Book Recommendations

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage
Written by Alfred Lansing

The epic adventure presented within the pages of ‘Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage’ contrasts sharply with my current state, one in which I’ve become almost a permanent homebody because of the pandemic. But that isn’t the only reason this book intrigued me so. Ernest Shackleton’s story is one of legend, even in short wiki form, so this rigorously researched historical account of exploration, human endurance and survival is one for the ages as he and his crew get stranded in Antarctica for over two years in 1914 with only their wits to save them. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Highly recommended.

Favourite line: “In some ways they had come to know themselves better. In this lonely world of ice and emptiness, they had achieved at least a limited kind of contentment. They had been tested and found not wanting.”

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Gastro Obscura
Written by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras

The culinary counterpart to one of my favourite books, Atlas Obscura, the Gastro version explores cooking curiosities around the world. I always enjoy reading the engaging content they produce, but there were a few entries here that I have personal history with that seemed a wee bit exaggerated … which made me wonder how many of the entries are truly reflective of everyday cuisine and lifestyle versus fictionalized versions of themselves.

Favourite line: Very curious to try the vanilla ice cream-flavoured South American bean inga edulis.

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Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
Written by Amanda Montell

I bought this book after watching a LulaRoe documentary during the pandemic and needing to know how seemingly intelligent people get so invested in things that are clearly scams. From multi-level marketing (MLMs) to new age gurus on Instagram to the infamous cults we’ve read about in history books, Cultish explores how language is used to entice, seduce and eventually ruin individuals searching for belonging (whether it be in the form of religion or a community of people who love tacky “buttery soft” leggings).

Favourite line: “But her roommates and old coworkers didn’t want to think about those things, because doing so would make them anxious, suddenly hyperaware of the fact that life fundamentally bends towards entropy, which would conflict with their goal of appearing sympathetic. So they fed her a line—”Everything happens for a reason”—to simplify the situation and put everyone’s cognitive dissonance to bed.

2022

2021 started out with a call every day.

Then every third day.

Then every Sunday. And this wasn’t a bad thing.

It seemed that with vaccine rollouts, a semblance of the life we once knew may one day return and daily safety check-ins over the phone weren’t necessary. We wanted to be busy and invested in anything but talk of COVID-19. We anticipated seeing each other in person. While remaining cautious, plans were made. Holidays booked. The excitement I felt at getting to spend Christmas with family for the first time in years made me giddy and just earlier this week, I was packing my carry-on to see if all the additional gifts I bought (and didn’t mail in advance) would fit. They did, but barely.

Alas, forty-eight hours later, it wouldn’t matter because travel is once again being cautioned against and spending the holidays with loved ones is cancelled for the second year in a row.

Time is both infinite and a limited resource. The longing for normalcy feels increasingly arduous. And we can’t do anything but wait.

Egg Nog Season

When I was a kid, I knew Christmas was approaching when I’d see Lucerne Egg Nog on the shelf at Safeway. The bold colour combination and design of its packaging stood out amongst the regular milk cartons and signalled the start of the holiday season.

During the eighties, grocery shelves didn’t have as much variety as they do today. Food was obviously in abundance but the full impact of capitalism and globalization weren’t as visible. There was only ever one flavour of Oreo, for starters, and winter was the only season Canada would import mandarin oranges. If this sounds like I’m about to say I walked to and from school in -40 degree Celsius weather … well, yes, I did that too. Never uphill though. I was raised on the plains. Fact is, times have changed a lot over the decades and the wide-eyed wonder and delight at the debut of Lucerne egg nog each November has now been replaced by fatigue at choosing amongst dozens of types of egg nog all with their own festive branding and social media presence.

Alas, as an adult I don’t even really like eggnog but continue to buy one 1L carton each holiday season for tradition and nostalgia. If Lucerne brought back their glorious terracotta retro packaging, I would feel like a kid again.

Vintage Lucerne eggnog packaging illustration (©2021, Deborah Clague).

Your occasional Monty

Just bought an iPad to learn Procreate … and, of course, the first thing I had to draw was my Monty:

Gold

Honoured to receive another gold Graphis award for my work “Portrait of Vladimir Putin”. The award was part of an international juried design competition that showcased the best of global protest art from the past decade. Oblada Creative was one of three Canadian design studios to win gold.

The work will also be featured in the upcoming publication Protest Posters 2.

Portrait of Vladimir Putin (©Deborah Clague)

Eighties Vintage

After moving out of province over a decade ago to build a life of my own, it can feel strange returning to my childhood home. While some things have changed, others seem stuck in time; a nostalgic connection to my younger self (and all the hopes and dreams she harboured). From random tchotchkes that caught my mother’s eye over the years to a rotary phone I remember cradling in my tiny hands while talking to my father as he worked on the road for Canadian Pacific Rail, these relics of a bygone era feel like they represent a museum of my life.

A ghost of me lingers in that home.

A rotary phone, issued by Manitoba Telecom Services in the early eighties, remains the main method of inbound and outbound communication at my childhood home. As my elderly mother ages, she appreciates simplicity and familiarity, refusing to use a smartphone.

A set of Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia rests on the shelf in my childhood bedroom. In an era before computers and the internet, these were a fountain of knowledge. My father purchased them for me while grocery shopping at Safeway in the eighties. As part of a promotion, a new volume in the series was available each week for a discounted price with purchase.

Book Recommendations

Piranesi
Written by Susanna Clarke

This book was recommended to me with the warning that it was different. It is, indeed, different … and very compelling. Once I picked it up, it was hard to put down. This work of fiction was a finalist for the World Fantasy Awards but is it that genre? I can’t say too much. The worlds within Piranesi are for you to figure out.

Favourite line: “They were all enamoured with the idea of progress and believed that whatever was new must be superior to what was old.”

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Pure Invention: How Japan’s Pop Culture Conquered the World
Written by Matt Alt

Japanese pop culture resonates with a lot of people around the world but I didn’t fully realize how deeply its influence reached. Pure Invention is a fascinating study on everything from Nintendo to Hello Kitty, Karaoke to Sony’s Walkman (Steve Jobs was so enamoured with the Japanese technology giant, he visited their headquarters when launching Apple with the hopes of mimicking their style). The connections the book makes to our world today and innovations we now take for granted is thought-provoking. This book is on my shortlist of favourites for 2021.

Favourite line: “A great many things we global citizens take for granted in our constantly connected digital lives were pioneered by schoolgirls on the streets of Tokyo.”

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On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist
Written by Clarissa Ward

I became fascinated with Clarissa Ward after seeing her CNN footage during the fall of Kabul. Here was a woman, in the middle of an uprising in a country with new government that hates women, fearlessly putting herself out there to share what was happening and connect citizen’s stories to an international audience. I purchased her autobiography right away. This book is just the right mix of current world history, insight into the process of reporting it, and getting to know the author as a person.

Favourite line: We talked about my concern that the Syrian uprising was losing its original spirit, one I had seen so vividly in Damascus, because it had become so bloody.
”Nothing in the world is pure,” he said. “If you yearn for that, you’ll always be disappointed. I’m satisfied to catch glimpses of brilliance in the rubble.”
”Rubble’s not the only place to find those glimpses,” I replied.
”Nah, you’re right. But the contrast makes it brighter.”

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Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography
Written by Laurie Woolever

Anthony Bourdain was one of my favourite celebrities and I was saddened by his untimely death in 2018. He lived a life I—and many others—coveted, traveling the world while experiencing great conversation and great food. But sometimes things are not always what they seem and this book, through interviews with friends, family and colleagues, uncovers the many facets of a man we thought we knew. While reading, I was surprised at Tony’s lack of interpersonal interaction with those working behind-the-scenes on his shows (“it took about two years for Tony to remember my name”). Ultimately, this book is a cautionary tale about addiction in many different forms.

Favourite line: “It was like he pulled the curtain back—the sort of work it takes, the focus, style, intelligence, a big mental museum of experiences and drive to write a book.”

Gabbers

I’ve long since decided that I want to travel to the Arctic. The pandemic definitely threw a wrench into those plans but has also given me more time to plan (and dream). Churchill, a town 1,000km north of my hometown, is where I have my sights set. Known as the “gateway to the Arctic”, Churchill is internationally renowned for its wildlife including polar bears that wander through the town as part of their seasonal migration to Hudson Bay and beyond.

Last winter I binged Arctic Vets, a CBC program detailing rescue and conservation efforts at Assiniboine Park Conservancy. The Conservancy provides homes to rescued and rehabilitated animals that will not survive if released, while also granting the public an opportunity to learn about and be inspired to preserve the majestic creatures we share the planet with. While visiting recently, I had the opportunity to interact with harbour seals—and even became an honorary trainer of one!

Gabbers is a harbour seal born with a developmental disability that was rescued in British Columbia in 2015. Along with six other harbour seals that share the compound, he now acts as an ambassador for his species helping visitors understand firsthand the impacts of climate change on their natural environment.

The Journey to Churchill exhibit at Assiniboine Park Conservancy mimics actual sights in the northern Manitoba town, including signage warning of polar bears in the area (©Deborah Clague, 2021).

Learning how to train a seal at Assiniboine Park Conservancy (2021).

Lunch time, feeding Gabbers some fish. Gabbers was rescued in 2015 by the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre in British Columbia (2021).

Gabbers and I (2021).

Your Occasional Monty

The best days are spent just hanging out with my dog:

Book Recommendations

Not Dead and Not for Sale
Written by Scott Weiland

Every few months, I have the urge to read a salacious rock memoir. For this round, I decided to read the memoir of Scott Weiland, former frontman of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver. Despite his well-documented hellion existence, this autobiography is actually quite light. It barely taps into his motivations and inspiration, which is unfortunate as I feel he was one of the most magnetic frontmen of the 90s and 00s, and glosses over most of his non-musical narrative. The saddest chapters are of introducing his second wife and brother to heavy narcotics (who also passed from an overdose) but never fully taking accountability for it; the bitterness towards people in his life, including former bandmates, is quite evident in his writings. Scott died in 2015 from a drug overdose.

Favourite line: “I believe that love only happens once or twice, but why, I wonder, does love always equal a broken heart?”

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Fall to Pieces
Written by Mary Forsberg Weiland

In concert with Scott’s memoir, I also read one by his ex-wife, former model Mary Forsberg. Framed as a “memoir of drugs, rock and roll, and mental illness”, the book explores the impacts of bipolar disorder diagnosis framed within the whirlwind lifestyle of the music industry. It definitely provided a more robust telling of her and Scott’s life together and the highs and lows they faced. Of particular interest to me was Mary’s bittersweet recounting of the early days of her career and meeting Scott, a hired driver employed by her modelling agency, prior to their fame. Mary has become a vocal advocate of the negative impacts of drug use.

Favourite line: “The only camera that matters is the one that is in my mind, and there is nothing about that night (or what was left of it) that I will ever forget.”

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Call Me Indian
Written by Fred Sasakamoose

Fred Sasakamoose was one of the first Indigenous hockey players, playing for the Chicago Blackhawks. This intriguing memoir details more than his ascent into the NHL though; Fred was a residential school survivor. He talks openly of his time at Duck Lake Residential School, including being sexually assaulted and of the bodies of other students rumoured to be buried onsite (‘Call Me Indian’ was published prior to the discovery of hundreds of remains at residential schools across the country), as well as the rampant racism he faced throughout his life. The book is an excellent, unfiltered reflection on Canadiana that we are just starting to acknowledge. Sadly, Fred died from COVID-19 in 2020.

Favourite line: “For years and years, I had been wondering how I actually did with the Hawks. Was I really good enough to be on that ice? To play with those players? And now, six decades later, I could finally answer that question. Yes. I was good enough.”

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My Love Story
Written by Tina Turner

Tina Turner’s turbulent life is well documented in both print and film, but her later years are not as well known. This memoir briefly retells, one more time, what we know but mainly focuses on her eighties career resurgence and the happier days of meeting and marrying record executive Erwin Bach. Tina is one of my all-time favourite icons and I will never tire of receiving her wisdom. Her acknowledgement of never really feeling love from her mother and other prominent relationships is heartbreakingly raw, but her resilience and tenacity show nothing can hold her down. Tina has mentioned that she is effectively retired from entertainment; upon reading about her very detailed and candid health issues, there is understanding why.

Favourite line: “My biography is life, the life of a woman who started as a little girl from Nutbush, who, as I’ve said many times, had strong winds against her, yet she stepped out into the big world with nothing but her voice, her optimism, and her will to survive.”

My favourite Stone Temple Pilots song.