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Jerzy’s many masks: A review of “Oral Pleasure:Kosinski as Storyteller”
Reviewed in this essay: Oral Pleasure: Kosinski as Storyteller. Edited by Kiki Kosinski. Grove Press, 2012. Years ago, when my reading tastes were largely defined by whatever contained the most explicit sex, I devoured the novels of Jerzy Kosinski. I had other sources—Henry Miller, Philip Roth, and Martin Amis—but there was something especially creepy and seductive…
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Violence in our bedrooms and kitchens: A review of Julie Bruck’s Monkey Ranch
Reviewed in this essay: Monkey Ranch by Julie Bruck, Brick Books, 2012 Julie Bruck’s poems have the transparency of fingerprints on glass. The achievement of Monkey Ranch, her Governor General Award-winning collection, is not obvious. Her third book, it contains poems about rituals and family life–a son at a window, a lover sleeping through the noise of…
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Eudora Welty, Veronica Mars, and ghostwriting Sweet Valley High: Bookishness for Mar. 18, 2013
Ghostwriting “Imagine, superimposed on the gray-and-grainy screen of a floundering, slightly depressed twenty-something, the shimmery outlines of an idealized adolescent world. All drawn—I just had to color it in. I could pick any colors, as long as they were pastel!” On ghostwriting Sweet Valley High. “At least I want to see a ‘Veronica Mars’ movie…
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CanLit Canon Review #13: Farley Mowat’s People of the Deer
In an attempt to make himself a better Canadian, Craig MacBride is reading and reviewing the books that shaped this country. People of the Deer, Farley Mowat’s first book, was published in 1952. At the time, the story was already old, but the way in which Mowat told it was new. It’s the story of white…
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Vendors in the hot sun: Selling books in Nairobi’s shadow economy
The lookout point in Nairobi’s smart Upperhill district provides an admirable city vista where glistening new buildings pop against faded infrastructure—all evidence of Kenya’s stuttering but undeniable emergence from poverty. But from the bustling boulevard where Joe carefully lays out his books every morning, the view is much different. As a second-hand book seller, he is a…
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36 exposures, Seinfeld vs. Girls, and the underground library: Bookishness for Mar. 11, 2013
1500 volts 36 Exposures “[To] stop. To pause. To Wait. To not know the outcome of a shutter press.” “The whole thing just seems SO self-indulgent.” If people talked about Seinfeld the way they talk about Girls. Bringing the library underground I admire the creativity that went into this as yet imaginary ad campaign for…
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Staff Selections: Ellis Iyomahan
The resident IT expert at Play de Record and owner of Studizzy Productions recently sat down with me to talk DJing, music, and life. Born in Oslo, Norway, to Nigerian parents, Iyomahan has been living in Toronto for the past four years, and has produced tracks for the likes of Susie Kylie, Jhyve, and the late…
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Can’t go home no more: An interview with Chris Williams, editor of The Richard Burton Diaries
Forty-two years after Richard Burton played to Toronto audiences in John Gielgud’s Hamlet during its pre-Broadway run, Swansea professor of Welsh History and former director of the Richard Burton Centre for the Study of Wales Chris Williams was in town to promote The Richard Burton Diaries (Yale University Press, 2012). The book is his edition…
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Diplomacy in the doghouse: Dachshund UN
I am a fully grown adult. At 24 years of age, I read heavy books, pay taxes, drink whiskey and, when called upon, can grow a very serious beard. Even so, I have absolutely no immunity to wiener dogs. I find them highly adorable. In their presence, my insides go all fluttery. I make noises along…
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Food pairs, podcasts and the Game of Thrones cookbook: Bookishness for Mar. 4, 2013
Point 1: Be okay with chaos The 12 trends that will rule products in 2013. Dinner is coming Recipes from the official Game of Thrones companion cookbook (including Dothraki blood pie). Pantone Pairings Still hungry? Check out David Schwen’s food #pantonepairings on Instagram. (Then, you know, eat something.) Gamify Your Life EveryThing gamifies everything! Did you just wake…
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TRB Podcast: John Bonnett on “Harold Innis, Information Management and the Topographical Revolution in Communication”
On January 24, the Toronto Centre for the Book invited Dr. John Bonnett to deliver his lecture, entitled “Harold Innis, Information Management and the Topographical Revolution in Communication.” The third speaker in the 2012-2013 TCB Lecture Series, Dr. John Bonnett’s lecture addresses Innis’ preoccupation with the concept of information. Like his contemporaries Norbert Wiener and…
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#ManuscriptZoo: Erik Kwakkel’s menagerie
Last Friday paleographer Erik Kwakkel charmed thousands of book and animal lovers on Twitter with hourly pics of creatures in medieval manuscripts. Here’s his #ManuscriptZoo. [View the story “Erik Kwakkel’s #ManuscriptZoo” on Storify]