For Sports Illustrated, it's the swimsuit issue, for Esquire, the Dubious Distinction Awards, and here in Canada, the best-selling newstand issue for Maclean's magazine is the Annual Ranking of Canadian Universities published every November. What this says about the Canadian psyche is less clear perhaps than the tremendous appetite for information about the sometimes obscure world of Canadian higher education, with its vastly varying environments, fees and admissions standards.

Further entrenching its market position, Maclean's has published The Maclean's Guide to Canadian Universities 98 which reprints the fall rankings (McGill is third in its category), profiles every Canadian university, and has a special section on law schools offering common law programs.

A note in the Guide says this section was added in response to pressure to provide information on professional programs. Why law? Because, according to the Guide, "As a profession it sits at the intersection of countless interests in our society. As a degree, it is almost unparalleled in its flexibility, whether as a passport to power and privilege, or the ticket to lobby for societal change."

The Guide is a herculean effort to compare institutions which often resist the exercise, complain about the methodology and occasionally accuse each other of downright fabrication of statistics. The editor, Ann Dowsett Johnston, argues that Maclean's issued 250 challenges to the data universities provided for this issue, but despite heroic attempts to standardize information, readers will want to use the statistics with some caution and decide what's important to them.

Undoubtedly, Maclean's is holding sway with students. The Director of McGill's Recruitment and Liaison Office, Anne Roussell, says when she travels to student fairs, the top-ranked Canadian universities are handing out photocopies of the Maclean's rankings. Inevitably, she gets the question "Why is McGill third?"

"I tell them that choosing a university is an individual choice that can't be wholly determined by rankings. McGill offers a distinct learning environment, which may be more attractive for some students than others."

Overall, the Maclean's Guide to Canadian Universities 98 is the best overview of the nation's universities currently in print.

At $12.95, it is a worthwhile investment for students and parents.

by Janice Paskey

Rediscovering McGill's Heritage: A Collection of Pen Drawings, McGill Development Office, , 1997, $32.95, by Joan Edward, BA'42, with text by Anastasia Onyszchuk. Preface by David M. Covo, BSc(Arch)'71, BArch'74, Director, McGill School of Architecture.

As I am directly involved with preserving rare drawings of McGill University buildings, the majority designed by prestigious Montreal architects, this new publication naturally caught my eye. I first leafed through it in the McGill Bookstore and was duly impressed by the delicately rendered drawings of 28 selected buildings and two monuments on the McGill campus. Joan Edward depicts McGill's architectural splendour paying extreme attention to detail. The pen drawings vary from sweeping, elegant perspectives of the buildings, to lavish interior details and sculptural curiosities. The accompanying text, written by Anastasia Onyszchuk and interspersed with amusing anecdotes, is historically informative and pleasant to read. It briefly but vividly describes the origins of the buildings, and the generous benefactors to McGill who played key roles in purveying Montreal's gracious architecture, now a valuable heritage to a city's glorious past.

The drawings illustrate that a significant percentage of the buildings on the campus were former homes of affluent Montrealers who literally transformed the city into the metropolis it became at the turn of the century. Through their formidable -- even by today's standards -- endowments and donations, McGill acquired a unique legacy of exquisite architectural treasures unparalleled on campuses across Canada. Anastasia Onyszchuk remarked that the creation of Rediscovering McGill's Heritage was an "exhilarating adventure into Montreal's past." It certainly is just that -- a heartfelt tribute to McGill and the rediscovery of its architectural heritage.

Daniella Rohan
BSc(Arch)'89, BArch'90, MUP'94
Assistant Curator,
Canadian Architecture Collection, Redpath Library

Resorts of the Raj: Hill Stations of India, Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 1998, $85, by Vikram Bhatt, MArch'75.

Vikram Bhatt's Resorts of the Raj: Hill Stations of India is a sumptuous treat for the eyes. The heart of the book is the McGill professor of architecture's exqui-site photographs of the hill stations to which the British rulers of India resorted for much of the year.

The accompanying text implicitly makes a case for the architecture of the stations as part of the heritage of India, deserving of preservation. This is despite the ironic fact that they were originally seen as salubrious enclaves of Britishness, "homes away from home" for health-seekers and the homesick wishing to escape the heat and bustle of the Indian plain. Bhatt even seems to suggest that the architecture of the stations was better integrated to its environment than some of the more haphazard development which succeeded it.

Bhatt's text is charming, written with a light touch. The author does not, perhaps, probe too deeply beneath the surface of British rule, but he does give a good sense of the personal lives of the British, particularly women. Colourful details suggest some striking inequalities, not to mention the sheer labour power required to maintain such establishments. In the days before railways, it took 850 elephants and camels, hundreds of horses and bullock carts and 12,000 people to take Lord Auckland and his entourage on a tour of northern India, which culminated in a seven-month stay at Simla -- all worth it, apparently, for the cool of the hills. Agreeably urbane and a fount of information, Bhatt is an enjoyable guide to the architectural legacy of the Raj.

Elizabeth Elbourne
McGill Professor of History

The Caged Tiger, Empyreal Press, 1997, $14, by Louis Dudek, BA'39. The latest book of poetry from Dudek, professor emeritus of English at McGill and eminent Canadian poet.

The End of Obesity, G&G Publishing, 1998, $19.95, by Samuel N. Grief, MD'89, and Sophie Ares-Grief, BSc'91. The latest information on health, nutrition and obesity is presented in the form of a dialogue between the authors. New techniques for conquering obesity and new concepts on how to approach food are described.

Jews of Montreal and Their Judaisms, Aaron Communications, 1997, $19.95, by Mackay L. Smith. An ethnographic overview of Montreal's Jewish community and a collection of personal vignettes.

Noam Chomsky: Une Voix Discordante, Éditions Odile Jacob, 1998, par Robert F. Barsky, MA'87, PhD'92, traduit par Geneviève Joublin. Cette biographie intellectuelle, issue d'une longue correspondance de l'auteur avec lui et des témoignages de contemporains, le fait apparaître comme un mélange détonnant d'élitisme universitaire et d'anarchisme libertaire.

Love Is an Observant Traveller, Exile Editions, 1997, $14.95, by Jon Arno Lawson, BA'93. A collection of poetry divided into three sections by subject or mood, followed by a fourth section of the author's one-line observations.

Slaying the NIMBY Dragon, Transaction Publishers, 1998, US$34.95, by Herbert Inhaber, BSc'62. The author discusses the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome and the problem of finding sites for undesirable facilities, such as prisons and garbage landfills. He discusses new approaches to overcoming NIMBY.

Simply Mediterranean Cooking, Robert Rose Inc., 1998, $19.95, Byron Ayanoglu, BA'67, and Algis Kemezys. Simple recipes to transport the essence of Mediterranean cooking to North American kitchens.

Surviving Death: Eternal Consciousness and the Self-Perpetuating Universe, Sterling House, 1998, $19.95, Dr. J. Robert Adams, BA'49, MD'54, MSc'69. Written by a medical doctor and scientific investigator, the book examines how our existence does not end with death.