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Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li
There are few writers I know who have mastery and full control over words as Yiyun Li. This qualification, I believe is necessary when you write two books upon the loss of two sons to suicide. The first book Where Reasons End is written for Vincent. The second, Things in Nature Merely Grow is for James, and captures - with sparse prose the essence of losing James, the sense of losing oneself within loss - not a loss of control, nor a loss of conserving emotions, but as falling into an abyss. Li is in full control of her emotions and presents the story of James, of family past, present and future with a clear voice that is spared adjectives because as she writes, James was direct and preferred logic. Li describes this as the now and now and now where children die, and parents go on living. As a reader the abyss is palpable, and haunting as the narrator realizes there is no freeing oneself from the abyss, but shall forever merely carry on in a Sisyphean motion. It is a book best allowed to breath, so the words can carry their full weight - though only 172 pages it is a clear eyed tome. -Mike Clark Acquisitions Associate
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Rough Description : love letters and ghost stories from a life in music by Don Pyle
There are many ways to approach writing one’s history. The most obvious is to start at point A and travel to point B. Don Pyle has a lot to write about as a gay man growing up in Toronto during the 1980s, and has chosen to a messier path where events interlock, shift and evolve into something much bigger. What we learn about the drummer from Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet and Pyle’s life in music carries more weight because we learn alongside Pyle as he remembers events and people. Like a good drummer whose rhythm propels the band, music propels Rough Description, events and people come into focus and take their solos – many become ghosts: Louie Beeson, Reid Diamond, Wendy Coburn, Steve Albini and Dallas Good. While many events are tragic, Pyle never loses his sense of humor to remind readers of forgotten things without being overbearing: the 1980s AIDS epidemic, rampant homophobia, and an intolerant United States. Some readers may even find themselves back at a long forgotten Shadowy Men’s show. In the end readers feel the complete sense of Pyle’s world and the deep love that he has for the life he has created. As a long time fan of Pyle’s music, it was a joy to see him at Kitchener Public Library. -Mike Clark Acquisitions Associate
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A look at cold water swimming, from solo and community quick dippers to events organized by the nascent International Ice Swimming Association, held around the world.
As with “Born to Run,” this is very much a character study of fascinating outliers and eccentrics, along with those dealing with trauma, from the famous (Lynne Cox, Wim Hoff), prize winning (a US Olympic swim team member) and everyday (a CDN getting over the loss of his wife). It also, much like James Nestor’s “Breath” is filled with very readable popular science in greater depth with historical and current research. I haven’t had a book more fun to read than this, year to date.
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Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
A satirical noir in the form of a 1930s private eye thriller that looks at the emerging threats of fascism and new technologies, this is the Great American cheese novel you didn’t know you needed.
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London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe
A melange of true crime, history, political science and the portrait of a family, London Falling is another masterclass in narrative non-fiction from the author of Say Nothing.
A young man leaves the balcony of a luxury apartment building in central London; did he commit suicide, was he coerced or murdered? Zac Brettler clips the embankment and ends up on in the mud, rather than the River Thames. The story of what lead up to this moment and its aftermath is filled with fascinating and insightful twists, turns and backgrounds, not just into the life of Brettler and his family, but “the glitzy, mercenary aspirational culture of modern London.” A fascinating read.
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Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies: A Novel by Lindsay Wong
An utterly original work of social satire and horror, leavened with dark humour, by the author of The Woo-Woo, a Canada Reads nominee.
A 25 year old single woman signs away her life to a matchmaking service that caters to the ancient tradition of corpse marriages. We learn what lead her to this decision, her training and experiences waiting for a match while being held captive in the gloomy Zhong caves of Beijing, and the story of her grandmother, from 1920s China to the occupation of the Japanese in Hong Kong and time spent in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
“Villain Hitting” looks at the cultural hopes and expectations placed on Chinese women, and the constant struggles of economic precarity within a framework that defies genre boundaries. While this will likely be too dark and weird for many, I’d call it an immediate cult classic.
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A wonderfully broad and digressive look at trees in biology, history and culture. This nature writing at its finest, comparable to Charles Bowden, and Barry Lopez, that combines philosophy, biology and reportage, in original ways.
Note that while American by birth, Moor lives in Halfmoon Bay, BC and hopes to stay forever. In Trees includes chapters on an environmental tree-sit protest in Burnaby, as well as at Fairy Creek BC.
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A look at the experience of sickness and our cultural adaptations to it, from the dawn of recorded history right up to modern times.
A very entertaining and accessible read, although a frightening one at times, such as when Bauer documents the rise of antibiotic resistant disease, and the reappearance of maladies, thanks to anti-vax behaviours, once thought largely eradicated. It’s fascinating to look at disease over the course of centuries, and our reactions to it, albeit somewhat depressing at times (we often seem like our own worst enemy). This would be a great pick for book clubs.
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The Final Score: Six Short Novels by Don Winslow
A collection of six novellas from the author of Savages, City in Ruins and The Power of the Dog.
A master of dialogue and verisimilitude in crime fiction, these stories touch on the strain of familial responsibility, loyalty, and friendship. As always, the joy in reading Winslow comes from his writing style, which moves at a fast, seemingly effortless clip. Readers shouldn’t skip the brief forward by Reed Farrel Coleman, who does a great job of breaking down what makes Winslow one of the best crime fiction writers of our time.
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