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Summer is here- even if the weather, at least in Montreal, sometimes disagrees. And if sunscreen, straw hats, and beach towels are on your shopping list, so should some good summer reading. If you’re still building your list, MQUP has got a couple of suggestions.
Hugh MacLennan's The Return of the Sphinx and The Watch that Ends the Night
With his best novel just recently turned 50, MQUP has recently republished two of Hugh MacLennan’s books. Given that the author is widely considered one of Canada’s foremost novelists, both Return of the Sphinx and The Watch That Ends the Night are guaranteed to be some of your top reads for the summer.
In the Eye of the Wind, by Ron and Martin Baenninger
For those of you doing some travelling this summer, check out In the Eye of the Wind: A Travel Memoir of Prewar Japan. Brothers Ron and Martin Baenninger intertwine history, politics, travel and adventure in their retelling of growing up in Yokahoma mid-century. The book includes the time their parents spent travelling through Sweden, Canada, and Japan, their escape from internment in Yokahoma, and their four month voyage by boat to Canada. An intensely personal story, set in an intensely turbulent political era, In the Eye of the Wind is an extraordinary read on all fronts.
The Accidental Indies, by Robert Finley
Travelling and living slightly more vicariously than the Baenningers, author Robert Finley in The Accidental Indies narrates the extraordinary travels of Christopher Columbus around both the sea and our imagination. In a mix of poetry, song, and prose, Finley takes history and makes it into story, myth, and fantasy: the reader is on a boat of both words and waves. The Accidental Indies is about both storytelling and new discoveries.
Kiviuq: An Inuit Hero and His Siberian Cousins, by Kira Van Deusen
Another great storyteller, Kira Van Deusen, relates and illuminates the central legends of Canada’s North in her book, Kiviuq. The story, an Inuit counterpart to Homer’s Odyssey, is retold using interviews with over 40 Inuit elders, and recounts the trials and adventures of their greatest hero, while tying the lessons into modern day worries and challenges faced by the Inuit. Beautiful, haunting, and showcasing distinctly different experiences of the world, the legends in Kiviuq are an engrossing read.
An Anthology of Australian Aboriginal Literature, edited by Anita Heiss and Peter Minter
In their Anthology of Australian Aboriginal Literature, editors Anita Heiss and Peter Minter collect writing that ranges from poetry to political commentary to the traditional stories and legends of Australia’s aborigines, also doing much to bring the stories, voices, and legends of aboriginal people to light. It makes for a book that showcases the both the beauty and strength of these cultures, intertwining the history, present and future of the authors and their communities.
The Slow Food Story, by Geoff Andrews
Lastly, for those of you staying at home in the garden this summer, check out Geoff Andrew’s The Slow Food Story. Chronicling a movement dedicated to “the universal right to pleasure”, the author examines the politics and vision of slow food and how it can help us understand the rest of modern life, encouraging us to slow down, eat better and work less. Let’s get on it.
Let us know if you check out any of these books this summer in the comments, or post your review on GoodReads (and add us as your friend while you’re at it!). Here’s to a summer full of wonderful words and beautiful books.
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