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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…
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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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Poetry Winners, Digital Cosmopolitans, and Hamlet’s Ghost: New Books of Note
Much-anticipated, curious, or simply thrilling, here are some new and notable books out this month. The Griffin Poetry Prize 2013 Anthology: A Selection of the Shortlist (House Of Anansi) edited by Mark Doty, Suzanne Buffam, Wang Ping — The Griffin Poetry Prize honours the world’s best poems written in English. The 2013 anthology includes selections…
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Beginning With a Diminished Thing: Marilynne Robinson’s When I Was a Child I Read Books
Reviewed in this essay: Marilynne Robinson’s When I Was a Child I Read Books (2012). Part social and cultural critique, theological dialogue, and literary exegesis, When I Was a Child I Read Books is comprised of ten short essays Marilynne Robinson refashioned from lecture tours and lessons over the past decade. Long-time readers of her work…
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Literary Celebrity, Question of Art, and Canoe Nation: New Books of Note
Much-anticipated, curious, or simply thrilling, here are some new and notable books out this month. Margaret Atwood and the Labour of Literary Celebrity (University of Toronto Press) by Lorraine York — York’s in-depth study examines the process by which a “literary celebrity” is created, specifically considering renowned Canadian author Margaret Atwood and her team of…
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CanLit Canon Review #14: Donald Creighton’s John A. Macdonald: The Young Politician
In an attempt to make himself a better Canadian, Craig MacBride is reading and reviewing books that shed fascinating light on Canada’s history. Of all the books I’ve read as part of this project, John A. Macdonald: The Young Politician has most improved me as a Canadian. Published in 1952, this book explores Canada’s beginnings…
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Dinner Parties, Moral Porn, and Papal Book-Binding: New Books of Note: May 30-June 6, 2013
Much-anticipated, curious, or simply thrilling, here are some new and notable books out this month. The Insufferable Gaucho (New Directions) by Roberto Bolaño — The Chilean poet and novelist’s five short stories and two essays, translated from Spanish by Chris Andrews, contain intrigues about “a stalwart rat police detective investigating terrible rodent crimes, or an elusive…
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Choosing genres, missing art, and Wes Anderson presents the Bible: Bookishness for May 13, 2013
What to expect when you’re expecting a book “I waited until my first book was published to learn the genre, and when Oprah announced “It’s literary fiction!” just seconds after my pub date, I was overcome with joy. When we found out that I’d written a second book, however, we decided to find out ourselves…
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The no-spin zone: A review of Jonathan Dee’s A Thousand Pardons
Reviewed in this essay: A Thousand Pardons, by Jonathan Dee. Random House, 2013. Lance Armstrong could have used a hand from Helen Armstead, the inexperienced public relations guru at the heart of Jonathan Dee’s novel A Thousand Pardons. Whereas Armstrong’s stone-faced mea culpa was undermined by years of deceit, Helen would have had him prostrate…
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The great Quebecois language balance: Reviewing a guide to interculturalism
Reviewed in this essay: L’Interculturalisme: Un point du vue québécois, Gérard Bouchard, Boréal, 2012. Despite the arrival of spring and the Habs’ fantastic playing, Quebec is once again at the brink of an existential crisis. Passions are stirred over Bill 14. Proposed by the PQ “separatist” government, Bill 14 attempts to enforce the supremacy of…