★ Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space

What do fairy tales tell us about who we think is less than whole? What do happy endings tell us about who we believe really has worth? And what would these narratives look like if ... Read More »

February 10, 2020 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Reviews

Before I Was a Critic I Was a Human Being

By Amy Fung

In her new book, art critic Amy Fung does what a lot of BIPOC thinkers, especially Indigenous ones, ask us to do: deliberately situate ourselves in our narratives, clearly positioning ourselves vis-à-vis colonialism and the ... Read More »

May 27, 2019 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Criticism & Essays

Recasting History: How CBC Television Has Shaped Canada’s Past

By Monica MacDonald

If you are the sort of person who is delighted by the mere existence of a book about historical programming on the CBC, then you will likely find much to recommend in Monica MacDonald’s Recasting ... Read More »

April 8, 2019 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Reviews

Peter Clapham Sheppard: His Life and Work

By Tom Smart

The image that comes to mind when thinking of early 20th century Canadian painting, particularly from Toronto, is likely the landscaped vistas created en plein air by Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. But ... Read More »

October 18, 2018 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Memoir & Biography

Who Killed Tom Thomson?: The Truth about the Murder of One of the 20th Century’s Most Famous Artists

By John Little

It’s the most enduring mystery in Canadian art: how did famed landscape painter Tom Thomson die? The past century has seen a flood of books, articles, and documentaries speculating – without reaching a definitive determination ... Read More »

September 10, 2018 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture

Antigone Undone: Juliette Binoche, Anne Carson, Ivo Van Hove and the Art of Resistance

By Will Aitken

Among the great Greek tragedies, perhaps no other has spawned as many successful adaptations and critical reflections as Sophocles’s Antigone. Novelist Will Aitken reminds readers why Antigone remains such a universally accessible play in this ... Read More »

January 18, 2018 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Memoir & Biography

Arrival: The Story of CanLit

By Nick Mount

The vicissitudes of time and gentrification notwithstanding, it can be difficult to comprehend Toronto through its writers. The bust of poet Gwendolyn MacEwen, who dropped out of school in 1959 at age 18 to teach ... Read More »

June 22, 2017 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, History

The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter

By David Sax

At one point in The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter, David Sax tells the story of a marketing rep’s attempt to steer him away from writing another conventional book. She suggests ... Read More »

August 22, 2016 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture

Lives of the Poets (with Guitars)

By Ray Robertson

Biographies of musicians are often indistinguishable from extended fan letters, so it’s always nice when authors are upfront about their enthusiasms. In the introduction to his new essay collection, Lives of the Poets (with Guitars), ... Read More »

January 26, 2016 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture

Life Sketches

By Robert Bateman

In his new memoir, Robert Bateman, the octogenarian painter, naturalist, and conservationist – who has received immense commercial success during his long artistic career – reflects on the entirety of his life’s work. Born in ... Read More »

December 10, 2015 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture

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