Born in France around 1636, Radisson joined his half-sisters at a trading post in Canada when he was about 15. Within a year, he was captured by a Mohawk raiding party, but he impressed them so much that he was assimilated into their society. That was the beginning of an odyssey that no guest settling in for quiet night at a Radisson Blu could possibly invent. Bush Runner also puts some context to the demands by Canada’s First Nations for recognition of their land and other claims.

Rather than employing clash-of-civilizations rhetoric, Bourrie shows himself a curious and eclectic writer unafraid to raise difficult questions about propaganda, war porn, and the still-evolving nature of a wired world. His historical overview of the waves of urban violence afflicting North America and Europe in the past 150 years undermines the idea that ours is an age without precedent.” He ends up in Nashville, far from where he needs to be, and proceeds to follow her into a twisty plot that takes a little too long to unravel. He's beaten up and hit on the head repeatedly (evidently not enough), lied to by everyone, and eventually nabs his prize. That's as much of a spoiler alert as you'll get.

Removing Rose Suckers

Pierre-Esprit Radisson was a French fur trader and explorer in New France. He is often linked to his brother-in-law Médard des Groseilliers. The decision of Radisson and Groseilliers to enter the English service led to the formation of the Hudson's Bay Company. People are either going to love this book or hate it. Me, I loved it. Stephen Harper may not like it quite so much but he would do well to heed it. Sometimes the more people know about what you’re doing and how you’re spending their money can make them like you more. Or not. That’s the gamble you take in the free world. A lot has been happening in Ottawa for years now, but because the killing of the messenger has been so quiet, insidious and effective, few of us even know about it.” Known to some as the first European to explore the upper Mississippi, and widely as the namesake of ships and hotel chains, Pierre-Esprit Radisson is perhaps best described as an eager hustler with no known scruples. Kidnapped by Mohawk warriors at the age of fifteen, Radisson assimilated and was adopted by a powerful family, only to escape to New York City after less than a year. After being recaptured, he defected from a raiding party to the Dutch and crossed the Atlantic to Holland, which begins a lifetime of seized opportunities and frustrated ambitions. The other finalists were Had It Coming by Robyn Doolittle, Highway of Tears by Jessica McDiarmid, The Reality Bubble by Ziya Tong and The Mosquito by Timothy C. Winegard. Known to some as the first European to explore the upper Mississippi, and widely as the namesake of ships and hotel chains, Pierre-Esprit Radisson is perhaps best described, writes Mark Bourrie, as "an eager hustler with no known scruples." Kidnapped by Mohawk warriors at the age of fifteen, Radisson assimilated and was adopted by a powerful family, only to escape to New York City after less than a year. After being recaptured, he defected from a raiding party to the Dutch and crossed the Atlantic to Holland — thus beginning a lifetime of seized opportunities and frustrated ambitions.

Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson is written and researched rather well. Sourced from Radisson's journals, which are the best first-hand accounts of 17th century Canada, this biography tells the extraordinary true story of this protean 17th-century figure, a man more trading partner than colonizer, a peddler of goods and not worldview. I honestly don't recall ever learning about Radisson at any point in school, but this sounded like a good adventure story - and it was. Bourrie was able to grab me right from the intro, where he actually had me laughing a couple times. He is serious about his subject, but is still able to add some levity to the tale. The climbing varieties of round podded haricot beans are lighter in growth habit and can be grown in smaller containers; a large pot 45cm (18”) in diameter is ideal for eight plants.This book serves as an entry (A prize-winning book) in The Indigo Reading Challenge 2021. It won the most recent RBC Taylor Prize (2020) – one of the few prize winners that I have yet to read for the year.