Once upon a time I posted all my book reviews on my blog. Now I review books on Goodreads, but I’m going to try and collate them here as well.

The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power by Desmond Cole

This book is a catalogue of a year of Blackness in Toronto. It’s a year of triumphs and tragedies — mostly tragedies, large and small.

In this book Desmond Cole works to connect the dots from current day racism in Canada to colonialism, and to connect Black Lives Matter, Pride, Idle No More, and other struggles for justice which sometimes complement and sometimes clash with each other. The book is powerful, rich with both research and personal chronicles.

Two chapters stood out for me. “competing interests (december)” describes the launch of the Federation of Black Canadians, a lobby group which seems to have been created by people in power as a kind of puppet group so that the government can say it’s listening to Black people without actually having to hear anything uncomfortable. It’s a good reminder of how hard people in power will work to keep the status quo, and how easy it is to create something that looks good but isn’t. A good reminder that you have to be skeptical all the time, and always look for the man behind the curtain. Pay attention.

The other chapter that struck a chord is the shortest chapter, entitled “deep breath (may)”. It’s just two pages about Cole’s encounters with nature — crawling through bushes trying to photograph cardinals, walking in Dufferin Grove, a trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington. Normal things. On every line my heart was in my mouth, waiting for the story to turn sour: he is stopped by police, he is kicked out of a park, he is attacked or slurred. Nothing bad happens… in this chapter.

In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje

This has been on my to-read list for a long time, because smart people read Ondaatje and because it’s about Toronto and infrastructure and work, topics which I love. I’m glad I read it, but it wasn’t a fun read. I gave it four stars but I’m not sure why because I didn’t write down my thoughts right away. (I always think I’ll remember.)

The thing I didn’t enjoy about the book is the writing style, which is apparently postmodern? (I did not get any kind of literary education so I don’t know what things are called.) The reader is thrown from period to period, setting to setting, without a great deal of explanation or signposting. There’s a lot of not knowing what’s going on, and trying to hold on to ideas and characters and images without knowing why or whether they are important. It’s hard to read.

To be fair, I like doing hard things. I solve puzzles and cryptic crosswords for fun, I study Korean because it’s more challenging than a Romance language. So I can’t really explain why I don’t enjoy this kind of writing more. Maybe I read as a break from hard things? Maybe I want my reading to be more linear? Or maybe the problem is that my short-term memory is not great, so the signposts and reminders that more gentle authors include are very helpful for my brain. (If I were reading more seriously I would take notes alongside a book like this, I bet that would really help.)

This is not to put you off this book, because it is beautiful and it is about all those things, work and cities and immigration and infrastructure, and how we use marginalized peoples to build our cities and then sweep them under the rug of history.

Long Live the Post Horn! by Vigdis Hjorth, transl. Charlotte Barslund

After the unexpected departure of a colleague, PR consultant Ellinor finds herself working on a different kind of assignment: a campaign for the postal worker’s union. It’s December in Oslo, and Ellinor’s life has been grey. She’s going through the motions, years repeating without variation or joy. The postal workers assignment takes her out of the city, out of her routines, and gives her space to think about what life asks of you, and what you can give back to life.

I love a midlife crisis book, and of course (as a coach) I love a book about someone who is thinking new thoughts. making new connections, and changing their life as a result. (Shit — maybe I am a coach because I love a good character arc? Something to think about…)

My one complaint about this book, and maybe it’s more a complaint about culture in general, is the idea (beloved of Hallmark movies) that country folk are more “real” or “authentic” and city people are superficial and self-absorbed. Anyway, it’s interesting that that trope exists in Norway just like it does here.