This is the second graphic novel I’ve read by Tillie Walden and I’m hooked — there is a lot going on in Walden’s mind, and it spills out in stories and images that catch at my heart. I was a competitive synchronized swimmer through much of my teen years so I resonated with Walden’s descriptions […]
A Strangeness in My Mind
A novel by Orhan Pamuk. Istanbul modernizes and grows up around Mevlut, who lives his life with an odd combination of intention and surrender. He goes to great effort to elope with a girl he has only seen once, but discovers that he was duped by the family and it is the wrong sister in […]
The Last Girl
A first-person account of the Islamic State’s actions against the Yazidi, seen through the eyes of a young woman, Nadia Murad. Having read this book, I feel I have a better understanding of Yazidi culture. I also see, through Murad’s experiences, the way people acquiesce to oppressive, authoritarian decisions — or not — and the […]
The Old Ways
I went to the bookstore to buy Robert Macfarlane’s new book, Underland, and ended up with an older one instead — The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot. One of the surprises of my recovery from a concussion has been the rediscovery of walking or rather, of following paths, especially paths through trees. There is […]
The Goddess Chronicle
“You should read this,” she said as she handed me the Goddess Chronicle by Matsuo Kirino, translated by Rebecca Copeland (2013). My friend was down-sizing her library with a book give-away event and I was trying to avoid acquiring too many more books, but my curiosity was pricked by the recommendation of an author I […]
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney Fictional Lillian Boxfish is a re-imagining of the real life of Margaret Fishback. The main events on which the story hangs are real — Lillian’s career and her light verse are lifted out of Ms. Fishback’s papers, which author Kathleen Rooney studied, but the author’s skill in bringing […]
Learning to Walk in the Dark
Barbara Brown Taylor is one of my favourite authors, so I was pumped to like this book. And I did like it, although I felt at times she wasn’t getting to the heart of things as quickly or as clearly as I’ve come to expect from her. At times I felt like I was getting […]
H is For Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
By the time I received the library notification, I’d forgotten why I’d ordered this book (in case you don’t know me, this says more about me than the library). In a sense, this was a gift, because I got to open this book without any expectations. So I was completely undone by the by the […]
The New “R”, Educating for Respect
The New “R” What do we need to know about Canadian citizenship? More than we might think, according to Judge David Arnot, Chief Commissioner of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission. To the traditional two R’s of Canadian citizenship, rights and responsibilities, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission is adding a third R: respect. Respect for human […]
Steeling the Gaze/Idle No More
Steeling the Gaze, recently at the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon, was a powerful show. Some of the pieces were incredibly beautiful; some got in my face. Often the same works did both. As someone with a background in Art History, I can identify the conventions of European portraiture in the props and poses European-Canadian […]
swimmingintheseasofchange 