The Fabulous Girl’s Guide to Decorum

Decorum is something you don’t hear much about anymore – it’s the kind of word that’s associated with white gloves and stodgy rules of etiquette. However, as Ceri Marsh and Kim Izzo reveal, modern decorum ... Read More »

October 30, 2003 | Filed under: Health & Self-help

★ Becky Chan

By Jared Mitchell

In its own mindful, dignified manner, Becky Chan goes all the way. Jared Mitchell’s fictional account of Hong Kong in the 1960s – a desperate few acres, gnawed at like a colonial bone – is ... Read More »

October 30, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

★ The Haunted Hillbilly

By Derek McCormack

At 124 generously spaced pages, The Haunted Hillbilly – Derek McCormack’s first novel – demonstrates with style and sardonic wit that it’s not about the length, it’s all in how you use it. McCormack, the ... Read More »

October 29, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

A Game to Play on the Tracks

By Lorna Jackson

Twice in this vivid, pyrotechnic novel, women walk into knitting shops that are heaped and hung like Aladdin’s cave with skeins – brightly dyed, flecked, handspun, synthetic. Proprietresses pull patterns from drawers, dispense yarns and ... Read More »

October 29, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Leave Me by Dying

By Rosemary Aubert

Prequels – the earlier adventures of a series character – are generally written after the author has exhausted the possibilities of the series or the age or personal circumstances of the featured character precludes further ... Read More »

October 16, 2003 | Filed under: Politics & Current Affairs

Canada: A Portrait in Letters, 1800-2000

By Charlotte Gray

I can imagine Charlotte Gray’s fascinating Canada: A Portrait in Letters, 1800-2000 sitting on a small table next to the toilet in a second floor bathroom. A brass floor lamp is arranged so its circle ... Read More »

October 16, 2003 | Filed under: History

Let Them Eat Prozac

By David Healy

Pharmaceutical companies are among the most powerful corporations in the world. So it’s unusual to hear a critical voice coming from within the medical community. David Healy, a highly regarded university professor and psychiatrist, became ... Read More »

October 16, 2003 | Filed under: Science, Technology & Environment

Hybrids

By Robert J. Sawyer

With Hybrids, Robert J. Sawyer draws to a close the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, a trio of books that will likely be looked upon as a career highlight for the Toronto science fiction writer.As Hybrids opens, ... Read More »

October 16, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Spree: A Cultural History of Shopping

By Pamela Klaffke

We’re s-h-o-p-p-i-n-g‚” sang the Pet Shop Boys in the greed-is-good 1980s, when the economy exploded and we gulped down its products faster than Pac Man gobblers. And as we shopped – in those first, delirious ... Read More »

October 16, 2003 | Filed under: Science, Technology & Environment

The Swinging Bridge

By Ramabai Espinet

When 42-year-old, Trinidad-born Mona is forced to travel to Toronto to tend to her dying brother, she finds herself ensnared once again in a tangle of family history maintained by relatives intent on “dressing up ... Read More »