Chris Benjamin's Blog - Posts Tagged "nonfiction"
My Top 9 Favourite Books Read in 2019
Elsewhere California, Dana Johnson. Beautiful exploration of not only race and class but also the ways we become our adult selves, the choices we make and the hand we're dealt, how the littlest things or encounters can shift us one way or the other, and how all these make us far more complex than the category boxes on the census forms, the stereotypes we put groups of people into.
White Kids, Margaret Hagerman. Fascinating commentary from rich white kids and their parents about race. Of the many messages in this book, I'll most remember the pervasiveness of the belief by some people that they "don't see race." It's not just a harmless self-deception; that belief prevents people from seeing the racism in front of their faces, prevents them from seeing injustice everywhere, and let's them pretend racism is a thing of the past.
The Wanton Troopers, Alden Nowlan
Gorgeous prose, poetic turns of phrase and image; fully realized, complex characters, the people are very real, flawed, and yet Nowlan calls on them with love. Told from the child's perspective, which allows a certain naivete yet never flinches at the sometimes gory details of the story. Dialogue ranges from gritty to bullyish taunting to whimsical to philosophical-theological to drunken carousing. Brilliant book.
The Boat People, Sharon Bala
The three perspectives were all engaging, fascinating, illuminating. Each showed something different about the refugee claimants and Canada's response to them. I got a look at the bureaucracy and politics behind decisions on their 500+fates. I got a look in the jail where they stayed, the psychological machinations--the cage inside the brain. I got a look at life and survival, the brutality in Sri Lanka at war with itself. I got a look at Canadian life from a 1st-generation Canadian, the daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants, who also had a fascinating and complex backstory. This was a great story, very engrossing.
Malagash, Joey Comeau
Young woman records conversations with her dying father and uses them to create a computer virus that will outlive him. Beautifully rendered, brilliant concept, absolutely heartbreaking.
Best Canadian Short Stories 2018, Russel Smith
My favourites were by David Huebert, Kathy Page, Alex Pugsley, Stephen Marche (he wrote a short story forcing himself to follow certain algorithmic restraints of "good literature", and it turned out great), and Bill Gaston.
The Wedding, Dorothy West
Beautiful prose and rich, complex characters set up this tragedy, in which everyone is obsessed with race and skin colour, which made me consider my own privilege of not having to be. The dialogue wasn’t great, but all the other writing was.
The Search for Heinrich Schlögel, Martha Baillie
I loved the character and story of Heinrich Schlögel, the titular and main focus of this novel. His story was a profound exploration of living with our histories—personal and collective--particularly colonial genocide. That sounds like a slog but the prose was so tender it didn't feel like one.
Best American Short Stories, Roxane Gay
Diverse and fascinating selection of American stories, all superbly written with very few misses. Personal favs were Boys Go to Jupiter by Danielle Evans (deep dive into racism and responsibility); Unearth by Alicia Elliott (exploring the trauma and legacy of residential schools); Good with Boys by Kristen Iskandrian (a beautifully simple coming-of-age story set in a museum); A Big True by Dina Nayeri (looking at immigration and changes in status it brings, but also the concept of living a free and creative life); and Whose Heart I Long to Stop with a the Click of a Revolver (again about inter-generational trauma, but also about power and guns).
JAN 22 EDIT:
I can't believe it but I left The Break by Katherena Vermette off my list! This is a Top-3-of-the-year book along with Wanton Troopers and Malagash. What makes this novel so compelling is Vermette's ability to take so many different perspectives, to show the pain and trauma of so many characters, including the perpetrator of a horrific act. Even as the victim’s mother understandably says she doesn’t give a fuck for the perpetrator’s backstory, we the readers know it, and we feel for her as well.
White Kids, Margaret Hagerman. Fascinating commentary from rich white kids and their parents about race. Of the many messages in this book, I'll most remember the pervasiveness of the belief by some people that they "don't see race." It's not just a harmless self-deception; that belief prevents people from seeing the racism in front of their faces, prevents them from seeing injustice everywhere, and let's them pretend racism is a thing of the past.
The Wanton Troopers, Alden Nowlan
Gorgeous prose, poetic turns of phrase and image; fully realized, complex characters, the people are very real, flawed, and yet Nowlan calls on them with love. Told from the child's perspective, which allows a certain naivete yet never flinches at the sometimes gory details of the story. Dialogue ranges from gritty to bullyish taunting to whimsical to philosophical-theological to drunken carousing. Brilliant book.
The Boat People, Sharon Bala
The three perspectives were all engaging, fascinating, illuminating. Each showed something different about the refugee claimants and Canada's response to them. I got a look at the bureaucracy and politics behind decisions on their 500+fates. I got a look in the jail where they stayed, the psychological machinations--the cage inside the brain. I got a look at life and survival, the brutality in Sri Lanka at war with itself. I got a look at Canadian life from a 1st-generation Canadian, the daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants, who also had a fascinating and complex backstory. This was a great story, very engrossing.
Malagash, Joey Comeau
Young woman records conversations with her dying father and uses them to create a computer virus that will outlive him. Beautifully rendered, brilliant concept, absolutely heartbreaking.
Best Canadian Short Stories 2018, Russel Smith
My favourites were by David Huebert, Kathy Page, Alex Pugsley, Stephen Marche (he wrote a short story forcing himself to follow certain algorithmic restraints of "good literature", and it turned out great), and Bill Gaston.
The Wedding, Dorothy West
Beautiful prose and rich, complex characters set up this tragedy, in which everyone is obsessed with race and skin colour, which made me consider my own privilege of not having to be. The dialogue wasn’t great, but all the other writing was.
The Search for Heinrich Schlögel, Martha Baillie
I loved the character and story of Heinrich Schlögel, the titular and main focus of this novel. His story was a profound exploration of living with our histories—personal and collective--particularly colonial genocide. That sounds like a slog but the prose was so tender it didn't feel like one.
Best American Short Stories, Roxane Gay
Diverse and fascinating selection of American stories, all superbly written with very few misses. Personal favs were Boys Go to Jupiter by Danielle Evans (deep dive into racism and responsibility); Unearth by Alicia Elliott (exploring the trauma and legacy of residential schools); Good with Boys by Kristen Iskandrian (a beautifully simple coming-of-age story set in a museum); A Big True by Dina Nayeri (looking at immigration and changes in status it brings, but also the concept of living a free and creative life); and Whose Heart I Long to Stop with a the Click of a Revolver (again about inter-generational trauma, but also about power and guns).
JAN 22 EDIT:
I can't believe it but I left The Break by Katherena Vermette off my list! This is a Top-3-of-the-year book along with Wanton Troopers and Malagash. What makes this novel so compelling is Vermette's ability to take so many different perspectives, to show the pain and trauma of so many characters, including the perpetrator of a horrific act. Even as the victim’s mother understandably says she doesn’t give a fuck for the perpetrator’s backstory, we the readers know it, and we feel for her as well.
2023 Favourite Reads
Inside: Thoughts from a Pandemic by Various Authors
(Published by Nevermore)
I had a story in this one so I'm biased but I really enjoyed these poems, stories and essays trying to make sense of a claustrophobic time everyone shared.
From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle
This is one of the best accounts of addiction I’ve ever read, mainly because it was easy to connect with the author, to understand the loneliness he must have felt even when he wasn’t explicit about it. I got a great sense of his humility, his gratitude for life and survival, and his unwillingness to blame his mistakes on others, even when he was traumatized. I came to better appreciate a lot of the difficulties people I’ve known and loved have experienced.
Pay No Heed to the Rockets by Marcello Di Cintio
I've had this shelved for years, and was inspired to read it by current world events. It was soul food, the words of poets (in interviews) making sense of their ravaged world, not only the wars but also quotidian life, including patriarchy, tradition, faith, literature, the art of great coffee. It was also sad to wonder how they're faring now.
The World of Dew
Julian Mortimer Smith
Speculative fiction from a Nova Scotia author casting light on the world we know and face: social media, climate change, artificial intelligence, virtual planes, hyper commercialization, grifters, war machines, and occasional authoritarianism. A fascinating mix of well crafted stories.
What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
The writing is excellent. On Themes of the roles we play and that are societally foisted on us due to gender, race, nation of origin, or other fated things beyond us. A mix of realism and surrealism. My favourites tended to be the latter, particularly Who Will Greet You at Home, What is a Volcano, and the title story.
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama
For the first time ever I read all five Giller shortlisted books. This one was my favourite. A beautifully written and well constructed tale of displacement, emphasizing the essential nature of homeland, how place shapes and defines us all, with much resonance in american Indigeneity.
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu
The first story was incredible: innovative in the telling, the dialogue (which was the whole story) was sharp and interesting, and in the end I was moved, and had fresh insights into the nature of reality and technology. Brilliant. The rest of the stories were also quite good, some great.
You Can't Win by Jack Black
“If they would give more attention to the high chair, they could put cobwebs on the electric chair.”
“…the cop is a victim of the same machine which makes the criminal.”
The most interesting part was the postscript, in which the author makes his case for a preventative rather than punitive approach to crime. Having suffered decades of punishment he makes his case quite clearly and plainly, and it is convincing. 100 years later though we remain a vengeful society.
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut
Beautifully written. It's speculative, imagined, but I'm not sure it's a novel. It's not structured like one, but that's semantics. It's an engaging, fascinating read about the push to understand what is perhaps not really understandable, the consequences for the explorers and the rest of us. Perhaps it would be better if we resisted asking, or were satisfied with imagined answers (like God). But is that even possible for us?
What Comes Echoing Back by Leo McKay Jr.
Written by a Nova Scotian high school teacher who is a novelist of renown. The novel deals with two high school students who have each experienced brutal trauma in different ways. Social media and bullying factor heavily. Music is their common coping mechanism and healer. Beautifully and powerfully written.
Your Blues Ain't Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell
Based on Emmett Till's murder, this novel explores the multigenerational impacts on the families of the victims and perpetrators in the North and South. Moore Campbell's genius was inhabiting the damaged psyches of her characters on all sides.
Laughing with the Trickster by Thompson Highway
“What could have been if this worldview, this ideology, this collective subconscious, this pantheistic Indigenous mythology, had been listened to, if it had been respected?”
Perhaps humans would have a better chance of surviving. And as Thompson indicates, living joyfully, laughing till we fart, laughing till we die. Brilliant insights in this book.
(Published by Nevermore)
I had a story in this one so I'm biased but I really enjoyed these poems, stories and essays trying to make sense of a claustrophobic time everyone shared.
From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle
This is one of the best accounts of addiction I’ve ever read, mainly because it was easy to connect with the author, to understand the loneliness he must have felt even when he wasn’t explicit about it. I got a great sense of his humility, his gratitude for life and survival, and his unwillingness to blame his mistakes on others, even when he was traumatized. I came to better appreciate a lot of the difficulties people I’ve known and loved have experienced.
Pay No Heed to the Rockets by Marcello Di Cintio
I've had this shelved for years, and was inspired to read it by current world events. It was soul food, the words of poets (in interviews) making sense of their ravaged world, not only the wars but also quotidian life, including patriarchy, tradition, faith, literature, the art of great coffee. It was also sad to wonder how they're faring now.
The World of Dew
Julian Mortimer Smith
Speculative fiction from a Nova Scotia author casting light on the world we know and face: social media, climate change, artificial intelligence, virtual planes, hyper commercialization, grifters, war machines, and occasional authoritarianism. A fascinating mix of well crafted stories.
What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
The writing is excellent. On Themes of the roles we play and that are societally foisted on us due to gender, race, nation of origin, or other fated things beyond us. A mix of realism and surrealism. My favourites tended to be the latter, particularly Who Will Greet You at Home, What is a Volcano, and the title story.
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama
For the first time ever I read all five Giller shortlisted books. This one was my favourite. A beautifully written and well constructed tale of displacement, emphasizing the essential nature of homeland, how place shapes and defines us all, with much resonance in american Indigeneity.
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu
The first story was incredible: innovative in the telling, the dialogue (which was the whole story) was sharp and interesting, and in the end I was moved, and had fresh insights into the nature of reality and technology. Brilliant. The rest of the stories were also quite good, some great.
You Can't Win by Jack Black
“If they would give more attention to the high chair, they could put cobwebs on the electric chair.”
“…the cop is a victim of the same machine which makes the criminal.”
The most interesting part was the postscript, in which the author makes his case for a preventative rather than punitive approach to crime. Having suffered decades of punishment he makes his case quite clearly and plainly, and it is convincing. 100 years later though we remain a vengeful society.
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut
Beautifully written. It's speculative, imagined, but I'm not sure it's a novel. It's not structured like one, but that's semantics. It's an engaging, fascinating read about the push to understand what is perhaps not really understandable, the consequences for the explorers and the rest of us. Perhaps it would be better if we resisted asking, or were satisfied with imagined answers (like God). But is that even possible for us?
What Comes Echoing Back by Leo McKay Jr.
Written by a Nova Scotian high school teacher who is a novelist of renown. The novel deals with two high school students who have each experienced brutal trauma in different ways. Social media and bullying factor heavily. Music is their common coping mechanism and healer. Beautifully and powerfully written.
Your Blues Ain't Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell
Based on Emmett Till's murder, this novel explores the multigenerational impacts on the families of the victims and perpetrators in the North and South. Moore Campbell's genius was inhabiting the damaged psyches of her characters on all sides.
Laughing with the Trickster by Thompson Highway
“What could have been if this worldview, this ideology, this collective subconscious, this pantheistic Indigenous mythology, had been listened to, if it had been respected?”
Perhaps humans would have a better chance of surviving. And as Thompson indicates, living joyfully, laughing till we fart, laughing till we die. Brilliant insights in this book.
Introducing my new much improved website
I have a new website! Visit me at https://chris-benjamin.ca/.
No one is ever as excited about a new website as the new website owner. But, it is really a big step forward for me because it focuses much more on my books, a nice page for each of them. And you can now buy them directly from my website with either a credit card or google pay. (If you have another tool you prefer let me know.)
All the same content is there, just better organized and with a more modern look. It also works on a smart phone now.
If you want to buy a book, you can do that on my new website. (Shipping may be a challenge until the Canada Post strike is resolved. But if you live near Halifax I will deliver.)
If you want to book me for an event, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to review or comment on any of my books, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to know how much a book weighs or when it was published, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to sign up for my newsletter, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to read nice things people said about my work, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to send me an email, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to connect on social media, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to see pictures of me, you can do that on my new website.
But it WON'T write a book for you. Enough with the AI.
Anyhoo, please take a gander and I'd really love it if you passed it on. If you know anyone looking for gift ideas, tell them, :you can do that on Chris Benjamin's new website."
Oh, and if you find any bugs in the machine i.e. anything not working or looking quite right, please let me know either via email or the handy contact form.
The official URL is https://chris-benjamin.ca/. But if you go to the old chrisbenjaminwriting.com site, it'll take you right there. It's so clever!
HUGE shout out to Frank at Orlando Media, who built this sucker in record time. He is amazing to work with, incredibly responsive and came at it with an extremely "can do" attitude. He's the best!
No one is ever as excited about a new website as the new website owner. But, it is really a big step forward for me because it focuses much more on my books, a nice page for each of them. And you can now buy them directly from my website with either a credit card or google pay. (If you have another tool you prefer let me know.)
All the same content is there, just better organized and with a more modern look. It also works on a smart phone now.
If you want to buy a book, you can do that on my new website. (Shipping may be a challenge until the Canada Post strike is resolved. But if you live near Halifax I will deliver.)
If you want to book me for an event, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to review or comment on any of my books, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to know how much a book weighs or when it was published, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to sign up for my newsletter, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to read nice things people said about my work, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to send me an email, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to connect on social media, you can do that on my new website.
If you want to see pictures of me, you can do that on my new website.
But it WON'T write a book for you. Enough with the AI.
Anyhoo, please take a gander and I'd really love it if you passed it on. If you know anyone looking for gift ideas, tell them, :you can do that on Chris Benjamin's new website."
Oh, and if you find any bugs in the machine i.e. anything not working or looking quite right, please let me know either via email or the handy contact form.
The official URL is https://chris-benjamin.ca/. But if you go to the old chrisbenjaminwriting.com site, it'll take you right there. It's so clever!
HUGE shout out to Frank at Orlando Media, who built this sucker in record time. He is amazing to work with, incredibly responsive and came at it with an extremely "can do" attitude. He's the best!
2024 Favourite Reads
My list of my Favourite Dozen books I read last year (though definitely not necessarily published last year) is now up at https://chris-benjamin.ca/my-favourit....
What were some of your favourites?
What were some of your favourites?
