemy Nations: Love and Hate between Neighbo(u)ring States which is an examination of why ten pairs of political entities--ranging from the formerly two Vietnams, through Haiti and the Dominican Republic and Vermont and New Hampshire to the US and Canada--are so similar in some respects, yet so different. As Katia Grubisic writes about it in the Montreal Review of Books: "Soderstrom is interesting because she is interested... Her frequent asides – musings on language, geology, genetics, twins, what have you – are sharp and illuminating, sparking reflection and lightening the informational load." Her Road through Time: The Story of Humanity on the Move (University of Regina Press) was published in 2017 to laudatory reviews in Quill &amp; Quire, Publishers' Weekly and The Library Journal which called it "a must-read for all interested in society, past and present." Her most recent work of fiction is River Music, a novel published by Cormorant Book in May 2015. In fall 2013 Oberon Press brought out her collection of short stories, Desire Lines: Stories of Love and Geography. Her last non-fiction book was Making Waves: The Continuing Portuguese Adventure (Véhicule Press, 2010) . Cormorant published her novel The Violets of Usambara in 2008. About a Canadian politician who is kidnapped in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, it is particularly relevant now in an era of terrorism around the world. Her blog about books draws on her decades of reading, writing, reviewing and discussing: Not So Solitary a Pleasure (http://notsosolitaryapleasure.blogspo...) And for nearly a decade she has maintained an eclectic chronicle about politics, nature, cities and life, Recreating Eden (http://marysoderstrom.blogspot.com) ...more