Station Eleven

Much of Emily St. John Mandel’s STATION ELEVEN takes place twenty years after the collapse of modern society due to a lethal and vicious pathogen named The Georgian Flu. The novel follows a group of survivors, dubbed “The Travelling Symphony”; a troupe of musicians and actors who commute from settlement to settlement performing Shakespeare alongside…

Closing SYSCO

Lachlan MacKinnon’s CLOSING SYSCO examines the tumultuous life of the Sydney Steel Plant; its ups and downs and the impact it had on the surrounding community both positive and negative. Being from Sydney myself, I’ve always been curious about the Steel Plant. Like many my age, I have perhaps a basic understanding of its economic…

Fabric of the Game

In FABRIC OF THE GAME, Chris Creamer and Todd Radom provide a brief overview of each NHL team as well as how they came to their name and the evolution of their on-ice look. As a self-proclaimed jersey and sports logo geek, I jumped at the chance to grab this when I discovered it.  FABRIC…

Son of Elsewhere

As a child in the 90s, Elamin Abdelmahmoud emigrated along with his parents from Sudan to Canada. In SON OF ELSEWHERE, Elamin authors a series of essays in which he explores growing up in a new country, learning a new language and culture while also finding his own identity along the way. To be honest,…

Christmas Past

A number of years ago I stumbled across Brian Earl’s podcast CHRISTMAS PAST during my seemingly never-ending search for additional Christmas content. Brian’s podcast explores the long-standing traditions which make up the holiday seasons while also trying to uncover their often elusive origins. The episodes are pretty short, usually under fifteen minutes each, but pack…

Feel The Bern

Continuing in the vein of his Obama/Biden mystery series, author Andrew Shaffer takes democratic socialist and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders into the realm of the cozy mystery genre. Sanders and political intern Crash Robertson arrive in Eagle Creek as Bernie is set to take part in several events surrounding one of the town’s annual festivals.…

SMASH

SMASH follows author Ian Winwood through years of research, writing and interviews surrounding the 90s explosion in punk music. Earlier this year, I read Dan Ozzi’s SELLOUT, a book that looked at the major label feeding frenzy that swept punk, emo and hardcore music in the 90s and 2000s. While SMASH covers a lot of…