I had a book to review for today, but I put it aside. This was a sad day for me and the book I was going to review was not important. What was important to me was that, once again, a very capable woman was defeated in her run to become the President of the…
I am catching up on Helen Humphreys reading. Talking to a friend about Humphreys’ book The Ghost Orchard reminded me of a pile of her books on my shelf waiting to be read. I love Humphreys’ writing. It is the kind of writing that I want to read all the time and could devour too…
There is nothing worse than reading a book in which it seems as though the author hasn’t done their research. What kind of books are these, you ask? These are nonfiction books on a subject you know well that have so many factual errors that you feel you should read it with a red pencil.…
I subscribe to the New York Public Library blog posts. Their blogs are a wealth of knowledge for bibliophiles like me. The other day the post that caught my eye was this one on which books have the most checkouts. I thought that the list might provide me with something new to read. I was…
When I read Hege Lepri’s short story Things They Don’t Tell You, two parts of my life came together. One part of my life is medical and the other is writing. They are separate – sometimes I think that each is embarrassed about the other. The embarrassment is not their problem, however. It is my…
Bookstores can be some of my favourite places, but not all bookstores. To me, the best bookstores have 3 qualities: They are perfect places to browse. The best bookstores encourage clients to wander through their spaces. They give them good light and lots of space so that you can easily see titles and find specific…
I am presently reading Leah Price’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Books: The History and Future of Reading. I will review this book once I have finished reading it however, I keep getting waylaid in reading Price’s book by other material she recommends. Of the various articles and books recommended, I want…
Whenever I am contemplating getting gifts for my family at Christmas, or their birthdays, I usually arrange their gifts according to this list which I found a few years ago. According to this list, people should receive 4 types of gifts: Something they want. Something they need. Something to eat. Something to read. I find…
In Iceland, there is a tradition of exchanging books on Christmas Eve and then spending the evening reading. The Tradition began during World War II when publishers flooded the markets with books printed in Iceland at the end of the year. Imports were restricted in that time, but paper was available and so books could…
It is so complicated to send a Christmas gift book personally to a friend. We all know that Amazon allows you to send books quickly and without difficulty but the experience can be so impersonal. Imagine instead that one snowy day, close to Christmas, you go to your mailbox and find an envelope from a…
I wish I could be an American so that I could vote for Elizabeth Warren for President. I want to have the chance to vote for a strong woman, with policies I can agree with, who is over 70. Some of the main male candidates – and the President himself – are over 70 and…
I grew up in a small town in Quebec. There were no English books in the library then, and there likely aren’t any now. The one bookstore in town did not stock English books so that the only way I ever received a book was from my relatives in Ontario, or from Scholastic Books. Last…
There is nothing more exciting than getting mail! It is even better if the mail is a beautiful periodical – an example of masterful bookmaking. That is exactly what Making is. Making is published seasonally and contains “projects for knitters and makers”. As a knitter, I find that each issue contains very doable projects. I…
It seems to be difficult to find good books about marijuana. When you look at the selection, the most popular books seem to be aimed at gourmet cooks looking for this year’s marijuana flavor trend, or sufferers interested in how medicinal marijuana can help your rheumatism and backaches. If you’re a parent looking for guidance,…
In the last month since school started, I’ve asked the youth that I see in my practice which books they’d recommend reading to combat anxiety. They gave me such an interesting list that I thought I’d pass it along, instead of my usual weekly book review. To begin with, I was surprised at how many…
This book is the transcription of Tomson Highway’s 2015 Henry Kreisel Memorial Lecture. In the forward to the lecture, Christine Sokaymoh Frederick is quoted: “In this event we come together, listen with more than our ears, remove blinders and become part of the celebration, expand our thinking and feeling of inclusion, and build relationships.” (Page…
Belong: Find Your People, Create Community & Live a More Connected Life Is the best book for anyone trying to become part of a community or who wants to start their own community. In these times of activism, it is especially good to find a book that is a guide to getting involved and living…
Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America is the story of one American family and their plight when they try to improve their lot by allowing an energy company to use their land as part of their fracking operation in Pennsylvania. Within weeks of signing the deal, the family’s animals and they…
At the beginning of the school year, parents hope their children will have good teachers. Youth hope for the same but neither parents nor youth will find it easy to outline what qualities are essential in an effective teacher. I am going to do this by telling you about one of my son’s best teachers.…
Annie Lowrey is a contributing editor for The Atlantic. In Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World she examines the impact of giving people a stipend with no expectations. The amount she suggests – and that has been suggested by others – is $1000 per…
Just as the weather cooled this week and fall began, a cookbook arrived for me in the library – a cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi! When I opened the book, I found myself reading a recipe for “Mustardy cauliflower cheese”, called the “ultimate comfort dish” by the author. (Page 92) Since the temperature had fallen to…
I have spent the summer reviewing books for children and youth. As the summer ends, I am going to write about my favourite children’s book, thinking about my favourite author – and Madeleine L’Engle is my favourite author of all time. L’Engle wrote books for youth and adults. I think when this is the case,…
I have spent the summer reviewing books for children and teens. In a month when we have heard that the Amazon rainforest is burning, glaciers are melting and extreme weather is the norm, it seems only reasonable to review the iconic environmental advocacy book, The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss. Also, my consideration of children’s books…
I learn more about an artist from a book written for youth than I do from a book written for adults. If I think about it, the reason is that the authors of books for youth work much harder to illustrate their points with pictures while the adult books seem to rely more on words…
Originally published in 1964, I reread The Pushcart War to prepare for a summer trip to New York City. This is the story of how the owners of the small wooden pushcarts that sell anything and everything on New York City streets won the “war” against the truck owners who were trying to have them banned…
Last Monday I wrote a blog about activism and supporting young activists. One of the best ways that activists can be supported is by ensuring that they are well-nourished. This is the background to Julia Turshen’s book Feed the Resistance: Recipes and Ideas for Getting Involved. Turshen outlines the logic regarding this at the start…
This week’s book recommendation is for Charlotte in London by Joan MacPhail Knight and illustrated by Melissa Sweet. This book documents the diary of a young American girl on a trip from Giverny where her family is living to London one spring and summer in 1895. While the book is recommended for young people aged…
Do you remember warm summer nights that you spent reading when you were a teen? Can you remember being in a nice soft chair or a hammock and losing all sense of time as you read a wonderful story? The pages turned, almost without you being aware that it was you doing this. This is…
Chagall for Children, written by Helene Lamarche, presents a very artistic vision of the life of Marc Chagall. Told in a simple style, and illustrated with the artist’s own drawings and paintings, this is a book that will help children come to know this optimistic man and his astounding work. Chagall was an artist with…
The importance of this wonderful book is overwhelming. Its importance is not even outlined by the author, Robert Macfarlane, between its covers. To truly understand why this is such an important book, you must read the back cover: “ When the most recent edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary – widely used in schools around…
I am certain many readers will recognize the title of this book if they’re Canadian. They will remember the song by Wade Hemsworth that it is based on and they will certainly remember the animated short film The Log Driver’s Waltz that was released in 1979 and that many Canadian millennials learned in their childhood.…
In 1967, on the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, every town, city – even every neighbourhood – had a Centennial project. New buildings were built, the Ontario College System was founded and, when you’re visiting any town in Canada, you can bet that any public space with a name like “Centennial Arena” or “Centennial Park”…
I spent the first week of May in the Finger Lakes Knowing that this part of New York had a substantial Amish community, I decided that this was an opportune time to learn about that community. New York Amish: Life in the Plain Communities of the Empire State by Karen Johnson-Weiner recounts the history of…
Last month, to honour poetry month, I read James Longenbach’s How Poems Get Made. This is a very readable book that will teach you not only how to dissect a poem but also how to construct one. Longenbach provides definitions and examples of each element of a poem’s structure. I don’t think I have ever…
I was on holiday last week. In a bookstore in Ithaca, New York, I found the Anywhere Travel Guide: 75 Cards for Discovering the Unexpected, Wherever Your Journey Leads by Magda Lipka Falck. This is a deck of 75 cards, each containing a suggestion to follow to help you get to know or understand the…
This past week I read a book recommended to me by one of my teenage patients. “You said laughter is good for you,” he said, “Well, it’s hilarious!” This comes from a person who told me that my advice to read funny stories because it helps improve your mood is the best advice I’ve ever…
There is an independent publishing company, Microcosm Publishing, based in Portland, Oregon. This is a publishing company with an edge – have a look at their website and you’ll see what I mean. They publish some very interesting series of books, and maybe I will explore that more fully in the future, but today, I…
Have you ever wanted to skin a rabbit? Or make cheese? Perhaps that’s more self-sufficiency that you really want, but John Seymour’s The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It is still a guide that anyone can use if they wish to commit to a more simplified lifestyle. This book has excellent sections on growing…
Two great stories will occupy the minds of millions of humans today. Most of the people listening to these stories will have heard them many times before – and know that they will likely also hear them many more times before their life ends. Do you not also have stories that you read or listen…
Everyone who knows me would tell you that I love the various BBC programs about historical farms: Victorian Farm, Edwardian Farm, etc. One of the two archeologists in these series, Dr. Alex Langlands, has written a book, Craeft: How Traditional Crafts Are About More Than Just Making. What is important about this book for me…
As a Canadian doctor, my experience with the American health care system is limited. While the research evidence supports that we have an more equitable system that the United States, it is difficult to believe this when we Canadians are waiting for essential medical tests or procedures. We have the impression that, in the United…
This is the second book I have read in the last two months concerning the fear that robots and other machines powered by artificial intelligence will take over many professions in the next twenty years. Jay Richards’ book, The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines, the author reminded…
Meditation is an excellent practice for health and mental health, but it can be challenging to learn. Just Sit: A Meditation Guidebook for People Who Know They Should But Don’t is a book for anyone familiar with the challenge, but who wants to learn to meditate. The book is exactly what the title says. It…
I have been reading and considering the message of Streetopia for about one month. The book Streetopia provides an account of the exhibition Streetopia held in May 2012 in San Francisco. The exhibition was intended to be a celebration of the radical art and political movements in San Francisco since its founding. The book considers…
About 30 years ago, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole was one of my favourite books. I read it over and over. As a psychiatrist who sees adolescents, the reflections of Sue Townsend’s 13 year old hero reminded me of all my young patients – he still does today. However, the other element of this…
Joan Anderson became an inspiration to middle-aged women with her book A Year by the Sea. After the book became popular, Anderson started to host weekend retreats for women who needed to reconnect with themselves and find meaning in their lives. A Weekend to Change Your Life: Find Your Authentic Self After a Lifetime of…
“Tell me…about a book you love.” ( Page 9) This statement by the subject of this novel, Ajax Penumbra, to the narrator, Clay Jannon, is often a more difficult question to answer than it seems. In fact, each time I review a book here, I am trying to tell you, the reader, about a book…
Just before Christmas, I visited Edmonton for a weekend. To feed my Independent Bookstore habit, I sought out Audrey’s Books. As a souvenir, I found Carissa Halton’s Little Yellow House: Finding Community in a Changing Neighbourhood. I am pleased to add it to my bookshelf alongside Happy City and Streetopia. Whenever I read such books,…
With everyone concerned about burnout lately, and since I wanted to write something to promote personal mental health for Bell Let’s Talk Day next week, I reread one of my favourite Harvard Business Review articles from 2013. I have been remembering this article lately and wondering how it might inform our discussion about burnout, so…
Jonah Sachs’ Winning the Story Wars: Why those who tell – and live – the best stories will rule the future is a guide for anyone trying to get their message across in our information-overloaded world. Using insights from Jungian psychology and mythology, Sachs helps the reader to understand that you can change the world…
If you need something to read on a cold January evening or weekend, why no consider a mystery set in Victorian England? Old Scores was the first mystery I read by Will Thomas. As well as providing good entertainment, I learned something about Japan’s relationship with both England and America in the nineteenth century. Some…
I’m reviewing a very good book on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) – for children. This book was translated from French and was written by a Psychiatrist from Quebec who specializes in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Dr. Annick Vincent. My Brain Needs Glasses: Living with Hyperactivity is well-translated and very understandable. It is written so…
It will soon be Burns Night. Burns Night commemorates the birth, on January 25, 1759, of the Scottish poet, Robert Burns. The evening is celebrated with a traditional supper: haggis, bashed neeps and champit tatties. I find the lilting rhythms of Burns’ poetry very soothing and so every year I considering celebrating Burns Night, just…
Like many of you, I am spending some time this week reading, much more than usual since I have some time off for the holidays. One of my new books is an essay, The Gifts of Reading, contained in a small beautiful Penguin book, by Robert Macfarlane. Macfarlane is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.…
I am about to ruin my husband’s Christmas. I am going to review the book I bought for him and, since he gets this blog in his inbox, he’ll know all about this book before he gets it as a Christmas gift. Not to worry, though, he’ll still love to read it. Why will he…
Penelope Fitzgerald is an author whose work I have just begun to read. I reviewed The Bookshop a few weeks ago and this past week I have finished The Gate of Angels. Set in Cambridge in 1912, just before World War I, The Gate of Angels chronicles how an adventure of love. Fred Fairly is…
This is a book about Iowa written by a Swedish woman. I am going to review it, even though I am not sure how this could be possible. The edition I read was translated from Swedish and, since this was an international best seller, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend clearly had many happy readers.…
I had this book, edited by Allie Esiri, out of the library for about three weeks before I realized, “You’d better buy it.” Allie Esiri’s life work is poetry and short pieces of literature. Along with this book, she has edited A Book of Poems For Every Day of the Year and The Love Book, a collection of…
Last week, I picked up a copy of Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Bookshop while browsing in a Boston Bookstore. I had not previously heard of this author, but I was intrigued by her biography. She first published a book in her sixties. She won the Booker Prize at age 63 for her novel Offshore and was…
This book is a collection of short biographical articles about various creative people, from Maya Angelou to W.B. Yeats. Curry focuses in his essays on his subjects’ work habits and why they allowed them to be creative and productive. Exhaustively researched, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work contains an excellent bibliography and notes, allowing the reader…
As the dark days of winter approach, I often feel the need for a book of short reflections that can chase away the heaviness of spirit that winter can bring. If you can identify with this, then let me tell you about A Book of Uncommon Prayer. Theo Dorgan, an Irish poet, brings together “a…
If you can imagine yourself walking through the streets of Oxford, spending an afternoon in Bodleian Library and then eating your supper in a pub, and if your daydream then takes you to London to those timeless streets in Mayfair, then you are almost ready to spend a day or two in an English mystery…
For a change of pace, I thought I would review a new magazine I have discovered called Flow. Flow has this tagline: A magazine that takes its time. I picked my copy up in Britain, but Flow can be purchased in Canada and the United States or online at flowmagazine.com. I am still reading my…
Sometimes you open a book, read a few paragraphs and you know that it will be compelling. This paragraph, the second paragraph of Jackie Kai Ellis’ book, hooked me: “I could easily tell the happier, abbreviated versions of my memories, the ones with easy endings, because I assumed no one would be interested in the…
This book by a lawyer turned educator is a manual for parents concerned about their child’s development of values. Michael Parker makes every effort in this short book to cover any issue that a parent might want to consider in discussions with their child about an ethical approach to life and living. The book includes…
This book on aging collects a series of essays on the subject by journalist Michael Kinsley. While the essays are not gathered together as a unit particularly well, they do broach topics that all Baby Boomers will need to face over the next ten to twenty years. Because he has suffered from Parkinson’s Disease for…
I read Writing Down the Bones over the course of two weeks, but it felt to me that this was not appropriate for this book. This is a book to keep at your desk, to read one short chapter at a time, as a reflection or as a creative prompt. Of course, the author, Natalie…
On the frontispiece as you open Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, there is a map of Manhattan with a route through Midtown and Lower Manhattan marked out. The route has twelve stops, the stops of Lillian Boxfish’s walk on December 31, 1984. She leaves her apartment on December 31, 1984 and arrives back home on…
Set on an island in New England near Massachusetts and Rhode Island, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is summer reading. First, it is set in a summer place, an island in New England. Also, the main character, A. J. Fikry, owns a bookstore – isn’t a bookstore in a New England Island town a…
Do we all really wish we were living in a Scandinavian country? Last week, I reviewed The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World’s Happiest People. I have also read a book about Lagom this month and this immersion into Scandinavian living has me wondering why we are all so taken with…
Meik Wiking is the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen and the bestselling author of The Little Book of Hygge. I read this book and found it a bit shallow, so I was skeptical of this second book, The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search for the World’s Happiest People. This…
It was the picture of the lawn chair, with the rusting pipe frame, with the paint peeling, that drew me to Verlyn Klinkenborg’s The Rural Life. I found a book chronicling the months and the seasons of this writer’s life in several rural settings. Klinkenborg writes essays at times for the New York Times editorial…
A few weeks ago, I wrote Journaling and Mental Health to remind readers of the value of journaling. As a short guide to journaling, for both young adults and their parents, I recommend Keeping a Journal by Trudi Strain Trueit. This is a concise, clearly written text on the subject that can help anyone get…
When I learned that Anthony Bourdain had died by suicide on June 8, I wanted to look through some of his life’s work, to celebrate the great talent that we had lost with his death. No Reservations is a book developed out of Bourdain’s television program of the same name. The program was an innovative…
I have no reason to believe that I will die soon, and yet, I realize that I must begin to prepare for my demise since it would not be impossible for me to die tomorrow. My children are all grown and so it is also possible that I might someday like to move out of…
I heard Michael Redhill read from Bellevue Square during the televised Giller Awards. Other than listening to the brief reading, I knew nothing about the book other than the fact that its author won the Giller Prize for it and that it involved a woman and her doppelganger. That the book was a thriller with…
Sometime in the spring, a copy of the Montreal Review of Books arrived with the Saturday papers. I have a great weakness for these periodicals. The Montreal Review of Books (MRB) is published by the Association of English-Language Publishers of Québec. Like the best book review periodicals, MRB is beautifully produced on high quality paper.…
Every week or so, in this space, I will publish a review of a book I’ve read. There are excellent blogs about books and literature, such as Life of Chaz or Book Hub, Inc. I realize that I’m not a replacement for the New York Review of Books or the Times Literary Supplement. Maybe I’m…
When I am on holiday, I like to read a book that reminds me of the place where I am vacationing. I spent last week in Rhode Island and so I read Linda Greenlaw’s The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island. Greenlaw earned her reputation as a writer with her book The Hungry…
I am on holiday this week. I’m walking, knitting, reading and writing like I never do at home. During the past few days, I have read Rachael Matthews’ The Mindfulness in Knitting:Meditations in Craft and Calm. This reading continues my consideration of mindfulness and allowed me to understand how knitting can be a mindful as…
Later today I will leave for a holiday in the United States. At a time when many Canadians would boycott the United states, I will not. No matter what the President says, or how the Prime Minister responds, Canada and the United States are neighbours (We are neighbors, if you’re American.) More than that, we…
Natalie Goldberg has been assisting her students into a writing life for forty years. She has developed her own teaching series to do this, a teaching series captured in The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language. This is a peaceful book to read, a book that reminded me of the sanctity of the…
Tom Nichols’ The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters is one of those perfectly written nonfiction books in which a review of the Introduction will tell the reader the premise the author will examine, and in this manuscript, prove over the course of two hundred or so pages. Nichols…
I was in Vancouver this past week and, while I was visiting, I found an unusual guidebook. The Citi60 guide, Vancouver: 60 local creatives bring you the best of the city will introduce you to parts of the city that are not on the usual tourist routes. The landscape section took me to the Cornelia…
It is only within the last two weeks that my garden has sprung to life. With the bitter, and very long, winter that has just passed, evidence of spring in the garden was late arriving and, longing for fine weather, I found myself contemplating one of mt favourite garden books. The Morville Hours by Katherine…
Ironically, I read the first two chapters of Katrina Onstad’s The Weekend Effect: The Life-Changing Benefits of Taking Time Off and Challenging the Cult of Overwork over short periods crammed into an especially busy month. I read about the results of her research addressing the question “What is a weekend?” on weekends with limited personal…
I read Roxane Gay’s memoir about her life as a “morbidly obese” person in America in one day, tears streaming down my face on two airline flights and in 2 airport lounges. I could not have stopped reading. It was as if I believed that somehow, by reading her memoir, I might be able to…
Dr. Sherwin Nuland, an American Surgeon who worked at Yale University, wrote one for the best books on death in our own era. How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter was published in 1993 and is Nuland’s Socratic consideration on a subject which we must all contemplate sooner or later. Nuland considers this phase…
André Picard has been reporting on health and healthcare for The Globe for over thirty years. His book Matters of Life and Death: Public Health Issues in Canada is a collection of oeuvre from that period, focusing on some of the most important heath issues of that period and for Canada today. Apart from being…
In the past month, I have read 2 books that I believe helped me to contemplate men’s struggles in relationships. One of these books was a classic novel and the other was a nonfiction book on the impact books have had on an author’s life. The novel Giovanni’s Room was written by the American author…
One of the best parts of travelling is getting to know a new place. Yesterday was an especially cold day for April and I found myself longing for warmth and spring and vacations. I decided to write a review of books that I took on vacation to Vermont last year. So, if it’s still too…
Mohsin Hamid is originally from Pakistan, but it is clear from the Exit West dust jacket information that he can relate to migrancy: “ Born in Lahore, he (Hamid) has spent about half his life there and much of the rest in London, New York and California.” (Dust jacket of 2017 Riverhead Books hardcover edition…
The story of the friendship between Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky is the story of how our minds lead us to make mistakes. The Undoing Project: A friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis focuses on the relationship between two extraordinary psychologists. However, in telling the story of that relationship, Lewis educates the reader…
As International Women’s Day approaches, I wanted to mention a short book, adopted from a TEDx talk that you could read to reflect on what feminism means in this #MeToo age. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an award-winning novelist from Nigeria and she wrote We Should All Be Feminists. Adichie argues that “Boys and girls are…
In Eastern Ontario, this has been a winter for the record books: long periods of deep cold alternating with difficult periods of precipitation and very few days of temperatures that make for a pleasant walk. Just this past week the temperature fell 30 degrees within 12 hours and the precipitation turned from rain, to freezing…
I read The One Memory of Flora Banks (Author: Emily Barr at www.emilybarr.com) last weekend when I was on call at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. On a day when I was providing service to a busy emergency room, it grounded me to be considering the plight of a young person who had suffered…
Narcissism is a word that gets used a lot these days, mostly because of the American election, but I am absolutely going to say nothing else about that because I want to focus on the central message of Craig Malkin’s 2015 book Rethinking Narcissism: The Bad – and Surprisingly Good – About Feeling Special. This…
Stir: My Broken Brain and The Meals That Brought Me Home is a cross between a memoir and a cookbook. The theme, however, is not one that many can relate to, although the book will help the reader understand what it’s like to live recovering from a brain injury. At age 28, Jessica Fechtor was…
How would you cope if you or a loved one were suddenly struck with a condition that would affect the rest of your life? That would probably not get better and that would likely get worse? That is what happened to Richard Cohen at the age of 25 when he learned that he had Multiple…
Book: Malignant Metaphor: Confronting Cancer Myths by Alanna Mitchell (Toronto: ECW Press, 2015) Cancer is one of the mythological illnesses and in this spare, riveting book Alanna Mitchell confronts the myths that surround cancer diagnosis, treatment and living with cancer as few writers have done. To do this she uses the premise provided by Susan…
The book The Panic Virus by Seth Mnookin inspired my blogging project for the summer, which was vaccines. The author explores why the myth that vaccines cause developmental disorders persists despite extensive research that demonstrates just the opposite. http://sethmnookin.com/the-panic-virus/ Mnookin follows the course of a theory by a now discredited British gastroenterologist, Andrew Wakefield, that…
I cannot even remember how I found this book among the Ottawa Public Library’s lists, but I did and then was attracted to the subject as a matter of science. This is an informative book on an interesting subject that can easily be read on a snowy afternoon – preferably with a cappuccino. You will…
My favourite Christmas story is Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory. I first read it when I was ten in a Scholastic collection of Christmas stories and was completely entranced with the remarkable storytelling style of this man. Although I did not appreciate the significance at the time, In Cold Blood, Capote’s creative nonfiction examination of…
One way to pass the time on the subway is to look around and see what other riders are reading as they travel in the morning. I use the subway on the Yonge-University line in Toronto at least once a week . Other than a newspaper or magazine, I cannot imagine what it would be…
As a Child Psychiatrist, I read many books for children and adolescents so that I have books to recommend to parents and my patients, or to adults who want to purchase books for children and youth. Summer is the best time for reading and I have two wonderful books to recommend. (Note: If you live…
At the end of June, I read two books about widows. One was fiction and the other was non-fiction, an account of a support group developed by an American journalist for widows. The novel, The Lost Husband by Katherine Center, also explores the nature of the support that helps widows. For those for whom stories…
This is the best book I have read about Canada since I read A Tremendous Canada of Light by B.W. Powe in 1990. Griffiths is a co-founder of the Dominion Institute. He set out with two friends, Michael Chong and Erik Penz, to develop an institute that “would advance the idea that the foundations of…
Book Review: Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What is Right for You by Jerome Groopman, M.D. and Pamela Hartzband, M.D. One of the most important aspects of this book is how timely it is. With so many Baby Boomers developing health problems, or assisting their parents with health problems, a book that helps people…