Five women with a shared love of reading fiction came together just over a year ago. Our purpose: to enjoy the camaraderie of discussing books, to encourage the exploration of works we otherwise might not have read, and to have an excuse to get together once every one to two months. This is our story […]
Two half sisters, an ocean and a world away, give birth to two completely different dynasties. Homegoing follows these families through interwoven tales of love, heartbreak, classism, racism and the struggle of identity, giving us snippets of lives that are at once beautiful in their complexity and unflinchingly real. Effia, known as the beauty, marries […]
Though it may not be quite as contradictory to my Canadian self-identification as my dislike of maple syrup, I’ve never felt particularly drawn or sympathetic to the character of Wolverine. I’ll grant he’s somewhat endearing when portrayed in films by that charming Aussie song-and-dance man – and a less mystifying object of admiration than Deadpool […]
2015 was an incredible year of reading for me. I read as many books as I could get through and was fortunate enough to meet several of my writing idols—David Mitchell (for the second time), Junot Díaz, Elizabeth Gilbert, and John Hodgman. As December’s calendar pages fly off the wall all too readily, I’d like […]
Greetings, humans. We have genre variety this month to keep your reading palate happy. Two novels, two biographies, a collection of essays about America’s most famous playwright, and a collection of sketches of some of the greatest writers working today: Books In Hand: Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life I excitedly impulse-bought Yanagihara’s book after hearing […]
At the risk of losing any comics-related credibility I may have established in your eyes to this point, gentle reader, I must admit that I was first won over by the character of John Constantine as he was portrayed by Keanu Reeves in the 2005 film simply titled Constantine. That’s where I was introduced to […]
One of the most satisfying side effects of a popular culture rooted in mass media, in my occasionally humble opinion, is the plethora of milestones available for one’s nostalgic reflections. There was definitely a moment after my private Catholic high school days and post-secondary conservatory theatre training during which my worldview shifted from West Side […]
Montréal is one of my favourite cities to visit. Perhaps it’s the surreal experience of walking down a city street, not entirely unlike a Toronto street, and seeing familiar corporate logos with unfamiliar French names. The feeling of stepping into an alternate reality where things are just different enough that you’re forced to pay attention […]