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Literary Toronto
Mar. 17th, 2024 04:24 pmSo on Wednesday, I went to Toronto for a few literary activities. I had signed up for a lunch and tour on the Thursday with some of my Ex Libris Association colleagues, centred around the Yorkville area.
My train actually arrived ahead of schedule to a beautiful sunny, warm day and as it was still too early to check into the hotel, I took the subway all the way up to Davisville and went for a walk along Mount Pleasant Road to the recently-opened Inhabit Books. It's quite small but very inviting, with an excellent selection of both adults' and children's books in both English and Inuktitut. But conscious as I was that I would have to lug any books I bought back to Ottawa, I tried very hard to limit my choices!
I ended up buying: an Inuktitut-English dictionary; a beautifully illustrated children's book called The Other Ones, by Jamesie Fournier, illustrated by TomaFeizo Gas; Elements, a bilingual book of poetry (Inuktitut on one side of the page spread, English on the other), also by Jamesie Fournier; and a memoir by Larry Audlaluk, What I Remember, What I Know: The Life of a High Arctic Exile.
Did I mention that Inhabit is not just a bookstore but also a publisher? For more information, see www.Inhabitmedia.com
By then it was late enough to check into the hotel, so off I went back to the subway. It was also getting into rush hour and as I got into the train, one leg gave way beneath me and momentarily got wedged between train and platform before somebody helped me to un-jam my foot, thereby averting what could have been a major disaster! I assured the nice young man that I didn't need any first aid or other medical attention and after a couple of minutes' delay, we were all on our way.
I checked into my hotel without further mishap and spent the evening unpacking, relaxing and watching TV.
The Ex Libris activities on Thursday involved lunch at The Pilot, followed by visits to the Metro Toronto Reference Library and the Yorkville Public Library in the afternoon. But before meeting the others for lunch, I had time to stop into Glad Day Books on Church Street, grab a coffee and browse their collection.
I really love that area of Toronto, although unfortunately the weather wasn't as great as the day before. Still, I saw some people I hadn't seen in years. We had our own separate room at the restaurant too, which facilitated conversation.
Late afternoon saw me heading back to my temporary home base, where I had a light snack and changed into some warmer clothes before heading out yet again into a rainy evening.
It was purely by chance that my visit to Toronto coincided with a double book launch by BookHug press at Type Books on Queen Street West. But I decided it was an opportunity not to be missed.
The book that really intrigued me was Blue Notes, a thriller by Anne Cathrine Bomann, a Danish psychologist and novelist who was in Toronto for the launch of the English translation of her book. It centres around the idea of prolonged grief as a form of mental illness. And what if a pill could be developed to "cure" people of that grief? In the book, a fictional pharmaceutical company claims to have done just that, trials are conducted and analyzed at a university and one of the researchers looking at the statistics notices what look like some disturbing side effects in those who have benefited most from the drug. The basic question it raises: in overcoming their grief, have these patients lost their capacity for empathy and even veered into psychopath territory?
I mostly read the book on the train trip back to Ottawa on Friday, finished it yesterday, and found it absolutely gripping!
The other book being launched (or actually re-launched in an expanded version) was a book of short stories called How You Were Born. That too sounded interesting and I may try to get hold of it at the library.
Overall, it was a fascinating two-day getaway.
My train actually arrived ahead of schedule to a beautiful sunny, warm day and as it was still too early to check into the hotel, I took the subway all the way up to Davisville and went for a walk along Mount Pleasant Road to the recently-opened Inhabit Books. It's quite small but very inviting, with an excellent selection of both adults' and children's books in both English and Inuktitut. But conscious as I was that I would have to lug any books I bought back to Ottawa, I tried very hard to limit my choices!
I ended up buying: an Inuktitut-English dictionary; a beautifully illustrated children's book called The Other Ones, by Jamesie Fournier, illustrated by TomaFeizo Gas; Elements, a bilingual book of poetry (Inuktitut on one side of the page spread, English on the other), also by Jamesie Fournier; and a memoir by Larry Audlaluk, What I Remember, What I Know: The Life of a High Arctic Exile.
Did I mention that Inhabit is not just a bookstore but also a publisher? For more information, see www.Inhabitmedia.com
By then it was late enough to check into the hotel, so off I went back to the subway. It was also getting into rush hour and as I got into the train, one leg gave way beneath me and momentarily got wedged between train and platform before somebody helped me to un-jam my foot, thereby averting what could have been a major disaster! I assured the nice young man that I didn't need any first aid or other medical attention and after a couple of minutes' delay, we were all on our way.
I checked into my hotel without further mishap and spent the evening unpacking, relaxing and watching TV.
The Ex Libris activities on Thursday involved lunch at The Pilot, followed by visits to the Metro Toronto Reference Library and the Yorkville Public Library in the afternoon. But before meeting the others for lunch, I had time to stop into Glad Day Books on Church Street, grab a coffee and browse their collection.
I really love that area of Toronto, although unfortunately the weather wasn't as great as the day before. Still, I saw some people I hadn't seen in years. We had our own separate room at the restaurant too, which facilitated conversation.
Late afternoon saw me heading back to my temporary home base, where I had a light snack and changed into some warmer clothes before heading out yet again into a rainy evening.
It was purely by chance that my visit to Toronto coincided with a double book launch by BookHug press at Type Books on Queen Street West. But I decided it was an opportunity not to be missed.
The book that really intrigued me was Blue Notes, a thriller by Anne Cathrine Bomann, a Danish psychologist and novelist who was in Toronto for the launch of the English translation of her book. It centres around the idea of prolonged grief as a form of mental illness. And what if a pill could be developed to "cure" people of that grief? In the book, a fictional pharmaceutical company claims to have done just that, trials are conducted and analyzed at a university and one of the researchers looking at the statistics notices what look like some disturbing side effects in those who have benefited most from the drug. The basic question it raises: in overcoming their grief, have these patients lost their capacity for empathy and even veered into psychopath territory?
I mostly read the book on the train trip back to Ottawa on Friday, finished it yesterday, and found it absolutely gripping!
The other book being launched (or actually re-launched in an expanded version) was a book of short stories called How You Were Born. That too sounded interesting and I may try to get hold of it at the library.
Overall, it was a fascinating two-day getaway.
