Readable and highly detailed, Phoenix is a comprehensive portrait of a singular Canadian whose life, even away from the battlefield, was of a dramatic and tempestuous nature.
By Michael Carbert
Non-Fiction
Crass Society is a brick of a book: 381 pages of text and 90 pages of notes, covering virtually every category of possession a rich person might covet: from gold and precious metals to jewels to fine art to antiquities to wine, ivory, exotic pets, even cigars. No indulgence of the privileged classes is safe from his scrutiny.
By T.P. Niedermann
Ever since its inception, the car has been admired as the pinnacle of modern progress, as well as independence and adulthood. In the United States alone, there are 246 million registered cars with 210 million licensed drivers behind their wheels.
By Rosel Kim
Linda Leith’s memoir, Writing in the Time of Nationalism, records her stellar career: she pioneered the teaching and researching of Anglo-Quebec writers, worked to establish QSPELL (Quebec Society for the Promotion of English-language Literature) – later the Quebec Writers’ Federation (QWF) – served as editor of Matrix magazine and various collections, wrote three novels and a number of academic papers, and undertook the organization of the cross-linguistic literary event Write pour écrire which ultimately led to her crowning achievement, the mammoth and much celebrated Blue Metropolis Festival.
By Gregory J. Reid
Jewish mothers worry. This is a truth so universally acknowledged that it has not only become a cliché, it’s become a running gag. Even so, the joke behind the title of David Reich’s new autobiography – You Could Lose an Eye: My First 80 Years in Montreal – is not so much about his mother’s overbearing concern for Reich’s welfare, but how willing he has been to take her concerns to heart.
By Joel Yanofsky
In her latest book, Mary Soderstrom – inspired first by the veritable world map of imported foods she saw at the Portuguese grocer’s as a child and then by a trip to Portugal decades later – sets her sights on the “little country with great ambitions.” Soderstrom’s story is a much-needed addition to the genre of historical non-fiction, in which Portugal remains largely unrepresented compared with its European neighbours.
By Joni Dufour
When the AIDS epidemic in Africa exploded in the 1990s, global relief initiatives sought HIV-positive Africans to testify for their campaigns. Their recruitment, however, was frustrated by stigma. AIDS confessions often deeply upset social and familial hierarchies and many sufferers preferred to live in denial. The limited medical resources available at the time thus created a barter system in which victims who were more forthcoming banked on their stories for treatment, even as others were left to die.
By Sarah Fletcher
Joel Yanofsky and his wife share an Asshole List – a running tab of fathers who are even worse than he is. When they meet a new one or hear stories, Joel looks so good in comparison that rare marital sex ensues. Hey, I’m only reporting what I read.
By Leila Marshy
When Maurice Duplessis died, Quebec woke up from a nightmare. Religion was set aside, resources were privatized, ...
By Mélanie Grondin
It would be difficult for an aspiring journalist not to feel a certain envy at the arc of Donald MacKay’s career. ...
By Kate Forrest
As an eyewitness account of microcredit at work in rural India, Saris on Scooters is unabashedly personal ...
By Sarah Fletcher
It could be argued that any large, important issue is doomed to wide-spread public indifference or ...
By Louise Fabiani