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Laser Quit Smoking Massage
Cole NowickiNewest Press, 2024136 pagesISBN: 9781774390900$21.95Reviewed by Daxton Comba Cole Nowicki’s Laser Quit Smoking Massage is as much a meditation on growing up Canadian in the era of digital technology as it is a journey through Nowicki’s personal life. Through a series of intimate essays, he draws the reader in with strange observations, distinctive metaphors, and personal history, all told in the eccentric voice of the man who created “The Pile.” Beginning with an essay on small-town Canada pride of place, Nowicki’s insight, dry humour, and off-the-cuff tone, is conversational and apropos for a skateboarder. Still, there is the professionalism of a newspaper columnist in the prose, which often achieves a…
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The Last Powderman
Lee Groen reads his non-fiction piece “The Last Powderman” published in Portal 2024.
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Brace for Impact
Megan Zolorycki reads her non-fiction piece, “Brace for Impact” published in Portal 2024.
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Send Me into the Woods Alone
As its title suggests, the collection’s eponymous essay is about occasionally stepping away to relieve pressure and gain perspective
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The Matryoshka Memoirs:
Colby has created a deeply personal memoir about life-long connections, unlikely heroes, and the indomitable human spirit. These stories of a Ukrainian forced labourer and a German heiress and ally to the oppressed are a triumph of compassion over hate. The scars of war may never fully disappear, but perhaps they can be healed by honouring those who sacrificed everything for the chance of a better future, and cherishing the people we hold dear.
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I Hate the Ivy League
[Book Review] Gladwell’s signature style is reliably on display in I Hate the Ivy League, a journalist’s perfect blend of field research and expert interviews that lend authority to his critique. His relatable, down-to-earth perspective and impassioned narration strike close to the heart as listeners learn about the racial and class barriers that tarnish the egalitarian reputation of this education system, however unearned.
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We Cry in Silence
[Book Review] Sharma shows us Indian police stations, train stations, and brothels, offering powerful portraits while hiding the identity of the subject.
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A HISTORY OF MY BRIEF BODY
[Book Review] “I felt as though I was a part of an endangered species. I still do,” writes Billy-Ray Belcourt in his genre-fluid memoir, A History of My Brief Body. A member of the Driftpile Cree First Nation in rural northern Alberta, Belcourt transcends the confines of memoir to deliver his thoughts on grief, queerness, colonialism, joy, loneliness, and love in pieces that feel like poems and essays simultaneously.
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SMALL, BROKE, AND KIND OF DIRTY
[Book Review] Hana Shafi makes it very clear in the introduction of Small, Broken, and Kind of Dirty: Affirmations for the Real World that this is NOT a self-help book. It has evolved from her very popular Instagram series where Shafi is known as Frizz Kid to over 42,000 followers. There she delves into sexism, racism, and body politics as she does in these short essays divided into five chapters: “On Kindness,” “On Bodies,” “On Politics,” “On Self-Love and Healing,” and “On Resilience and Mental Health.”
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REACHING MITHYMNA
[Book Review] Any great memoir offers the reader immersion; the author researches his material by living it. It also has a protagonist with whom the reader can identify, not to mention suspense, urgency, and dramatic conflict. Heighton’s visceral and sensory scenes and authentic emotions build tension and rightly earn him CBC’s Best Non-Fiction Book of 2020, and a finalist position for the 2020 Writers Trust Prize for Non-Fiction.
