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TRB Podcast: Ken Setterington’s Branded by the Pink Triangle
On September 25th, the Lillian H. Smith Library invited Ken Setterington to talk about his latest book, Branded by the Pink Triangle, and why he specifically wrote it for young adult readers. In World War II, a pink triangle was sewn onto uniforms to mark homosexuals who were imprisoned in concentration camps alongside Jews and other groups the Nazis…
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Blood and Lost Treasures: New Books of Note
Much-anticipated, curious, or simply thrilling, here are some new and notable books. The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty by Nina Munk (Signal) – Munk offers an incisive portrait of development economist (and mercurial egoist) Jeffrey Sachs. Focusing on Sachs’s UN-supported project to alleviate extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, she launches a…
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Chester Brown, Ann Patchett, and a Party in a Library: T.O. Events for Nov 7-21
Berlin videographer and media artist Nina Konnemann will be in conversation with curator Kim Simon about her art, culture, and international exchange. 5PM. November 8. Goethe-Institut Toronto. Free. Join innovators in contemporary art from Paris and Toronto including Isabelle Alfonsi, Barbara Fischer and David Liss in The Ecology of an Art Scene: a two-day symposium dedicated to creating…
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A Mushroom Trip Worth Taking: A Review of Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England
Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England (2013) is a British historical (although revisionist) thriller shot entirely in black-and-white and set during the mid-17th century English Civil War. The film is a gumbo concoction odyssey that breaks free of the historical thriller genre through the use of experimental film techniques: mixing humour, horror and hallucination, with…
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Adrian Johns on the Cultural Origins of the Printing Revolution: a TRB Podcast
In this talk, “The Cultural Origins of the Printing Revolution,” celebrated book historian Adrian Johns reveals his transformative view of Gutenberg’s origins and impact and offers a “novel account of what remains one of the most resonant episodes in Western history.” The Toronto Centre for the Book presented this Jackson Lecture on October 3rd, 2013, in association with the UofT’s iSchool. Listen and enjoy!…
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A Fantasy of Indigenous Experience: Cherie Dimaline’s The Girl Who Grew a Galaxy
Reviewed in this essay: The Girl Who Grew a Galaxy by Cherie Dimaline. Published by Theytus Books (June 2013). The Girl Who Grew a Galaxy, written by celebrated Ojibway and Métis author Cherie Dimaline, weaves together a story of struggle, hope, and magic. As the main character, Ruby Bloom, experiences a series of traumatic childhood…
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Tasting Menu, the Party: You’re Invited
[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][symple_background background_color=”#fff” text_color=”#000″ background_style=”parallax” center_content=”true” padding_top=”40px” padding_bottom=”40px” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” background_image=”11858″] TASTING MENU LAUNCH PARTY NOVEMBER 27 8PM AT POETRY [/symple_background][/vc_column][/vc_row] On November 27th, join The Toronto Review of Books team of authors, editors, and readers to toast the health and long life of our very own first print anthology, Tasting Menu: Choice Selections from the…
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IFOA, Rachel Kushner, Douglas Coupland, and The Visual Language of Art: T.O Events for Oct 24-Nov 7, 2013
Painter and educator Judy Singer teaches The Visual Language of Art, or How to Look at Paintings. Learn the syntax of color, space and line through an interactive romp from the Renaissance period to the rise of Abstraction. 7PM-8:15PM. October 24. Richview Library. Free. Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser unravels and reads from his forthcoming book,…
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The Northern Gateway Pipeline and Indigenous Knowledge: Kopecky’s The Oil Man and the Sea
Reviewed in this essay: The Oil Man and the Sea: Navigating the Northern Gateway by Arno Kopecky. Published by Douglas & McIntyre (September 2013). If approved, the Northern Gateway pipeline will pump bitumen from the Alberta oil sands to Kitimat, a small town in northwestern British Columbia. The bitumen will then be carried by supertankers…
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CanLit Canon Review #17: Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel
In an attempt to make himself a better Canadian, Craig MacBride is reading and reviewing the books that shaped this country. It’s the day after you finish it, when you’re tying your shoes and see it on the coffee table, that you realize The Stone Angel has done something to you, that it’s now a…
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Histories and Hauntings: New Books of Note
Much-anticipated, curious, or simply thrilling, here are some new and notable books. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (McClelland & Stewart) – Hailed as a promising young writer after her award-winning first novel, Eleanor Catton won the Man Booker Prize for this 800-page historical saga. Attracted to Hokitika by the West Coast Gold Rush, Walter Moody…
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Update on The Toronto Review of Books
Dear Readers, I met a TV writer last week who told me she’d heard that The Toronto Review of Books had just hired a bunch of people. While she was misinformed (I’m hoping she gets her gossip from some extremely accurate fortuneteller), given everything we’ve got in the works, I’m not surprised by her intuition…