From the opening night dance party at the Fox Cabaret featuring Virago Nation and DJ Kookum, an entire day of Indigenous Brilliance on Saturday, March 9, to a reflective end-of-festival keynote with Canisa Lubrin, Growing Room promises something for everyone. #GrowingRoom2019
100+authors including:
Katherena Vermette of The Break(read it, she’s an awesome Métis writer from Winnipeg, published by House of Anansi)
Elizabeth Renzetti of Shrewed (loved it, also published by House of Anansi, caveat–they are a Boxcar Marketing client but these two women are solid solid recommendations.)
Robyn Maynard of Policing Black Lives, published by Fernwood Publishing. (if you teach, check out her BlackLivesMTLSyllabus)
Witney French of Black Writing Matters (shout out to University of Regina Press)
Arthur Less is a 49-year-old writer moping around the world in advance of his 50th birthday. He’s a mid-level author, with one noteworthy title; a middling lover, with two noteworthy relationships (both failed); and an around-the-world itinerary that is the only enviable thing in the book.
The first chapter is introduced by an unnamed narrator who interjects throughout the book and then is revealed at the end. I thought about putting this book down many times but in the end finished it. Less won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but I was disappointed.
Description: The British cosy as postmodern fiction. Author Anthony Horowitz takes on a role in his own novel. Horowitz basically plays Watson to former police detective Daniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne has a Sherlock Holmes approach to solving murders and Horowitz is along for the ride. He’s been roped into writing true crime–much to his agent’s dismay–instead of the fiction he’s known for such as Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders, The House of Silk, and the Alex Rider series for young adults.
The novel opens with Diana Cowper walking into a funeral parlour and arranging her own service. Later that night she is dead. If this was a play, the director would yell “cut!” The scene is wrong, the detective steps in, this is Horowitz’s first draft and Hawthorne is unimpressed. There are edits and corrections, then Horowitz catches us up on how it has come to pass that he met Hawthorne and agreed to write Hawthorne Investigates.
Just as Horowitz is a real-life person, so is another character Damian Cowper, the actor from Homeland. But this Damian is fictionalized whereas many details about Horowitz are true. Don’t worry, it’s not totally confusing, but I did find myself turning to google to search for who and what was real.
Overall this is a fun whodunit and I was left guessing until the end.
Favourite Moment: Well my favourite moment is when Horowitz finds himself in a bit of a pickle but if I tell you anything more then I’ll spoil the mystery.
Perfect for fans ofMagpie Murders, or any of Horowitz’s previous works. If you like Agatha Christie, British mystery dramas, or AJ Finn’s The Woman in the Window, then you’ll like this. It’s a clever mystery
The Duck & Goose books are perfect for 2-5 year olds. The chunky board books offer funny little stories about the two friends. In Duck & Goose Find a Pumpkin they are hunting high and low for a pumpkin, everywhere but the pumpkin patch. These are great to read at bedtime for little kids. And beginner readers will be able to sound out most of the words and can enjoy flipping the pages and understanding the story.
Paw Patrol is unavoidable for this age. Although if you have tips on that, please share! Anyway, Pirate Pups! is based on the Paw Patrol episode “Pups and the Pirate Treasure”. The pups and Cap’n Turbot discover a treasure map that leads them to the treasure of Captain Blackfur, a pirate pup. Cute, not scary. The story is about solving a puzzle and looking for clues. This one is harder for 5 year olds to read on their own because there’s lots of text and longer sentences. Howl for Halloween is another option. This is based on the episode where the pups are dressed up for Halloween and think Cap’n Turbot’s ship is haunted.
If your child is afraid of the dark, I’m not entirely sure this book will reassure them. But Laszlo stops being afraid of the dark at the end of the story. We have lots of books at our house about the dark, sounds in the night, who’s there … and we read them with the lights off and a flashlight. So if you want to up the spooky then that’s a fun way to read.
Pete the Cat (or Pat le chat) is a fun lift the flap book for Halloween. Pete is trick-or-treating and deciding what’s scary or not scary. As you can imagine, it’s all not scary in the end. There’s a certain kindergarten obsession with Pete the Chat, and no shortage of books in this series, including more with Halloween themes.
No shortage of Scooby Doo books! For pre-K and K, we have enjoyed the Level 2 readers. These versions use longer sentences than the Level 1, which focuses on sight words and things kids can sound out. There’s more to the story in the Level 2 books. And a huge fan favourite are the Choose Your Own adventure versions. I find the story lines can be very convoluted in the You Choose, but these are great books for Halloween, full of ghost stories, monsters, and mysteries solved!
Four books in one. Frogs, Bats, Ants, and Snakes. These are slim volumes with great vocabulary words and interesting facts for curious kids. Even though the level 2 books offer longer sentences, they structure of the sentence is not too complex so new readers have to work hard but not too hard. Also there’s a vocabulary list at the beginning of the book so if you’re teaching kids to read, then you can start with spotting and sounding out a selection of words vs reading the full text. These books litter our house, and are loved by all of us. Did you know bats are not blind? In fact, they have excellent eyesight.
DK has a ton of these cool reusable sticker books. Each two-page spread has a scene, some text, and then kids find the matching sticker at the back of the book and complete the picture.
The stickers come on and off easily so even kids with less dexterity and play easily. The matching the image and sticker is a good skills. And there are tons of extra stickers at the back in case a sticker tears or gets lost or given to a friend.
Halloween books—indeed all holiday books—are popular in my house so we tend to read these books all year round.
Description: Neverwhere is one of NPR’s top 100 science fiction and fantasy books of all time. For good reason. It was published in 1997 and over the years various versions have been produced for tv and radio. But the edition I read is the author’s preferred text. It’s a bit meandering but certainly makes some of the other versions feel a tad watered down.
The general story is that Richard Mayhew is a young businessman. He’s left Scotland to make his life in London. He’s happened, by chance, into a relationship with Jessica, who is a serious powerhouse and believes she can make him into the man of her dreams. Richard is a drip. En route to a very important dinner, the recently engaged couple have their plans thwarted when they come across a street girl who is badly injured. Richard insists on being a good Samaritan, which pisses off Jessica. She leaves in a huff and later calls off their wedding. This is all inconsequential to Richard who finds himself so deep in shit that a pissed off fiancee is the least of his worries. The girl Richard helps is from the London underworld. She’s undead or whatever would best describe someone who has been alive centuries. And it so happens that she’s being chased by assassins, creepy, creepy assassins. The Marquis de Carabas, Hunter, the girl Door (who is the noblewoman Lady Door), and Richard Mayhew embark on a quest to find who killed Door’s family and who is after her. There’s magic, misgivings, murderers, angels, and a whole world under London that is richer (and smellier) than Richard can even imagine. There’s even a night market held in Harrod’s, but London Below is such a different place than London Above. If Richard is noble enough, he might be able to return to his life. In the meantime, he’s going to die trying, maybe literally.
Favourite Moment: There are a ton of great moments with Richard, and the Marquis de Carabas is one of my favourite characters, but early on there is a little moment that perfectly depicts Jessica.
Jessica stood there on the sidewalk, watching him ruin her big evening, and her eyes stung with tears. After a while he was out of sight, and then, and only then, did she say, loudly and distinctly, as unladylike “Shit,” and fling her handbag as hard as she could onto the ground, hard enough to scatter her mobile phone and her lipstick and her planner and a handful of tampons across the concrete. And then, because there was nothing else to do, she picked them all up and put them back into her handbag and walked back down to the restaurant, to wait for Mr. Stockton.
Later, as she sipped her white wine, she tried to come up with plausible reasons why her fiancé was not with her, and found herself wondering desperately whether or not she could simply claim that Richard was dead.
“It was very sudden,” said Jessica, wistfully, under her breath.
Perfect for fans of … well of Neil Gaiman obviously. But otherwise, if you like radio plays, fantasy, science fiction, bizarre plot twists, Tim Burton, this is for you.
Description: I missed reading this title last year when it was a finalist for the 2017 ScotiaBank Giller Prize, but I don’t mind letting the hype die down before I read award-nominated titles. This is a lovely debut novel about a man who disappears and the hope and grief of his wife. But it’s funny.
Agathe and Réjean Lapointe live in the woods near a small Acadian village. They prefer to stay away from the English town and embrace their French heritage. They have a routine. Réjean obsessively upgrades his Chevy Silverado. He would never dream of driving something else, or not treating it with loving care. This is why it’s so strange when the Silverado is found abandoned at the side of the highway. It’s not like him at all. With no leads and no trace of Réjean, Agathe needs to find work. She becomes a cleaner at Stereoblast in the English-speaking town, and falls in with her racy, spirited coworker Debbie. Debbie is going places, in the way that small-town women go places. But she’s a real friend to Agathe and they have a lot of fun driving, rocking out, smoking, and being goofy.
This is a crazy little novel with a lot of improbabilities but it’s very likeable.
Favourite Moment: There are lots of great scenes where the two women are in the car, listening to music, and, because rock and roll is so new to Agathe who’s always listened to Acadian music, Debbie is explaining the tunes. It’s Agathe’s intro to English and rock and roll.
They listened to Chrissie Hynde and her dirty song.
“Chrissie can do anything she wants,” Debbie yelled. “She plays guitar and sings and plays the harmonica, and has these amazing bangs. She just holds the whole thing together—listen to her. The rest of the Pretenders are guys too—helping her sing this song about screwing this guy. God…”
In the crowded parking lot at the Whisky Mak, Debbie fluffed up her hair and reached down the neckline of her sweater into each armpit to pull up a handful of speckled bosom. Agathe tugged her track suit top down over her mid-section and stood with her hands on her hips, watching as Debbie applied lip gloss, punctuating with a pouty smack. When Debbie flung open the red doors of the Whisky Mak, it was as though revealing herself at last to a crowd that had bought tickets to see her.
Perfect for fans of Thelma & Louise. There’s a heist element, there are two crazy friends, there are guns and cars and weirdos. And it’s more goofball charm than grand theft auto.
Description: I recently watched Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell on Netflix so my next read had to be The Ladies of Grace Adieu. I remember finding Jonathan Strange a tome but The Ladies of Grace Adieu is a slim collection of fairy tales brimming with all the same magic and twists of fate. There are petulant princesses, vengeful owls, and educated, country ladies who pass their time studying magic (unbeknownst to their bumbling husbands). The Raven King makes an appearance in several of the stories, as does Jonathan Strange and the Duke of Wellington.
Favourite Moment: In the story “The Ladies of Grace Adieu”, the three women — Mrs. Field, Miss Tobias, and Cassandra — are making their way home in the dark. They happen upon Jonathan Strange, who has fallen asleep under a tree while reading his book.
“What is it?” asked Miss Tobias.
Cassandra peered into the darkness. “It is a man,” she said with great authority.
“Gracious Heaven,” said Mrs. Field. “What kind of man?”
“The usual kind, I should say,” said Cassandra.
“I meant, Cassandra,” said the other, “what degree, what station of man?”
Jonathan Strange got to his feet, perplexed, brushing straw from his clothes. “Ladies,” he said, “forgive me. I thought that I had woken in the Raven King’s Other Lands. I thought that you were Titania’s ladies come to meet me.”
The ladies were silent. And then: “Well!” said Mrs. Field. “What a speech!”
“I beg your pardon, madam. I meant only that it is a beautiful night (as I am sure you will agree) and I have been thinking for some time that it is (in the most critical and technical sense) a magical night and I though perhaps that you were the magic what was meant to happen.”
“Oh,” cried Cassandra, “they are all full of nonsense. Do not listen to him, my dear Mrs. Field. Miss Tobias, let us walk on.” But she looked at him curiously and said, “You? What do you know of magic?”
“A little, madam.”
The conversation that transpires is very funny because the three ladies practice magic. In fact, one of them is a governess and has just done away with the pesky guardian of her charges. He was up to no good, anyway. Now they are, perhaps, aware that they’ve stumbled upon Jonathan Strange, the London magician. They have quite a few arguments with Strange’s recent writings, and once they establish that he is the man before them, they take him to task. Strange confides that he agrees with them but must do the bidding of Norrell, which draws their chiding and ire. It’s a delightful taking down of the top magician by some country ladies.
Perfect for fans of Jonathan Strange, Neil Gaiman, or The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.
The hardcover (pictured above) is a lovely book, no jacket, with debossed pink flowers.
Disclaimer: Thanks to House of Anansi for this review copy. Patrick deWitt is one of my favourite authors (see previous reviews) and I was very pleased to be offered a copy.
Description: Downton Abbey meets the American version of The Office in this quirky novel about two socialites—a mother and grown son—who spend all their inheritance money and then exile themselves to Paris.
Frances Price is revered in New York social circles. She’s beautiful, wealthy, and dismissive of almost everyone, which makes her all the more desirable as a party guest. Her son Malcolm, 32, dotes on her and doesn’t do much of anything. The book opens with the pair excusing themselves from a boring hostess and then making pithy quips and snide remarks about the evening. Malcolm has pinched a picture frame, and apparently he has a habit of choosing parting gifts for himself.
Their following exploits include a flash sale of their possessions to pay for passage to Paris, a dalliance with the ship’s captain (Frances) and the fortune teller (Malcolm), smuggling a cat into France, riding a bicycle around the Paris flat, and hosting lavish dinner parties until the money is truly all gone.
Billed as “tragedy of manners,” this is a weird little satire that deWitt pulls off nicely.
Favourite Moment: Partway through their Paris adventure the pair meet Mme Reynard. During a drinking session she jumps up and accidentally cracks her head on an iron light hanging low over the table. Dr. Touche makes a house call.
Soon came Dr. Touche, a sleepy-eyed and swarthy man with the hands of a female adolescent. Mme Reynard had asked him to bring along a bottle of champagne but he’d refused, citing an aversion to it, and brought instead a bottle of Cote-de-Brouilly, which they could none of them drink, for it was corked. Dr. Touche was greatly put out by this, and he rang his wine merchant while all in the room sat watching as he described the embarrassment occasioned by the spoiled bottle. “What must these people think of me?” he asked, at which point Mme Reynard began calling out compliments. Dr. Touche waved her down, resuming his conversation: “Well?” he said. “How will you go about making this right?” He listened for a time, holding one finger aloft; now he nodded. “Yes. I think that’s the only way. Do you have a pencil?” He gave the wine merchant Frances and Malcolm’s address and hung up the phone. “He’ll be with us shortly,” he told the group.
Perfect Read for fans of deWitt’s previous works (did you know The Sisters Brothers is being made into a film?) Also great for anyone who likes The Windsors on Netflix, the comedic soap opera / parody of the British royal family. It’s the exact opposite of The Crown, more like National Lampoon’s Vacation. French Exit is not slapstick, but it is a look at the baffling absurdity of the incredibly rich.
Watch for Patrick deWitt at Writers Festivals in Fall 2018.
Description: A beautiful little book designed and published by Pushkin Press. The Beauties contains 13 of the best stories Chekhov ever wrote, perhaps 13 of the best stories ever written. Like Hemingway or Raymond Carver (or even Seinfeld), Chekhov’s genius lies in his observations of human nature and wry sense of humour. The nature of the humour is, of course, Russian so North American readers might scratch the surface and not see beyond the glum circumstances. The short stories are a mix of light-hearted tales to achingly poetic memories of beauty and daydreams of what could have been.
Favourite Moment: The opening story is about a schoolboy accompanying his grandfather as they drive in their carriage along a dusty road on a dreary, sultry August day. They stop for refreshment at the house of an Armenian friend of the grandfather. The boy, the grandfather and their Ukrainian driver are all struck by the beauty of the Armenian’s daughter.
Some years later, now a student, the boy is on a train that stops for some minutes at a country station. He gets out to stretch his legs, and sees a girl on the platform talking to someone in one of the carriages. She is very beautiful. A fellow-traveller, an artillery officer, notices her as well. He also notes that the pale faced telegraphist in the station house has his eye on the girl.
“I bet the telegraphist is in love with that pretty girl. To live out in the wilds under the same roof as that ethereal creature, and to not fall in love — that’s beyond the power of man. But what a misfortune, my friend — what a mockery, to be a round-shouldered, shaggy-haired, insignificant, decent fellow, and no fool, and fall in love with that pretty, silly girl, who won’t take the slightest notice of you! Or even worse — supposing the telegraphist is in love, but he’s already married, and his wife is just as round-shouldered, shaggy and decent as he is … Torture!”
The tale ends full of melancholy as the travellers re-board the train, the third bell rings, the whistle sounds, and the train moves slowly off.
Perfect read for fans of Jane Austen, Russian literature, or even short-story lovers. I would say Chekhov’s short stories are more accessible than his plays so do give this book a try. And this collection by Pushkin is such a beautiful little book!
Disclaimer: Thanks to the kind folks at Raincoast Books for providing me with a review copy of this mind-bender.
Description: Sumpter’s book is a fascinating look at how algorithms rule our world and where they go wrong. I’m a huge fan of Kevin Slavin’s 2011 TED Talk on this same topic. And David Sumpter, Professor of Applied Mathematics, brings readers an up-to-date look at the algorithms behind recent election polls, sports and betting (soccermatics), targeted advertising, and the filter bubbles (echo chambers) that inform our world view, whether that’s what’s of interest according to our Facebook News Feed or Netflix, or what research is noteworthy according to Google Scholar.
In each chapter, Sumpter re-creates and unpacks a different algorithm or application of technology. He interviews various key players or the people behind the technology, and poses some open-ended questions about the might or validity of the stats.
It’s math and morals. It’s a look at data and how much (or how little) we should rely on it.
Favourite Moment: The opening chapter is “Finding Banksy” and Sumpter looks at the 2016 research methods used to pinpoint the identity of Banksy based on the location of his street art. What I like about this chapter is that it’s representative of the others in the book. There’s a look at the challenge, how math and stats are applied to address the challenge, and then a look at the limitations. In this case, it’s a cool application of geo-location data and spatial statistics, but it also spoils the fun and intrigue around Banksy. The more sinister application of this is how statistical advice on the identity of criminals or terrorist may be used by police forces, or how your own movements may be tracked and stored in law-enforcement databases and used to predict your future behaviour.
Perfect Read for fans of The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser and Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil. If you like science, technology, and statistics, this book is for you. Or if you are interested in the moral, legal, and ethical aspects of how these technologies are built and the ways they inform our decisions, then you’ll get a healthy dose of scepticism along with a deeper understanding of how the math and stats are applied to everyday scenarios.
