Carnal Nation: Brave New Sex Fictions

By Carellin Brooks and Brett Josef Grubisic, eds

Short story collections where the criteria for inclusion are something other than excellence are dodgy propositions. They satisfy the editors and gratify the elected writers, but they rarely do either for the readers. Subject-based anthologies ... Read More »

February 17, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches

By Gaétan Soucy , Sheila Fischman, trans.

In Survival, Margaret Atwood titled her chapter on Quebec literature “Burning Mansions.” She could well have been presaging Gaétan Soucy’s latest novel The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches. Cleansing fires that destroy ... Read More »

February 17, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Flat

By Mark Macdonald

The apartment as metaphor looms large in Mark Macdonald’s debut novel Flat. Metaphors for human isolation and the soul-crushing regularity of modern architecture, bird’s nests for disconnected voyeurs – apartment buildings dwarf the novel’s unnamed ... Read More »

February 17, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Dominion of Wyley Mcfadden

By Scott Gardiner

On a mysterious mission from Toronto to Alberta, physician-turned-poacher Wyley McFadden picks up a mysterious female hitchhiker somewhere north of Lake Superior. It has all the makings of a good road novel, and Gardiner has ... Read More »

February 17, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Canvas of War: Painting the Canadian Experience, 1914 to 1945

By Jack Granatstein

In the foreword to Canvas of War: Painting the Canadian Experience, 1914 to 1945 historian Jack Granatstein writes that the Canadian War Museum holds in excess of 13,000 art works. Over 100 of these have ... Read More »

February 17, 2004 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture

★ Excessive Joy Injures the Heart

By Elisabeth Harvor

It’s an informal genre but a recognizable one: the novel of a second coming rather than a coming of age, of a still-young woman forced to begin again after the failure of a marriage spanning ... Read More »

February 17, 2004 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Fiction: Novels

How to Buy a Computer, 2nd Edition

By Myles White

Buying a computer remains a daunting task. Prices are still high and the technology is incredibly complex and unstable. These two reasons alone make computer shopping more akin to car shopping than shopping for, say, ... Read More »

February 16, 2004 | Filed under: Health & Self-help

Chapters Guide to Children’s Books

By Benita Fox

Based on a survey of teachers and school librarians across Canada, this book is divided into sections aimed at different age groups, with black-and-white cover illustrations and snappy annotations for each book. Each section has ... Read More »

February 16, 2004 | Filed under: Reference

Hockey’s Hottest Defencemen

By James Duplacey

The Hockey’s Hottest series, by former Hockey Hall of Fame curator James Duplacey, follows a simple format. Each book has a brief biographical sketch and large colour photos of 15 star players. Thankfully these books ... Read More »

February 16, 2004 | Filed under: Book news