I first learned of Phoebe Robinson on 2 Dope Queens, the live comedy podcast she hosted with Daily Show alum Jessica Williams. The podcast centred comedians of colour, women, and people identifying as LGBTQ because these people are funny and they often don’t get the same opportunities to perform. This book, Robinson’s second collection of … Continue reading Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay by Phoebe Robinson
I devoured this book. I couldn’t wait to get back to it. I was already listening to an audiobook by another female comedian born in 1984 but I Might Regret This kept pulling me back. Maybe my body needed the action of reading paper, not listening to narration, at this particular time. Maybe it was … Continue reading I Might Regret This by Abbi Jacobson
Over the past few months I’ve revisited the entire Harry Potter original series, in audiobook form, as read by Jim Dale. I wanted to re-establish the back stories and nuance laid out in the books, as the movies had taken hold in my memory even though I knew they were insufficient. I wanted to assess … Continue reading Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling read by Jim Dale
In Austin Kleon’s first book (based on his blog), Steal Like an Artist, he pushes aside stereotypes of how “real artists” create. In this follow-up, Show Your Work! he tackles the next step: once you’ve unblocked your creativity and made something cool, how do you get the right people to see it? Kleon has an … Continue reading Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
Us Against You tells the story of a hockey-crazed small town through the course of a rebuilding season. Canadian readers might think they already know the story, but this time the small town is in Sweden, and the team’s star player has just raped a high school girl. Hockey is the underlying force behind most … Continue reading Us Against You by Frederick Backman
In matters of identity as beautiful and nuanced as Joshua Whitehead’s, there is no better descriptor than the one he wrote for himself: “Joshua Whitehead is an Oji-Cree, Two-Spirit storyteller and academic from Peguis First Nation on Treaty 1 territory in Manitoba.” Jonny Appleseed is his first novel, a short book marketed as young-adult fiction, … Continue reading Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
This tight book of memoir in connected essays, Terese Mailhot’s debut, has been universally lauded over the course of 2018. It was reviewed in the New York Times, and then became a NYT bestseller. It was a finalist for many of Canada’s major nonfiction awards, and blurbed by the likes of Roxane Gay, Katherena Vermette, … Continue reading Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
N. K. Jemisin is the Hugo Award-winning, glass ceiling-breaking, African-American female author of a healthy young collection of fantasy novels and short fiction. Her writing is admired and respected, making her one of the greatest authors in her genre writing today. She’s also a formidable voice for people of colour, and part of the recent … Continue reading The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin
Bad Feminist was not what I expected. I thought the book of essays would examine what it means to be intersectionally feminist in 2014. I thought the essays would be related, and would build towards a complicated revelation. Maybe that would be the book Roxane Gay would write today, but back in 2014 Gay was … Continue reading Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
Reading Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking is like eating the perfect meal – each bite so good you want to gobble the whole plate. But each bite so good, too, that you want to slow down to make it last, savouring ideas by looking up from the page, even putting the book down … Continue reading The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Amy Attas 