Multicultural Books
and MBooks Publishing Services
Multicultural Books
Suite 307, 6311 Gilbert Road
Richmond, B.C.
Canada V7C 3V7
Contact: Joe Ruggier
Telephone: (604) 600-8819
E-mail: jrmbooks@hotmail.com
MBooks is a small press run by Joe Ruggier, a much-published writer and one
of Canada's best-selling poets. During a lifetime that has seen "big
name" poets sell mere dozens of "important" books, Joe Ruggier has sold
over 20,000 books single-handedly (about half his own books, the rest those of
other writers).MBooks has
published the following books by THT poets and writers of similar caliber.
Ordering information appears immediately below the descriptions of the books.
New books will be added to this page on a fairly regular basis, so please check
back often!
Lunar Rhapsody
by V. Ulea
Sometimes it is difficult to talk about what you have done in your work and why,
especially when it concerns such an enigmatic topic as the moon. No matter what
astronomers say about it, for poets and artists the moon has always remained a
living creature, mysterious and mesmerizing, that watches over their dreams and
determines the flux of their inspiration, even as it determines the ebb and flow
of the tides. At this point Lunar Rhapsody is not a collection of
isolated poems, but rather an uninterrupted myth of the moon, cosmos, and human
soul. All parts of the collection – from the cycle of the same name to “Blue
Beard” – grow from that myth. To read the myth, however, one should have his own
“key” because, like the moon itself, the myth is composed of various “faces”
that touch upon different sides of the lunar kingdom, including the dark ones.
It is not my intention, though, to define what the myth of the Lunar Rhapsody
is, because in each reader the melody of the rhapsody should sound different.
After all, everyone has his unique relationship with the universe…
V. Ulea
MBooks Poetry Series #27
1st print edition—Spring 2007
ISBN
978-1-897303-06-1
Editor — Michael R. Burch
Publisher — Joe
M. Ruggier
Multicultural
Books
Tel: (604) 600-8819
E-Mail: jrmbooks@hotmail.com
Book Review of Lunar Rhapsody by Betty Jo Tucker
Take Me Home to Pringus
by Zyskandar A. Jaimot
“She said: I WANT TO TAKE YOU HOME TO PRINGUS / Wherever that is in the galaxy
/ or perhaps it materializes / only in those possessed / by a symphonic poem of
“Homecoming” ... Whereas the speaker of these lines is reported by the poet
to be drunk, surely we may read into this drunkenness, aside from an appeal to
the realism of modern poetry, a metaphor also for divine intoxication. These
highly charged lines in Mr. Jaimot’s stupendous title-poem bring to mind the
brilliance and beauty of Dante’s Inferno when Beatrice makes an
apparition to Virgil in Hell. They evoke also something of the
profoundly-moving simplicity of the poetry of “homecoming” in Homer’s
Odyssey. One hundred per cent a modernist in style and temper, Mr.
Jaimot, like T. S. Eliot, is keenly aware of roots and likewise embraces
traditional values. May his poetry resonate chords in the innermost depths of
many a searching spirit! -- Joe Ruggier (editor & publisher)
Outlaw’s Retreat
Selected Poems of Tom Merrill (1948- )
ISBN 0-9738392-7-9 1st print ed. October 2005
$US 21.95 (USA) $CDN $26.95 (Canada)
Also available as an e-book (ISBN 0-9738392-8-7) for $US 9.95 ($CDN 11.95)
Brought out by MBOOKS of BC, Canada
Tel: (604) 600-8819
E-Mail: jrmbooks@hotmail.com
Printed in the United States of America
Michael R. Burch: “As the editor of The HyperTexts, it
has been my pleasure and good fortune to publish three Pulitzer Prize nominees
alongside recent winners of a number of prestigious literary awards. I like to
think 'I know whereof I speak,' and in my opinion T. Merrill is an outstanding
poet whose poetry is highly original while always respecting and honoring the
great and grand traditions of English poetry. I and others have noted that
Merrill’s poetry calls to mind Housman, and I think the comparison is favorable
to Housman as well as to Merrill. Moreover, Merrill writes rhythmic, enchanting,
almost mystical poems that are sympathetic to the human condition without being
weepily sentimental. That’s no small trick, and few poets of any era have pulled
it off successfully. Merrill is a true magician of words, not a mere
sleight-of-hand artist, and readers would be wise to fall under his spell.”
A book review of Outlaw's Retreat, reviewed by Laurel
Johnson of Midwest Book Review
Pope Caesar’s Wake
Letters exchanged with Pope Woytyla
by Joe M. Ruggier
ISBN 0-9738392-4-4 1st CDN ed., Sept. 2005
$US 36.95 (USA) $CDN $36.95 (Canada)
Also available as an e-book (ISBN 0-9738392-5-2) for $US 11.95 ($CDN 14.95)
Brought out by MBOOKS of BC, Canada
Tel: (604) 600-8819
E-Mail: jrmbooks@hotmail.com
Printed in the United States of America
In this fascinating collection of letters exchanged by Joe M. Ruggier and John Paul II between the Pope’s assassination
attempt in 1981 and his passing in 2005, Ruggier quips that he often “prefers to say ‘I hate you!’ … like a little child!” We invite you to explore this Author’s unique love-hate
relationship with a great Man of such profound honour as John Paul. Enjoy the wit of Ruggier’s humourous revenge on the Church which always concludes with a joyous, dignified twinkle however bitter the Author’s reasons were for sparring. Enjoy also the brief offerings of real, original poetry with which the Author punctuates these letters—poems which, as it were, ‘emerge out of the writing.’ Discover how the Author gracefully winds up all contentious topics with the mutual save of face between himself and his distinguished correspondent which brings these letters to their gracious conclusion … Knowledgeable readers of these letters from the Author’s own private circle have observed that many of his expressions in this collection are ‘so beautiful, they fly’. Rooted in a
lifelong neurosis, the author’s inspired satire of Church-related issues finds glorious precedent in both Dante’s poetry and the mystical theology of John of the Cross. It needs to be
emphasized that the Author does not hate Popes, least of all the great John Paul—but loves all genuine artists: this, perhaps, is the only reason he felt justified in releasing this controversial
collection, which defends the honour of artists great and small.
A book review of Pope Caesar's Wake, reviewed by Laurel
Johnson of Midwest Book Review
This Gardener’s Impossible Dream
by Emery L. Campbell
1st print edition—May 2005
ISBN 0-9733301-8-X
Price: $15 plus $1.50 shipping to any U.S. address
Please contact Emery Campbell for shipping outside the U.S.
Payment can be made by cash, check, or PayPal. To contact the author, or
when ordering using PayPal, Emery Campbell's e-mail address is
elcampbell@prodigy.net. To order or
contact Emery Campbell using less newfangledness, here are his particulars:
Emery Campbell
369 Cottage Way
Lawrenceville, GA 30044-4523
Phone: 770-339-8752
Emery L. Campbell
is a past vice president of the Georgia Poetry Society and was a nominee for the
Georgia Author of the Year. He writes poetry, short fiction and nonfiction, and
contributes a regular column on grammar and usage to the newsletter of Georgia
Writers, Inc. Here's what "people in the know" are saying about his first poetry
book, subtitled "A Not So Green Thumb (Or Why I Took Up Poetry Instead)"
...
Norman Shapiro: "Emery Campbell is an adept practitioner of 'light' verse,
that deceptively dubbed genre that demands no less inventive imagination,
craftsmanship, and love of language and its resonances that its 'heavy'
cousin--which, be it said, he practices with equal skill. A natural wit, he has
long delighted those who know his work ..."
William Heyen: "I've enjoyed the wit and concision of Emery Campbell's poetry
for years. His rhymed and rhythmic gists and piths remind us that often the best
thing we can do is to discover and reveal our stupidities, and to laugh at
ourselves. It's a pleasure to have this selection of Campbell's deft poems
accompanied by translations that echo and compliment his own sensibility."
Madelyn Eastlund: "Reading this book is to romp through the quirky mind of Emery
Campbell, who delights in taking even the most serious subjects and giving them
an unexpected spin."
Michael R. Burch: "Emery Campbell knows how to keep readers turning pages: by
tickling their funnybones!"
A book review of This Gardener's Impossible Dream, reviewed by Ethelene Dyer Jones
42 Poems in Rhyme & Meter
by Mary Keelan Meisel
2nd print edition—May 2005
ISBN 0-9733301-6-3
$US 21.95 (USA) $CDN $26.95 (Canada)
Also available as an e-book (ISBN 0-9733301-7-1) for $US 9.95 ($CDN 11.95)
Brought out by MBOOKS of BC, Canada
Tel: (604) 277-3864
E-Mail: jrmbooks@hotmail.com
Printed in the United States of America
Mary Keelan Meisel (1889-1965) was born in
St. Louis, Missouri. She was the second child of immigrant Irish parents who
settled in the copper mining town of Butte, Montana, at the turn of the Century.
Shortly after the birth of a second child, she had a nervous breakdown. Although
physically disabled, she spent her waking hours on avid and voluminous reading
and the study of rhyme and rhythm. Her illness taught her to observe the beauty
of everyday living which most of us take for granted. After a very slow process
covering over 20 years, the author recovered her health and continued to study,
read and rework her poems over and over ...Joe Ruggier: "I am positively captivated by her work. I am still as impressed
as ever by the pathos and melody of her sensitive and intelligent verse ... Hers
was a sensitive soul and rare indeed: she felt love keenly and she knew sorrow,
and whatever she felt she felt intensely, and passion did not fail her. Her
simple delight in the sheer music of words and the sheer beauty of well-done
rhetoric, and her bold experiments with all kinds of metre ... testify to the
truth, before which any true artist has always knelt and lit a candle, that
human passion is a beautiful thing ... Having lived with Meisel's verse for more
than a year, I am in tears over her poetry. In spite of the fact that they are
at times uneven, I find these poems as remarkable for their intelligence,
clarity and perceptive subtlety as for their passionate, lyrical intensity."
Michael R. Burch: "Meisel's best poems will delight many a reader into saying,
along with the poet: " I have run lightly through the asphodel / and danced
among the blue bells and the clover." But Meisel does not allow the reader to
linger long in any garden of Edenic delights: her poems intently and resolutely
explore not only nature, but also the human conundrums of flesh and spirit, of
apathy and love, of gravity and levity, of earthly stagnation and heavenward
flight. Meisel, who was physically disabled and suffered a nervous breakdown,
was able to look both deeply into and wildly beyond her precarious mortal
condition; like all good poets, she compels the reader to travel with her, to
the point of seeing something in himself of what she saw in herself. Poems like
"Consummation," "I Would Go Out" and "Tell Me Spirit" challenge us to consider
ourselves as full-fledged spiritual beings, not mere sacks of sagging decaying
flesh. If you too "would know / the joy of being unconfined, the peace / of
perfect freedom after narrow rooms," then reading Meisel's poetry is an avenue,
perhaps even a flight plan, to liberation ..."
A book review of 42 Poems in Rhyme & Meter, reviewed
by Laurel Johnson of Midwest Book Review
Pharaoh’s Children
by Roy Harrison
3rd Canadian edition—July 2005
ISBN 0-9738392-0-1
$US 24.95 (USA) $CDN $31.25 (Canada)
Also available as an e-book (ISBN 0-9738392-1-X)
for $US 11.95 ($CDN 14.95)
Brought out by MBOOKS of BC, Canada
Tel: (604) 277-3864
E-Mail: jrmbooks@hotmail.com
Printed in the United States of America
From Biblical history and legend so dramatic in its
impact on Jewish, Christian and Islamic imagination
that it remains vivid to the present day, Roy Harrison
has fashioned a novel acclaimed by critics on both
sides of the Atlantic.
His hero, Samlah, a Hebrew soldier in the
service of Pharaoh, is caught up in a fast-moving
sequence of events that takes him from obscurity to
the courts of kings, and from Nubia to Egypt, to
Libya, to Crete, and back to Egypt again. In his
wanderings he acquires wisdom and discovers
friendship and love, culminating in his marriage to Orah,
a beautiful Nubian woman, and the confounding of
his enemies.
Painting an unforgettable picture of ancient
Egypt in the last days before the Exodus, Pharaoh’s
Children throws new light on the events it describes
and brings to life the many gods and the one God in a
vivid and satisfying historical romance.
Infernal / Supernal Love
by Warren Stevenson
1st print edition—July
2005
ISBN 0-9738392-2-8
$US 21.95 (USA) $CDN $26.95 (Canada)
Also available as an e-book (ISBN 0-9738392-3-6)
for $US 9.95 ($CDN 11.95)
Brought out by MBOOKS of BC, Canada
Tel: (604) 277-3864
E-Mail: jrmbooks@hotmail.com
Printed in the United States of America
“Wit should be Warren Stevenson’s middle name.” -- John Langford, poet
"... [Stevenson] does a rare thing in making the mythic human, and an
even rarer thing in making the mundane mythic.” -- George Payerle, novelist
“Witty and ironic, Warren Stevenson’s poetry reflects his
interest in romantic mythopoeia, including the myths of the
androgyne and the Golden Age, as well as what Northrop
Frye has referred to as ‘powerful myths of alienation.’” -- Richard Olafson, publisher and editor
"Serpent Humanized
recalls James Reaney or Jay
Macpherson in that imagination is its central theme … the
book is brilliant at its best.” -- Lloyd Abbey, poet
Available Now on Compact Disk — "From Door-to-Door to CD-ROM"
...
MBooks on
Compact Disk ... From Door-to-Door to CD-ROM
by
Joe M. Ruggier, John Laycock, Philip Higson, Roy Harrison, Mary Meisel, Esther
Cameron, Chandramapatti & 2 anthologies by various authors. A statement of traditionalism — rhyme- & neo-classicist revival
within an eclectic publishing philosophy — this collection comprises 2 anthologies,
13 poetry books, 2 collections of belles-lettres, 1 prose-poem & 1 novel
... 19 outstanding works by critically acclaimed authors from Canada, the US,
Britain, Malta & elsewhere — in a convenient package.
For info call (604) 277-3864 or
E-mail: jrmbooks@hotmail.com.
Similar products have been
priced as high as $1,000 making our CD a truly compelling value...
ISBN:
0-9733301-0-4. COST TO
INSTITUTIONS: $US 150 COST
TO INDIVIDUALS: $US 98.95 ..... Available from: Coutts Library Services Ltd., Niagara
Falls, ONT. 1-800-263-1686.
Fax: (905) 356-5064. Also
from: Britnell Book Wholesalers, Toronto, ON, 1-800-387-1417. FAX:
(416) 362-9177. Also from: Baker
& Taylor. Published as
e-books by MBooks of BC, 307 – 6311 Gilbert Road, Richmond, BC, CANADA
V7C 3V7.
To inquire about any of the books or CDs above, please write, call or e-mail Joe M. Ruggier at:
Multicultural Books
Suite 307, 6311 Gilbert Road
Richmond, B.C.
Canada V7C 3V7
Contact: Joe M. Ruggier
Telephone: (604) 277-3864
E-mail: jrmbooks@hotmail.com
Please make checks payable to: Joe M. Ruggier.