If you feel like curling up with a good book over the winter, don't forget that Studio Georgeville carries both fiction, like Louise Penny's latest mystery novel, A Trick of the Light, and non-fiction, like Eeyou Istchee: Land of the Cree, by coop members Louise Abbott and Niels Jensen.

Other recent releases include Even the  Owl Is Not Heard: David Thompson's 1834 Journals in the Eastern Townships of Quebec by Townshippers Barbara Verity and Gilles Péloquin and Haiti: A Shattered Nation by Elizabeth Abbott.

The latter book received an outstanding review by Martin Fletcher in The Times of London on December 19. Fletcher wrote: "Ms Abbott’s description of the Duvaliers’ reign is a real-life version of Graham Greene’s The Comedians, full of detail that one suspects only an insider could obtain. Ms Abbott, a former journalist, was married during the 1980s to the brother of Baby Doc’s successor, Lieutenant-General Henri Namphy.

"Ms Abbott also explains how the Duvaliers had a vested interest in keeping millions of Haitians in abject poverty, using them as “visible objects of misery that  (they) peddled to the world in return for the gigantic handouts that could then be stolen”. They were helped by absurd US policies such as sending huge quantities of surplus rice to Haiti, thereby destroying its agricultural base. ...

 "Aid remains a mixed blessing. After last year’s catastrophic earthquake the world promised $5.3 billion to rebuild Haiti, but much of the money never materialised. The legions of non-governmental organisations in Haiti “squabbled, double-dealt and struck out for themselves”. Many spent much less than they received in the glorious opportunity for fundraising that the disaster provided. Consequently, hundreds of thousands of Haitians still live in camps, and mountains of rubble are part of the landscape.

"Worst, the NGOs’ unilateral provision of basic services in this “republic of NGOs” has emasculated the Government and deepened its dependence on aid. It has done nothing to target the endemic corruption that has bedevilled Haiti for two centuries. “The post-earthquake mantra — Building Back Better — can inspire Haiti’s betterment only if the rot at the core of its social and government structures is targeted as an enemy,” this insightful book concludes."