Anyone know the name of this book?
In the story, some notices an island in the great lakes or waterway between the US and Canada. When he goes to US authorities to see who owns it they say it belongs to Canada. When he goes to the Canadian auhtorities, they say it is US property.
So the person claims the island as his own soverign country.
Hmmm. Did he name it Moosylvania?
I can’t help you Howard, but just by starting this thread you have helped me. You made me remember that I have been trying to figure out the name of a book for quite some time now.
It was a collection of short stories by a woman, put out in the early nineties. IIRC, the title was a play on words regarding nature, and the cover had a tree on it. But the book was more like a collection of feminist stories. I only recall one of the stories, and it was about a woman who has recently been dumped by a boyfriend (who I think was married), and she thinks she is pregnant, but instead ends up having a lump removed that has several parts of a fetus in it (hair, bones or teeth, etc). She is so distraught over it that she has the lump preserved in formaldahyde.
I know that is a very strange description, but I am really desperate to figure out the name of this book/author, and that is all I can remember from it. If it helps, I think one of the other stories centered on a group of couples kayaking through the waterways of Alaska and playing two truths and a lie.
Any help would SOOOOO be appreciated, since this has been driving me crazy the past few years. So much so that I’ve considered trying to track down my check-out history from the library I checked it out from way back when.
I’m afraid that I have no idea what the book is.
However you may find this of interest http://www.sealandgov.com/
While the ideals expressed are high sounding you wont have to llok too far to find stories of corruption , passport fraud and smuggling.
On the upside the principality of Sealand was what gave birth to a new idea for an offshore oil rig to be converted into the most secure data storage location in the world. I read about this in Wired magazine(sorry no idea which issue) but yet again there were signs that the idea of becoming or setting up your own nation was fraught with complexities and dalliances with the darker side when the founding fathers talked of their plans to arm the oilrig with surfacr to air missiles etc.
Interestingly enough, this was also the plot from one of those ABC "After-School Specials (1970s?) about a girl who wanted to be a real princess (or royalty of some sort).
Turns out dad finds an island in the 1000 Islands area between New York and Canada that, lo and behold, the island was marked as US property on Canadian maps and Canadian property on US maps. The family moves there and sets themselves up as the sovereign rulers of the island nation (don’t rememebr the name), leading to interesting conflicts with other countries (the US surveyer calls them “Communists” because they fly a red flag [the brother’s shirt on a flagpole, IIRC], the French want to negotiate fishing rights or something like that, the daughter finally falls in love, the family moves back to ‘civilization’, having had their fill of being royal.
Likely this was based on some children’s or young adult novel, but with more an emphasis on the daughter for the ‘after-school set’.
Sorry I couldn’t help with the name, but now you have another place to look.
Sorry, howardsims, I don’t know the name either. But, like SINsApple I appreciate the opportunity to post about a book of which I’m trying to remember the title. It’s a Canadian book about a small town where a prank is pulled by (falsely) announcing in the newspaper the marriage of a prominent professor’s daughter and a teaching assistant at the local university on November 31, and the ensuing hijinks. I’ll be damned if I can remember the name, but I can see the picture on the cover as clear as day. It’s making me crazy!
Bump. Sorry folks, but I really want to know the name of the book I posted about.
Sorry about hijacking your thread Gundy, but its a great thread for all of us with blank spots in our memories.
Sorry howardsims, but SINsApple I know that I’ve read the anthology you’re talking about … but for the life of me I can’t remember what it’s called. 
I returned it to the library only a couple of weeks ago.
She sends the fetus thing to him and his wife during one of their parties or something, doesn’t she?
This is going to bug me for the rest of the day …
Gundy The Canadian book you mentioned re. the false marriage announcement is by Robertson Davies, is part of the “Salterton Trilogy” and I am 99.9% certain that the title of that particular book is “Leaven of Malice”. (Because I read the thing as a trilogy it is easy to get the titles mixed up, that’s all but , as I say, pretty sure that is right.)
Kayeby: YES!! That has to be the same one!! Is there any way the library would tell you your check-out history? Or could you maybe browse the right section and see it again? I am soooo desperate to know the name of this book, please help me out as much as you can!!! I’ll love you forever, and ever, and ever…with a cherry on top!! (see, I’m so desperate I’m regressing to 10 years old! :))
Found it SINsApple!
The story you’re looking for is called Hairball which can be found in Margaret Atwood’s Wilderness Tips. It should be very, very easy to find in bookshops and public libraries.
Glad I could help! 