Reviews

Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti

Contemporary knit culture embraces dichotomy – blending tradition with subversion, feminism with domesticity, art with craft – so knitters might see no contradiction in a how-to guide for knit graffiti. In Yarn Bombing, authors Mandy ... Read More »

October 15, 2009 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture

The Curse of the Labrador Duck: My Obsessive Quest to the Edge of Extinction

By Glen Chilton

Make no mistake: this book’s author is also its subject. Dr. Glen Chilton, an emeritus professor at Calgary’s St. Mary’s College who now lives in Australia, admits early on that he’s always been a truly ... Read More »

October 15, 2009 | Filed under: Science, Technology & Environment

The Peep Diaries: How We’re Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors

By Hal Niedzviecki

Toronto writer Hal Niedzviecki has a hard time coming up with good, solid conclusions in his new book, The Peep Diaries. He admits as much in the last chapter. He thought that by the end ... Read More »

October 15, 2009 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Politics & Current Affairs

What’s to Eat? Entrées in Canadian Food History

By Nathalie Cooke, ed.

I’ve always wondered why Canadian Thanksgiving takes place in October. Did it have to do with typical anti-Americanism or was there a more profound reason? What’s to Eat? has the answer. At one time, Canadian ... Read More »

October 15, 2009 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Food & Drink

Galore

By Michael Crummey

For its sheer extremes, both real and conjured, Newfoundland occupies a singular place in Canada’s history and literary imagination. While the typical Newfoundland narrative emphasizes the rugged terrain and pragmatic lifestyle of the land’s inhabitants ... Read More »

October 15, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Bedside Book of Beasts: A Wildlife Miscellany

By Graeme Gibson

Graeme Gibson’s latest book is a splendid compilation of artwork of and literature about predators. A companion to 2005’s The Bedside Book of Birds, this new volume does what all good books should: it encourages ... Read More »

October 15, 2009 | Filed under: Science, Technology & Environment

Write Turns: New Directions in Canadian Fiction

By Alison Acheson et al

This anthology showcases graduates of UBC’s widely praised creative writing program. All of the 15 authors in Write Turns are recent graduates of the course, all have had books published in the last five years ... Read More »

October 14, 2009 | Filed under: Anthologies

Sounding Line

By Anne DeGrace

In 1967, an unidentified flying object crashed into the waters of Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia. The incident came to be known as “Canada’s Roswell.” Anne DeGrace, a writer from Nelson, B.C., uses this bit of ... Read More »

October 13, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Carnivore

By Mark Sinnett

The Carnivore opens with a dramatic description of a flooded intersection in downtown Toronto during the first hours of Hurricane Hazel’s 1954 descent on the city. In this early stage of the storm, no one ... Read More »

October 5, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Waiting for Columbus

By Thomas Trofimuk

It’s contemporary Spain, and a man who believes he’s Christopher Columbus is admitted to the Sevilla Institute for the Mentally Ill. His case is handled by Nurse Consuela, who has a penchant for drinking red ... Read More »