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Great Books and Café: A Taste for Great Books from Jarvis Street to the Williamsford Mill
Great Books and Café is located at 316070 Highway 6, Williamsford, Ontario. The first thing one notice when visiting Great Books and Café at the Williamsford Mill is the serene beauty of the building. Located in the small village of Williamsford, Ontario, the bookstore is housed within a converted mill constructed in 1850 on the banks…
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Flying Hare, Problem with Pleasure, Zen Buddhism, and Fighting Crohn’s Disease: New Books of Note
Much-anticipated, curious, or simply thrilling, here are some new and notable books out this month. A Gut Reaction: A True Story About a Mother’s Fight to Save her Son’s Life and his Amazing Recovery from Crohn’s Disease (Inanna Press) by Sky Curtis — This is a true story about Curtis and her son’s battle against…
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Finding Community in Music: Hillside Festival Celebrates its 30th Birthday
Camping, spontaneous drumming, a smorgasbord of musical variety, an artisan market, and so much more —Hillside is a place where people forge communities united in the transformative power of music. The three-day Hillside Festival has gifted Guelph and the world with amazing music over the last 30 years. The festival is known for pioneering (primarily…
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Coming Home through African-Canadian Literature: George Elliott Clarke’s Directions Home
Reviewed in this essay: George Elliott Clarke’s Directions Home: Approaches to African-Canadian Literature. In 2011, Toronto city councilor Doug Ford dismissed Margaret Atwood’s rally to protect some 99 library branches, adding insult to injury when he said, “I don’t even know her, if she walked by me, I wouldn’t have a clue who she is.” Assumingly…
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Manhunt Toronto, Fright Film Academy, and A Topology of Disaster: T.O. Events for August 1-August 15, 2013
Manhunt Toronto turns specific sections of Toronto into pulse-rattling games of hide and seek. The last fugitive standing is the winner. 9:00PM-11:55PM. August 7. Casa Loma. Free. PPS: Do You Copy? is a reading of conceptual poetry based on the exhibit Postscript: Writing After Conceptual Art. Moderated by Margaret Christakos, the lineup reads thus: Gary Barwin (The…
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Atwood’s BookTweetables No. 4
Margaret Atwood’s best tweets, every two weeks. [View the story “Atwood’s BookTweetables No. 4” on Storify]
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Culture Hawker Chronicles: John Bowker and She Said Boom!
In this series, Trevor Abes gets to know the people behind the counter at Toronto’s music stores, book shops, and art galleries. John Bowker is the owner and operator of She Said Boom! Roncesvalles. For five years he served as board director for the Review Cinema and he is the current chair of the Beautification…
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Sea urchins, Wim Wenders and Rapunzel: Bookishness for July 29, 2013
Wim Wenders’s number one rule of filmmaking “You have a choice of being “in the business” or of making movies. If you’d rather do business, don’t hesitate. You’ll get richer, but you won’t have as much fun!” + 49 more. Woody Allen movies as infographics More at Vulture. Rapunzel Syndrome “How disgusting could a condition be…
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Scandals behind the stage: A review of Deidre Kelly’s “Ballerina”
Reviewed in this essay: Ballerina: Sex, Scandal and Suffering Behind the Symbol of Perfection, Deidre Kelly, Greystone Books, 2012. Following the recent acid-attack on Bolshoi Artistic Director, Sergei Filin, and the scandals unfolding in its wake, the cracks in ballet’s veneer of perfection have never been more visible—or as puzzling—to those outside of the discipline.…
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Turtle Creek Books: A Mississauga Bookstore in the Digital Age
Turtle Creek Books is now located online. Denise Choppin has an inexplicable passion for books. “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t reading,” she says. “It makes as much sense to me as breathing.” This love affair began in earnest when Choppin stole her first book as a 10-year-old, lifting The Book of Myths off…
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The Ozu Experience
Next up in Borderless Cinema, our new series profiling lesser-known gems of world cinema, we review “Late Spring.” The film is written by Kogo Noda and Yasujiro Ozu, directed by Yasujiro Ozu, and stars Chishu Ryu, Setsuko Hara, and Haruko Sugimura. Running time 108 minutes. Available on DVD via Criterion Collection. The first time I…
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Reading while drinking, attracting readers, and sending from iStuff: Bookishness for July 22, 2013
Reading more than beer bottle labels “The reality is, going to a bar alone and ordering a drink doesn’t have to reek of sad, lonely cowboy syndrome.” BlogTO rounds up Toronto’s best bars for reading while drinking. Come Sit By Me: A Literary Alternative to Missed Connections “An idea started to gel. Maybe if I’m choosy…