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I read Canadian
Jul. 1st, 2024 02:39 pmHappy Canada Day! In honour of the occasion, I'm wearing my red and white "I Read Canadian" T-shirt.
I Read Canadian Day will not actually happen until November 6. You can learn more at ireadcanadian.com
While the I Read Canadian initiative is devoted specifically to getting Canadian books into the hands of young people in Canada, I believe it is equally important for the adults who live here to include Canadian content in their literary diets.
With that in mind, I'll suggest a few Canadian books I've read recently, and which I definitely think are worth a read.
1. Laughing on the Outside: The Life of John Candy, by Martin Knelman
If you enjoyed SCTV - the TV show or the comedy club; if you watched any of the John Candy movies, like Trains, Planes and Automobiles, or Uncle Buck; if you're a fan of the Toronto Argonauts... you'll like this book. I was fairly familiar with a lot of his work, but knew nothing about who he was as a person, and this gave me some new insights. It's also a sad story, of course; like far too many people in the entertainment industry, he died much too early, at the age of 43.
2. Mike Harris Made Me Eat My Dog, by Linwood Barclay, with illustrations by Steve Nease
A hilarious send-up of life in Ontario while Mike Harris was the Premier. Perhaps a little too true-to-life for those of us who lived through those days. And in many ways depressingly similar to conditions in Ontario now. As an example, he provides a list of 10 things you can do while waiting in the hospital Emergency room, beginning with:
1. Read War and Peace
2. Move on to Moby Dick
3. Bring along a copy of The Common Sense Revolution and look for the place where they promised the week-long emergency room wait
and ending with:
9. Start making flyers for the Liberal or NDP candidate in your riding
10. Bleed
3. Tough on Crime: The Novel, by David Holdsworth
And this one is a hilarious send-up of life under a federal Conservative régime bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Stephen Harper days. Unlike the book I cited above, this one doesn't use real names. The Prime Minister is named Lawrence J Chamberlain. The story is set in Ottawa, Gatineau and the fictional Quebec town of Riverdale-Trois Moufettes. Cannabis has not yet been legalized. The Government is determined to get tough on crime and to that end proposes to build a new Megaprison - in Gatineau Park. Naturally there's a certain amount of resistance to this idea... well, just read the book. I promise you, it has a happy ending!
4. Health for All: A Doctor's Prescription for a Healthier Canada, by Jane Philpott
After all the uproarious satire, I thought I'd include a serious title here. This is a wonderfully well-written and well-organized book about health care and health equity. And it's much more than is suggested by its subtitle! The most prescriptive aspect, I suppose, would be the notion of enshrining in law universal access to primary care (a family doctor) as a fundamental human right. Just as kids have a right to public education up to grade 12. But the book is much more than that. It's at once philosophical and practical. At times it's intensely, painfully personal. She describes the years she worked with Médecins sans frontieres in Niger, the loss of one of her daughters to meningococcemia, and other personal tragedies and how they have shaped her life. She talks about her time in politics, her time as a family doctor and her role as Professor of Family Medicine and Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen's University in Kingston.
5. The Vampire Cat & Poems by Robert Thomas Payne (a collection by marty smith, 2023 gsmp)
I bought this one direct from the author, on Queen Street West in Toronto. I was drawn to the booklet by its cover, which sports a vignette of a black cat. We had a brief conversation, during which I learned he was living in a tent with his cat. He autographed it for me and added the words "Keep calm and mew on, eh?" and a little cat-face.
Later, I looked him up online and learned some more of his story:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12244354/
Anyway, the above recommendations are just some things I've enjoyed reading lately and should in no way be construed as an exhaustive survey ofCanadian literature!
I Read Canadian Day will not actually happen until November 6. You can learn more at ireadcanadian.com
While the I Read Canadian initiative is devoted specifically to getting Canadian books into the hands of young people in Canada, I believe it is equally important for the adults who live here to include Canadian content in their literary diets.
With that in mind, I'll suggest a few Canadian books I've read recently, and which I definitely think are worth a read.
1. Laughing on the Outside: The Life of John Candy, by Martin Knelman
If you enjoyed SCTV - the TV show or the comedy club; if you watched any of the John Candy movies, like Trains, Planes and Automobiles, or Uncle Buck; if you're a fan of the Toronto Argonauts... you'll like this book. I was fairly familiar with a lot of his work, but knew nothing about who he was as a person, and this gave me some new insights. It's also a sad story, of course; like far too many people in the entertainment industry, he died much too early, at the age of 43.
2. Mike Harris Made Me Eat My Dog, by Linwood Barclay, with illustrations by Steve Nease
A hilarious send-up of life in Ontario while Mike Harris was the Premier. Perhaps a little too true-to-life for those of us who lived through those days. And in many ways depressingly similar to conditions in Ontario now. As an example, he provides a list of 10 things you can do while waiting in the hospital Emergency room, beginning with:
1. Read War and Peace
2. Move on to Moby Dick
3. Bring along a copy of The Common Sense Revolution and look for the place where they promised the week-long emergency room wait
and ending with:
9. Start making flyers for the Liberal or NDP candidate in your riding
10. Bleed
3. Tough on Crime: The Novel, by David Holdsworth
And this one is a hilarious send-up of life under a federal Conservative régime bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Stephen Harper days. Unlike the book I cited above, this one doesn't use real names. The Prime Minister is named Lawrence J Chamberlain. The story is set in Ottawa, Gatineau and the fictional Quebec town of Riverdale-Trois Moufettes. Cannabis has not yet been legalized. The Government is determined to get tough on crime and to that end proposes to build a new Megaprison - in Gatineau Park. Naturally there's a certain amount of resistance to this idea... well, just read the book. I promise you, it has a happy ending!
4. Health for All: A Doctor's Prescription for a Healthier Canada, by Jane Philpott
After all the uproarious satire, I thought I'd include a serious title here. This is a wonderfully well-written and well-organized book about health care and health equity. And it's much more than is suggested by its subtitle! The most prescriptive aspect, I suppose, would be the notion of enshrining in law universal access to primary care (a family doctor) as a fundamental human right. Just as kids have a right to public education up to grade 12. But the book is much more than that. It's at once philosophical and practical. At times it's intensely, painfully personal. She describes the years she worked with Médecins sans frontieres in Niger, the loss of one of her daughters to meningococcemia, and other personal tragedies and how they have shaped her life. She talks about her time in politics, her time as a family doctor and her role as Professor of Family Medicine and Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen's University in Kingston.
5. The Vampire Cat & Poems by Robert Thomas Payne (a collection by marty smith, 2023 gsmp)
I bought this one direct from the author, on Queen Street West in Toronto. I was drawn to the booklet by its cover, which sports a vignette of a black cat. We had a brief conversation, during which I learned he was living in a tent with his cat. He autographed it for me and added the words "Keep calm and mew on, eh?" and a little cat-face.
Later, I looked him up online and learned some more of his story:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12244354/
Anyway, the above recommendations are just some things I've enjoyed reading lately and should in no way be construed as an exhaustive survey ofCanadian literature!
