Currently reading / currently loving

My future husband wrote a new novel. 901 pages to go.

Currently reading / currently loving

Currently reading / currently loving

Currently reading / currently loving

Oh, Becker, where have you been all my life? Where?

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Officially done with post-secondary classes forever and ever. Oh, it's confetti time!

Currently reading / currently loving

I'm only on page 8 and will probably remain on page 8 for quite some time since I'm inundated with a course assignment, a thesis proposal, a book chapter and a why-isn't-this-done-already literature review. The weeping will happen any day now.

On the plus side, I found Krauss' novel on sale.

Currently reading / Currently loving

I know....I know....you're surely thinking "why does she have all the fun?"

Currently reading / Currently loving

Currently reading / Currently loving

Currently reading / Currently loving

Hey colonial kiddies, did you know that the Scots invented Canada? Now what am I going to do with my books on how the Italians and Blacks "created" Canada or how the Chinese "discovered" North America?

Well, I'm now certainly motivated to write that academic article arguing against this type of "scholarship." Has no one heard of decolonization?

Currently reading / Currently loving

Currently reading / currently loving

Staying, Feeling, Being Italian. Apparently, I've encountered the holy trinity of Italianness.

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Sherman Alexie is one of the few authors who can make me both laugh and cry over a single sentence. Nermeen Shaikh's interviews with leading scholars made for a fascinating conversation on feminism, neo-liberalism, and the global economy (to name but a few). La nouvelle bande-dessinée de cinéaste Diane Obomsawin est un receuil de 16 histoires courtes. Pink Mimi Drink est disponible chez oie de cravan.

Les courts métrages d'Obomsawin sont aussi disposibles en ligne sur ONF.ca. J'adore Ici par ici.

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I adore Banana Yoshimoto for a variety of reasons. The first being, she named herself Banana. + 47 points to her. The second being, I've never tired of her words since stumbling upon her work in high school. + 130 points to her. The third being, her writing style is deceptively simple yet carries so much beauty and depth. + 1954 points to her. The fourth being, one of my dearest friends (who coincidentally is returning to Toronto from Israel today for 10 weeks!) always reminds me that Banana's work is translated more into Italian than English. + 65789 points to her. The fifth being, she's collaborated with Yoshitomo Nara. + 769463 points to her.

Currently reading / currently loving

Currently reading / currently loving

I loved, absolutely loved, Mary Lawson's Crow Lake. Her first novel was stunningly contained and perfectly paced. I'm not too sure what to make of The Other Side of the Bridge.
Alas, I'm only on p. 41 of Gabriele's novel, but I'm beginning to favour the book cover over the story.
While Williams more or less details linguistic minorities in "favourable positions," (i.e. Québec, Gaelic Scotland, the Basque Country, etc), I found his book depressing. Although, the most utterly depressing book on language rights (and their necessity) belongs to Tove Skutnabb-Kangas. Her "Linguistic Genocide in Education - or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights?" is not for the faint of heart. Quite frankly, I've always been fascinated by unilingualism (especially of the Anglo variety). I've encountered so many Canadians who wear unilingualism like a badge of honour and just assume that "English" is the "default universal language" (without questioning neo-colonialism or its consequences.) But, let's all move to Korea to teach ESL because that's surely going to make us all "one."

Currently reading / currently loving

Currently reading / currently loving

Oh. . .the title. . . the title alone does my heart and head in. LaRocque’s new book ought to be compulsory reading in Canada.

“In When the Other is Me, Dr. LaRocque brings a metacritical approach to Native writing, situating it as resistance literature within and outside the postcolonial intellectual context. She outlines the overwhelming evidence of dehumanization in Canadian historical and literary writing, its effects on both popular culture and Canadian intellectual development, and Native and non- Native intellectual responses to it in light of the interlayered mix of romanticism, exaggeration of Native “difference,” and the continuing problem of internalization that challenges our understanding of the colonizer/colonized relationship.”

Sometime ago, my dear friend Ana kindly sent me McCall Smith’s book. I finally began reading it over the weekend.

Lastly, I’m always looking for interesting book recommendations. But please, no self-help books (I will openly mock you), anything involving vampires, or thrillers (I find no entertainment value in stories revolving around murders).

Currently reading / currently loving

While I realize Brown's graphic novel is not an exhaustive study on the life of Louis Riel, why the glaring omission of women’s contributions towards this historic period? Also, why the overtly negative (albeit brief) representation of both Riel’s wife and the French nun? What gives?

Currently reading / currently loving

Yes, this blog is supposed to be defunct, but one last little book deserves immense praise. About two weeks ago, I came across Painter's book at my university's bookstore. I fell in love with the book's title, with the book's design, with the book's content. For some (un)reason, I decided to put off purchasing myself a copy. Mistake, #1. Yet as the days went by, I couldn't stop thinking about this book and by the time I returned to my university's bookstore it was sold out. Mistake, #2. Thanks to Chapters and their ability to deliver books in 24 hours, I now know what I'll be reading to avoid Easter (but surely not the chocolate).

What's the moral of this story? If you want a book, just buy the book.

"Ever since the Enlightenment, race theory and its inevitable partner, racism, have followed a crooked road, constructed by dominant peoples to justify their domination of others. Filling a huge gap in historical literature that long focused on the non-white, eminent historian Nell Irvin Painter guides us through more than two thousand years of Western civilization, tracing not only the invention of the idea of race but also the frequent worship of "whiteness" for economic, social, scientific, and political ends." - The History of White People, Nell Irvin Painter