Good Books in Hard Times: Journalism and Unfreedom

2025-12-19T13:36:34-05:00

Joe Sacco’s Journalism (2012) is a longtime resident of my TBR; I was reminded of it because of his Footnotes in Gaza and Palestine. This, however, is a fabulous introduction to his work, divided into six sections: The Hague, The Palestinian Territories, The Caucasus, Iraq, Migration, and India. Most

Good Books in Hard Times: Journalism and Unfreedom2025-12-19T13:36:34-05:00

Madeleine Thien’s The Book of Records (2025)

2025-12-17T14:56:01-05:00

Just when my thoughts were etching a loop as I struggled to describe Madeleine Thien’s new novel, The Book of Records, I came across this Joy Williams quotation*: “What good stories deal with is the horror and incomprehensibility of time, the dark encroachment of old catastrophes.” That is, indeed,

Madeleine Thien’s The Book of Records (2025)2025-12-17T14:56:01-05:00

Read the Change (You Want to See in the World), Recommendations

2023-01-16T17:41:40-05:00

Even if you’re not often reading about the climate crisis, I’ve got one for you: Jane Goodall’s The Book of Hope (2021). It not only includes many reasons to remain hopeful—Amazing Human Intellect, Resilience of Nature, Power of Young People, and the Indomitable Human Spirit—but truly inspires readers. Its

Read the Change (You Want to See in the World), Recommendations2023-01-16T17:41:40-05:00

Here and Elsewhere Reading in 2022

2023-01-20T14:48:28-05:00

On the day that I got my visitor’s card at the library here, I borrowed Marie-Louise Gay’s Mustafa (2018): a children’s story (Gay illustrates, writes, and translates) about a boy who searches for himself, in the space between his old country and his new country. Certains soirs, Mustafa rêve

Here and Elsewhere Reading in 20222023-01-20T14:48:28-05:00

Autumn 2022, In My Stacks (with #MARM plans)

2022-10-24T16:17:18-04:00

As you might guess, many kilometres north now, I’ve found that the weather grows cold more quickly. It was a shock to change the bedding, to the December-Freeze set, at the end of September. To pull the scarves and toques from the closet (but not, quite, mittens and gloves).

Autumn 2022, In My Stacks (with #MARM plans)2022-10-24T16:17:18-04:00
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