Banana Yoshimoto's Hardboiled and Hard Luck (1999) Trans. from the Japanese by Michael Emmerich (2005) This is the last of Banana Yoshimoto's works that have been translated into English that I had to read; if it had been the first of her works that I'd read, I don't think I'd
Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian (2007) Art by Ellen Forney Little Brown, 2009 A few years ago I saw Sherman Alexie at a ridiculously underattended reading in a small Toronto bookstore on a fine Friday night in summer. I remember wondering if there wasn't something
The IFOA, International Festival of Authors, is an annual event in Toronto for the bookish. Warning: if you don't live in Toronto, you might not want to check out their line-up unless you're prepared to book transportation and purchase memberships and whole backlists to boot. It's not that much of
Nicola Beauman's A Very Great Profession: The Woman's Novel 1914-39 (1983) Virago, 1984. Persephone No. 78, 2008. I'm certain that I've said this before, but this is one of my favourite kinds of books about books. Nicola Beauman's A Very Great Profession is obviously written out of a passion for
T. F. Rigelhof's Hooked on Canadian Books: The Good, The Better, and the Best Canadian Novels Since 1984 Cormorant Books Inc, 2010 Although I would struggle to choose my favourite kind of bookish book, one like this would certainly be a contender; it is not only a favourite kind of
