Reviews

★ What They Wanted

Readers were enthralled by the difficult yet somehow fulfilling life of the title character and his fragile bride in Donna Morrissey’s Commonwealth Prize-nominated 2005 novel Sylvanus Now. This sequel shifts the focus to Sylvanus and ... Read More »

September 15, 2008 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

★ Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

By Mark Richardson

With all due respect to the automotive section of the Toronto Star, who could have foreseen that its editor, Mark Richardson, would write a book so fine and strangely moving as Zen and Now? Like ... Read More »

September 8, 2008 | Filed under: Reference

Shut Up, I’m Talking and Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government

By Gregory Levey

For most people, the endless fighting in the Middle East isn’t a joking matter. But maybe, as Ryerson professor Gregory Levey’s new book, Shut Up, I’m Talking, seems to suggest, you just had to be ... Read More »

August 28, 2008 | Filed under: Politics & Current Affairs

A Short Course in Intellectual Self-Defense

By Normand Baillargeon; Andrea Schmidt, trans.

The idea behind this book is explained in an epigraph from Noam Chomsky: “Citizens of the democratic societies should undertake a course of intellectual self-defense to protect themselves from manipulation and control.” So it’s no ... Read More »

August 28, 2008 | Filed under: Politics & Current Affairs

The Sherpa and Other Fictions

By Nila Gupta

Immigrant identity, the violence of the Indian partition, and the disillusioning challenges of homecoming all find their place in these richly textured short stories by Nila Gupta. Gupta, born in Montreal and partly raised in ... Read More »

August 28, 2008 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

A Romance on Three Legs: The Story of Glenn Gould’s Piano

By Katie Hafner

People who passionately love Glenn Gould and/or the piano will be enchanted by A Romance on Three Legs. But those of us who merely admire the Canadian pianist and the beauties of keyboard music may ... Read More »

August 28, 2008 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

The Ravine

By Paul Quarrington

Here’s an interesting question: when does stylistic inventiveness cease being an adventurous literary approach and become merely chaotic and contrived? In this, his 10th novel, Paul Quarrington goes out of his way to keep his ... Read More »

August 28, 2008 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Paul Goes Fishing

By Michel Rabagliati

Paul Goes Fishing is the fourth volume in Michel Rabagliati’s semi-autobiographical graphic novel series. In the new book, it’s July 1991; Paul is 32, and he’s finally establishing himself in the world. He’s got a ... Read More »

August 28, 2008 | Filed under: Graphica

The Jesus Sayings: The Quest for His Authentic Message

By Rex Weyler

It’s a sign of the worldview of educated Westerners that even those curious about the spiritual life usually value the expertise of scholars and secular commentators – some of them overt atheists – over the ... Read More »

August 28, 2008 | Filed under: Sports, Health & Self-help

i thought elvis was italian

By Domenico Capilongo

The debut collection of Toronto-based poet and karate instructor Domenico Capilongo has most of the components typical of first collections: family stories, personal lyrics, travel poems, and a handful of what can only be described ... Read More »

August 28, 2008 | Filed under: Poetry

Prev 287 288289290 291....691 692 Next

Quill and Quire