non-fiction

A Chill in the Air by Iris Origo

A short, but fascinating first-hand account of life in Italy during the build-up to Italy’s entry into the Second World War.

According to Origo, most Italians hated Hitler (and Germans) and wanted no part of fighting alongside Nazis. They truly believed only Mussolini – master negotiator, force of nature and god among men – could and would keep them out of it. Fascism was popular and democracy derided, particularly in the pro-German/anti-British propaganda in Italian newspapers. Knowing now how badly things ended for Italians, Origo’s continual hunt for signs that they’d escape the war is all the more heartbreaking.

Maybe if high school history classes focused more on gripping, first-hand accounts like this one and less on deadly boring textbooks, we wouldn’t be doomed to repeat the same stupid political cycles over and over.

Highly recommended.

The 4% Fix by Karma Brown

I’m a sucker for books about productivity and creativity and making time for meaningful pursuits and all that jazz, but this one just didn’t do it for me.

Brown’s main idea is that by getting up an hour earlier every day (for her, that’s 5 am – shudder) one can use that time to pursue a personal goal. That’s it. That’s the 4% fix. Go to bed an hour earlier so you can get up an hour earlier and do that thing you want to do before the day fills up with all the things you have to do.

This is perfectly reasonable (if not exactly revolutionary) advice, but there’s a weird insistence here on getting up at 5, as though extreme early birds are the only people who ever accomplish goals.

When I write my book on making time for meaningful pursuits (which’ll be never, apparently, since I am NOT voluntarily getting up at 5) I’ll also emphasize the importance of reserving an hour a day, but reserving it whenever it fits in with one’s own circadian rhythms and daily schedule. The only difference between taking an hour at 5 am or taking it later in the morning (or mid-afternoon or late in the evening) is that later risers don’t get to brag about how early they get up.

Off Script by Marci Ien

Whenever I happen to open Overdrive right after all the new arrivals have been added and see AVAILABLE AVAILABLE AVAILABLE some deep-seated competitive spirit kicks in and I start greedily downloading titles I wouldn’t usually bother placing on hold if they weren’t immediately available. I never learn. Clearly this hoarding behaviour can be traced back to my hunter-gatherer ancestors, and not just that one in particular who can spot jigsaw puzzles at a garage sale from fifty paces.

Anyway, this is my rude and roundabout way of saying that’s how I ended up reading Off Script: Living Out Loud by Marci Ien. No offence to Marci, who seems like a very nice person, but I have never watched Canada AM or The Social and had only the vaguest idea of who she was. Well, now I know.

She writes clearly and openly and I found her thoughts on being a woman of colour in Canadian journalism to be especially compelling. Anyone who is a fan of morning television would doubtless enjoy it even more.

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

An excellent book that I can’t recommend highly enough.

Rubenhold encourages us to look past the sensationalism of Jack the Ripper to the desperately hard lives (and horrific deaths) of the women he slaughtered. These were ordinary women with regrettably common problems (poverty, addiction, unstable relationships) in a time when there was no social safety net or chance at independence and self-reliance for women.

It’s infuriating that these women were immediately written off as “just prostitutes” and have continued to be in the almost century-and-a-half since by writers and so-called experts and (ugh) Ripper tour guides — most of whom are happy to lazily spout the same old tripe about the women before getting to what they consider to be the really good stuff: gushing over a murderous psychopath revered for his ability to escape detection. How screwed up is that?

Read it.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

I hadn’t read Bird by Bird in years so when the 25th anniversary edition popped up on Overdrive, I checked it out. I didn’t love it quite as much as I did the first time, but only because her voice and advice weren’t the revelation now that they were way back when.

Lamott isn’t perfect (and I’m positive would never ever claim to be), but her advice is practical and caring and inspirational all at the same time. How I wish I’d had a creative writing teacher like her.