A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, “The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel featuring Ignatius Reilly and his marvelous, madcap adventures in New Orleans,” is something unique to behold, and it is definitely worth holding.
Are you Canadian? Do you know The Tragically Hip? Odds are the answer to both of those questions is probably the same, but there are some of us from south of the border and from other parts of the globe who know Canadians and have been introduced secondhand to this wonderful Canadian music treasure. Now, a four-part documentary on Amazon Prime tells the story and importance of The Tragically Hip.
My friend Chris Maier, host of the Our Liner Notes podcast, invited me on the podcast to both introduce me to The Tragically Hip and as a tribute to Gord Downie…
There are quite a few stories within this book, including a book within a book that’s quite the read, but I’ll get to that in a moment. October Light, written by James Gardner, is based on two very specific things; a conflict between an old man and an old woman, as well as pieces of a fictional book that we read along with one of the characters.
“Vancouver is falling down–crumbling into sand. To save it, Astrid O’Brien boards a bus to a parallel dimension, there to confront the demons of the city, and to answer the question: Are we who we’re told we are, or who we decide to be?” This is the back cover synopsis for Andrew Cownden’s debut novel Astrid Falls: A Legend of Vancouver. And it is not a book to skip, but one to read and discuss with friends. Who are you?…