By: Tabitha Keast
By the time you read this, two publishing juggernauts will have hit the stores, sucking up most of the September book release limelight like a pair of big black holes: Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, and the latest from Stephenie Meyer in her Twilight series, The Twilight Saga: Official Guide.
Kudos to the authors and enjoy the piles and piles of money, but it be-
hooves the curious reader to avoid being sucked into the mayhem because
this fall is about more than freemasons and vampires. It’s also about poetry, and wonderful food, and practical advice, and learning to live without toilet paper — and, most especially, it’s about Leonard Cohen, whose prose puts many writers to shame and who, most will agree, is cooler than any vampire.
But first, let’s talk about how Joy is So Exhausting, at least the way poet
Susan Holbrook experiences it. Produced by Coach House Books, this Octo-
ber release is funny. That’s right: poetry can be funny. In fact, this collection isn’t just funny, it’s “a chocolate-covered artificially intelligent virus with an impish sense of humour that will continue to replicate in your mind longafter initial exposure.” But her work goes beyond the giggle as Holbrook turns humour on its head and “punch lines become sucker punches”. If you haven’t tried poetry, then this is a good place to start.
Another title from Coach House is The Edible City: Toronto’s Food from
Farm to Fork. This collection of essays, edited by Christina Palassio and
Alana Wilcox, explores the hypothesis that what the people of a city eat, and how they go about feeding themselves, says much about the character of the city itself. In short: food culture as culture, and the stories that these essays tell “form a saucy picture of how Toronto — and, by extension, every city — sustains itself, from growing basil on balconies to four-star restaurants.”
This next one was a spring release but it’s so damn good that it deserves to
be thrown into the mix: 101 Things To Do Before You Diet, by Mimi Spencer,
winner of the British Fashion Council Award for Fashion Writer of the Year
in 2000. So she knows a thing or two, and she knows how to write about it
without making you feel like a flabby, guilt-ridden failure. Her intention is to
help you make friends “with your jeans, your butter dish, your waist, your
world...the woman you are now is just as fabulous as the woman you want to be. Huzzah! Just in time for Thanksgiving.
If you’re looking to go a bit more hardcore than just swearing off sweets,
try doing without…well, anything. In the McClelland & Stewart September
release, No Impact Man, The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts
to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our
Way of Life in the Process, author Colin Beavan documents the year that he
spent off the grid while living in New York City. His challenge was to eliminate producing any toxins or trash, which, among other things, meant cutting himself off from electricity — all with the goal of living the ultimate no-impact lifestyle in the middle of one of the world’s most conspicuously consumerist cities. And to make it even more fun he dragged his baby daughter and “Prada-wearing, Four Seasons-loving wife along for the ride”. Three words: no toilet paper. And they’re still married.
And if the beauty in that minor miracle doesn’t impress you then you
need to warm your heart with the King of Cool, Leonard Cohen. A little gift
this September from McClelland & Stewart, the Collector’s Edition of The
Favourite Game / Beautiful Losers brings together two of Cohen’s acclaimed
novels to mark the 75th birthday of Canada’s iconic poet, novelist and singer-songwriter. Originally published in 1963, The Favourite Game is cited as “one of the 10 best Canadian novels of the 20th century.” (Globe and Mail). Apparently, it’s better than Catcher in the Rye which isn’t surprising because J. D. Salinger is cool but not as cool as Cohen. And Beautiful Losers? Hailed as a masterpiece upon its publication in 1966, this novel chronicles an intense love triangle where “Cohen assaults the reader with words, images, pyrotechnics and love. It’s a raging, poetic, highly personal and eminently readable book.” (Toronto Star). Happy Birthday, Mr. Cohen. Thanks for the gifts. |
