Monday, September 12 2011
Zen and the Art of Motorcycling in Neil Peart’s ‘Far and Away’
Reading Far and Away is like taking a personal journey with a good friend who has a great yarn to tell you about his globetrotting trips around the world.
Friday, September 9 2011
‘Life Itself’, From One of the Few Writers of the Modern Era Who Can Express Joy Without Schmaltz
Roger Ebert describes the movie of his life, lending his unique outlook to his childhood, his relationship with Gene Siskel, and his recent battle with cancer.
Monday, June 13 2011
‘Roadie: My Life on the Road with Coldplay’: It’s All About the Beck’s
Matt McGinn has been a roadie for Coldplay for more than a decade. Roadie: My Life on the Road with Coldplay is exactly what it sounds like, and, according to Coldplay, "half of this book is probably true."
Monday, May 2 2011
88 Highly Debatable Statements About ‘Reality’ in ‘Reality Hunger’
When I review a book, I like to dog-ear pages that contain interesting passages or noteworthy statements. By the time I was done with Reality Hunger, my paperback was so puffed up by pages that were doubled in width from dog-earing that it looked like I'd dropped it into a hot bath filled with Calgon and then left it to dry on a radiator.
Monday, March 7 2011
‘Disaster Preparedness’ Needed Some Memoir Preparedness
If art is seduction, as Susan Sontag reminds us, in the case of memoir-writing let it be said that the memoir cannot seduce another when the author is too busy seducing herself.
Tuesday, December 7 2010
‘Love in a Headscarf’: True Love Will Find You in the End
This memoir is written like a British Muslim version of Sex and the City, just without the fashion porn – unless, of course, wearing the hijab can be considered to be just as fashionable as it is spiritual.
Thursday, September 9 2010
‘Nothing Left to Burn’: Rising From the Ashes of a Family Legacy
A story of a family’s twisted relationship to fire and the protagonist's gradual recognition of his legacy.
Thursday, June 17 2010
‘Cigar Box Banjo’ Is a Nice Parting Gift From One of Canada’s Most Talented Writers
Cigar Box Banjo is less a memoir than it is an epitaph: Paul Quarrington wanted to be taken seriously as a bluesman, less so as an author.
Thursday, April 8 2010
Invisible by Hugues De Montalembert
This is a thought-provoking book, and I walked away from it thinking I knew a little bit more about myself and the world around me.
Tuesday, March 30 2010
The Ticking is the Bomb by Nick Flynn
Flynn’s obsessive nature may force his locomotive mind off the rails, but he dutifully and beautifully records what’s illuminated by the sparks.
