When I requested Dear Writer, Dear Actress, a collection of letters exchanged between Anton Chekov and Olga Knipper, I expected them to arrive when Bill and Bron and I were reading “Gooseberries”. (Our project page is here.) If they had, my note-taking would have revolved around connections with their friendship and
There is just one more story left in our project—and it’s the shortest, only six pages, the second by Tolstoy. In the course of looking for a cover image, I learned that it was published after Tolstoy’s death, and that it was based on a real person. (Inadvertently, I
Ibi Zoboi quickly situates her readers in Detroit, through Fabiola’s view of American Street. And Zoboi’s 2017 novel feels particularly timely as Fabiola arrives in the United States with her mother, but continues her journey alone—after her mother is detained by immigration authorities. Fabiola stays in her mother’s sister’s
Earlier in June, I was saying that I had read another seven books towards this challenge, and here they are. By Ojibwe/Cree, Dene/Métis, Swampy Cree-Beaver Clan of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Secwépemc, Haisla/Heiltsuk, Couchiching First Nation/Ojibwe] authors. Nope, I’m not deliberately selecting different nations; that’s happening by-the-by. For those
Earlier this month—with Indigenous History Month in mind—I wrote about Thomas King’s latest Thumps Dreadfulwater mysteries, and my theme of Indigenous reading for this year’s Toronto Public Library Reading Challenge, including seven books by Indigenous writers that align with challenge themes. Now, on the other side of Indigenous Peoples’
