2016 books: 6-9
Apr. 7th, 2016 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_siobhanFor some reason the next set went a lot faster.
It's an eccentric collection. Burton's writing style is a bit archaic but he picked some good subjects to work with. It's also a fast read because apparently books published in 1979 could afford to use really thick, high-quality paper so there isn't nearly as much text as I was expecting.
I just skimmed the whole book. I mean it's interesting stuff, but it's not exactly revolutionary if you live in Toronto and occasionally, you know, talk to people.
Linda McQuaig has been writing books and articles about how the rich are pilfering from the rest of us for over 20 years and she shows no signs of getting tired. This particular book is about how the government and the Bank of Canada intentionally scuttled the Canadian economy in the 80's, driving up unemployment and the deficit and then using that deficit as an excuse to slash social services. She's very thorough and does a great job of simplifying economics for the layman without talking down to her readers. Highly recommended.
This was published in 1987 and almost 30 years later some of the groups profiled are defunct and the remainder are much smaller and less active. On the other hand, Black Lives Matter Toronto camped out at the police headquarters across the street from my work for two weeks because a cop killed a black man, and the thing the media wants to talk about is a frustrated tweet by one of the organizers bitching out men and white people. So it goes.
Honourable Mention
BTW, if you are into Canadian history at all, I highly recommend Booze – When Whisky Ruled the West and Red Lights on the Prairie by James H Gray, about boot-legging and prostitution in the Canadian west. They are about a part of Canadian history that doesn't get talked about much and they are highly entertaining. The only reason they aren't on my re-read list is because I am focusing on books that are leaving the house, and I have no intention of giving them up.
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The Wild Frontier: More Tales from the Remarkable Past by Pierre Burton Pierre Burton was a Canadian fixture when I was growing up, always appearing on shows about history and current events. He was even a regular on a game show or two. I honest-to-God got this book in High School and this is my first time getting around to reading it. It's a bunch of short stories about Europeans in Canada in the 1800s with each story focused on a different historical individual. For example one chapter is about the stalwart and square-jawed RCMP officer who was no doubt the original model for all those Dudley Dooright and Due South stories; a man by the improbable noir fiction name of Sam Steele. |
It's an eccentric collection. Burton's writing style is a bit archaic but he picked some good subjects to work with. It's also a fast read because apparently books published in 1979 could afford to use really thick, high-quality paper so there isn't nearly as much text as I was expecting.
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The New Canada: A Globe and Mail Report on the Next Generation by Erin Anderssen, Michael Valpy and others I have no idea where this came from. I suspect one of the various boxes of books that have meandered their way through our house. This was published in 2003. It's a series of essays about various aspects of Canadian life with focus on second-generation Canadians in their 20s. Each chapter starts with a bunch of charts and stats and then they interview some individuals to serve as examples. |
I just skimmed the whole book. I mean it's interesting stuff, but it's not exactly revolutionary if you live in Toronto and occasionally, you know, talk to people.
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Shooting the Hippo: Death by Deficit and Other Canadian Myths by Linda McQuaig I first met BC through a local writer's group, and early in our friendship she gave me a lift to a cabin where a half-dozen of us planned to spend the weekend watching movies and probably not writing. When I got into her car this book was on the passenger seat. "That's a great book," she said. "If you want, I can lend it to you." I opened my knapsack and pulled out the copy I was reading. "You mean this one?" |
Linda McQuaig has been writing books and articles about how the rich are pilfering from the rest of us for over 20 years and she shows no signs of getting tired. This particular book is about how the government and the Bank of Canada intentionally scuttled the Canadian economy in the 80's, driving up unemployment and the deficit and then using that deficit as an excuse to slash social services. She's very thorough and does a great job of simplifying economics for the layman without talking down to her readers. Highly recommended.
 |
Is God a Racist?: The Right Wing in Canada by Stanley Barrett I was in a bar last summer when a couple of friends who grew up here were explaining to a more recent immigrant about how active neo-Nazis and the KKK were in Canada in the 80s. It was the decade of the Ernst Zündel and James Keegstra trials. There were multiple incidents of POC attacked in public and SHARP and ARA started up in Toronto. Barrett writes about the history of the racist right in Canada, focusing on the more prominent groups and characters. He spends more energy than I would trying find a "cause" for their beliefs - I am firmly in the "some people are just assholes" camp - but he does it to be thorough, rather than because he is treating racism as an anomaly. In fact he uses the chapter on Keegstra to show how normal his views were in the town where the events took place. |
This was published in 1987 and almost 30 years later some of the groups profiled are defunct and the remainder are much smaller and less active. On the other hand, Black Lives Matter Toronto camped out at the police headquarters across the street from my work for two weeks because a cop killed a black man, and the thing the media wants to talk about is a frustrated tweet by one of the organizers bitching out men and white people. So it goes.
Honourable Mention
BTW, if you are into Canadian history at all, I highly recommend Booze – When Whisky Ruled the West and Red Lights on the Prairie by James H Gray, about boot-legging and prostitution in the Canadian west. They are about a part of Canadian history that doesn't get talked about much and they are highly entertaining. The only reason they aren't on my re-read list is because I am focusing on books that are leaving the house, and I have no intention of giving them up.