It is because of Dave Grohl that I began reading again. At the end of last year I was lucky enough to attend a Foo Fighters’ concert. And I gotta tell ya – if you’re not a fan of the Foos, you’re missing out big time. These guys get up there and give it their READ MORE
Category: Book Review
BOOK REVIEW | TRAVELS – MICHAEL CRICHTON
You might not think so to see his books gracing the illustrious wire racks of grocery stores and newsagents, but Michael Crichton is an amazingly talented writer. I will argue this point with anyone who dares contradict me. He had me cowering under my blanket as a teenager when I was reading Jurassic Park READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | SEXUALLY, I’M MORE OF A SWITZERLAND: MORE PERSONAL ADS FROM THE LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS – DAVID ROSE
I must admit, this book’s title is what grabbed my attention. And how could it not? Turns out, the inside of the book is just as interesting. We all (or at least most of us) know what it’s like to be single and wonder if we’re ever going to find someone we can be READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | EVERY DAY IN TUSCANY: SEASONS OF AN ITALIAN LIFE – FRANCES MAYES
When I was in high school my mother left her copy of Under the Tuscan Sun lying around the house. On a whim one Saturday afternoon, I picked it up and started reading. The next thing I knew, I was immersed in Italian culture, fascinated to discover with Mayes the joys (and many frustrations) READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | BOWIE: A BIOGRAPHY – MARC SPITZ
David Bowie is much more than a famous musician – he is a cultural icon. His approach to showmanship, song writing, performance – even fashion – have inspired his own and every subsequent generation. Not only that, but he is an articulate, intelligent man whose appeal and charisma extend well beyond his musical talent, 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 | PARIS TIMES EIGHT: FINDING MYSELF IN THE CITY OF DREAMS – DEIRDRE KELLY
Paris is probably the only city in the world that is dreamed about by such a wide variety of people – romantics, historians, artists, fashionistas and jet-setters alike. It is a city that is famous not only for notorious home-grown figures like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Victor Hugo, but also for READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | TRAUMA FARM: A REBEL HISTORY OF RURAL LIFE – BRIAN BRETT
Trauma Farm is a book about some of the biggest issues facing us in a world of increasing globalization and corporatization. Written by a poet, who also happens to be a rural farmer, it discusses the struggles that are being faced by small-scale, non-corporate farmers throughout North America as they see their livelihoods threatened READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | INCONTINENT ON THE CONTINENT: MY MOTHER, HER WALKER, AND OUR GRAND TOUR OF ITALY – JANE CHRISTMAS
I love reading travel memoirs. As a student I can’t afford to gallivant, fancy-free about the world experiencing new cultures and gathering exciting and amusing anecdotes. So I like to read the stories of those who do. Some of my favourite books involve travels in France and Italy – for some reason the cultures READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | CITY OF GLASS – DOUGLAS COUPLAND
Douglas Coupland has an unparalleled knack for seeing the familiar world around him with the eyes of a stranger. He is able to pick out parts of what we, in our common part of the world, see as “normal” and make them fascinating. In 1994 he made an entire book out of his observations READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | JULIET, NAKED – NICK HORNBY
At some point in our lives most of us (if not all of us) have become infatuated with someone famous. We have collected all their albums or every movie they’ve ever been in – even the ones that weren’t very good. We’ve spent hours daydreaming about what it would be like to meet them READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | MARSHALL MCLUHAN – DOUGLAS COUPLAND
I’m a huge fan of Douglas Coupland’s writing, and as a communications student, I’ve heard the name “Marshall McLuhan” more times in the past few years that I can count. So this book was doubly appealing. Despite my passing familiarity with Marshall McLuhan, as I sat down to read this book, I realized that READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | THE MAN WHO LOVED BOOKS TOO MUCH: THE TRUE STORY OF A THIEF, A DETECTIVE, AND A WORLD OF LITERARY OBSESSION – ALLISON HOOVER BARTLETT
Anyone who is a bibliophile (and let’s face it, most of us who review books are) will be able to relate to the subject matter of Allison Hoover Bartlett’s book, The Man Who Loved Books Too Much. As someone who collects books as much for their aesthetic appeal as for their content, I can understand READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | FALL – COLIN MCADAM
“We were boys who wore suits, monkeys with manners. We didn’t have parents but were treated like babies. We were left on our own but had hundreds of rules to abide.” Fall is one of this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists. It is the coming of age story of two young men in their 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
BOOK REVIEW | OUTLAW JOURNALIST: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HUNTER S. THOMPSON – WILLIAM MCKEEN
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” Hunter S. Thompson is best known for his public image as a drug-crazed madman who flouted authority, despised monotony and had pretty much every adventure you could imagine – and some you couldn’t. Thompson lived his life at full throttle, a mile a minute READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT – GRAHAM GREENE
My parents, thus proving how cool they are, read this book to me when I was a child. I can’t remember exactly how old I was, but since I was still young enough to be read to, I’m guessing I was not yet into double digits. So reading this book always makes me feel as READ MORE
BOOK REVIEW | WHAT IS AMERICA?: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER – RONALD WRIGHT
What is America: A Short History of the New World Order is Ronald Wright’s third historical text, following in the footsteps of Stolen Continents, a historical account of the conquest of the Americas and A Short History of Progress, the book based on Wright’s 2005 Massey Lectures series. Both of these texts have been READ MORE