Memoir & Biography

Vagabond: Venice Beach, Slab City and Points in Between

Cheryl Strayed’s blockbuster Wild marked a formidable shift in the women’s memoir category, essentially taking Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love from a Contiki tour to a blistering bootcamp detox. Somewhere along the marketing way, these ... Read More »

August 26, 2021 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

The Bushman’s Lair: On the Trail of  the Fugitive of the Shuswap

By Paul McKendrick

If Netflix is looking for a thriller with suspicious deaths, greed, gold, government corruption, a secret underground cave, and an eccentric lead character, it would do well to consider first-time author Paul McKendrick’s brisk and ... Read More »

August 24, 2021 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

A Womb in the Shape of a Heart: My Story of Miscarriage and Motherhood

By Joanne Gallant

Being human means being made up of countless invisible, uncontrollable processes: muscles contracting, neurons firing, cells dividing. Each of these processes has the potential to go catastrophically wrong, and many of us carry in us ... Read More »

August 11, 2021 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

The Weight of Sand: My 450 Days Held Hostage in the Sahara

By Edith Blais; Katia Grubisic (trans.)

In December 2018, Canadian Edith Blais vanished. The 34-year-old had been travelling for some time with her Italian companion, Luca Tacchetto, on their way to pursue a volunteer work opportunity in Togo. Then, while driving ... Read More »

August 10, 2021 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

The Queer Evangelist: A Socialist Clergy’s Radically Honest Tale

By Cheri DiNovo

Marginalized people in her orbit might picture Cheri DiNovo as a pollinating bee, buzzing from one bloom to the next, never in a straight line. The more comfortable and powerful people who are challenged by ... Read More »

June 23, 2021 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

Man at the Airport: How Social Media Saved My Life – One Syrian’s Story

By Hassan Al Kontar

Man at the Airport is a testament to the power of one man’s quest for asylum, and how social media has the ability to harness that power – but this book is much more than ... Read More »

June 16, 2021 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

Philip Roth: A Counterlife

By Ira Nadel

“That’s one of the biggest things that America gave to the Jews – gave them their anger,” says Murray Ringold in Philip Roth’s 1998 novel I Married a Communist. “America was paradise for angry Jews.” ... Read More »

June 3, 2021 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

The Unconventional Nancy Ruth

By Ramona Lumpkin

Nancy Ruth was 40 when she learned that her maternal grandfather had successfully argued the 1929 Persons Case, affirming that women were “persons” under Canadian law and therefore eligible to serve in its Senate – ... Read More »

May 13, 2021 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

Norman Jewison: A Director’s Life

By Ira Wells

Norman Jewison may not be as familiar a name as some, but the films he’s directed are instantly recognizable, among them In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof, Moonstruck, and Jesus Christ ... Read More »

May 10, 2021 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

Float Like a Butterfly, Drink Mint Tea: How I Kicked the Shit Out of All My Addictions

By Alex Wood

Most people have something they fantasize about quitting (or at least cutting back on). While these desires to change sometimes have a basis in our health, whether bodily or financial – those weekly stress-relieving trips ... Read More »

March 18, 2021 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

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