Is This Anything is a collection of Jerry Seinfeld’s best material in the five decades that he’s been performing stand-up. The book is separated into Is This Anything is a collection of Jerry Seinfeld’s best material in the five decades that he’s been performing stand-up. The book is separated into five eras: 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and teens.
I’m not shocking anyone when I say that Jerry Seinfeld is one of my favorite comedians to watch. I’m sure he’s on many top five lists out there. So when it was announced that I could own a physical record of his best and most famous material, I was looking forward to getting my hands on it.
I’m not going to lie, the first half of this book, there were moments where I was crying with laughter. The bit about his mother putting a mirror in her living room to try and make the room look bigger is one of my favorites of his. However, as time wore on, I found myself getting tired of the non-stop barrage of jokes. I can only compare this to going to see Jimmy Carr a few years ago on his “Solid Gold Hits” tour where he just relentlessly attacked us with joke after joke after joke. It gets exhausting!
Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to power through the book as quickly as I did. There’s also the fact that you’re reading these jokes that are meant to be performed live along with Jerry’s signature cadence and delivery. That’s not really a fair criticism of a book, but there is certainly something lost when you’re just reading them rather than hearing Jerry deliver them (although, it’s hard not to hear Jerry’s voice in your head)....more
Eager to learn more about her grandparents and where they came from, author Jessica J. Lee embarks on a trip to Taiwan to explore the island’s landscaEager to learn more about her grandparents and where they came from, author Jessica J. Lee embarks on a trip to Taiwan to explore the island’s landscape and cultural history.
This isn’t going to be a long review.
Normally, I love a good travel/adventure book, but Lee’s look at the geographical history of Taiwan left me wanting. I found the information about the relatively young island’s peaks and valleys, the flora and the fauna, and its cultural evolution endlessly dull. For me, there just wasn’t anything that I could sink my teeth into. I would find my eyes glossing over leaving me to re-read full pages when my mind decided it was time to go for a stroll somewhere outside my attention span.
As for her family’s personal history, I did find parts of that interesting. But they seemed infrequent. Just as I would become invested in her grandparents’ struggles, we’d be back to learning about plants.
I really don’t enjoy giving negative reviews (if you’re a reader of my blog, I’m sure you’ve noticed this), but Two Trees Make A Forest just didn’t really do enough for me to warrant a positive one....more
Butter Honey Pig Bread tells the story of a mother, Kambirinachi, and her two daughters, Kehinde and Taiye. Kambirinachi was born an Ogbanje – a spirButter Honey Pig Bread tells the story of a mother, Kambirinachi, and her two daughters, Kehinde and Taiye. Kambirinachi was born an Ogbanje – a spirit that brings misfortunes to families in the form of a miscarriage or early childhood death. Rather than succumb to her purpose Kambi decides to live, thus spends her life caught between her will to exist and her desire to die.
Her daughters suffered through a traumatic event early in their lives that would go on to create a seemingly irreparable rift between the two. Given both their emotional and physical distance, author Francesca Ekwuyasi spends the majority of the book focusing on the separate lives of the two sisters. This takes the story across the world from Nigeria to Paris to London to Montreal and to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
I am a sucker for novels that take place in places I’ve lived. I’m sorry, I can’t help it. When the novel jumps to Halifax and I see familiar spots like the Central Library, Dresden Row, Spring Garden Road and the excellent Bookmark book shop, I can’t help but smile. So, it’s entirely possible that just by throwing in Halifax as a location, this book scored extra points from me.
However, even without Halifax, Butter Honey Pig Bread was a compelling story that at points had me completely gripped. The choice to separate the novel into three narratives really allowed me to get to know each woman intimately, which is a storytelling choice that I absolutely love when used effectively. The traumatizing event from their childhood was a horrendous experience for both women and it’s hard to hold blame against either for what would follow. When the sisters and their mother finally reunite following years spent apart, there’s a simmering tension amoung the three that Ekwuyasi allows to build and build. It had me racing to the finale to see what would unfold.
Francesca Ekwuyasi’s debut novel was an absolute delight to read. Every year, I always champion CBC Canada Reads for putting books in my hands that I normally wouldn’t have gone out of my way to read. Butter Honey Pig Bread is one of those books. Of the four that I’ve read so far, I think this is neck and neck with Natalie Walschots’ HENCH as my favorite and my pick to go deep in the debates....more
Jonny Appleseed follows a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer person living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Having left the Rez years prior, Jonny receives news that Jonny Appleseed follows a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer person living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Having left the Rez years prior, Jonny receives news that his step-father has passed away. Broke and wary of returning home, Jonny must quickly come up with the funds to travel home to be with his mother. In doing so, Jonny aggressively turns to his work as a prostitute/sex-worker. While the majority of his jobs come from private shows over social media, he does take the odd “traditional” job with a few of his regular clients.
As Jonny attempts to come up with the funds over the next seven days, he takes the reader on a journey through various points in his life as he discovers his sexuality while also dealing with the unfortunate ramifications of leading a lifestyle deemed horrendous by many in his family and community.
There are many heartbreaking moments in this book, many of which deal with Jonny’s tumultuous relationship with his first love, Tias. While Jonny was lucky enough to have support from both his grandmother (Kokum) and his mother, Tias received a great deal more resistance from his family – especially his father. Their years-long relationship takes up the bulk of the story.
It’s hard to believe this is Whitehead’s first novel. While he has a wealth of experience with poetry, his prose flowed really well and made the often jangled timeline easily accessible and digestible even with the challenging and raw subject matter, even if it did seem a bit rambly and unfocused at times.
I thought this is an important read in the sense that Jonny Appleseed isn’t the type of story that gets told often, at least not with as wide an audience afforded to it by being part of a national book competition. Although I complained about having to do so in a prior review, I think readers should take a step out of their comfort zone once in a while, just to expose themselves to new genres and authors. Not only does it give you an opportunity to try something new, it also instills empathy for a group of people that you may only know a small amount about...more
In Double Feature, we’re presented with back-to-back stories related to the movie industry. The first, “A Travesty”, follows film reviewer Calvin ThoIn Double Feature, we’re presented with back-to-back stories related to the movie industry. The first, “A Travesty”, follows film reviewer Calvin Thorpe, as he tries to cover up a murder by staying out of the path of a pair of detectives as well as a blackmailer. The second, “Ordo”, focuses on a man who discovers his long-lost wife has become a Hollywood bombshell.
“A Travesty”, the first of the two stories, takes up about three quarters of the book. Westlake produces a bumbling yet seemingly clever protagonist in Carey Thorpe who consistently evades suspicion despite a litany of bad choices. I can’t decide if he’s just cocky or at times completely oblivious to his actions. Maybe it’s a little of both. In fact, there’s a choice he makes mid-way through the story that was so unbelievably stupid and short-sighted that I wanted to cry-out, “OH, COME ON”. What he did was even more mind-boggling considering he showed that he could be a rather brilliant detective as he helped the two detectives assigned to the murder he was involved in solve a handful of other murders! I guess it was a case of “rules for thee, not for me”.
The second story, “Ordo”, is a philosophical look at the idea of identity and how we sometimes have to completely change ourselves in order to get what we want out of life. Despite its much shorter length compared to the first story, I thought it was the stronger of the two. The main character, Ordo, struggles with the thought that the woman he knew sixteen years prior is someone he no longer recognizes whereas he has not changed in the slightest. This story hit me particularly hard given its deeply introspective subject matter and its emotional finale.
Hard Case Crime continues to be one of my favorite publishers going today and I commend them for unearthing and publishing some of the most interesting work from a by-gone era....more
The Midnight Bargain follows Beatrice Clayborn, a sorceress on the threshold of selecting a husband. Once married, Beatrice will have to don a collarThe Midnight Bargain follows Beatrice Clayborn, a sorceress on the threshold of selecting a husband. Once married, Beatrice will have to don a collar that suppresses her magical abilities in an effort to protect her future children from becoming possessed by a spirit while in utero. Not only does Beatrice not want to be married, the thought of losing her abilities is a fate worse than death. Facing mounting pressure from both society and her own family – can Beatrice alter her destiny or will she be forced into a life of disappointment?
This is a tough one to review. I will say that if not for the book making the 2021 Canada Reads shortlist, I would never have picked it up. That’s both the blessing and the curse of Canada Reads! Sometimes I get pleasantly surprised by books that exist outside my comfort zone and other times, not so much. Luckily for me, it’s the former that seems to happen more often than the latter.
Fantasy, regency-era and romance are three genres that are decidedly not within my wheelhouse. So, what do I do when I’m faced with a book that takes all three and rolls them into one book? Push through, I guess. I tried to approach this one with an open mind, but its near four-hundred-page count felt daunting to say the least. At about halfway through the book, I started to really feel its length as it just seemed to go on and on with certain scenes seeming like they were repeating over and over again.
That said, I will say that I thought the premise was very interesting. The way in which C.L. Polk described the effects of the collar on Beatrice was particularly heartbreaking and haunting. I also enjoyed the way in which Beatrice interacted with a spirit when it entered into her body as it reminded me of Wesley Chu’s Tao trilogy, one of my favorite series of novels. The back and forth between Beatrice and her spirit – Nadi – produced some funny moments.
I don’t believe I’m even the best person to accurately review this book because I couldn’t honestly tell you what this did right or wrong within the fantasy and romance genre. I love reading more than most anything and this one felt like a chore or errand I had to run. Not exactly the most ringing endorsement, I’m sure....more
After nearly ten years of daily comics, Bill Watterson hung up his pencil in 1995 and capped off his critically acclaimed strip, Calvin & Hobbes. Ten After nearly ten years of daily comics, Bill Watterson hung up his pencil in 1995 and capped off his critically acclaimed strip, Calvin & Hobbes. Ten years later, Watterson worked with Andrews McNeel Publishing to put out a complete box set (three volumes in hardback / four in paperback). The result is a gorgeous collection worthy of one of the best, most consistent strips around.
Calvin & Hobbes began when I was just two years old and ended just before I turned twelve, so given that I wasn’t grabbing the newspaper every day as a kid, I completely missed out on Watterson’s legendary run. With Watterson’s hard stance against licensing any of his work, there was no other way for Calvin’s world to enter my own outside of the source material. No cartoon show, no movies, no merchandise – nothing. After hearing for years that I should seek out and do a deep dive into Calvin & Hobbes, I took advantage of a sale and picked up the set earlier this year.
This is about as perfect a series as I can imagine. Watterson strikes the perfect tone between childhood wonder and adult perspective. The relationship between Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, is the template for a perfect friendship; they have each other’s back, fight and make up and genuinely bring out the best in one another. I know that’s a little strange when you’re talking about a boy and his imagination, but Calvin and Hobbes’ partnership is one I could continue to read for years had Watterson not stopped in the mid-90s.
The publisher did a wonderful job with the presentation having the daily strips retain their traditional black and white coloring as they’re laid over a slightly yellowed background. It allows his work to pop off the page. The full-page Sunday strips are bright and colorful and brilliantly restored. This is especially excellent in the autumn comics where the reds, yellows and browns help to bring my favorite season to life. I almost wish Watterson had at least allowed some licensing if only so I could get a big print to hang on the wall of my living room.
While the box set will set you back over a cool one hundred dollars, it’s well worth the money. This isn’t something released to cash in on nostalgia; it's a lovingly crafted tribute to one of the best comic strips you could possibly read....more
Mat Memories is the story of the life and many careers of John “Alexander” Arezzi, former host of the pioneering radio show, Pro Wrestling Spotlight.
IMat Memories is the story of the life and many careers of John “Alexander” Arezzi, former host of the pioneering radio show, Pro Wrestling Spotlight.
I’m going to be completely honest here. I am not familiar with John Arezzi outside of his recent appearance on the Herb Abrams episode of Dark Side of the Ring, so this is one of the few times I’m going into a memoir completely blind. So when I received an advanced copy from the fine folks at ECW Press, I looked forward to reading about John’s contributions to the landscape of wrestling media.
Let’s get this right out of the way before we begin – this isn’t strictly a memoir from someone who has spent a lifetime in and around the wrestling business. I mean, it says it right on the cover (My Wild Life in Pro Wrestling, Country Music and with the Mets.) I’d say maybe just under half of the book is about John’s wrestling days while the other half details his time working in both the baseball and music industries. This leads to my main problem. I didn’t really find his life outside of wrestling particularly interesting. I don’t mean that to be a knock at John and I hope that isn’t too harsh as this is his life story after all but I just didn’t get much out of his other careers. Sure, there were a few funny stories here and there with the looseness of both industries (baseball and music) explaining how quickly John could be successful, given his seemingly endless ambition and positive attitude when looking at his work ethic.
When it comes to looking at his life both inside and outside the ring, John managed to carve out quite a name for himself. Getting his start as the manager of Freddie Blassie’s fan club as a teenager, John would wear many hats in the coming years as a photographer, media personality, promoter (both of shows and fan conventions) and even an in-ring competitor (albeit short-lived). John finding his way into the ring is the book’s true stand-out story, so I wouldn’t want to spoil that here but let’s just say that things were a little less organized back then than they are now.
What John is most likely known for was his radio show, Pro Wrestling Spotlight, which he began on a college radio station years before taking it onto the public airwaves in the Northeastern United States. After a failed start in the mid-80s, John would cement his footprint in the early 90s by closely covering both the WWF’s steroid trial as well as a sex-scandal that would rock the industry. Unfortunately, this would lead to a shaky on-again-off-again relationship with Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation that would ultimate hamper John’s ability to book big names on his show.
John also admits to being the one to open the door for Vince Russo in the mid-90s by working with him as both an advertiser for John’s show and an on-air personality/writer for his accompanying newsletter. John details their contentious relationship and nasty break-up that leads John to addressing some of Russo’s comments made about him in Russo’s own book.
Deciding to go with Mat Memories as the title was absolutely a conscious choice to attract what will ultimately be the book’s biggest audience. However, I felt this was ultimately detrimental to my experience as a reader. Focusing so heavily on the country and music industry in the last half of the book sort of makes the title of Mat Memories seem more like a marketing ploy rather than what reflects the true content of the book and John’s career. Being a veteran of wrestling memoirs and biographies, I would certainly struggle to recommend this to anyone looking for a wrestling book – especially when topics like the steroid trial and the sex scandal seem to have been covered endlessly in so many other wrestling memoirs....more
For some time now, Anna has been picking up the odd office job through a temp agency supporting supervillains through minor tasks and clerical work. For some time now, Anna has been picking up the odd office job through a temp agency supporting supervillains through minor tasks and clerical work. Following an unexpected encounter with Supercollider, one of Earth’s most powerful heroes, Anna would be left with a severely broken leg. Her devastating injury gives her the needed motivation to try and address the reckless actions of heroes and those they hurt in the line of duty.
Launching a website that keeps track of the collateral damage caused by heroes, her ingenuity lands her on the radar of Supercollider’s nemesis, Leviathan. It isn’t long before Anna takes a job with Leviathan where she ups her game and focuses her attention on systematically ruining the life of Supercollider until he is ripe for the picking by her new boss.
Since the launch of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) in 2008, the world has been inundated with superhero culture. Movies, TV shows and comics are bigger than ever and if you’re not a fan, it’s almost impossible to escape. When I heard that the CBC had selected a novel featuring superheroes and supervillains for their annual Canada Reads competition, I was a bit skeptical. Could this really be something new? Haven’t we mostly seen it all by this point? Thankfully, with HENCH, Natalie Zina Walschots proves there is plenty of gas left in the genre’s tank.
What I loved about this book was that it attempts to take “supers” to task. I suppose this isn’t really new as it happens to be the central conflict that would lead up to the 2016 film Superman v. Batman (which sucks, by the way) in which Batman decides to take down Superman following the damage caused by his reckless pursuit of General Zod in 2013’s Man of Steel. It also is the basis of Captain America: Civil War, where the government attempts to regulate superheroes. However, in HENCH, it isn’t other superheroes or big government trying to take a stand – it’s the little guys, the forgettable underlings who are often disposable, who attempt to create consequences for the actions of the powerful.
I loved the idea of a temp agency that helps people find work as “henchmen” for evil doers. The premise alone lends itself well to the type of humor that seems to be within Walschots’ wheelhouse. There were more than a few moments that had me laughing out loud here. It’s not all fun and games though. This book gets right down to the pure selfishness of humanity and our desire to exact revenge in the name of self-righteousness. Walschots muddies the waters enough that it makes total sense to root for the bad guys here. Supercollider is a total dick.
There’s a wide cast of characters here, too. Anna is a great protagonist. She feels authentic and I never once questioned her actions or motivations. Her relationship with Leviathan is a big part of the book and anytime they shared a scene together, I was glued to the page. The action scenes were pretty good with some intense violence and graphic detail. My biggest complaint is that I felt there were a few too many characters introduced, albeit minor, where I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. I sort of wished I'd kept a notepad handy to write down some of these minor heroes and villains who were mentioned in passing.
Everyone seems to be talking about the ending in their reviews, so I’ll give my thoughts – I loved it. There was some seriously gross body horror that I felt was well done by the author. However, I was a little let down by the absence of a character who was integral to the first half of the book. There’s a reason given for her absence, but I had hoped there would be some sort of resolution between her and Anna. Alas, it was not to be.
Last year, I read over one hundred books before the year was done. I expect to do the same in 2021. I think the scenes that make up the last 50 pages or so of this book will stick with me when I’m looking to make up my top reads of the year.
Side note: I’m not sure how well this will fare in the Canada Reads debates. Every year I try and pick which book I believe will win when the dust settles, but I seem to be wrong more often than I’m right. With the theme this year being “one book to transport us”, I can see HENCH having a pretty good chance given how enthralled I was with the world Walschots created. But I guess we shall see....more
Following a brutal murder, former pilot Leah Trenton agreed to testify against her boss. With her life in danger, Leah Trenton would fake her own deaFollowing a brutal murder, former pilot Leah Trenton agreed to testify against her boss. With her life in danger, Leah Trenton would fake her own death and enter into witness protection. In doing so, she had to leave behind a husband and two small children as she relocated to a secluded home deep in the wilderness of Maine. Now, ten years later, her husband dies unexpectedly leaving her children without a parent. Leah must re-emerge to care for her children. The problem? They think she’s dead, too. Oh, and her former boss is looking for revenge.
I received an advanced copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Never Far Away is the latest thriller from author Michael Koryta and the third book of his I’ve had the chance to read. His 2012 novel, The Prophet, is as close to a small-town crime-fiction masterpiece as you can get but his last novel, If She Wakes, happened to be one of the least enjoyable reads I picked up in 2019 – so naturally, for Never Far Away, I had my expectations firmly in the middle.
So, how was it? It was alright. Koryta does a good job in slowly bringing the action from a light simmer to a boil throughout the book. The wilderness of Maine had me pretty homesick for Nova Scotia at times given their proximity, so it was nice to be back on the east coast – if even only in my mind. My biggest takeaway is that I don’t really feel like this one is going to stick with me for very long as it felt very much like a movie-of-the-week thriller you might catch on television on a Sunday afternoon. It’s good popcorn entertainment, but lacks real substance. But hey, sometimes those reads are good! Like a great beach read or airport thriller.
If I’m being honest, I wasn’t aware that there are connections between some of Koryta’s novels. A character in Never Far Away appeared in If She Wakes and a pair of criminals at the novel’s beginning appear in another one of Koryta’s novels. Dax Blackwood, the aforementioned character from If She Wakes, came across great in Never Far Away and added a lot to what could have been a pretty paint-by-numbers thriller.
I’m still waiting for Koryta to knock my socks off like he did in The Prophet, so I’ll keep reading and keep comfort in knowing he has the talent to do so. I suppose it’s just a matter of time. And really, he has eleven other novels I could always go back and check out....more
People don’t just happen. We sacrifice former versions of ourselves. We sacrifice the people who dared to raise us. The “I” it seems doesn’t exist untPeople don’t just happen. We sacrifice former versions of ourselves. We sacrifice the people who dared to raise us. The “I” it seems doesn’t exist until we are able to say, “I am no longer yours.”
In How We Fight for Our Lives, acclaimed poet Saeed Jones tells the story of growing up a black Texas boy and discovering his sexuality at an early age. From a young age, Jones would have to figure out his place in the world while navigating life as the son of a struggling single mother and a uncompromisingly religious grandmother.
Writing a memoir while you’re still in your thirties is a funny thing; you still have so much life ahead of you! But, Saeed’s story is one worth reading. Not only is it unrelentingly tragic at times, it’s both a hopeful as well as powerful look at an unflinching love that can exist between a mother and son. Saeed’s love for the woman who raised him is just as integral to the book as his sexual exploits and the violence that seemed to go hand-in-hand.
Make no mistake, this is not an easy read. He certainly doesn’t leave much to your imagination when it comes to the graphic, sometimes violent, sex scenes here. This is Saeed’s experience, warts and all. It is the raw and cutting story of Saeed’s life lived his way, without compromise. Within a brisk 192 pages, his prose and talent are on full display with several memorable passages that had me highlighting full paragraphs on my Kindle like a mad man.
For all that we hear about the need for equality and racial justice, there are always going to be those who oppose such cultural progression. How We Fight for Our Lives is a moving, fearless account of a life lived under pressure. If more people could take the time to read a story like Saeed’s rather than just sit quietly and judge the lives of others, maybe it could foster more empathy. Maybe. Who knows? Maybe it’s just wishful thinking....more
It’s Christmas Eve and the Montreal police are dealing with the discovery of five corpses from the city’s homeless population. Inspector Luc Vanier doIt’s Christmas Eve and the Montreal police are dealing with the discovery of five corpses from the city’s homeless population. Inspector Luc Vanier doesn’t believe in coincidences and is ruling the deaths as suspicious. When reports come back that the deceased were poisoned, Luc must race to find the guilty party before more bodies pile up.
I had been searching for a new crime novel to read set during the Christmas season and came across Peter Kirby’s The Dead of Winter. Not only did it check all the boxes, but it was Canadian and set in Montreal, a city I’ve actually been to! I couldn’t resist.
With the primary focus being Vanier’s murder investigation, Kirby also has a few other subplots on the go including shady dealings within a homeless shelter, and a crooked real estate deal that threatens to further harm the city’s destitute. With so much going on coupled with a modest page count (under 300 pages), the novel moved at a brisk pace.
The resolution was not one that I saw coming and when all was revealed, I actually let out an audible “Oh!” Maybe it may have been obvious to another reader, but I thought it was a great bit of misdirection on the part of the author.
Although I did cringe at the inclusion of the line “crime doesn’t take a holiday”, I thought it was a very good debut novel. This is the first book in what appears (to date) to be a trilogy, so I have some interest in checking out the two sequels....more
In his book MISSING FROM THE VILLAGE, author Justin Ling explores the deaths in Toronto’s queer community of eight men by the hands of convicted seriaIn his book MISSING FROM THE VILLAGE, author Justin Ling explores the deaths in Toronto’s queer community of eight men by the hands of convicted serial killer Bruce McArthur. Ling had spent years researching several unexplained disappearances in the Village believing there to be a serial killer on the loose. Over time, he would occasionally butt heads with authorities as they would refuse (publicly) to acknowledge the theory of a mass-murderer.
And that’s the heart of the story, really. The murders and the actions of McArthur are horrific in and of themselves but it’s the apathy on the part of those sworn to protect the community that make this story truly tragic. It’s the long and painful relationship between both the police and those in the LGBTQ community that had allowed McArthur to operate freely within the Village for years. Ling explains the disconnect in spotlighting the raids, beatings and arrests throughout history that had left a neighborhood with a seemingly overwhelming level of distrust of the law.
How the failings of the Toronto Police Department to catch and convict McArthur sooner did not lead to some sort of system overhaul, I’ll never know. In fact, how Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders did not immediately resign following his statement in which he more or less blamed the LGBTQ community for the delay in catching McArthur (“We knew that people were missing and we knew we didn’t have the right answers. But nobody was coming to us with anything.”) is maddening. However, I only read about this – I cannot imagine how it felt for those who lived through the fear of a madman lurking in the shadows.
However, what this book should be championed for is the work that went into highlighting the lives of those who were brutally murdered by McArthur, rather than spending the entire book exploring the life and character of the killer. It’s easy to look at the tally and reduce each victim to just a number – but they were men who were sons, brothers, partners and people who left behind loved ones. There is a particularly moving moment late in the book where Ling transcribes a victim impact statement on the loss of Andrew Kinsman – a beacon of kindness and love within the community.
If Andrew were alive today, he would have baked 340 loaves of bread, perhaps 30 birthday cakes, 450 healthy dinners, and 30 or so contributions to potlucks for friends. He would have done 110 shifts as a volunteer at the food bank, and contributed to perhaps 500 hours of organizing skill to public health events. He would have exchanged 80,000 pithy, hilarious texts with friends.
This is someone who had been ripped from a community that both needed and cared for him.
MISSING FROM THE VILLAGE was an excellent read that both educated me on the terrible events of the past and angered me beyond words at the failings of the present. I hope that something can be taken from these events so that something like this does not happen again. We can only hope....more
It’s the day before Christmas Eve and Darby Thorne is racing home through a blizzard in the Colorado Mountains. When the route becomes impassible, DaIt’s the day before Christmas Eve and Darby Thorne is racing home through a blizzard in the Colorado Mountains. When the route becomes impassible, Darby is forced to seek shelter inside a roadside rest stop. Upon her arrival, she finds four others also waiting out the storm. As she ventures back outside, hoping to get a cell signal, she spots a little girl locked inside of a cage within the back of a van. Wanting to help, she has to uncover the guilty party among her fellow stranded. But, then what?
This is a tough one to review hopefully without giving away too much. I will say, that I am somewhat proud of myself that I figured out where this was going pretty early on, but that doesn’t make it any less of a page-turner. Darby has a tough up-hill battle from the very beginning. Not only are the events within and around the cabin dangerous enough, she has the worry of reaching her family while her mother undergoes treatment for stage four cancer. There’s a strong urgency to everything that happens here making putting the book down difficult. You just need to know what happens next!
I will say that the twist is revealed fairly early in the novel, so I was intrigued to see how Taylor Adams would handle the pacing of a somewhat locked room setting with roughly seventy percent of the novel remaining. He did a good job though. Things move along swiftly and the character development through flashbacks and dialogue help you forget that you’re within a fairly claustrophobic environment.
NO EXIT really feels like one of those late 90s/early 2000s thriller movies that you don’t often see these days before everything released seemingly became a sequel or a superhero movie (not that I have anything against the MCU). I say that now, despite the fact that NO EXIT has been optioned for a film adaptation – so maybe we’ll see a comeback of sorts....more
In her book FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, Caitlin travels all over the world to explore several cultures and their relationships with death.
Caitlin’s journeyIn her book FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, Caitlin travels all over the world to explore several cultures and their relationships with death.
Caitlin’s journey takes her through open-air crematoriums in Colorado, spelunking through caves in Indonesia, the day of the dead ceremonies in Mexico, and the Japanese tradition of “kotsuage” – the act of using chopsticks to pluck the bones of loved ones from their ashes following cremation.
Having read her other two books (one as an e-book and the other as a hardcover), I thought I would give this one the audiobook treatment. I’m glad I did. She was a great companion on many long walks as I learned about the process of human composting and the act of sky-burial (allowing vultures to eat your corpse), a practice popular in India.
Of her three books, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY is probably my favorite; I just found the subject matter endlessly interesting. I have to admit that I was sad when it came to an end as I could have easily listened for many more hours.
Caitlin’s conversations with representatives from other cultures and how they approach, understand and deal with death made me open my eyes to how bureaucratically it is managed here. Because so much of the process is shrouded in secrecy, it makes sense that we have such a fearful and unhealthy relationship with it. Work like Caitlin’s could be a good catalyst for change in the future.
I can only hope because I desperately want my body to be composted when I go....more
Ten years ago, a group of five Native American men went hunting on grounds reserved for Elders. During the hunt tragedy struck and now, all these yeaTen years ago, a group of five Native American men went hunting on grounds reserved for Elders. During the hunt tragedy struck and now, all these years later, they’re about to pay for their misdeeds.
The Only Good Indians is the second book I’ve picked up by acclaimed author Stephen Graham Jones and just so happens to be one of the most wildly original stories I’ve read in recent memory. The book follows each of the four aforementioned men as they succumb to an entity looking to exact revenge from beyond the grave. While the first of the four doesn’t stick around for long, it’s with the second man, Lewis, where Jones really begins to play with both the psychological and physical elements of horror. I’m not going to sugar coat things in saying there was one moment in particular just after the first third of the book that had me saying, “holy shit!”
Jones doesn’t shy away from some of the more visceral imagery that goes hand-in-hand with the horror genre. There are moments here where I could almost feel my stomach turning, then again, those moments have to do with animals, which is not something I’m particularly good with. I’m not knocking Jones for that, nor do I want that to dissuade people from reading it, just giving you an idea of what you’re in store for. I mean, at its heart, this is very much akin to a dark slasher flick.
But Jones’ book isn’t just about gruesome death and destruction – he ruminates about the modern life of Indigenous persons who are divorced from their culture and land as they move away from the Rez. They have to navigate through a world that thinks less of them while also dealing with the guilt from friends and family for leaving home. It’s a seemingly winless situation that leads to constant introspection and a certainly level of pressure that is difficult to get out from under.
The Only Good Indians is the first of many books I will read in 2021 and has already set the bar pretty high for all that will follow. While I was ambivalent about the first book of his that I had read, The Only Good Indians has made damn sure I will explore the rest of his catalog.
What he didn’t say was that you don’t get cold-resistant because your jackets suck, you just stop complaining about it after a while, because complaining doesn’t make you any warmer....more
Journalist Ken Cuthbertson breaks down the events which had led to the famed Halifax Explosion of 1917 as well as the ugly aftermath that consumed theJournalist Ken Cuthbertson breaks down the events which had led to the famed Halifax Explosion of 1917 as well as the ugly aftermath that consumed the Nova Scotia capital.
Despite being a Nova Scotian, the extent of my knowledge surrounding the tragic events of December 6th, 1917 mostly comes from a Heritage Minutes commercial that had shone a spotlight on train dispatcher Vince Coleman. Thanks to Coleman’s heroic efforts, he was able to stop a train carrying nearly three hundred passengers from arriving just as the ship’s perilous cargo detonated and saved the lives of everyone onboard (spoiler alert: Coleman’s role in this book comes down to a handful of pages).
Coleman, like many others that day, lost his life in the blink of an eye. Before the atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the Halifax Explosion had the distinction of being the biggest and deadliest explosion on record. Looking at the roles of all involved, to the ship captains, to the boat pilots, to the generals in charge of harbor traffic, Cuthbertson tries to make sense of the negligence that flattened a city quicker than a hiccup.
I really struggled with the first half of this book. Cuthbertson dug heavily into each of the ships’ crews as well as the events that occurred in the days leading up to the collision between the Mont Blanc and The Imo. Although I understand the need to lay the groundwork, a lot of this felt like filler with excessive detail. Where the book truly excelled was in the covering of the moments immediately following the explosion (I was truly not prepared for the number of decapitations) as well as the aftermath when the “blame-game” captured the desperation of a shattered city trying to uncover the person or persons responsible and the corruption in spreading relief funds for those most in need.
I can’t imagine another book having as much detail about that deadly day in the Halifax harbor. If you’re looking for a truly exhaustive look at the events that unfolded, then look no further than The Halifax Explosion: Canada’s Worst Disaster....more
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