Most Popular Books by James Houston

In the black hours of a wintry night Inuit hunters fight their way through a storm to the camp of the administrator of Baffin Island. Their dog sled carries a dying man who clearly terrifies them. Revived by the officer, the man, Shoona, lives long enough to tell his story. An unwanted orphan in his youth, Shoona is taught to be a "spirit wrestler," a shaman capable of influencing the demons and spirits that control human destiny. Revered at first for his magic, Shoona becomes a feared outcast when his enemies are overtaken by uncanny and fatal events. Then, out of pride, he steals the sacred amulets of the powerful sea goddess Sedna, and is confronted by a mysterious white man who is obsessed with Inuit lore, and who soon attracts Shoona''s wife. Compelling in narrative, rich in character and authentic background, "Spirit Wrestler is a saga of the 1950s that illuminates the striking interplay of legend and reality. Long after its startling conclusion, this tale will live on hauntingly in the memory of readers.

"The Ojibwa are known as the people of the three fires. Their forefathers arrived in the Great Lakes region during the ice age, and hunted mastadon and the giant elk. They fought the Iroquois before the white man arrived and in 1763 under Chief Pontiac''s leadership and with their allies almost drove the white man from the western territories of America. Today Ojibwa have been dispersed into the cities and towns of North America, but many still live on their ancestral lands, now reservations. They are in the midst of a passage from one way of life to another. In this book one-hundred superb photographs and a remarkable text combine to record this journey from an ancient heritage to a strange new world"--Back cover.

Department Thirteen - the assassination & sabotage unit of the KGB - never officially existed. But former KGB colonel Aleksandr Talanov knows that it did, & it''s but one of the many secrets he''s worked hard to forget. Now living in Sydney, Talanov & dozens of dinner guests are suddenly the target of assassins. On a short stroll to the beach, Talanov & his wife are mistakenly spared, but soon find themselves running for their lives: hunted by the killers, wanted by the police, increasingly pivotal to an invisible network of death about which they know nothing. But someone thinks they know. For in 1983, a second Department Thirteen was created, & Talanov discovers they have but one purpose: to kill him, whatever the cost. With settings in Moscow, Australia, Vanuatu, & Switzerland, James Houston Turner uses KGB covert operations merely as a backdrop against which he creates a riveting international suspense thriller.

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These memoirs of James Houston''s life in the Canadian Arctic from 1948 to 1962 present a colorful and compelling adventure story of real people living through a time of great change. It is extraordinarily rich material about a fascinating, distant world. Houston, a young Canadian artist, was on a painting trip to Moose Factory at the south end of Hudson Bay in 1948. A bush pilot friend burst into his room with the news that a medical emergency meant that he could get a free flight into the heart of the eastern Arctic. When they arrived, Houston found himself surrounded by smiling Inuit - short, strong, utterly confident people who wore sealskins and spoke no English. By the time the medical plane was about to leave, Houston had decided to stay. It was a decision that changed his life. For more than a dozen years he spent his time being educated by those kindly, patient people who became his friends. He slept in their igloos, ate raw fish and seal meat, wore skin clothing, traveled by dog team, hunted walrus, and learned how to build a snowhouse. While doing so, he helped change the North. Impressed by the natural artistic skills of the people, he encouraged the development of outlets in the South for their work, and helped establish co-ops in the North for Inuit carvers and print-makers. Since that time, after trapping as a way of gaining income began to disappear, Inuit art has brought millions of dollars to its creators, and has affected art galleries around the world. In the one hundred short chapters that make up this book, James Houston tells about his fascinating and often hilarious adventures in a very different culture. He tells of raising a family in the Arctic(his sons bursting into tears on being told they were not really Inuit), and of the failure to introduce soccer to a people who refused to look on other humans as opponents. He tells about great characters - Inuit and "kallunait - who populated the Arctic in these long-lost days when, as a Government go-between, he found himself grappling with Northern customs that broke Southern laws. A remarkable, modestly told story by a truly remarkable man.

Further adventures of Mathew Morgan and Kayak, his Inuit friend, with a scientific expedition studying whales off the west coast of Baffin Island. Suitable grades 6 and up.

Akavak l''esquimau doit accompagner son grand-père de l''autre côté des montagnes du Canada du Nord. Ce garçon courageux et ce vieil homme sage arriveront-ils à bout des dangers ?

A young Eskimo hunter fights for survival while stranded on an isolated and desolate island.

Determined to find his father who has been lost in a storm, a young boy and his Eskimo friend brave wind storms, starvation, wild animals, and wild men during their search in the Canadian Arctic.