You’ve probably seen this book around. I think it’s one of the (if not the) most talked about memoirs of the past year. It’s the story of a mother and a daughter – a mother who has been an indomitable presence in her daughter’s life since she was born, and who has never been READ MORE
Category: Culture
BOOK REVIEW | I WANT TO DIE BUT I WANT TO EAT TTEOKBOKKI – BAEK SE-HEE
I was fascinated by this book when I first found out about it. It’s a simple concept – a young woman who is suffering from a non-specific, pervasive malaise seeks help from a therapist and records her sessions. She starts off uncertain about many things – why she feels how she does, how others READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | ON CRITICAL RACE THEORY – VICTOR RAY
I remember the first time I heard the term “critical race theory.” It wasn’t clear in that first exposure what it meant and whether it was bad or good, the only thing I took away from it was that there were a lot of people who seemed very upset by it, and I didn’t READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES – DEESHA PHILYAW
There have been a few books from the past year or so that seem to keep popping up everywhere I look. It’s not a book I normally would have been drawn to – I’m not religious and don’t have much interest in the topic, so the title wouldn’t have appealed. I don’t normally read READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | JONNY APPLESEED – JOSHUA WHITEHEAD
I’ve been meaning to read this book for ages, ever since it started making waves in the Canadian literary scene. I heard Joshua Whitehead talk a couple of times in online presentations, and loved his candor, humour and intelligence. But it wasn’t until this book was selected as September’s book for the Storykeepers podcast READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE WINDOW SEAT – AMINATTA FORNA
I loved this book. I’ll say that right up front, in case you only see the tiny excerpt of this post. I adored it, I enjoyed every minute I spent reading it, and though I just finished it, I already want to read it again. I hadn’t ever read anything by Aminatta Forna before READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | NATIVES – AKALA
About once every five years I pick up a non-fiction book that leaves me speechless in wonder. I’ve been lucky this year, because I’ve had a few of these – some memoir, some topical. This book, however, is arguably the most deeply impactful book I have read or expect to read for a decade READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER – BERNARDINE EVARISTO
I was intimidated going into this book. It’s long, and it’s written in an experimental style of verse that doesn’t include periods or capitals. I was nervous I’d be unable to find my feet and that it would prove too difficult for me to get into. Not so. It took about 50 pages, but READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | DAISY JONES & THE SIX – TAYLOR JENKINS REID
Everyone and their dog, I’m pretty sure literally, has been raving about this book. On the face of it, it didn’t seem that different from any other book marketed to women set in the 20th century. This one is set in the 1970s and centres around a fictional band that split mysteriously after playing READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | CITIZEN – CLAUDIA RANKINE
**NOTE: I wrote this review shortly after reading the book in 2015, but never got around to publishing it – so this is actually an older review!** I don’t normally read poetry, but I’ve heard so much about this book in my blogging community over the past year or so, that I was curious. READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | THE WAYFINDERS: WHY ANCIENT WISDOM MATTERS IN THE MODERN WORLD – WADE DAVIS
“…[R]emember the central revelation of anthropology: the idea that the social world in which we live does not exist in some absolute sense, but rather is simply one model of reality, the consequence of one set of intellectual and spiritual choices that our particular cultural lineage made, however successfully, many generations ago.” A friend READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | SUBWAY ART – MARTHA COOPER & HENRY CHALFANT
Subway Art is to graffiti books what Wild Style is to graffiti movies. It documents not only the genesis of a new art form, but also a period of urban history and the birth of hip hop culture. Originally published in 1984, it was the first book to take graffiti seriously as an READ MORE