June 9, 2010 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels
Lisa de Nikolits’ first novel is an unconventional treatment of eating disorders, which are often presented in fiction as merely an adolescent phase. De Nikolits shows how such disorders can in fact continue into adulthood. ... Read More »
There are several ways to pen a story concerning young girls and criminal acts. One method: treat it lightly, à la Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce mysteries, playing the crime as an old-fashioned puzzler. Another ... Read More »
June 9, 2010 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Fiction: Novels
There is one word that overwhelmingly comes to mind while reading Such a Good Education: bleak. The novel, set in Montreal during the waning years of “The Great Darkness” under Maurice Duplessis, practically reeks of ... Read More »
June 9, 2010 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Fiction: Novels
Following 2009’s Overqualified, Joey Comeau returns with another slim, quirky novel. The earlier volume contained a series of faux-confessional job application letters. Taking up where that book left off, One Bloody Thing After Another opens ... Read More »
June 9, 2010 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Fiction: Novels
At first glance, there is something almost reassuringly Canadian about the fact that R.B. Bennett, who was prime minister during the worst years of the Great Depression, between 1930 and 1935, has mostly avoided the ... Read More »
May 31, 2010 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Memoir & Biography
Ronald Reagan, My Father, the third book by Toronto author and multi-disciplinary artist Brian Joseph Davis, continues to mine fixations that will be familiar to his readers: pop culture, politics, film, and cultural theory. In ... Read More »
May 25, 2010 | Filed under: Fiction: Short
In a previous life, Lila Mack had been Delilah Blue Lovett, living out an idyllic childhood in Toronto with her unconventional mother, Elisabeth. Everything changed, however, when at age eight, her father, Victor, whisked her ... Read More »
May 17, 2010 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Fiction: Novels
In 1998, Alberto Manguel released Into the Looking Glass Wood, a collection of essays that, in its indirect way, pays obeisance to the enduring genius of Lewis Carroll. His new collection, A Reader on Reading, ... Read More »
May 10, 2010 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Criticism & Essays
The title of this addition to the lengthening shelf of books about Glenn Gould carries a slight suggestion of tabloid journalism. The suggestion is not altogether misplaced, given this volume’s subject matter. Many of Gould’s ... Read More »
April 30, 2010 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Memoir & Biography
A single-volume history of Canadian literature “from the beginnings” – which here means the first European contact with Native peoples – presents a formidable challenge. The “two women scholars” (their self-description) who have edited this ... Read More »
April 30, 2010 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Criticism & Essays