July’s reading consisted largely of fiction, poetry, literary criticism, and comics. By the end of the month I’d reached 100 books read in 2012. 82. Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen (Picador, 2010) Huh. This is the second month I’ve entered this year reading Jonathan Frazen. I have no idea why. It’s not intentional. Like The Corrections, …
A varied month. 50. Twenty-Seventh City, by Jonathan Franzen (Picador , 1988, 2001) To backtrack, I really liked The Corrections, and thought The Discomfort Zone was pretty good, but I felt like I kept waiting for Twenty-Seventh City to make sense. At its most bare, it’s the story of a conspiracy by a group of people …
Better late than never. 105. Short Talks, by Anne Carson This is the first collection I’ve read from Carson, and these prose poems have turned me into a budding fan. I adored Short Talks and must read more from her. 106. 100 Jams, Jellies Preserves & Pickles, by Gloria Nicol On the surface the recipes …
As this is the fourth edition of Shelf Life, if you’ve been reading this blog with any regularity, you probably have a pretty good idea what it’s about. If you don’t, check out past editions for more info. I’m going to try to make this as brief as I can, as we’re almost halfway through …
Toronto’s often called a city of neighbourhoods. According to Wikipedia, there are more than 200 distinct neighbourhoods within its boundaries. One of my favourites is the Annex. I love it for its concentration of bookstores, coffee shops, sushi bars and cheap martinis on Wednesdays. My BFF and I started a little tradition (partly captured in …