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Something like a cross between Patti Smith’s Just Kids, Educated and Glass Houses, a rock and roll memoir as much fairy tale as it is a coming of age story.
While I’m a fan of Case’s music, this is one of those memoirs where it doesn’t matter if you’d recognize any of her work at all. Case grew up hardscrabble in the Pacific Northwest with a dysfunctional family (to put it mildly). She could easily have ended up living in a double wide for the rest of her days, at best, but punk, music, horses and to a not insignificant degree Canada saved her.
I love and very much agree with the following from George Yatchisin in the California Review of Books: “somehow by the book’s end Case gets well past just the me in memoir, instead underlining the our in it. It’s a kind of prayer, kin to communion. Like everyone in a bar together huddled inside the sound of one song.”
Adult Non-Fiction pr7778734
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Spent: A Comic Novel by Alison Bechdel
Autofiction told in graphic novel format by the author of Are You My Mother?
There’s a lot going on here, with pygmy goats, procrastination, old friends forming a throuple, the pernicious influence of social media and reality TV. A hilarious, tender-hearted one sitting read.
Adult Graphic Novel pr7859158
How to Survive a Bear Attack by Claire Cameron
A melange of memoir, true crime and nature writing, Cameron investigates a bear attack taking place in Ontario’s Algonquin Park in 1991, alongside her own diagnosis with the same kind of skin cancer that killed her father.
Go to CBC to read an excerpt, and hear Cameron being interviewed on The Current.
Adult Non-Fiction pr7749879
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Box Office Poison: Hollywood's Story in a Century of Slops by Tim Robey
An entertaining look at 26 of Hollywood’s biggest flops, by the film and entertainment critic for The Telegraph.
Robey’s wit, combined with an encyclopedic knowledge of film, makes for a fun read filled with insight and history that even the most ardent cineaste should enjoy.
Adult Non-Fiction Hardcover pr7571255
The Note: A Novel by Alafair Burke
Three best friends meet for a holiday in the Hamptons, that goes wrong after a seemingly innocuous prank.
PW called this standalone from bestselling Burke a disappointment, while LJ says that the author’s trademark style creates suspense but her flawed characters may turn readers off. I disagree, having found this a perfect read it and forget it thriller for a one sitting read over the holidays, that cleansed my reading palate between heavier NF titles. A great book to take along on a winter holiday.
Adult Fiction Hardcover pr7728094