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December 1, 2016
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week - December 1, 2016
In the weekly Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week, the Montreal bookstore recommends several new works of fiction, art books, periodicals, and comics.
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly is one of Montreal's premiere independent bookstores.
Tove Jansson: Work and Love
by Tuula Karjalainen
The life of the legendary Finnish artist is beautifully detailed in this Tuula Karjalainen biography. Tove Jansson is the creator of the beloved Moomin universe, a whimsical world where bumbling creatures and pastel landscapes abound, and has published her English translations with Drawn and Quarterly. Karjalainen’s biography is rigorous in its detail and gentle in its depiction, as accurate of a reflection of its subject as one could hope for. Jansson’s personal life is examined next to her work as an artist, author, illustrator, storyteller, scriptwriter, lyricist, and painter. Karjalainen is a highly experienced Finnish art historian who will henceforth be known as the definitive Tove Jansson expert!
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars
by Kai Cheng Thom
Subtitled “A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir”, Kai Cheng Thom's new book is a surreal waltz through queer coming-of-age. A young girl escapes a dreary, oppressive city in search of love and kinship and finds herself in the mystical “Street of Miracles”. What follows for our heroine is acceptance into a gang called the Lipstick Lacerators, glamorous debauchery, and much soul searching. A great read from Montreal publisher Metonymy Press!
Notes From a Feminist Killjoy: Essays from Everyday Life
by Erin Wunker
This collection by Erin Wunker—Chair of the Board of the national non-profit organization Canadian Women in the Literary Arts and co-founder of the feminist academic blog Hook & Eye—is the spiritual successor to Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me. The essays are air-tight, intertwining traces of memory and theory, the best kind of non-fiction. Wunker takes up the figure of the Feminist Killjoy and explores its political potential, bringing an essential stream of feminist theory to a wider public.
How to Survive in the North
by Luke Healy
Arctic exploration, shipwreck, a graphic swirl of history and fiction, Luke Healy’s How to Survive in the North is a breath of (frigid) fresh air. The plot winds three stories concerning Vilhjalmur Stefansson, a Canadian explorer from the turn of the century, and spans a host of fleshed out character across a millennium. As we’ve come to expect from books published with Nobrow Press, the art is exceptional. Healy has crafted an excellent graphic novel which takes advantage of its dual modes of narration.
The Boat Rocker
by Ha Jin
Ha Jin, author of acclaimed novels Waiting and War Trash, has penned an earnest, timely tale of the politics of contemporary literature and journalism. The Boat Rocker follows Danlin, a Chinese journalist whose fearless reporting on his government has granted him legendary status amongst readers and a red-alert from Communist officials. He is truly tested when he is assigned with investigating his ex-wife, a novelist who has willingly allowed herself to be exploited by the government in order to become a literary star. Jin’s prose is unadorned, weary, and moves like a panther. He is a master storyteller whose impressive new novel only bolsters his canon.
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other Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly new comics and graphic novel highlights)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)
WORD Bookstores Books of the Week (weekly new book highlights)
