Elton John: Captain Fantastic on the Yellow Brick Road – a rock star’s life depicted through imagery, music, and monumental moments

posted Sunday, March 10, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

A beautifully produced celebration of the iconic and beloved rock star, Elton John, that features live onstage and candid offstage photography, an entertaining history, and gatefold timeline. Few rock artists continue to gather more and more adulation with age than Sir Elton Hercules John. In this re-release of Elton John at 75 (2022), veteran rock journalist Gillian Gaar provides […]

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I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together – graphic memoir about a queer illustrator surviving his intensely Christian childhood in 1970s Toronto.

posted Tuesday, March 5, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together tells the story of  Maurice Vellekoop, the youngest of four children raised by Dutch immigrants in the 1970s in a blue-collar suburb of Toronto. Despite their working-class milieu, the Vellekoops are devoted to art, music, and film, and they instill a deep reverence for the arts in […]

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New Millennium Boyz – edgy bad boy reflection on the dark, dangerous, disturbing, and delightful times at the turn of the century

posted Sunday, March 3, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Brad Sela is living an apathetic suburban life in his affluent neighborhood until two new friends drag him down a destructive path toward self-discovery. Freshly seventeen and entering his Y2K senior year, Brad is feeling fatigued by the cookie-cutter image his new-agey Oprah-loving mom and corporate-Boomer dad expect him to maintain. So, when the new […]

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The Serial Killer’s Son Takes a Wife – trying to live life normally, while your father is in prison on death row

posted Saturday, March 2, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

The Serial Killer’s Son Takes a Wife tells the story of a mild-mannered ice cream entrepreneur named Bobby Blessing- who just happens to be the son of the infamous serial killer, The Brittle Butcher, marking time on Florida’s Death Row. His life pretty much sucks until he meets the girl of his dreams, Cori, and […]

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Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) – Sly Stone’s memoir divulges stories of success and excess

posted Friday, February 9, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Sly Stone‘s memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), moves from his early career as a radio DJ and record producer through the dizzying heights of the San Francisco music scene in the late 1960s and into the darker, denser life (and music) of 1970s and 1980s Los Angeles. Set on stages and in […]

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Skater Boy – closeted gay bad boy crushes on classmate

posted Tuesday, February 6, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

Skater Boy is a pop punk debut about queer romance and destroying labels, as a teen risks everything to write his own story.  Stonebridge High’s resident bad boy, Wesley “Big Mac” Mackenzie, is failing senior year—thanks to his unchecked anger, rowdy friends, and a tendency to ditch his homework for skateboarding and a secret photography […]

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A Cure For Drowning – Canadian historical novel featuring queer and non-binary central characters

posted Tuesday, January 30, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

The Cure for Drowning is not only a brilliant, boundary-pushing love story, but a Canadian historical novel that boldly centres queer and non-binary characters in unprecedented ways.It’s evocative, magical and luminously written. Born Kathleen to an immigrant Irish farming family in southern Ontario, Kit McNair has been a troublesome changeling since, at ten, they fell […]

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101 Fascinating Canadian Music Facts from author and historian David McPherson

posted Saturday, January 20, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

In 101 Fascinating Canadian Music Facts, author and historian David McPherson shares 100 tales gathered from his more than 25 years working in the music industry. Did you know that Serena Ryder played the quietest concert ever from the ocean floor during low tide at Fundy National Park? Or that “I’ll Never Smile Again,” the hit […]

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On Community delves into the various depths and definitions of belonging

posted Wednesday, January 17, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

In On Community, author Casey Plett explores the need for community to live, but questions what does it look like, and why does it often feel like it’s slipping away? We are all hinged to some definition of a community, be it as simple as where we live, complex as the beliefs we share, or […]

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She’s a Badass: Women in Rock Shaping Feminism features 20 of the top names in the music industry

posted Tuesday, January 16, 2024

by: Bryen Dunn in Books

In She’s a Badass: Women in Rock Shaping Feminism, music journalist Katherine Yeske Taylor interviews twenty significant women in rock, devoting an entire chapter to each one, taking an in-depth look at the incredible talent, determination, and humour they needed to succeed in their careers (and life). Feminism has always been a complex and controversial […]

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