A memoir of Loyie's youth spent at a Native residential school and his struggle to find a community.
Stephen Osborne
Gospel, A Poem
Stephen Scobie's Gospel, A Poem had the invigorating effect of making me want to read poetry again: the book is a beautiful object and not at all precious, and the poetry, a visitation of the Gospels, is simply wonderful. You want to read it out loud
Eve Corbel
Grace Hartman: A Woman for Her Time
Grace Hartman: A Woman for Her Time by Susan Crean (New Star) is a biography, a political history and a page-turner of a story all in one. Hartman (1918-I993) went to work as a secretary for the Township of North York in the 1950s to help support her
Kevin Barefoot
Graham Greene's Library
One of the April New Yorkers contains a wonderful piece by Robert McCrum on Graham Greene's library, an archive to be coveted not for its size (a mere 3000 volumes) or its variety (from Planet of the Apes to Sanctum Jesu Christi Evangelium, a gift fr
Anna Trutch
Golden Goa
People who travel in India and return always sound amazed in retrospect at what they survived. In Golden Goa (ECW Press), Grant Buday makes the trip three times, cranky at what he has to endure on buses and trains—one of which is wrecked—but impresse
Glenn Broughton
Girl's Guide to Giving Head
Re-entering the fray is a true original, Sheri-D Wilson, "action poet extraordinaire," whose work lurks on a jazzy playground of sex, glamour and intrigue—the frenzied visions of a James Bond girl. Her latest poetry collection cheekily entitled Girl'
Stephen Osborne
Goin' Down the Road
The great Canadian road movie is finally on DVD. If you missed Goin’ Down the Road when it came out in 1970 and then disappeared, apparently forever, you can see it now for the first time, having heard about it all your life from friends who are more
Stephen Osborne
Going Ashore
Newly collected stories and memoirs from the great Mavis Gallant.
Stephen Osborne
Gold Fools
Is it true that Gilbert Sorrentino has written a brilliant novel called Gold Fools (Green Integer), a story of grizzly prospectors and leathery cowpokes, entirely in questions?
Derek Fairbridge
Glenn Gould: A Life in Pictures
What is there to say about Glenn Gould that hasn’t already been said? Anyone who is interested in the subject is already familiar with the many mythologies surrounding this gangly, pill-popping agoraphobe who wore winter coats year-round and played t
Lara Jenny
Fuzzy Heads are Better
Fuzzy Heads are Better (106 Press) is a small, thick zine with a lovely woodblock print on the cover. Patti Young Kim subscribes to the punk DIY ethic of zine making, including found photos, recipes, receipts.
Kris Rothstein
Girl Culture
Girl Culture (Chronicle/Raincoast) is a coffee table book that is both attractive and disturbing. Lauren Greenfield’s photographs document how American girls relate to fashion, culture and their bodies as they grow up in the most superficial society
Patty Osborne
Ghost Hotel
Ghost Hotel is the new mystery by Jackie Manthorne (gynergy books), first of what will be a series, and it features "Harriet Hubbley: down-to-earth dyke from Montreal." This story is a great window into the lesbian lifestyle, but not a really satisfy
Norbert Ruebsaat
Gentle Northern Summer
Recently I was thinking about the difference between Brecht's poetics and Rilke's. Brecht seems to be entirely ironic.... This conundrum came back to me when I read George Stanley's Gentle Northern Summer (New Star), which is a beautiful and powerful
Daniel Francis
Gettysburg
I enjoyed Killer Angels so much that I pursued my Civil War studies by renting a video of Gettysburg, the made-for-TV movie based on the book. The movie clocks in at somewhere close to four hours, and you have to put up with a lot of famous American
JILL MANDRAKE
Ghosts: True Tales of Eerie Encounters
The question that pops to mind as you read Ghosts: True Tales of Eerie Encounters (TouchWood) is, “Why does British Columbia house so many spooks?” Robert Belyk does not provide a specific answer, but he does say that ghosts are likelier to manifest
James Baker
Get Your War On
In late May 2003 the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) hosted a discussion forum called Hell No: Designers and the War, featuring the design historian Steven Heller, the design icon Milton Glaser (perhaps most known for the “I Love NY” symbol
Neil MacDonald
Future Noir, The Making of Blade Runner
For hard-core Blade Runner fans, or anyone interested in the filmmaking process, Paul M. Sammon's book Future Noir, The Making of Blade Runner (Harper Prism) is required reading.
Sheila Skye Craven
Geist on the Net
What happens when you insert the word Geist into a World Wide Web search engine? Well, there's a brief pause and then Zzzt!
Geist Staff
Frontiers: Essays and Writings on Racism and Culture
Marlene Nourbese Philip achieved an inadvertent kind of fame as the woman June Callwood told to fuck off at a writers' conference some time ago. Her new book Frontiers: Essays and Writings on Racism and Culture (Mercury), makes it easy to see why.
Patty Osborne
From Bruised Fell
From Bruised Fell by Jane Finlay-Young (Viking) is a dark and unrelenting story of two sisters whose lives are dominated by their crazy mother, who abandoned them years ago but who still haunts their thoughts. The older sister, Missy, narrates the st
Daniel Francis
Friend of the Devil
When I finally got around to reading Postwar, I was amused to discover that Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks was reading it too. This is the first time I have found myself reading the same book as a character in a novel.
Geist Staff
Friends I Never Knew
Friends I Never Knew by Tanya Lester (gynergy) is an ambitious but less successful first work of fiction. The premise is challenging: a burnt-out feminist organizer, recuperating abroad, pays homage to four women friends and colleagues by trying to w
Patty Osborne
Frontier Spirit: The Brave Women of the Klondike
In Frontier Spirit: The Brave Women of the Klondike by Jennifer Duncan (Anchor Canada), we meet women who escaped the prison of propriety and domesticity by joining the Gold Rush to the Yukon.
Review of "Qallunaat! Why White People Are Funny" Zebedee Nungak and Mark Sandiford.
Anson Ching
Voyeur Galore
Review of "Captains of the Sands" by Jorge Amado.
Michael Hayward
Tree Lit
Review of "The Overstory" by Richard Powers.
Michael Hayward
Purveyors of Electric Fans
Review of "Clyde Fans" by Seth.
JILL MANDRAKE
Older and Better
Review of "The Old Man in the Mirror Isn’t Me" by Ray Robertson.
Stephen Osborne
The Becoming of Vancouver
Review of "Becoming Vancouver: A History" by Daniel Francis.
Michael Hayward
A Blindness at the Centre of Seeing
Cole’s most recent book, Blind Spot (Random House), a generous hardcover printed on glossy stock, presents Cole’s photographs on recto pages, with brief, allusive essays on the facing verso page.
Michael Hayward
Known to be Strange
Known and Strange Things (Random House) is a collection of Teju Cole’s essays and other short pieces, many of which have previously appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere online.
Patty Osborne
B for Beatrice
Patty Osborne on wacky kid tales and the joy of animated storytelling.
Michael Hayward
Roads to Nowhere
Michael Hayward on dharma trails, lawless landscapes and Hemingway's corner table.
Anson Ching
In Search of Time and Place
Anson Ching on desecration ratcheted to new levels.
JILL MANDRAKE
Dirty Dirty Gets Down to the Nitty Gritty
Jill Mandrake on Mississippi Live & the Dirty Dirty, a Southern rock band in East Vancouver.
Shyla Seller
Wanting
Shyla Seller on the brilliance of the Vancouver poet Gladys Maria Hindmarch.
Patty Osborne
Ordinary Filipinos vs. The Normal Irish
Patty Osborne on teenage love, internet clicks and stolen babies.
Michael Hayward
Fine Art in Lockdown
Michael Hayward on Félix Fénéon and the exhibits unseen during COVID-19.
Kathleen Murdock
Everything on Earth
Kathleen Murdock on race, resilience, rage and joy.
Thad McIlroy
Life in the Valley
Thad McIlroy urges us to run from big tech before the death knell tolls.
JORDAN ABEL
Indigenous Poetry Without Borders
As a Nisga’a writer, I’m often deeply invested in not only how other poets are tackling issues through poetry but also how Indigenous writers are navigating that same terrain. Reading poetry is necessary. Reading Indigenous writing is essential.
Jennesia Pedri
Jamaica on Ice
Jennesia Pedri reviews A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James.
Anson Ching
Voices From the Margins
Anson Ching on the strength of the narrator.
Jonathan Heggen
Mirror Image
Jonathan Heggen on staying on the periphery until the proverbial dust settles.
JILL MANDRAKE
Coach Has a Vehicle
Jill Mandrake on lyrics that make her shout out loud.
Michael Hayward
Ekphrastic Literature
Michael Hayward on plastic art and slow sonnets.
KELSEA O'CONNOR
Scratching the Print-Making Itch
Kelsea O’Connor on 48 printmakers and their unconventional studios.
Phrase books are tools of cultural globalization—but they are also among its casualties.
Stephen Henighan
Collateral Damage
When building a nation, cultural riches can be lost.
Stephen Henighan
Transatlantic Fictions
Coming to harbour in a new world.
Alberto Manguel
Arms and Letters
Science and the arts fulfil their functions to help us survive through the imagination.
Stephen Henighan
Reheated Races
Dividing and conquering local populations confines them to manageable administrative units.
CHERYL THOMPSON
Dismantling the Myth of the Hero
In a world dominated by heroes, difference is not tolerated.
Alberto Manguel
Achilles and the Lusitan Tortoise
“Have patience” and “Tomorrow” are two inseparable locutions in the Portuguese tongue.
Stephen Henighan
All in the Same CANO
For a brief period the band CANO gave shape to the dream of a bilingual Canadian culture.
Stephen Henighan
Residential Roots
"The hemispheric context reveals the roots of the residential school system...Destroying Indigenous cultures was a positivist policy from Patagonia to Dawson City."
LISA BIRD-WILSON
Occupation Anxiety
Lisa Bird-Wilson on UNDRIP, reconciliation, and the anxiety felt by Indigenous people in Canada.
Stephen Henighan
Not Reading
What we do when we absorb words from a screen—and we haven’t yet evolved a verb for it—is not reading.
Alberto Manguel
Library as Wishful Thinking
Libraries are not only essential in educating the soul, but in forming the identity of a society.
Stephen Henighan
Lethal Evolutions
Our society is formed on the assumption of a healthy immune system.
Stephen Henighan
Confidence Woman
The woman who called herself Tatiana Aarons gave me an address that led to a vacant lot.
Alberto Manguel
Léon Bloy and His Monogamous Reader
Dogged dedication grants a reader vicarious immortality.
Stephen Henighan
Plague
What we can—and can’t—learn from the plague
Stephen Henighan
A Pen Too Far
On March 5, 2006, a group of people gathered in a small Ontario city in the expectation of having books signed by an author who was not present.
George Fetherling
The Daily Apocalypse
The newspaper wars aren’t what they used to be.
Stephen Henighan
Taíno Tales
A package-deal paradise reputation curtails gringo knowledge of Dominican life.
Alberto Manguel
Art and Blasphemy
Faith seems to shiver when confronted by art.
Alberto Manguel
A Fairy Tale for Our Time
What can the Brothers Grimm teach us about the state of our economic system? Everything.
Alberto Manguel
Literature & Morality
Must artists declare their moral integrity?
Stephen Henighan
Flight Shame
Without air travel, family networks might have dissolved long ago.
Alberto Manguel
The Defeat of Sherlock Holmes
There’s something not quite right about the grid on which the game is played.