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Just in time for the Oscars, a special blog post today from our Publicity Assistant, Amy Hemond. Amy has put together a reading list of MQUP titles that complement and share common ground with some of the 2016 Best Picture nominated films. Grab your popcorn…and your reading glasses!
The 88th Academy Awards are just around the corner, set for broadcast on February 28th, and the films nominated for Best Picture showcase a range of subjects from Irish immigration to colonizing the planet Mars to the fur trade in nineteenth-century North America. In the spirit of adding some fact to fiction and to show how scholarship complements film (in ways beyond a “consulting producer” credit!), McGill-Queen’s recommends some recently published books on subjects shared with the Best Picture category.
Here is our 2016 Oscar reading list:
The Revenant depicts the harsh realities of life and interactions between explorers, settlers, and First Nations in nineteenth-century North America.
The Writings of David Thompson, Volumes 1 and Volume 2, edited by William E. Moreau is a vivid account of life in the fur trade and a cornerstone of Canadian literature.
Pierre-Esprit Radisson, Volumes 1 and Volume 2, edited by Germaine Warkentin is an illuminating view of the New World through the eyes of a seventeenth-century explorer, trader, and adventurer.
To learn more about questions of identity and problems faced by Irish Immigrants like Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) in Brooklyn, read one of our books on Irish studies and the transatlantic experience.
Between Dispersion and Belonging
edited by Amitava Chowdhury and Donald Harman Akenson revisits diaspora theory with illuminating global case studies
Religion and Greater Ireland edited by Colin Barr and Hilary M. Carey offers stimulating essays that break new ground on religion and Irish identity in modern world history.
The Big Short invites viewers into the dramatic world of high finance. Readers can experience a similar rollercoaster of the market’s ups and downs in the life stories of top investors and economists.
W.A. Mackintosh by Hugh Grant is the first biography of a leading Canadian economist and policy advisor.
Routines and Orgies by Christopher Risso-Gill is the biography of value investor Peter Cundill – marathon runner, world-traveler, philosopher, cultural enthusiast, and playboy.
In The Martian, Mark Watney (Matt Damon) has to learn how to survive on the food he grows on the Red Planet. McGill-Queen’s suggests several books on the research behind subsistence food provisioning in case your tastes are concerned with the politics behind sustainability on Earth, and not just on other planets.
Subsistence under Capitalism edited by James Murton, Dean Bavington, and Carly Dokis explains the critical interplay between politics, local provisioning, and the ultimate survival of society.
Ecosystems, Society, and Health edited by Lars K. Hallstrom, Nicholas P. Guehlstorf and Margot W. Parkes draws from a series of case studies that range from nursing, to watershed management, to environmental health and risk communication, arguing that traditional science, power politics, and linear ideals of public policy are inadequate to address sustainability, justice, safety, and responsibility.
And if awards’ season leaves you wanting more, McGill-Queen’s has a list of books on film and the history and challenges of cinema.
A Truffaut Notebook by Sam Solecki is an unconventional and deeply engaging introduction to a major figure in modern film.
Shooting from the East by Darrell Varga is a critical history of filmmaking in Atlantic Canada from the early days of art cinema to the contemporary media industry.
Cinephemera edited by Zoe Druick and Gerda Cammaer is an investigation of the challenges faced by Canadian cinema in the digital age.
You’re Not Dead until You’re Forgotten by John Dunning, with Bill Brownstein, is the irreverent and insightful story of Canada’s unknown movie mogul.
Reimagining Cinema edited by Monika Kin Gagnon and Janine Marchessault is an exploration of Expo 67’s most ingenious screen experiments.
Love the list!