Toronto International Festival of Authors – available virtually from Oct 21 to 31, 2021

posted Wednesday, October 20, 2021

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

The Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA), Canada’s largest and longest-running literary festival, invites book lovers to join the authors and artists reshaping the world through stories. The 42nd edition, its second virtual Festival, will present authors from across Canada and across the world. The 11-day Festival, taking place October 21 to 31, will include more than […]

Read more

Here We Go Loop De Loop – comedic, satiric, and filled with greed, lust, and sexuality

posted Tuesday, October 19, 2021

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Here We Go Loop De Loop by William Jack Sibley has greed, lust, sexuality, spiritual enlightenment, xenophobia, and the meaning of a life worth living all woven into a single, outrageous knot in the insulated town of Rita Blanca, Texas. Discussions – and discoveries – of sexuality abound as characters strive to find happiness and meaning. […]

Read more

Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary

posted Tuesday, October 12, 2021

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Kudos to author Sasha Geffen on having the most glittery cover image of the year! From the Beatles to Prince to Perfume Genius, Glitter Up the Dark takes a historical look at the voices that transcended gender and the ways music has subverted the gender binary. Why has music so often served as an accomplice to transcendent […]

Read more

Special Topics in Being a Human by S. Bear Bergman and Saul Freedman-Lawson

posted Tuesday, October 12, 2021

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Special Topics in Being a Human is a gentle, witty, and insightful illustrated guide of practical advice for the modern age, all filtered through a queer lens. S. Bear Bergman offers Dad advice and Jewish bubbe wisdom to help you navigate some of the complexities of life—from how to make big decisions or make a good apology, to […]

Read more

Douglas Coupland’s new book “Binge” has 60 stories to make your brain feel different

posted Tuesday, October 5, 2021

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

The first new work of fiction since 2013 from one of Canada’s most successful, idiosyncratic and world-defining writers, Douglas Coupland. He’s called it Binge because it’s impossible to read just one. Imagine feeling 100% alive every moment of every minute of the day! Maybe that’s how animals live. Or trees, even. I sometimes stare at the plastic […]

Read more

“The Pursued and the Pursuing” adds a queer twist to the ending of  F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”

posted Tuesday, September 28, 2021

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

The Pursued and the Pursuing reimagines the ending of  F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Instead of Gatsby dying, he finds love in the arms of Nick Carraway. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby ends after Jay Gatsby is shot and killed for a hit and run that he did not commit, as well as for his […]

Read more

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, releases memoir, turns 70, and reveals her relationship with a woman

posted Saturday, September 25, 2021

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

On Good Friday in 1953, at only 18 months old, 25 miles from the nearest hospital in Manhattan, Kansas, Cassandra Peterson reached for a pot on the stove and doused herself in boiling water. Third-degree burns covered 35% of her body, and the prognosis wasn’t good. But she survived. Burned and scarred, the impact stayed […]

Read more

Pandemic Poetry Project – collection of community musings from Buddies patio

posted Wednesday, September 15, 2021

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Last summer, poetry lovers/haters gathered on the patio at Buddies in Bad Time Theatre to read and write their own musings on life, love, and the pandemic. Spurred from the mind of Patricia Wilson. along with the careful editing of host and writer David Bateman, the Pandemic Poetry Project has been published. 19 of the 26 […]

Read more

Householders – linked short stories about families, nascent queers, and self-deluded utopians

posted Tuesday, September 14, 2021

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

A woman impersonates a nun online, with unexpected consequences. In a rapidly changing neighborhood, tensions escalate around two events planned for the same day. The barista girlfriend of a tech billionaire survives a zombie apocalypse only to face spending her life with the paranoid super-rich. The linked stories in Householders move effortlessly from the commonplace to the […]

Read more

Love That Journey For Me: The Queer Revolution of Schitt’s Creek

posted Saturday, September 4, 2021

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Love That Journey For Me dives deep into the cultural sensation of Canadian comedy-drama Schitt’s Creek. Considering the fusion of existing sitcom traditions, references and tropes, this Inkling analyses the nuance of the show and its surrounding cultural and societal impact as a queer revolution. By discussing how the show reshapes LGBTQ+ narratives from the […]

Read more