This is a mixed bag of genres that includes fiction, memoir, biography, short stories. Authors are a mixed bag of British, Canadian, American (and one Swede). Some titles have been published recently, others are from a few years ago. Two ‘shout out’ titles are sure to be on my list of top 2025 favourites.
DAVID SEDARIS: Biography (!!!!) by William Adams
Count me in whenever, I see the name ‘David Sedaris’ on a book cover. I should have been suspicious when I saw that this ‘biography’ of David Sedaris; A life of sharp tongue, happy turns, and lucky escapes is only priced at $8.95. The opening sentence reads “It was spring, and my sister Lisa and I were driving from the Greensboro, North Carolina airport…” ‘Wait a minute..’, says I to myself. This is written in the first person. This is not a biography. ‘Wait a minute.. ‘I read this story before, probably in one of Sedaris’s diary books (Theft of Finding’ A Carnival of Snackery). I’ve been scammed. Moreover, Mr. Sedaris has been scammed with this self-published piece of drek. Unless David Sedaris is using a pseudonym (why would he?) I would sue, sue, sue, big time. Buyer beware! I would return the book to Amazon, but it’s already been tossed in the garbage.
DAVID HOCKNEY by James Cahill / 2021 / Biography
This title is one in the “Lives of the Artists” series presenting biographical accounts of the lives of great artists, past and present (i.e. Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Friday Kahlo). Books provide information of the the personal and artistic journeys of these heroes of the art world. This book gave me the story that I needed to understand the timeline, the relationships, highlighting significant examples of Hockney’s extensive work over seven decades. We travel with Hockney back and forth from England to Los Angeles including several trips then worldwide (e.g., Egypt, Italy, France, China) for research. The book not only provides insights into the visionary outlooks, the techniques and technologies in which Hockney immersed himself but appropriately documents Hockney’s friendships, loves and losses. At 136 pages, this is the resource I needed to learn more about this remarkable celebrated life of the artist that I’ve come to be more and more enthralled with. The book also inspired me to further investigate resources to provide additional insights into Hockney’s life and work.
“The world is very very beautiful if you look at it. But most people don’t look very much. They scan the ground in front of them so they can walk, but they don’t look at 5hins incredibly well, with an intensity. I do, and I’ve always known that.” (p. 136) (excerpted from a video recorded in 2021).
100 ESSAYS I DON’T HAVE TIME TO WRITE by Sarah Ruhl/ 2014 /Essays
I’ve recently loved two books by Sarah Ruhl – Smile, Lessons From My Teachers so I was intrigued to read this collection of 100 short essays by playwright, professor, mother and wife, on a wide variety of topics, mostly connected to theatre world. The book is divided into three sections – Part One: On Writing Plays; Part Two: On Acting in Plays; Part Three:On People Who Watch Plays: Audiences and Experts; Part Four: On Making Plays with Other People: Designers, Dramaturgs, Directors and Children. The titles indicate that Ruhl deals with some interesting topics about the stage work, such as umbrellas, nakedness, lice, storms, dogs, masks, sword fights, sleeping audiences, exits and entrances, The author also l answer some ‘interesting’ questions (Should characters have last names? Can one stage privacy? Is one person an audience?) that invite readers to think about the possibilities of the theatre. Sometimes funny, sometimes perceptive, sometimes profound these essays give readers something to think about, especially if the reader is immersed in the world of theatre.
HEART LAMP by Banu Mushtaq / 2025 / Short Stories
Twelve short stories by writer, activist and lawyer from Southern India have been arranged into this award-winning collection, The author beautifully captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in Southern India. These absorbing stories were originally published in the Kannada language between 1990-2023 and have been translated by Deepa Basthi. Together the narratives paint a portrait of family and community, and especially serve as a powerful voice of women’s rights. We meet a woman who feels that she only serves as a slave to her husband, a wife who’s mental capacities are stretched to the limit as she experiences menopause, a woman who must compete with her husbands’ devotion to his mother, a wife who is forced to painfully wear high heels to please her husband, cruel husbands, bigamist husbands, and hapless, hopeless husbands as well as a flock of young boys who undergo circumcision. Many of the stories are set in crowded homes filled with in-laws and children. (A cast list of characters would have helped at times, as well as a glossary to explain translate the religious and cultural items that appear throughout. Harrowing at times, there is some also humour in the way Mushtaq tells her stories. Heart Lamp was a compelling read, one I might not have encountered if it hadn’t recently won an award.. This collection of short stories was the winner of the 2025 International Booker Prize. Judges: “Deceptively simple, these stories hold immense and emotional, moral and socio-political weight urging us to dig deeper.”
THE SPINNING HEART by Donal Ryan / 2012 / Fiction
This debut novel by Irish Writer, Donal Ryan was deemed the winner of the Irish Book of the Yea as well as the Guardian First Book Prize when it was released in 2012. The story is set in an Irish community, where financial collapse has upset the lives of those who lived in the town. Ryan does a clever job of telling their stories in short chapters that are mostly less than 10 pages. The chorus of voices provides a tapestry of the tension and struggles of those lives were upset when Pokey Burke who ran the construction company that employed most of the men in this novel, vanished leaving employees with no salary, no pension and little hope. Each story is a monologue – each a rant of sorts – reveals an inner truth of wounded lives caught in a web of violence, marital affairs, births, drunken episode, a kidnapping, and urgent despair to find employment. A dozen years after the release of The Spinning Heart, we meet the troubled characters once again in a sequel entitled Heart, Be At Peace which was voted the Irish Book of the Decade at the Dublin Book Festival. The two books can be read in either order, I’d say.
WEST by Carys Davies / 2018 / Fiction
I was enamoured with Carys Davies recent publication, Clear (winner of Wales book of the Year Award (2025) praised as ‘intricately crafted, passionate and remarkable novel’) and so was eager to read her debut novel West. West is set in the 10th Century and Cy Bellman, a widowed mule breeder sets out from his small Pennsylvania farm to head west. Bellman’s journey was spurred on by a newspaper article about the discovery of the ancient bones of giant monsters. Nothing can persuade Bellman that the quest to discover whether the giant monsters are still alove roaming the wilderness beyond the Mississippi River. Even though he is forced to leae behnd his young daughter to live with her ornery aunt, the farmer is on a mission to the western states even though it means often facing dire circumstances to survive. He is accompanied by an teenage American Indian known as Old Woman from a Distance whose own story brings a harrowing dimension to the fate of Indians against white man settlers . The narrative is presented in alternate narratives; Bellman’s journey and Bess’s life as she approaches womanhood and yearns for the return of her father. Carys Davies tells a haunting story of dreams, devotion, loss and history. What a fine writer, Carys Davies is!
I have listed the following two titles in my posting of YA reads. However, Each of these books, offers grown-up readers insights into two topics: Sex and Propaganda.
CAN POSTERS KILL?: Antisemitic Propaganda and World War II by Jerry Faivish and Kathryn Cole / 2025 / nonfiction / Second Story Press
On the back cover of this publication, we are provided with a definition of the word Propaganda: “A dangerous weapon in the spread of hate.”. This book is a display of 38 historical posters demonstrating how the powerful potential of posters as a tool for spreading hate and promoting discord and outright lies. The book is organized into three sections: 1.Pre-World War II 2. World War 11 and Post-World War II. A majority of the posters come from Jerry Faivish’s personal collection. Faivish is a child of two Holocaust survivors and strongly feels “that they should be shown as a warning so people can recognize and prevent similar campaigns from succeeding again.” (Preface). The images, whether subtle or overt are often stark, often repulsive emerging from a campaign to impact European thinking during war time. Each poster is accompanied by text that provides background and analysis of the words and visuals that appear in the posters. Ultimately, Can Posters Kills? helps readers to examine hate propaganda from the past and to take an analytic approach to this familiar form of media in order to consider how in today’s digital world, caution must be paid to harmful messages of what is both true and untrue that may spread quickly. As stated in the introduction: “No posters can’t kill, but they can lead people to.”
FIRST TIMES: Short Stories about Sex by Karine Glorieux (editor); Translated from the French by Shelley Tanaka / 2025 / short stories
The title, First Times, invites teenage+ readers to grab this book and dig into the stories. The opening page reads “Warning: Explicit Content. (What Were You Expecting?)” which offers another temptation for adolescents to read these engaging stories by nine French Canadian authors. And read these stories, they should. Each story is presented with honesty. There is a range of perspectives, cultures, sexual orientations and sexual experiences whether we are alone or wth another. To be sure, there is no one way to define what is meant by ‘first time’. It would take more than 9 stories to cover the expanse of stories of losing one’s virginity.But this collection provides teenagers with the pleasures, the frustrations, the anxieties, the disappointments, the relief, and the turning point of experiences with making out, masturbation, same sex encounters, and penetration (or not). This is a must-read book to help adolescents understand (and question) the anticipation, the preparation, the determination, the expectations and the achievements of First Time sex.
SHOUT OUT: NONFICTION
ALL THE BEAUTY IN THE WORLD : The Metroplitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley / 2023 / Memoir
A dear friend passed this book on to me, knowing that I would love it. What a great boo! After the death of his brother, Patrick Bringley decides to leave is job writing for The New Yorker to get a job as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where he worked for about a decade. This new responsibility gave Bringley solace, refuge and a beautiful home. Readers learn much about the comradeship of gallery guards who may seem to roam about unobtrusively but diligently uphold the rules of protecting the art as well as helping the multitude of visitors who wander about. “Too many visitors think of the Met as a musum of Art History, where the objective is to learn about art rather than from it.” (p. 110) (After reading this book, one can’t help but feel better respect for what may seem anonymous employees). The author provides insights into the workings of this two-million-square foot treasure house. Most of all, we learn much about the treasures that fill the halls. Assigned to different to different exhibits from week to week, Patrick Bringley gazes upon wonders of the art world. His description of iconic and obscure treasures take us on a guided tour of art history artifacts and their creators. A list of the hundred or so art works referenced in the text serves as an appendix to this memoir (e.g., El Greco, Goya, Vermeer, Michelangelo, Homer Cassat, Peter Breugel the Elder). Noteworthy, is learning that Bringley sharess the thrill of gazing a power figure from teh Democratic Republic of the Congo (Chapter V) as well as his tribute to a display of ten quilts from Alabama (chapter XII). This book is an astonishing journey and reverence to “all the beauty in the world”. On the final page, Bringley invites readers and visitors to “Find out what you love in the Met, what you learn from, and what you can use as fuel, and venture back into the world carrying something with you, something that doesn’t fit quite easily into your mind, that weighs on you as you go forward and changes you a little bit.” (p. 178)
Reading this book took me back to my studies in Art History many years ago. Who knows what might havbe happened if I pursued that field as a career instead of becoming a teacher. Of all the trips I’ve taken to New York, I haven’t spent all that much time at the MET but it is now on my ‘to do’ list and I know that I will not just look at art, but see art, just a bit differently after having read this book. Maybe, maybe i will slow down and think about the wonder of the creation befoe me and better consider thoughts and feelings that are lurking inside me as I witness art works. Apparently, Bringley offers tours of the museum from time to time. I sent an email hoping I can join him as he shares his expertise , insights and passion. Patrick Bringley you are a great teacher. Thank you for sharing your work and your scholarship. Dear friend, thank you for gifting me with this book.
Excerpts
“As such, my response to the picture (The Harvesters Peter Bruegel was trapped inside me, a bird fluttering in my chest. And I didn’t know what to make of that. It is always hard to know what to make of that. As a guard, I will be watching countless visitors respond in their own way to this curious feeling.” (p. 10)
“All in all, it’s fair to say that the Metropolitan Museum draws an audience worthy of that are a diverse crowd who for diverse reasons have found their way to this great metropolis and one of its most fascinating gathering places.” (p. 73)
“I am sometimes not sure which is the more remarkable that life lives up to the great paintings, or that the great paintings life up to life.” (p. 88)
SHOUT OUT: FICTION
WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTH by Lisa Ridzen / 2024
Translated from Swedish by Alice Menzies
Winner of the Swedish Book of the Year Award
This debut novel is a moving account of an elderly man approaching death. Set in a rural village in northern Sweden, the story invites readers to share in Bo’s days coping with health issues. He is visited by an array of caregivers. His memories of his wife who is now living in a home after being diagnosed with Alzheimers. Phone conversations with an elderly friend, Ture, provides Bo with an important connection. Bo’s loving relationship with his dog Sexten is keeping him alive. It is a strained relationship with his son Hans who adds stress to Bo’s life. Hans think it is now time to take Sexten away from his father, thinking that he won’t be able to give the dog proper care. I was completed engrossed in Bo’s story, a sad story, a story about fathers and sons, devotion to pets, hanging on to memories and doing the best we can in our waning years. Readers who were fond of Fredrik Bakman’s Ove will love this book. This was an emotional read that touched my soul. Readers who are caring for an elderly loved one, who question their relationships in their lives (including those with pets) and those who love a great story, will hopefully love When The Cranes Fly South as much as I do. This book deserved its awards and gets the highest of praise from Dr. Larry.