Arts & Culture

Content curated by Roxanne Dubois.

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Book review: The Past by Tessa Hadley

Book review: The Past by Tessa Hadley

I struggled to find a good book to usher me along the dreary, grey weeks of November until I heard of the Past by Tessa Hadley. It was described to me as a skillfully written tale where very little happens, to the point where it might even be boring—but in a beautiful way. I started it right away, and it turned out that this excursion into the English countryside where grown-up family members get back together in their grandparent's home was the perfect antidote for this time of year.

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Book Review: Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga

Book Review: Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga

Toronto Star journalist Tanya Talaga takes a dive into a crisis based in the northern community of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Since the year 2000, seven Indigenous high school students have died in circumstances that are too similar to discount. Questions around the events leading to their deaths remain unanswered to this day. In every case, it was found that the police systematically failed to provide the families with due process and a sense of justice. In the wake of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) final report in 2015, Seven Fallen Feathers is required reading.

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Book Review: Barrelling Forward by Eva Crocker

Book Review: Barrelling Forward by Eva Crocker

The colourful cover of “Barrelling Forward” by Eva Crocker should catch your eye – a flag that should really prompt you to cracking the cover. Crocker lines up a series of short stories as fresh and raw as each other, where characters collide, run, struggle and continue to move ahead in the normal and sometimes mundane adventure called life. “Barrelling Forward” is a great read worth keeping close and reading slowly.

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Les aventures incroyables, mais vraies, de Don Quichotte de la Manche

Les aventures incroyables, mais vraies, de Don Quichotte de la Manche

Il y a peu de personnages aussi connus et reconnus que l'Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche. Le classique de Miguel de Cervantes expose les contes, ou plutôt les péripéties, de ce prétendu chevalier et de son loyal écuyer dans l'Espagne médiévale. Satirique, pédant et drôle du début à la fin, Don Quichotte est l'un de ces classiques dont la lecture (ou la relecture) est un vrai plaisir.

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Book review: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Book review: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

A spy novel with the pace of a thriller that takes place in Vietnam and the United States during the war : what's not to love? The 2016 Pulitzer prize winner is Viet Thanh Nguyen's debut novel and is packed with unexpected twists, superber writing and a welcome unique perspective. A sure pick for your summer reading list.

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Book review: Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Book review: Swing Time by Zadie Smith

When Zadie Smith was promoting her fifth novel, Swing Time, in the fall of 2016, the way she talked about race, class and gender in interviews compelled me to put it on hold at the library. Her first novel to be narrated in the first person is a story about dancing, growing up in the working class communities of the East side of London, and facing the many facets of being an adult.

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Book review: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Book review: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

It seems unbelievable that Zora Neale Hurston was almost completely forgotten as an important African-American author of the 1930's. And yet, her best known novel, Their eyes were watching God, had to be dug up from the archives as late as the 1970's and 1980's, where it spent far too much time unread and unappreciated. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the classic, providing an excellent opportunity to engage with the prose and substance of Zora Neale Hurston's writing.

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Middlemarch by George Eliot

Middlemarch by George Eliot

For a Franco-Ontarian who has mostly read in French her entire life, certain English classics have always felt out of reach. George Eliot's Middlemarch, for example, which spans the imposing length of just under 900 pages, is not a book I would have picked up just for the sake of it. Its length should not put anyone off, though, since Eliot's writing has the ability to take the reader on a long, excursionary journey well worth travelling.

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Book Review: Just Kids by Patti Smith

Book Review: Just Kids by Patti Smith

Patti Smith has had a long, creative life as a singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist. In Just Kids, she writes the memoir of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. She dives back into the New York City of the 1960's and 1970's when both of them were young, emerging artists and just getting started in their life-long artistic journeys.

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Critique: Chanson douce de Leïla Slimani

Critique: Chanson douce de Leïla Slimani

Littérature inspirée d'un fait divers, Chanson douce a bien été reçu et reconnu par la critique en France. Le deuxième roman de l'auteure et journaliste Leïla Slimani a remporté le Prix Goncourt en 2016. Dès les premières pages, le dénouement tragique est connu du lecteur. La suite du livre tentera de déconstruire les mois précédents, ce qui donne une lecture intense et haletante.

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