vickiz
Oakville Public Library
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vickiz's rating:
Added Oct 31, 2012
vickiz's rating:
Added Oct 31, 2012
vickiz's rating:
Added Oct 19, 2012
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Marina Endicott has woven her inestimable writerly magic again into the story of the on and offstage trials, tribulations and triumphs of the Avery sisters, vaudeville performers circa World War I. The sisters waste no time stealing your heart, rapidly followed by a disarming cast of vivid supporting characters, from family to fellow performers to others driving the vibrant theatrical scene of that era. The Little Shadows is a book that you'll be tempted to consume in great gulps, with its engrossing behind the scenes insights as well as its kaleidoscope of intriguing relationships. However, you're advised to pause and linger over each chapter, if only to extend your time with characters you'll miss acutely after the last page. Endicott's signature sensitivity, both kind but also clear-eyed and honest, and the redemptive insights that made Good To A Fault so resonant, are in equal full strength here.Marina Endicott has woven her inestimable writerly magic again into the story of the on and offstage trials, tribulations and triumphs of the Avery sisters, vaudeville performers circa World War I. The sisters waste no time stealing your heart,…
vickiz's rating:
Added Sep 08, 2012
vickiz's rating:
Added Sep 08, 2012
Comment:
Swallow by Theanna Bischoff is a lush exercise in pairings, forged and broken, and multiplicities, often layers and layers of them. That this rich layering doesn't become affected or overpowering is testament to Bischoff's ability to keep the effects balanced against the clear, emotionally resonant account of a young woman coping with the sudden loss of a beloved sister and the unravelling around her of other relationships and support.Swallow by Theanna Bischoff is a lush exercise in pairings, forged and broken, and multiplicities, often layers and layers of them. That this rich layering doesn't become affected or overpowering is testament to Bischoff's ability to keep the…
Quotations
- "Did you know, Darcy, that swallows mate for life?" ... "Maybe you've seen people with tattoos of swallows before. It actually dates back to sailors, who often had to go away for a long journey. Swallows symbolized hope for their safe return home, back to those they loved. And if someone didn't survive, if a person drowned at sea, legend said that swallows would find the person's soul and carry it up to Heaven.""Did you know, Darcy, that swallows mate for life?" ... "Maybe you've seen people with tattoos of swallows before. It actually dates back to sailors, who often had to go away for a long journey. Swallows symbolized hope for their safe return home,…
Added Sep 08, 2012
Comment:
This book has many charms. The author recounts the myriad adventures she and her Airedale, Matelot, enjoyed as they embarked on a 14,000-mile motorcycle trek through Canada, the United States and Mexico from 1950 to 1952. As an unassuming paean to a considerably more innocent time, it's a delight. At every hairpin turn along the way, Peggy miraculously finds a trucker who will pick up her woefully underpowered and overloaded motorcycle and transport it to the next garage. With only one or two comically villainous exceptions, those garages are staffed by resourceful mechanics willing to figure out the vagaries of her unusual model of bike and get her back on the road again - often no charge. At times fearless and self-sufficient, at times naively hapless, Peggy is always captivating, and Matelot is the epitome of canine patience and fidelity.This book has many charms. The author recounts the myriad adventures she and her Airedale, Matelot, enjoyed as they embarked on a 14,000-mile motorcycle trek through Canada, the United States and Mexico from 1950 to 1952. As an unassuming paean to a…
vickiz's rating:
Added Jul 31, 2012
Added Jul 29, 2012
Comment:
In one of the sports literature arenas that already boasts many seminal works of great storytelling and rhapsodic prose, Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend, by Larry Tye is a distinguished, inviting and elucidating addition. The book captures a pivotal time in the evolution of baseball and of North American society. As if there isn't already a motherlode of stories and milestones to make that a captivating read, this book is rendered even livelier because it focuses on arguably the sport's greatest practitioner and groundbreaker on numerous levels: athlete, entertainer, ambassador, philosopher clown prince and African American icon Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige.
Author Larry Tye's skills at distilling a complex story with layers of themes, towering mountains of data and gaping valleys of omissions in the data (for a sport deeply fascinated with and rich in statistics, recordkeeping in the early days and outside of the then exclusively white major leagues was sketchy at best) are breathtakingly impressive. That the themes and data are digestibly interwoven with infectious storytelling - true or tinted delightfully rose-coloured, all told with gusto - is more impressive still. That this daunting assignment was further complicated by a central figure who contributed as much to his own mystique as he did to his rightful legend makes the whole package, with astutely marshalled sources and research, extraordinary.In one of the sports literature arenas that already boasts many seminal works of great storytelling and rhapsodic prose, Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend, by Larry Tye is a distinguished, inviting and elucidating addition. The book…
vickiz's rating:
Added Jul 12, 2012
vickiz's rating:
Added Jul 12, 2012
vickiz's rating:
Added Jun 29, 2012
Comment:
Phil Hall welcomes us into his progress and process as a poet in a fascinating and often intimate fashion. He classifies this as a collection of essay-poems, but however you choose to receive it, Killdeer offers arresting storytelling.
vickiz's rating:
Added Jun 12, 2012
Comment:
My particular favourite in this unique collection of linked short stories / short stories culminating in a novel is "The Four Corners of a House." I get a little choked up just recalling again what a poignant and palpable study of the shades and behaviours of grief this story captures, as a family copes (or doesn't) with the loss of one of its members.My particular favourite in this unique collection of linked short stories / short stories culminating in a novel is "The Four Corners of a House." I get a little choked up just recalling again what a poignant and palpable study of the shades and…
vickiz's rating:
Added Jun 12, 2012
Comment:
Kristel Thornell's imagined life of Australian landscape painter Clarice Beckett is a sensory cornucopia as well as a testament to unwavering artistic commitment. Clarice's dreams were fevered and vivid, and without having seen any of Beckett's work but only pictured it through Thornell's evocative prose, I suspect Clarice's images and dreams will haunt my own.Kristel Thornell's imagined life of Australian landscape painter Clarice Beckett is a sensory cornucopia as well as a testament to unwavering artistic commitment. Clarice's dreams were fevered and vivid, and without having seen any of Beckett's work…
vickiz's rating:
Added May 27, 2012
Comment:
The Sisters Brothers is a startlingly fresh take on the Western ... and so much more. The singular killers-for-hire duo of brothers Charlie and Eli Sisters anchors an unforgettable cast. The broad brush palette of their Old West adventures from bustling Oregon City to gold mining claims in northern California is hauntingly Coenesque. The scenes and circumstances have more than a touch of David Lynch to them, not to mention a macabre whimsy that is uniquely DeWitt's consistent, rock solid craft. The voices and what they distinctively speak crackle and captivate from beginning to end, and regularly clutch at your guts, your throat and your heart. In a perverse but deeply palpable fashion, the book is a tribute to the profound connections of friendship and family.The Sisters Brothers is a startlingly fresh take on the Western ... and so much more. The singular killers-for-hire duo of brothers Charlie and Eli Sisters anchors an unforgettable cast. The broad brush palette of their Old West adventures from…
Andrew Moore: Detroit DisassembledAndrew Moore: Detroit Disassembled, Book
by Levine, Philip • Moore, AndrewBookBook
vickiz's rating:
Added May 27, 2012
Comment:
The collection of images comprising Detroit Disassembled is wrenchingly, disturbingly beautiful and amid the bleakness, it is also strangely, perversely life affirming. Andrew Moore's photography is stunning, haunting and amazingly delicate. Philip Levine's accompanying essay is eye-stingingly blunt yet also ultimately hopeful.The collection of images comprising Detroit Disassembled is wrenchingly, disturbingly beautiful and amid the bleakness, it is also strangely, perversely life affirming. Andrew Moore's photography is stunning, haunting and amazingly delicate. Philip…
vickiz's rating:
Added May 19, 2012
Quotations
- Everyone carries a kernel of sadness, even Donald Sutherland. That is why his voice sounds the way it does...
vickiz's rating:
Added May 08, 2012
Comment:
Whether intentional or not, the awkward poetry sequences preceding each chapter end up being a lovely illustration of what a spiritual panacea writing poetry can be. Writing poetry seems to have been comforting and clarifying for at least one of the characters brushed by Cedric in his earthly and unearthly travels. By the same token, whether intentional or not, the at best glancing connections from chapter to chapter are a form of mourning for connections lost or never really made. It makes it worth forging to the end of this uneven but intriguing and at times touching book.Whether intentional or not, the awkward poetry sequences preceding each chapter end up being a lovely illustration of what a spiritual panacea writing poetry can be. Writing poetry seems to have been comforting and clarifying for at least one of the…
Quotations
- Poetry is being deaf to the extravagant choir that is behind you, below you, above you. But singing anyway. It is the collective and soundless cacophony of our solitary melodies, which is humming, even now, ringing in our ears with its almost perfect silence.Poetry is being deaf to the extravagant choir that is behind you, below you, above you. But singing anyway. It is the collective and soundless cacophony of our solitary melodies, which is humming, even now, ringing in our ears with its almost…
vickiz's rating:
Added Apr 24, 2012
vickiz's rating:
Added Apr 24, 2012
vickiz's rating:
Added Apr 24, 2012
Added Apr 24, 2012
Inside of A DogInside of A Dog, BookWhat Dogs See, Smell, and Know
by Horowitz, AlexandraBook - 2009Book, 2009
vickiz's rating:
Added Apr 24, 2012
Comment:
In its absorbing and entertaining examination of the unique human-canine bond, Alexandra Horowitz's Inside of a Dog charmingly balances the scholarly and scientific with the personal and whimsical. This is one of my favourite explorations of how dogs and people can so effectively, happily and affectionately co-exist.In its absorbing and entertaining examination of the unique human-canine bond, Alexandra Horowitz's Inside of a Dog charmingly balances the scholarly and scientific with the personal and whimsical. This is one of my favourite explorations of how…
vickiz's rating:
Added Apr 24, 2012
Comment:
Yearning notes to a lost brother from his twin waft through Dani Couture's haunting Algoma like Tibetan wind horses. Couture's poetry pedigree informs the story of a family grappling with loss, but the symbolic layers sit lightly on the engrossing story and flawed, still endearing characters.Yearning notes to a lost brother from his twin waft through Dani Couture's haunting Algoma like Tibetan wind horses. Couture's poetry pedigree informs the story of a family grappling with loss, but the symbolic layers sit lightly on the engrossing…
vickiz's rating:
Added Apr 24, 2012
vickiz's rating:
Added Apr 24, 2012
Comment: