POETRY MONTH: The Tinder Sonnets by Jennifer LoveGrove
a masterpiece of contemporary sonnetteering
Tag: Canada
My Volcano by John Elizabeth Stintzi
a failure of intent
Internet Crusader by George Wylesol
a very millennial internet-set graphic novel – i enjoyed a lot
Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
fiction about child soldiers that felt a little underdone
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
scott visits canada’s “museum of immigration” and gets reflective. Dune Messiah is barely mentioned.
Grievers by adrienne maree brown
great speculative fiction; scott visits quebec city
Apocalypse by DH Lawrence
my domestic holiday begins with unexpected news; Lawrence eviscerates Xianity
In the Freud Archives by Janet Malcolm
is the conscious or the subconscious mind the most potent agent in our lives
On Decline by Andrew Potter
I spent time yawning at an out-of-touch Gen X screed
The Tiger Flu by Larissa Lai
a super engaging contemporary sci-fi novel that sacrifices characterisation for an excess of plot
Old Sci-Fi (Keyes, Wells, Pohl, Aldiss) & Mass Graves
they keep finding mass graves of children
Four Short(ish) Novels from 2020
can’t stop reading / can’t start doing anything else
Lake of Urine by Guillermo Stitch
peepee not for me
The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies
groovy 1970s fiction
This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart by Madhur Anand
a blog about a book (yes i do still do these)
The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
forget the infamously sleazy page-and-a-half and enjoy!
the heads of cerberus by Francis Stevens
early sci-fi and smh so sad
Paying the Land by Joe Sacco
not a sacco sh*it
In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
i read a great Toronto novel and recall summer 2019 when I worked at lux events
Passing Ceremony by Helen Weinzweig
flawless 1970s fiction exploring dementia; plus shirtless pic
This Is Where I Get Off by KIRBY
great poetry, i whinge about lockdown innit
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
a lovely lockdown trip down the middle of the road
Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
distracting the self with heady genre fiction
The Triple Echo by H. E. Bates
a surprisingly great short novel that might be hateful
Faustine by Emma Tennant
sense begins to disperse as unemployment looms
Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
great prose-verse novel about nunavut in the 70s
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
i, basic, enjoy some popular fiction
Obasan by Joy Kogawa
very “literary fiction” literary fiction about WW2 non-Nazi racism
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomé de las Casas
very early protest against colonialism
The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill
a great novel but mainly me whinging about winter
NDN Coping Mechanisms by Billy-Ray Belcourt
strong canadian poems
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
reading about dragons again lol
The Mask That Sang by Susan Currie
impressive, purposeful, children’s fiction
I Am A Truck by Michelle Winters
very very very good novella from 2016
Hello I want to die please fix me by Anna Mehler Paperny
writing about depression
The Outlander by Gil Adamson
i’ve found my local indie press
Always Coming Home by Ursula Le Guin
impressive experimental speculative fiction
Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and its Metaphors by Susan Sontag
I’ve been ignoring my depressive relapse by studying AIDS
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
acclaimed canadian steampunky slavery novel
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
getting sad again in the bleak northern winter
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
it’s the most wonderful book of the year
Preacher: Book Five by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
back on old school bullsh*t
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
impressive, emotive, historical
Vibrator by Mari Akasaka
a great Japanese novel
Chardin and Rembrandt by Marcel Proust
short post that took a month to not write
Sursum Corda! The Collected Letters of Malcolm Lowry Volume One: 1926 – 46
700 pages of Lowryian bliss…
Ossuaries by Dionne Brand
political poetry: what is it good for?
Poems and Songs by Leonard Cohen
some inappropriate teenage nostalgia
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
very booker prize winnery booker prize winner
The Commons by Stephen Collis
why are poets so obsessed with outside?
Triumph Of The Now 