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CanLit Canon Review #16: Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination
In an attempt to make himself a better Canadian, Craig MacBride is reading and reviewing the books that shaped this country. Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination is about literature—why we write it, why we read it, why we bother at all—but it’s also about who we vote for and what we buy; it’s about civilization…
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Atwood’s BookTweetables No. 7
Margaret Atwood’s best tweets, every two weeks. [View the story “Atwood’s BookTweetables No. 7” on Storify]
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Advice: Bookishness for September 9, 2013
For coffee nerds of the ages (book nerds, too) Ask the past: How to make instant coffee. Read, read, read “It’s no secret that great writers are great readers, and that if you can’t read, your writing will often suffer. Similarly, if you can read but have to move your lips to get through the…
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(Does it Matter that) Chuck Klosterman Wore Converse to the Gladstone Hotel?
In the Times review of Chuck Klosterman’s latest book, I Wear the Black Hat, the author is described as “the envy of every culture critic who ever tottered home from a Starbucks laptop session with his clothes smelling of caffeine and cremated ideas.” (Full disclosure: this writer often drinks caffeine and cremates ideas at your local…
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Sad Clowns, Family Secrets, and Secret Gardens: New Books of Note
Much-anticipated, curious, or simply thrilling, here are some new and notable books out this month. Kolia by Perrine LeBlanc, translated by David Scott Hamilton (House of Anansi) — Born in a Siberian gulag, Kolia receives basic survival training as well as higher education from fellow prisoner Iosif. This past and its memories follow and haunt…
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Nerd Nite, School Night Poetry, and Kathleen Verret’s Arable Lands: T.O. Events for August 29-September 12, 2013
Nerd Nite Toronto stages research presentations by local experts. This event includes The Game of Operation: True Stories of Medical Marvels by Heili Orav, about organ transplantation, and He’s a Pinball Wizard by Joe Ciaravino, about the history of pinball. 7PM. September 12. Tranzac. $5. School Night! is a monthly spoken-word poetry class led by…
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A Review: Giles Benaway’s Ceremonies For The Dead
Reviewed in this essay: Ceremonies for the Dead by Giles Benaway. Published by Kegedonce Press. Poetry never ceases to amaze me. I began my writing career with pieces of poetry published here and there, but then with time, I discovered short stories and turned my attention to them. I don’t know if I will ever go back to…
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Atwood’s BookTweetables No. 6
Margaret Atwood’s best tweets, every two weeks. [View the story “Atwood’s BookTweetables No. 6” on Storify]
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Sensing Silence: Ars Mechanica’s “Show and Tell Alexander Bell” at SummerWorks
Reviewed in this essay: Show and Tell Alexander Bell, Ars Mechanica. Ran August 8-18, 2013 at the SummerWorks Performance Festival. I need to start this review with an apology to Mary, the lovely telephone operator played by Sasha Kovacs who politely, if a little desperately, asked for my digits upon entering the theatre. I obliged,…
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Becoming an ex-vegan, starting your new life, and riding with Jack: Bookishness for August 26, 2013
Corey Mintz sets out to become an ex-vegan The food writer cut out animal products for four days. And gets the chance to see his vegetarian friends. Naturally, you have questions about embarking on your new life: Will you ever be able to resume your old identity? What happens to your Netflix queue? You are…
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Canada’s Small Presses Hold Court at the Fisher Library
The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is to Torontonian readers what Arcadia is to gardeners. From a dimly lit exhibition space, I felt in the company of every book that was or could ever be written. Strong in ten core subjects including philosophy and incunabula, Fisher’s seven-hundred thousand volumes make for a sublime sight. The current exhibition is called…
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Writers and Editors, Murders and Infatuations, Love and Comics: New Books of Note
Much-anticipated, curious, or simply thrilling, here are some new and notable books out this month. Scissors: A Novel (Random House) by Stéphane Michaka — This fictionalized biography is based on acclaimed American writer Raymond Carver’s last ten years of life, with particular focus on the relationship between the writer and his editor and their creative…