★ Sixty: A Diary of My Sixty-first Year

At 50, we can indulge the fiction that we are still middle-aged. By 60, that’s impossible, unless delusion prevails. Toronto writer Ian Brown is the opposite of delusional as he records the events of his ... Read More »

November 12, 2015 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

Unflinching: The Making of a Canadian Sniper

By Jody Mitic

In 2007, at the age of 30, former soldier Jody Mitic lost both his feet after stepping on a Taliban land mine in Afghanistan. He gave his body – and very nearly his life – ... Read More »

November 10, 2015 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

A Celtic Temperament: Robertson Davies as Diarist

By Jennifer Surridge (ed.); Ramsay Derry (ed.)

Robertson Davies kept multiple diaries simultaneously. There was a sometimes cryptic private one, and a “big” one that was both narrative and contemplative. Then there were separate ones concerning his life in the theatre, his ... Read More »

November 9, 2015 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

Road Trip Rwanda: A Journey into the New Heart of Africa

By Will Ferguson

The 1994 Rwandan genocide was a particularly gruesome affair, even by 20th century standards of mass extermination. The Hutu-led government orchestrated the slaughter of as many as a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus, with most ... Read More »

October 29, 2015 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

A Life with Words: A Writer’s Memoir

By Richard B. Wright

Richard B. Wright’s eloquent memoir of his life as a novelist and teacher is written in the third-person singular. This gives it a big advantage. By referring to himself as “he” rather than “I,” the ... Read More »

October 15, 2015 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

Tuco: The Parrot, the Others, and a Scattershot World

By Brian Brett

The pet memoir is an unfairly maligned genre, a fact only emphasized by the reactions I received when I said I was really enjoying a book about a man and his parrot. We tend to ... Read More »

October 1, 2015 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

The Prison Book Club

By Ann Walmsley

Ian Brown’s 2009 memoir, The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Search for His Disabled Son – an unvarnished, heartrending account of Brown’s efforts to connect with his uncommunicative, seriously disabled child – struck a ... Read More »

September 28, 2015 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

Light Years

By Caroline Woodward

When we embark on dream-chasing, life-altering decisions, we often look for signs and signals to guide us on our way. We imbue the smallest things with meaning, giving our choices purpose, attempting to prove, despite ... Read More »

September 9, 2015 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

’Membering

By Austin Clarke

The July 20 issue of Maclean’s magazine features a cover article titled “Get Serious, America,” about the persistent, and apparently intractable, problems with race relations in the U.S. Written by Jonathon Gatehouse, the piece critiques ... Read More »

August 13, 2015 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

Good as Gone: My Life with Irving Layton

By Anna Pottier

Even the healthiest romantic relationships are often fraught with difficulties, hurt feelings, and heartbreak; what initially are considered unbreakable bonds between individuals are severed by selfishness, emotional baggage, and conflicting personalities. Partnerships that commence with ... Read More »

August 4, 2015 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

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