Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman My rating: 5 of 5 stars Of all of the books nominated by the Ontario Library Association for the White Pine program this year in the Forest of Reading, I really liked this one and I would put it in my top 3 of the season. Firstly I feel in love with Ingrid’s childhood tagging around behind her opera-singer mom through Europe. Then you can’t help but get excited as Ingrid enters […]
The Colony by Audrey Magee My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book was so wonderfully written. Magee’s style of dialogue somehow emphasizes the lilt of this Irish dialect and the tension between the characters. Other critiques have said it’s about art and war but I think it’s about voice — young James and the artist and the Frenchman and even the political players are all taking different communication methods to be heard. Of course the status of each character […]
Recently I had the opportunity to hear Brandi Morin speak in recognition of Canada’s national day of Truth and Reconciliation. Brandi expertly spliced together news reels that she had covered about the Indigenous stories across the globe of their struggle for recognition and reparation. She finished her talk by reminding us that the Indigenous struggle is real and now and not only part of colonial history but colonial present. Our Voice of Fire: A Memoir of a Warrior Rising by […]
Coming Họmẹ by Tu Vuong My rating: 4 of 5 stars When I read poetry, I try to let it sort of wash over me like rain, because to capture all of the nuance in meaning at once isn’t possible at the first read. I admire Tu’s ambition of trying to create an arc to the book as well as compose each poem as a separate entity. I felt that the narrative was clear in terms of distant past, recent […]
I have long followed Heather Daly‘s work and you need to know that most of the time I’m simply gobsmacked by what she is able to accomplish. So it was an absolute thrill to listen to her in our small table talk – a 20 minute, small group protocol — that is a legacy piece at Treasure Mountain Canada. You know how sometimes you’re noticing a colleague rise to spiritual enlightenment with their wisdom, inner peace and compassion? Heather is […]
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman My rating: 4 of 5 stars It’s dry — but if you let ideas percolate, rather than racing to finish it, I think almost everyone would find the intersections of engineering and design really useful to their work. Things I will take away: the product needs to also signify how to use it and constraints and mappings make it more useable. Also that the psychology of cultural legacy is a great […]
Talking to Canadians by Rick Mercer My rating: 4 of 5 stars It’s a healthy romp back into the history of Canadian drama and television and politics. I enjoyed reliving my own personal history with these topics through his parallel life — it turns out we’re almost the same age so his references to music and pop culture resonated. The book has light moments but the best part is Rick Mercer’s humble approach to his own successes. This is not […]
Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #Metoo Movement by Toufah Jallow My rating: 5 of 5 stars Really really enjoyed reading this for it’s YA/Adult crossover nature. I can imagine handing this to students to help them get some perspective. It has a lot of great intersections with the newcomer to Canada experience — and the issues of access and literacy remind me of Catherine Hernandez’s fictional title Scarborough. Toufah’s story of the corruption and acts of criminal abuse […]
The Centaur’s Wife by Amanda Leduc My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book must have been like a difficult birth as it was so ethereally emotional for me to read, that I can’t begin to understand what it would have been like to write. I find it really hard to read anything dystopian in these darker times and so there were moments when I really struggled to continue….not because the writing isn’t brilliant (which it is) but because humans […]
The Colony by Audrey Magee My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book was so wonderfully written. Magee’s style of dialogue somehow emphasizes the lilt of this Irish dialect and the tension between the characters. Other critiques have said it’s about art and war but I think it’s about voice — young James and the artist and the Frenchman and even the political players are all taking different communication methods to be heard. Of course the status of each character […]
threadbare beauty 