Passing for Human is a graphic novel by New Yorker cartoonist Liana Fink. It is a sort-of memoir of Fink’s life, a sort-of study of her matrilineal line, a sort-of consideration of what it means to be female and what it means to be an artist. The central concept is that women are born with … Continue reading Passing for Human by Liana Fink
I picked up Jenny Odell’s book in the hopes of finding inspiration and solidarity in a creative life. Guidance or thoughts on how to make art for art’s sake. How to be at peace with being “unproductive” in a capitalist society. How to be happy with a simple life, how to feel accomplished without producing. … Continue reading How To Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
This is a first-book for author Alicia Elliott, spawned from the National Magazine Award-winning title essay “A Mind Spread Out on the Ground.” It reads like an award-winning book, and not at all like a first-book. That first essay centers on the English-translation of the Mohawk phrase for depression and mental-illness. And doesn’t depression make … Continue reading A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott
This Place: 150 Years Retold is a powerhouse anthology of Indigenous stories, presented in graphic novel form by writers and artists like Katherena Vermette, Richard Van Camp, and Chelsea Vowel. Each writer takes a piece of history from 150 years of Indigenous-Settler relations in the land currently known as Canada, and conjures an immediate, emotional … Continue reading This Place: 150 Years Retold
How is Billy-Ray Belcourt. How? I picture him pulled from a bubbling golden pond of primordial goo, body fully-formed, mind sharp—sharper than any of us—bashful and steadfast. Billy-Ray Belcourt is a child prodigy. Billy-Ray Belcourt is a hunk. Billy-Ray Belcourt is a sad, sad queer. Billy-Ray Belcourt is a line in a poem. His poem. … Continue reading NDN Coping Mechanisms and This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt
Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures is Dr. Vincent Lam’s breakout first book of fiction, a collection of short stories that won the Giller prize in 2006. While working as a ship’s doctor on a cruise, Lam ran into Margaret Atwood and asked her to read his manuscript. She championed the book, and then everybody championed the … Continue reading Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam
Circe was a Greek goddess. A witch, according to the mythology, who’s banished to a deserted island for eternity after Zeus grows wary of her powers. But Madeline Miller’s Circe is far more than that. She is the wallflower of the house of Helios, mocked and ignored at an endless party where all the other … Continue reading Circe by Madeline Miller
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a fictionalized telling of the true story of Lale Sokolov, a Slovenian Jew who survived three years in Nazi prison camps. It’s written as if it’s the only book about the Holocaust, or at least as if it’s the first one the reader has encountered. Perhaps it would be effective … Continue reading The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
The Shadowed Sun is the second book in acclaimed fantasy writer N.K. Jemisin’s Dreamblood Duology, and it is perfect. Can I say that? It is imaginative and other-worldly while still grappling with struggles familiar to our human world. It is both complicated and gripping; detailed and fast-moving; rich in character and setting, and also suspenseful … Continue reading The Shadowed Sun by N. K. Jemisin
river woman is Katherena Vermette’s second book of poetry. Her first, North End Love Songs won the Governor General’s Award for poetry. Her novel, The Break won a bunch of awards and is my current answer to the dreaded-question-with-no-answer: what’s your favourite book? Vermette has also written a collection of children’s picture books, a graphic … Continue reading River Woman by Katherena Vermette
Amy Attas 