You never know what you will find with a keen eye in a good library. While library databases bring the world of academic publications to your fingertips, there’s something about wandering the stacks, leafing through covers, and stumbling across unexpected gems that the library website’s “Browse the Shelf” function just[Read More…]
Tag: literature
To read or not to read?
Montreal’s independent bookstores offer readers a hearty supplement for their cultural and intellectual curiosities. Walking into each store feels like meeting a new character, each built from the ground up with unique qualities they hope to share with readers, if you’re willing to get to know them. To show you[Read More…]
Sleep to dream: In defense of napping
If you know me, you are aware that I suffer from a serious problem—one that strains friendships, disrupts schedules, and even alters the very fabric of reality. I am too often caught with indented lines strewn across my cheek like battle scars, my hair a knotted mess, and drool crusted[Read More…]
Is ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ a textbook for life?
If you had asked me at age 10 what I most wanted to be, I would’ve said a demigod. No series has ever commanded my attention and captured my affections the way that Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians saga has. His world dances along the cusp of reality[Read More…]
Mothers, daughters, and the spaces in between
Hanna Stoltenberg’s debut novel Near Distance is a quiet look at a mother and daughter occupied by different concerns. Karin, the mother, is worried she is losing her youth, and Helene, the daughter, is worried she’s turning out like her mother. They struggle to bridge this emotional gap between them;[Read More…]
Remembering Alice Munro
Alice Munro died on May 13, and I ate half a grapefruit every morning for the next week. I first encountered the acclaimed author’s work in school, as Canadians often do. I remember enjoying her stories—particularly the landscapes within them—but was not yet entirely engrossed. Then moments began to emerge[Read More…]
A letter to lonely writers: Words of wisdom from Heather O’Neill
“Oh here comes the torture” and “oh what crap” are phrases that acclaimed author Heather O’Neill uses to describe the harrowing experience of reciting passages from her novels in public. She is McGill’s Writer-In-Residence, known for her debut novel Lullabies for Little Criminals, which won Canada Reads (2007) and When[Read More…]
’Until August’ —published against the late author’s wishes—revisits desire
“Memory was my source material and my tool. Without it, there’s nothing.” Gabriel García Márquez began to write Until August toward the end of his life. It was intended to be part of a much longer work, cut short by García Márquez’s battle with dementia. His final verdict was absolute:[Read More…]
The Help, Yellowface, and the case against literary gatekeeping
In the past decade alone, numerous fan-favourite books have gone from receiving public adoration to being utterly despised. Many critics of the best-selling novel The Help, in which a white woman depicts the lives of Black maids, have accused author Kathryn Stockett of perpetuating stereotypes and exploiting anti-Black racism, prompting[Read More…]
Revisiting Lucy Maud Montgomery
I didn’t grow up by the sea. It’s strange that it elicits nostalgia from me—I hadn’t even visited the East Coast until last summer. But it also makes a lot of sense: I spent a good portion of my childhood within books, and many days with Anne Shirley. It started[Read More…]