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Cameron Bailey’s Briliant Take on Toronto’s Festivals
When we went to watch TRB author Shawn Micallef pick up his prize at the Heritage Toronto Awards on October 4th (huzzah, Shawn!), we were stunned by TIFF Co-Director Cameron Bailey‘s William Kilbourn Memorial Lecture on the meaning of this city’s festivals. We thought you might like to take a look:
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Tonight! City WIDEN on Social Fabric! A TRB event at the Textile Museum!
Tonight is the very first event of City WIDEN, the speaking series curated by The Toronto Review of Books in affiliation with www.widentoronto.com. All are welcome! Details are as follows: Presented by The Toronto Review of Books in affiliation with www.widentoronto.com, City WIDEN (Workshops for Interest, Discussion, Exchange, & Novelty) gathers three people with different…
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A TRB Q&A with Charles Foran, author of Mordecai: The Life and Times
Last night, Charles Foran won the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize, the richest prize in Canadian literature. Foran’s book, Mordecai: The Life and Times is the unauthorized biography of one of Canada’s great, and somewhat controversial, novelists, Mordecai Richler. Since its release in October 2010, Mordecai has won both the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction and the Helen…
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Charms of the Indie Bookstore
1. Knowledgeable staff People who work at independent book stores tend to be actively involved in book culture. They attend launches and readings, keep up-to-date on book news and reviews, and many also work in publishing. Some of them may even be friends with local authors. They are your fellow readers, and may remember…
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Bollywood-Hollywood: Nitin Mirani at the Lightbox
For 90 minutes last Sunday afternoon, the TIFF Bell Lightbox set the stage for Dubai-based Nitin Mirani who has a history in business but a penchant for the spotlight and yuk-yuks. The comedy routine itself was built around the theme of the clichés of Bollywood and was a veritable pastiche of 70s film clips, skits…
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Joni Mitchell’s The Circle Game
A recent offering from Cormorant imprint Dancing Cat Books, The Circle Game is a beautiful if bittersweet rendering of Joni Mitchell’s classic, eponymous song in storybook form. Mitchell’s lyrics provide the book’s text and act in tandem with Brian Deines’ accompanying illustrations; together, they attempt to transform the tale of a boy’s journey to adulthood…
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A TRB Q+A with Charlotte Gill, author of Eating Dirt
Charlotte Gill started tree planting as a summer job during university. That first summer turned into a 17-season career that saw Gill plant over 1 million trees all over Canada. When not on the cut blocks, Gill started writing. Her debut short story collection Ladykiller was shortlisted for the 2005 Governor General’s Literary Awards and won…
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Recommended Reading: Tumescent Toronto, or a City on the Wane?
Pardon the phallic poke of the title, but it seems appropriate given our city’s most recognizable symbol, as well as the figurative casting of at least a year’s worth of spirited debate over whether Toronto is, indeed, a rising international cosmopolis swollen by its own throbbing vibrancy or is, instead, a wilting force marred by…
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Knelman’s Hot Art: One Big Game
Stolen art—like a political sex scandal, corporate meltdown, or celebrity criminal trial—makes for a good story. Behind the thrilling headline of an $80-million Rembrandt heist, however, exists a complex network of thieves, dealers, auction houses and galleries. It is this network that Joshua Knelman traces in Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives through the Secret…
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The Night Circus: A Review
Few books this year benefited from the publicity machine as much as The Night Circus. For this novel, her first, Erin Morgenstern received a staggering seven-figure advance, the film rights were purchased months before the release of the book on September 13, and it was a bestseller in preorders. The Night Circus was a…
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How to Make $100,000 and Infinite Units of Charm
The Victoria College Book Sale—one of the great used book sales put on annually by University of Toronto colleges—is a fine example of how to make $100,000 in a single weekend while turning out vast quantities of enchantment and love. Outside the slick infinity of Googlebooks there is a world of heavy old paper things…
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Eccles Cake: A Review of an Unlikely Pastry
O, the Eccles Cake. Imagine noticing it for the first time, hidden off to the side of the display case at some generic local bakery (unthinkable that it could take pride of place): you might suspect it to be an unfortunate oddity conjured up by an idiosyncratic proprietor. But this dry, dense, often shriveled-looking round,…