Reviews

Sold Down the Yangtze: Canada’s Lopsided Investment Deal with China

Sold Down the Yangtze, by Osgoode Hall law professor Gus Van Harten, is an incredibly in-depth treatment of a very complex and potentially important issue – but that doesn’t make it a good book. An ... Read More »

December 16, 2015 | Filed under: Politics & Current Affairs

Ten Women

By George Bowering

First, there is the matter of the title. George Bowering’s story collection does indeed comprise 10 stories, each designated by a woman’s name, but only two and a half of them focus directly on the ... Read More »

December 15, 2015 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

After the Sands: Energy and Ecological Security for Canadians

By Gordon Laxer

Perhaps able to foresee that even the longest federal election campaign in Canadian history would fail to prioritize the serious consequences of climate change, University of Alberta professor emeritus Gordon Laxer has gone ahead and ... Read More »

December 15, 2015 | Filed under: Science, Technology & Environment

Alone Against the North: An Expedition into the Unknown

By Adam Shoalts

In his recent biography of Roald Amundsen, The Last Viking, Stephen R. Bown describes the Norwegian explorer’s awareness of living at a time when the window for achieving greatness in an expeditionary context was closing. ... Read More »

December 14, 2015 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Science, Technology & Environment

Franklin’s Lost Ship: The Historic Discovery of HMS Erebus

By Alanna Mitchell; John Geiger

In 1845, legendary British naval officer and explorer Sir John Franklin led two ships on an expedition from England in search of the fabled Northwest Passage. The ships and their crew of 129 people were ... Read More »

December 14, 2015 | Filed under: History

Life Sketches

By Robert Bateman

In his new memoir, Robert Bateman, the octogenarian painter, naturalist, and conservationist – who has received immense commercial success during his long artistic career – reflects on the entirety of his life’s work. Born in ... Read More »

December 10, 2015 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture

The Horrors: An A to Z of Funny Thoughts On Awful Things

By Charles Demers

“You must make a friend of horror,” said Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, and Charles Demers has taken his advice. In his new book, the comedian and sometime CBC Radio star cozies up to subjects ... Read More »

December 3, 2015 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays

Moving Parts

By Lana Pesch

The nine stories that comprise Toronto writer Lana Pesch’s debut collection veer between piercing and playful, sinister and sentimental. Things begin rather meekly with the title story, about a serendipitous first date that is almost ... Read More »

November 30, 2015 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

That Lonely Section of Hell: The Botched Investigation of a Serial Killer Who Almost Got Away

By Lori Shenher

The title of Stolen Sisters, the Governor General’s Literary Award–nominated translation of last year’s Sœurs volées, refers to two Amnesty International reports – 2004’s Stolen Sisters, and 2009’s No More Stolen Sisters. Debut author Emmanuelle ... Read More »

November 26, 2015 | Filed under: Politics & Current Affairs