In Review: The Week of September 26th

On the Blog

~ Writer Sally Ito helped us celebrate the publication of Joy Kogawa’s memoir Gently to Nagasaki. Looking back at her classic Obasan, Ito credits Kogawa as teaching her about Canadian identity and how that translates to the page. ~ Poet Jennifer Zilm shares the story about how her debut collection, Waiting Room, was actually written in many waiting rooms around Vancouver.~ We had a Guernica double-header this week with our Chappy Hour for Tidal Fury and our #fridayreads pick Max’s Folly

Around the Web

~ The Hollywood Reporter released their list of 25 Power Authors in advance of The Girl on the Train movie next weekend.~ Nuit Blanche is happening this weekend in Toronto and there’s a really interesting art installation by Luzinterruptus called Literature vs. Traffic, where a sea of books will take over the street “… with traffic yielding to the modest power of the written words.”~ Check out NPR staff recommendations based on the movies, podcasts, and books you love.

What We’re Reading

ALU Tech Manager Natasha is reading Testament by Vickie Gendreau (BookThug), after picking up a copy at Word on the Street last weekend.”I’ve been burning through Testament, and have to say it has a bit of everything I like in a book: hard-hitting topics (cancer, brain injury, death), wonderful prose (can’t stop thinking, “I close my eyes, I open my eyes,” a line throughout the book), and interesting characters/people. Vicki Gendreau writes with a sincere clarity (wonderfully translated by Aimee Wall) that speaks to her readers as if she were writing to them personally. Perhaps this is because the book is partially written to her friends, and through this we see her own way of dealing with death, through life, and making sense of it all. With this format, the issues become real, and you can’t help but wonder what you’d write to your friends and family with the limited time you have left.”