Book Recommendations

When I was in high school, geography and history were two of my favourite subjects. I loved learning about ancient Egyptian culture, Greek mythology, and the social hierarchy of medieval times. It all seemed so rich and epic compared to Canada; despite hosting civilizations for thousands of years, our own history appeared limited and primitive. Not much was recorded. At the time I didn’t realize this was by design. One thing we weren’t taught in school was the dark history of Canada as settlers sought to eradicate and assimilate Indigenous people. I graduated in 1998. This information has been selectively hidden for generations.

It has only been in the past decade that the realities—and ongoing trauma—of what occurred has come to light for me. My employer makes every effort towards building this knowledge and understanding amongst staff. The education and immersion has been immensely valuable as I reflect upon the place I call home. It has also been a starting point for me to actively learn and do more towards reconciliation.

Just this week, the remains of 215 children were discovered in an unmarked grave at a former Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia. The news is disturbing and a further tangible document of our nation’s shameful past. We should all learn from this.

If you are interested in reading more about Canada’s dark history, and ways you can start your own path to understanding and reconciliation, I recommend the following books as a starting point:

The Inconvenient Indian
Written by Thomas King

This book was the recipient of the 2014 RBC Taylor Prize, which awards outstanding literary works of non-fiction. It is a powerful, personal account of Indigenous and White settler relations, written in an engaging (and sometimes humorous) way that makes very uncomfortable truths more accessible to a mass audience. I feel this work should be required reading for all Canadians.

Favourite line: “Native history in North America as writ has never really been about Native people. It’s been about Whites and their needs and desires. What Native peoples wanted has never been a vital concern, has never been a political or social priority.”

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21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act
Written by Bob Joseph

The Indian Act is a Canadian Act of Parliament that concerns registered Indians, their bands, and the system of Indian Reserves (basically a manner in which settlers govern over the Indigenous population). It defines how a person can live. It defines how a person can be recognized. This book—an excellent companion piece to reading “An Inconvenient Indian”—reflects on how it shaped and degraded cultures and independent nations that should otherwise be granted autonomy.

Favourite line: “The Indian Act disrespected, ignored, and undermined the role of women in many ways. This dissolution of women’s stature, coupled with the abuses of the residential school system, has been a significant contributor to the vulnerability of Indigenous women.”

Art is how we decorate space. Music is how we decorate time.

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When I was twelve-years-old, I wanted to be like Mariah Carey. I, of course, had her albums (or, rather, cassette tapes) and would try to emulate—poorly—her famous five octave vocal range while dancing in the basement. But like every little girl seeking someone to idolize, I also wanted to look like her. By replicating her appearance, I felt I could also pass as beautiful and talented and thus become respected and beloved rather than skirting the edge of being an outsider in the notoriously fickle arena of junior high (which I was about to enter). The summer before starting at my new school, I begged my mom for a haircut and PERM(!). To my credit, a perm was still “of the time” and I wanted to make a statement. I needed to be a new person for this milestone event in my young life and it was all to start with my hair. She obliged and we went to a small, nondescript salon in the basement of a small office building in our neighbourhood. I shared an image of Mariah from her MTV Unplugged appearance (above) and told the stylist it was what I wanted to look like. She reviewed it briefly and asked me to sit down. Through age and experience, I would realize this response means someone doesn’t really give a fuck what you want but at the time I was still able to naively believe they cared.

I can’t remember how I felt when it was all done. My parents certainly made no comments that weren’t positive but that would be short-lived. During a visit to extended family, I overheard an aunt laugh and comment to another on “the bad perm” I had. Negatively commenting on a kid’s appearance within earshot is never something that adults should do, lest they internalize it and have it lead to a life-long complex, but it did have the benefit of preparing me for the reaction I would receive when I started school. Needless to say, my transformative appearance did turn me into a new person, as I wanted, just not the person I desired to be. I was not Mariah. I was Deborah … with really bad hair.

I relate this story as I am reading Mariah’s memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey and it brought about a flood of 90s nostalgia for me. I pivoted towards other music as junior high and then high school progressed, with Courtney Love becoming the person I chose to emulate (I’m sure to the dismay of my parents) but childhood icons have a way of being part of our lives even as we move on. When I turned eighteen and started to visit nightclubs nearly every weekend, Mariah’s evolving, more urban sound continued to provide soundtrack in passing. Not to mention the fashion sense of the time which she led with now straightened hair and midriff-revealing tops and thigh-revealing skirts (which I now lack the body and confidence to pull off but am glad I did when I could). When she visited my hometown during the Emancipation of Mimi tour, I bought tickets and was entertained with one of the top three best concerts I’ve ever attended (with The Hives and M.I.A. being the other two, showing how diverse my music tastes evolved).

The book details what I long assumed. That the diva persona Mariah took on is mostly a one-sided act to a multi-dimensional artist. That appearances of having it all can betray the truth. That childhood trauma reverberates through the decades. There’s also candid talk about the notoriously shady music industry; her creative process and favourite part of writing a song; a toxic, stifling marriage; and, relationships that leave one longing, with Mariah admitting that her affair with baseball superstar Derek Jeter (unconsummated until divorce, she stresses) left her heartbroken for years about what could have been. Rarely do you see someone so vulnerable as within these pages and it is completely refreshing. Reading about her life as an adult made me relate on a level beyond the superficial. Rather than coveting her appearance, I now admire her resolve.

The Meaning of Mariah Carey
Written by Mariah Carey with Michaela Angela Davis

Favourite line: “But ours is a story of betrayal and beauty. Of love and abandonment. Of sacrifice and survival. I’ve emancipated myself from bondage several times, but there is a cloud of sadness that I suspect will always hang over me, not simply because of my mother but because of our complicated journey together.”

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The Gift of Fear
Written by Gavin deBecker

I’ve always felt that a women’s superpower is her intuition. This book delves into why we should listen to that instinct, breaking down the strategies and tricks people use to let your guard down leaving you vulnerable. The author will teach you how to use fear to your advantage by recognizing potentially dangerous situations and (predictable) behaviours in a number of scenarios.

Favourite line: “Nature’s greatest accomplishment, the human brain, is never more efficient or invested than when its host is at risk.”

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On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Written by Stephen King

During these times of social distancing, self-isolation and tons of newly-found free time, I’ve been motivating myself to learn more about the art and craft of writing. In addition to taking a workshop with one of my favourite authors, Anne Lamott, I’ve also read through tips from another, very well-known master: Stephen King. This book acts as a brief memoir into the life of the famous horror and supernatural author, his childhood and struggles (including the 1999 accident in which a distracted driver almost left him paralyzed) but the other half of it’s too-short 291 pages is straight-up insight into how to write in a way that connects and illuminates. Highly recommended.

Favourite line: “I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our lives are largely plotless, even when you add in all our reasonable precautions and careful planning; second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible.”

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My favourite Mariah song (written about Derek Jeter while still married to Tommy Mottola):

Book Recommendations

Open Book
Written by Jessica Simpson

Pop culture in the early naughts was epic. It seemed like a more innocent time when we could all be scandalized by what Britney was up to, make questionable fashion (and romantic) choices without record of social media, and not be ashamed to hum “tell me why” to ourselves while grocery shopping. Seriously though, that song is timeless. While I was never really a fan of Jessica Simpson, I was looking forward to reliving my youth while reading the first of the pop star autobiographies of this era. This book definitely delivers and I was surprised by how candid it was about everything from abuse to addiction to having an emotional affair with Johnny Knoxville as her first marriage crumbled. The book also confirmed that my intuition is finely-tuned as I always suspected John Mayer was a dick.

Favourite line: “Get down the box from the top shelf of the emotional closet and marvel at the things that used to mean so much. The keepsakes of our mistakes, the souvenirs of lost years. But you know when to start making new memories with people who deserve the you that you are now.”

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A Good Wife: Escaping the Life I Never Chose
Written by Samra Zafar

Arranged, sometimes forced, marriage is a foreign concept to most in the West. Acknowledging my own ignorance, up until a few years ago I didn’t realize it was still in practice. This autobiography details the high pressure and coercion faced by the author at the age of seventeen to marry a man she hadn’t previously met and the subsequent aftermath of years of abuse she endured all to maintain appearances in a community led by caste and societal interdependence. Her strength and perseverance win out at the end making this a tough read with a (thankfully) happy ending.

Favourite line: “But I’ve learned that diminishing my own fire does no one any service. I will get from my life what I feel I deserve. And if nothing else, I’ll be happier being myself than trying to fit into a box to satisfy others.”

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Under the Banner of Heaven
Written by Jon Krakauer

This is the third book I’ve read by my new favourite author. The story and tone are different than his most famous works of individuals attempting to conquer the wild, but this is no less immersive a tale — the focus of Under the Banner of Heaven is the inception of the Mormon faith, its violent history across the landscape of an evolving nation, the belief that polygamy is the right of men, and how it all has influenced religious belief and zealots in the modern age. This is not a light read, but definitely one that will have you pondering the nature of religious belief.

Favourite line: “I was just on a quest,” he insists. “A quest to find the truth.”

Book Recommendations

Inside Out
Written by Demi Moore

Demi Moore was one of the most famous actresses of my adolescence. Her looks set a standard for beauty. Her roles aimed to challenge convention and what it means to be a woman, in effect influencing the (pop) culture in which my own ideas and perceptions about life were forming. This book gives interesting insight into what it looked like on the other side, of a life of struggle and heartbreak with those closest to her (including her mother and second husband) breaking her trust and confidence. I also found it interesting as autobiographies with a story like this—of rising to the top without connections, power or wealth—may be a thing of the past in increasingly nepotistic Hollywood.

Favourite line: “My story is mine alone; I’m the only one who was there for all of it, and I decided to claim the power to tell it on my own terms.”

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Face It
Written by Debbie Harry

I always felt cool by-proxy that Deborah (Debbie) Harry and I shared a first name. After all, the lead singer of punk band Blondie is one of THE coolest people of all time. Her voice, her image, are iconic and gave me many memories of my own in life as her music provided soundtrack to it. This beautifully designed autobiography tells her story in a relatable, conversational (but sometimes detached) tone that includes both the darkness and light of achieving success in the music industry. One disillusionment I was left with though surrounded the passages dealing with sexual assault and objectification (when, during a meeting, a record exec just stares at her breasts, Debbie relates that it is because she is too powerful to look in the eye rather than calling out the behaviour for what it was). It is especially odd relating these experiences but then, near the end of the book, stating that she never felt she had hardship just because she was a woman. Deborah also uses her book as a gallery to display numerous pieces of fan art she’s collected over the decades.

Favourite line: “Like most girls of my generation, I’d been programmed since childhood to look for a strong man to carry me off and look after me. I bought into those fantasies as a kid at least to some degree, but by the time I was in my mid twenties I was done with that. I was wanting to have control, and as Dad always said, I was too damn independent for my own good. I looked for adventure and new experiences instead of settling down.”

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Catch and Kill
Written by Ronan Farrow

Ronan Farrow was one of the pivotal journalists who broke the #MeToo story in 2017. This book documents the first rumblings that a well-known Hollywood producer had a long history of sexually assaulting his clientele (and even built his business and staff to act as accomplices) and then veers into the scary world of private surveillance and the lengths the rich and powerful will go to in order to maintain a social structure that most benefits them. If you ever question why women don’t come forward, this book will tell you all you need to know.

Favourite line: “I remembered us, as we positioned these pewter kings and dragons, and a grown-up voice sounded, calling her away.”

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Brave
Written by Rose McGowan

After reading ‘Catch and Kill’, I picked up Rose McGowan’s autobiography for another angle of the story. Rose was one of the instigators of the #MeToo movement, bravely sharing her story of being raped by studio head Harvey Weinstein and in the aftermath becoming a feminist icon. This book is an intense, angry read and she holds nothing back when sharing stories of everyone from Marilyn Manson to Adam Sandler. This book is so lined with fury, actually, that I can’t see Rose working in the industry ever again. Which ultimately may be what she wants. I agree with a lot of the points she makes and feel her voice is best served with her own thoughts and words rather than a script.

Favourite line: “The adults I met were dedicated in their pursuit of beige, not all, but most.”

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Into Thin Air
Written by Jon Krakauer

Every so often I come across a book that so captivates my imagination I become completely consumed, seeking to learn and experience everything I can about the subject matter in all forms. The compelling ‘Into Thin Air’ has drawn me further into the world of high altitude mountaineering, sharing the gripping, ultimately tragic, story of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster in which eleven people lost their lives. As this past climbing season ended with eleven more deaths, it seems that nothing was learned and the mountain is still open for commodification. I cannot praise ‘Into Thin Air’ enough; it is one of the greatest books I’ve ever read in my life.

Favourite line: “Above 8,000 metres is not a place where people can afford morality.”

Book Recommendations

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
Written by John Carreyrou

An HBO documentary on Theranos, a company that promised leading-edge technology for the health care industry, raising billions in funding before being exposed as completely fraudulent, piqued my interest in learning more about how a scam of this magnitude could unfold. Bad Blood does a great job of that, delving deep into founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes’ history and psyche and includes numerous first-hand accounts from insiders who tried to raise alarms but were ignored or silenced by means of threats and intimidation. The story is truly a wild ride, parts of which feel like scenes cut from an action movie starring Tom Cruise (coincidentally, a movie is in development). Highly recommended. I couldn’t put this book down.

Favourite line: “It was all beginning to make sense: Holmes and her company had overpromised and then cut corners when they couldn’t deliver. It was one thing to do that with software or a smartphone app, but doing it with a medical product that people relied on to make important health decisions was unconscionable.”

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How To Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don’t
Written by Lane Moore

I know what it’s like to be alone having spent the majority of my life in the realm of it. I am an only child and quickly learned how to entertain myself with stuffed animals and pets rather than siblings. I’ve always preferred a small, close group of good friends rather than being an acquaintance to many. And at one point, I left a life behind to start fresh in a city I hadn’t even visited prior. At times, I’ve felt the this solo strength veer into loneliness and that is what this book journals in a series of mini essays; the realities of navigating an increasingly connected world you don’t always feel you have a place in, by choice or circumstance. It is, perhaps, my most dog-eared book of the year, every chapter containing writing (and emotion) that is way too relatable. Lane Moore is a gifted writer and I highly recommended this book.

Favourite line: “I will never understand how, just as quickly and intensely as she entered, she could and would exit my life as though she’d never said a word to me. Never felt anything for me or because of me. And I’d just become a girl she knew once, kind of, from a distance.”

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Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany
Written and illustrated by Jane Mount

This illustrated book is for the true book lover - it offers groupings of books, authors, genres, even book stores and libraries that any true aficionado should check out.

Favourite line: there was a section that detailed pets who’ve provided inspiration to authors.

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Weird Oregon
Written by Al Eufrasio and Jeff Davis

This is the second book in the “Weird” series that I’ve purchased (the other being ‘Weird Illinois’). It is a unique travel series that focuses on sights not covered by Lonely Planet such as local legends and fables, peculiar properties, the paranormal and other strange phenomena. Oregon likes to market it’s reputation for being a bit odd, even running a marketing campaign that begs to “keep Portland weird”, so I knew this would be a great read. Some of my favourite sections included an explanation on why there are so many Paul Bunyan statues, learning of a widow who created a self-cleaning house, and a concise history of the viral whale-exploding incident from 1970 that has taken a second-life on the internet.

Favourite line: During a recent road trip down the state’s I-84, I wondered about the dozens of “mounds” at an army base I passed. This book explained they—all 1,001 of them—once stored 12% of America’s chemical munitions, such as sarin and VX! I had passed the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

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Pablo Escabar, My Father
Written by Juan Pablo Escobar

Narcos and now Narcos, Mexico are some of my “must watch” television. I ordered this book while invested in the first two seasons, hoping to learn more about Pablo Escobar from someone who had unfettered access—his son. I could only force myself through a few chapters though before needing to give up. This book is horrible.

Favourite line: none.

Book Recommendations: Paris Edition

A Day with Marie Antoinette
Written by Heléne Delalex

I picked this up in the gift shop at Versailles and it is a fascinating read filled with beautiful visuals. Love her or hate her, Marie Antoinette led one of the most fascinating lives in history that still pulls influence today (although I am glad that Pantone is the modern colour matching system for designers and industry and not, as this book describes, inspired by royals such as “Caca Dauphin”—or princely poop—a hue once in vogue).

Favourite line: “Kings lack for nothing but the pleasures of a private life: their sole consolation for this great loss may be the charms of friendship and the loyalty of their friends.”

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30-Second Napoleon

A great, quick reference to everything about Napoleon Bonaparte from the context of French society and culture leading up to his reign, major milestones in his life, victories in battle (and defeats) as well as secondary characters that propped or foiled his legacy.

Favourite line: I always enjoy learning about Napoleon’s Egypt campaign.

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We’ll Always Have Paris: Trying and Failing to Be French
Written by Emma Beddington

Based on the title and synopsis—which was misleading—I assumed this book was a travelogue on trying to integrate into French society after relocating there from English shores. This apprised approximately a third of the book (the portion I managed to complete). The remainder turned into a memoir on the author’s struggle with untreated mental illness and how it affected her life, family and career. The book is certainly well written and I applaud the author for laying herself bare, warts and all, but the seemingly unending negativity (especially how terrible French people are, which has been my opposite experience) got grating after awhile and I became disengaged. There was something missing from her words, perhaps a self-realization, that prevented me from viewing her as anything but that antagonist in her own life. Not recommended, unfortunately.

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WTF?! What the French
Written by Oliver Magny

The first few chapters of this book started out as a tongue-in-cheek look at stereotypical French life with sections on beauty, sex and dating, and the consumption of bread (so much delicious bread). But as I continued, there was a darkness that ruined it for me such as support for Marine Le Pen and the far-right National Front party and repeated passages on how immigration is ruining the country. This may provide insight into a sliver of the French population but it isn’t well-written enough to be regarded as actual anthropological data.

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Paris
Written by Jean-Claude Gautrand

The hardcover version of this book has rested on my coffee table for years and is one of my all-time favourites for when I need a jolt of inspiration (or a bittersweet reminder of travels past). With images chronicling the last three centuries of its history and development, the viewer is carried through an immersive, glorious photographic essay on the City of Light and its citizens.

Book Recommendations

Reefer Madness
Written by Eric Schlosser

After reading (and absolutely loving) Schlosser’s ‘Fast Food Nation’ last year, I ordered more of his books including ‘Reefer Madness’ which investigates the far-reaching influence of the American black market—specifically pot, porn and illegal immigration. These three areas, which the government consistently seeks to regulate, all contribute substantially to the national economy. The book is a few years old, and a lot of information outdated, however it’s interesting to see the current outcomes of how these areas evolved. As Schlosser writes “no deity that men have ever worshipped is more ruthless and more hollow than the free market unchecked.”

Favourite line: “Many of the social and economic trends of the past two decades seem remarkably similar to those described in Frederick Lewis Allen’s classic history of the 1920s, ‘Only Yesterday’. The sex scandals, stock swindles, and celebrity murder trials, the youthful hedonism and religious fundamentalism, the Big Bull Market, thriving black markets, fondness for literary irony and political apathy of that era have strong contemporary echoes.”

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Real Food, Fake Food
Written by Larry Olmsted

I’ve eaten “kobe” beef several times in my life, always somewhat skeptical that it was the real thing as it is a relative rarity outside of Japan and notoriously expensive. After reading this book, my suspicions were confirmed but not only for that - there are numerous food products we consume every day, from olive oil to various cheeses, that may not really be what you think they are. One fascinating fact Canadians may not know is that Maple Leaf Meats trademarked the name “Prosciutto di Parma” in 1971 and duped consumers into believing it was the authentic Italian dry-cured ham. Only in 2013 was this rectified with a new trade agreement in which both actual Parma producers and Maple Leaf Meats can still can sell the product, real and fake, in Canada. This is a great book that will get one thinking while shopping for groceries.

Favourite line: “Meat marketers use what is known as modified atmospheric packaging, or MAP, to make products look artificially fresh. Basically, they fill the package with small amounts of carbon monoxide, the same stuff unhappy folks use to kill themselves in garages.”

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Maze
Written by Christopher Manson

I’ve collected gamebooks since I was a kid. I am exposing my nerd side but I have spent significant coin on old, weathered, well-used copies of the Fighting Fantasy series on eBay just for nostalgia. Paired with hot cocoa and a comfy couch, reading them comprises a perfect Sunday afternoon for me (especially with current temperatures in the -40 degree celsius range). Billed as “the world’s most challenging puzzle”, ‘Maze’ was a popular gamebook aimed at adults during the eighties. I hadn’t heard of it before and it is, indeed, very hard. I could only complete part of it, the main quest of navigating through the maze; for the other, visual puzzles—which were coupled with a publisher-sponsored prize back in the day that no one rightfully claimed—I resorted to cheating (and honestly probably wouldn’t have figured them out anyway).

My notebook while attempting ‘Maze’, the world’s most challenging puzzle.

Book Recommendations

Am I There Yet? The Loop-de-Loop Zigzagging Journey To Adulthood
Written and illustrated by Mari Andrew

Listed in the "comics & graphic novels" category, the description is an inaccurate representation of what this book actually is—a beyond brilliant collection of introspective and inspiring illustrations & stories that are more like a visual self-help guide for those navigating through adulthood and all it entrails from romantic rejection to grieving the loss of a parent. This book resonated with me long after I put down its 192 pages; I felt like every word, every vulnerability expressed, was something I have also gone through recently. That kind of empathic insight can be both jarring and reassuring. This is a book that will linger in your heart and soul for days. 

I, along with nearly a million others, originally discovered this artist on Instagram and I highly recommend a follow (and picking up her book). One of the best I've read this year. 

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I, Bificus
Written by Big Naked

I love a good memoir. My personal motto in life is "my future memoir is going to be amazing" and I live each day with that in mind. This one written by Canadian punk chanteuse Bif Naked is one of the best I've ever read. It is engaging, heartfelt and raw, detailing a rich tapestry of life experiences from her parent's missionary work in India (where she was adopted in 1971) to being female in a male-dominated industry to diagnosis and survival from breast cancer. There are years where I felt Bif could've written more but that might be pure greed on my part because I didn't want the book to end. As someone whom I've always perceived to be strong and fearless, it was especially helpful for me to read of her vulnerabilities (and, sadly, relate to the unfortunate circumstances that have resulted because of them). Strength and resilience comes in many different forms. This is a must-read. 

Favourite line: "I was silenced, hearing what a broken heart sounded like."

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Kitchen Confidential
Written by Anthony Bourdain

I was deeply saddened this summer when news spread that Anthony Bourdain committed suicide at the age of 61. He was one of my favourite celebrities; a no-nonsense, occasionally brash, but always genuine person who showed sincere interest in the people and cultures he encountered while traveling the world for programs such as "The Layover" and "Parts Unknown". Anthony definitely had a talent for the written word; his prose is infinitely eloquent  and engaging. While parts of this book lagged, the majority offered intriguing insight into the world of professional cooking.   

Favourite line: "If you are easily offended by direct aspersions on your lineage, the circumstances of your birth, your sexuality, your appearance, the mention of your parents possibly commingling with livestock, then the world of professional cooking is not for you."

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In contrast to the above, I also recently picked up 'Wildflower' by actress Drew Barrymore which she notes is not a memoir but rather a collection of essays about her life. She's certainly led a fascinating one ... but this book didn't shine any light on it. I could only make it partly through the second chapter before deciding that my time was better spent elsewhere. This was a cash-grab on behalf of the author and a complete waste of time for the reader. 

I also purchased ‘Eating Korea’ by Graham Holliday, a book about the history of Korean cuisine and how it’s evolved over time (for better … or worse, according to the author). It’s marketed as “An Anthony Bourdain Book”, but it didn’t muster the same level of engagement as ‘Kitchen Confidential’. The drudging writing style failed to connect and I admittedly couldn’t be bothered further with a foreigner’s lamentations of change in a country he fell in love with decades prior. I had to put it down after completing chapter six. I think one of my other main complaints is that this is a book about food but it has no pictures. After all, food is as much what you see as what you taste. This title may have been greatly improved if designed and marketed in a different way.

Book Recommendations

Meet Me In The Bathroom
Written by Lizzy Goodman

I was never a huge fan of The Strokes but other bands of the early noughts rock scene were a huge part of the soundtrack of my youth (and continue to take up space on playlists today). Interviews with key players of the era from Jack White (of The White Stripes) to Mark Ronson (Producer) to Rob Sheffield (Journalist for Rolling Stone magazine) fill this addicting read and give great insight into what makes a rock star from the raw talent and ambition required, to the behind-the-scenes mechanisms of the industry. I couldn't put it down and got through all 600+ pages in record time. 

Favourite line: "From the beginning, we wanted to write those songs, you know, those songs that change people's lives, a song that encapsulates a moment for people, rather than, like, "Oh, I like this song. I hear it on the radio sometimes."

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Salt, Sugar, Fat
Written by Michael Moss

Food can be a drug. Often, it is engineered that way. ‘Salt, Sugar, Fat’ explores how General Mills, Nestle, Kraft, et all do just that by hiring teams of scientists, researchers and marketers to propel their goods from a mixture of processed additives into something humans can’t help but crave. Containing interviews with those in the industry—notably none of whom admit to actually eating the food they produce and/or market—this book is at turns a fascinating and disturbing read on modern grocery habits and how much influence Wall Street has on them. I recommend this book as a pairing to ‘Fast Food Nation’.

Favourite line: “It is a shame entire generations have lost the ability to cook a good meal from local ingredients because money was shifted to corporate farms to underwrite the growing of energy dense, nutritionally deficient grains that require supplementation to justify its inclusion in the guidelines, unpronounceable preservatives to last on the shelf, and sugar/HFCS [high-fructose corn syrup] to be palatable.”

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The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
Written by Mark Manson

This book came as recommendation from several friends and I can see why. In an era of increasing stress and an inferiority complex exacerbated by social media, apathy has a certain desirability. This self-help book embraces that in a healthy way, offering readers a glimpse into a "counterintuitive approach" to life. It's funny, it's profane, and it was relatable enough that I saw myself in the author's shoes. I especially liked the final chapter, "...And Then You Die"; we are all truly fortunate to have lived. It's never too late to start living well. 

Favourite line: "But while investing deeply in one person, one place, one job, one activity might deny us the breadth of experience we'd like, pursuing a breadth of experience denies us the opportunity to experience the rewards of depth of experience."

Book Recommendations

Wishful Drinking
Written by Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher was an absolute blaze of a woman that has led a very full life seemingly free of regrets. In this memoir, she shares moments of her unorthodox upbringing as the daughter of films stars Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher (who later left his wife for Elizabeth Taylor in one of the most infamous Hollywood affairs) and her life as one of the most iconic pop culture figures in the role of Princess Leia. The most important part of this book though is when she addresses her struggles with mental illness and, subsequently, drug and alcohol addiction. It is raw, unfiltered and honest.

My only complaint was that it was too brief. I read this in a manner of hours and wanted more. Thankfully, she left more writing that I now look forward to indulging in. 

Favourite line: "Years ago, there were tribes that roamed the earth, and every tribe had a magic person. Well, now, as you know, all the tribes have dispersed, but every so often you meet a magic person, and every so often, you meet someone from your tribe."

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Fast Food Nation
Written by Eric Schlosser

I go through phases with books where a specific subject matter piques my interest and then I become obsessed with reading everything about the topic. Several years ago I went through a Vladimir Putin phase. And then a North Korea phase. Currently I am keen on learning about the food industry and how things that should provide sustenance can take away so much more.

Fast Food Nation is another older book that I only recently read, however, as the new afterword in this edition showcases, the content within its pages is still relevant. This book speaks not only about what fast food culture is doing to our health but also the vast reach it's influence has on other sectors of industry from marketing to farming, even immigration. It is thoroughly researched and incredibly engrossing. I could not put it down; in fact, I just ordered all of the author's other works as well. It was especially interesting to learn how two pop culture behemoths like Ray Kroc, entrepreneur who brought McDonalds to the masses, and Walt Disney knew each other prior to their respective success. Twentieth century kismet. 

Favourite line: "The profits of the fast food chains have been made possible by losses imposed on the rest of society."

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A Book That Takes Its Time
Written by Irene Smit and Astrid Van der Hulst

This title caught my eye as I was buying something else at the book store. After flipping through it, I decided what was offered within its pages—from content to design—could be of benefit to my current path in life. The book bills itself as "an unhurried adventure in creative mindfulness" and contains plenty of inspiration and interactive material to instil just that in the reader. Chapters cover everything from artistic growth to spiritual enlightenment and include varied activities such as creating a timeline of one's life to a beginner's course in bird watching. As a designer, I especially appreciated all the neat printing techniques used in the production. While it may be viewed as "fluff" (it truly is just an introduction to mindfulness), the book did motivate me to reflect on my life with a sense of gratitude. 

Me in a nutshell - one of the many activities from 'A Book That Takes Its Time' (©Deborah Clague)