2021 book log

Fiction

1. Come Tumbling Down, Seanan McGuire
2. The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark 
3. Plain Bad Heroines, Emily M. Danforth
4. The Forgotten Daughter, Joanna Goodman
5. Five Little Indians, Michelle Good
6. Return of the Trickster, Eden Robinson
7. Radicalized, Cory Doctorow
8. Our Riches, Kaouther Adimi
9. Across the Green Grass Fields, Seanan McGuire
10. Never Anyone But You, Rupert Thomson

11. Speak, Silence, Kim Echlin
12. A Madness So Discreet, Mindy McGinnis
13. The Unspoken Name, A.K. Larkwood
14. Hench, Natalie Zina Walschots
15. Cold Skies, Thomas King
16. The Midnight Bargain, C.L. Polk
17. Twelve Miles to Midnight: Stories, André Narbonne
18. The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker
19. Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger
20. A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine
21. The Hidden Palace, Helene Wecker
22. After the Revolution, Robert Evans
23. The Beautiful Ones, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
24. Daughter From the Dark, Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko
25. Blood Marble, Shirley Meier
26. Generation Loss, Elizabeth Hand
27. When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, Nghi Vo
28. The Infinite Noise, Lauren Shippen
29. Victories Greater than Death, Charlie Jane Anders
30. The Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler
31. Wild Seed, Octavia Butler
32. Available Dark, Elizabeth Hand
33. Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi
34. Out of the Ruins, Preston Grassman (ed.)
35. Blood Sports, Eden Robinson
36. [Redacted]
37. The Colour of Resistance: A Contemporary Collection of Writing by Aboriginal Women, Connie Fife (ed.)
38. The Affair of the Mysterious Letter, Alexis Hall.
39. Voices Under One Sky: Contemporary Native Literature, Trish Fox Roman (ed.)
40. Hammers On Bone, Cassandra Khaw
41. An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in English, Terry Goldie, Daniel David Moses, and Armand Garnet Ruffo (eds.)
42. In Search of April Raintree, Beatrice Culleton Mosionier
43. Leviathan Falls, James S.A. Corey

44. Every You, Every Me, David Leviathan
 
Non-Fiction

1. The Truth About Stories, Thomas King
2. The Audacity of His Enterprise: Louis Riel and the Métis Nation That Canada Never Was, 1840–1875, M. Max Hamon
3. The North-West Is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Metis Nation, Jean Teillet
5. Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy, Talia Lavin
6. Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present, Robyn Maynard
7. Left-Wing Melancholia: Marxism, History, and Memory, Enzo Traverso.
8. Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics, Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick
9. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer
10. A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears), Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
11. Indigenous Storywork: Educating the Heart, Mind, Body, and Spirit, Jo-ann Archibald
12. Indigenous Toronto: Stories that Carry This Place, edited by Denise Bolduc, Mnawaate Gordon-Corbiere, Rebeka Tabobondung, Brian Wright-McLeod and John Lorinc
13. The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness, Emily Anthes
14. Plagues and Peoples, William H. McNeill

Plays

1. Toronto At Dreamer's Rock / Education Is Our Right, Drew Hayden Taylor
2. The Breathing Hole, Colleen Murphy and Siobhan Arnatsiaq-Murphy, translated by Janet Tamalik McGrath

Poetry

1. Civil Elegies and Other Poems, Dennis Lee

Comics

1. Little Bird Vol. 1: The Fight for Elder's Hope, Darcy Van Poelgeest, Ian Bertram, and Matt Hollingsworth
2. Paying the Land, Joe Sacco
3. Fire Starters, Jen Storm, Scott Henderson, and Donovan Yaciuk 
4. Surviving the City, Tasha Spillett and Natasha Donovan
5. Breakdown (The Reckoner Rises), Vol. 1,  David A. Robertson, Scott B. Henderson (Illustrations), and Donovan Yaciuk
6. A Girl Called Echo: Pemmican Wars, Katherena Vermette, Scott B. Henderson and Donovan Yaciuk
7. Britain, a Prophecy #1: Traditional Moral Values, Elizabeth Sandifer and J. Penn Wiggins

Addendum to my unqualified praise for "Don't Look Up."

 After a round of internet arguments (not on DW, elsewhere) I am left to conclude that the two major problems of pop cultural criticism are 1) A Modest Proposal is no longer taught in schools*, and 2) no one on the online left has actually read as much Bertolt Brecht as they claim to, if any at all.

I am happy to elaborate in comments.

* I am generally in favour of replacing Dead White Guy Literature in the compulsory high school canon but A Modest Proposal is my one exception. I am open to replacements and expansions for it, particularly by First Nations, Métis, or Inuit authors. Walking Eagle News is great and I absolutely plan to use it.

oh yes, and happy new year

 A few hours ago, walking down the street, an old man who seemed to be in rough shape looked at me and said, "There's so much pain."

Here's hoping 2022 brings us all less pain.