Off the Page
A blog on Canadian writing, reading, and everything in between
Hope Matters: Turning Toward Solutions and Away From Doom
The tired old narrative of doom and gloom can no longer capture the changing global dynamics of life on planet Earth. Th …
9 Canadian Writers Who Run with the Night
A recommended reading list by the founder and publisher of Pedlar Press, whose new novel is Instructor.
Apocalypses, Quests, and Survival
A great list of books for middle-grade readers by author of new novel Trip of the Dead.
The Chat with Eva Crocker
This week we’re in conversation with author Eva Crocker. Her debut novel, All I Ask, (House of Anansi Press) was publi …
Mary Lawson: A Sense of Place
"I don’t know if it’s a Canadian thing, or if people the world over are similarly drawn to the landscape they know w …
Most Anticipated: Our Books for Young Readers Preview
Looking forward to some of the books for young readers (and readers of all ages) that we're going to be falling in love …
I Read Canadian Day is back!
It’s back! After a very successful first year where authors, students, educators, librarians, parents and many other C …
Notes From a Children's Librarian: Scrumptious Stories
DELICIOUS books about food and eating.
The Kids: Are They Alright?
What is it like for a child who lives with a parent or who knows an adult struggling with a crisis of mental health, add …
Where It All Happened: A List of Propulsive Settings
Anyone who's read Emma Donoghue's The Pull of the Stars knows just how much the confines of that understaffed maternity …
Results for keyword: “dystopias”
Liz Harmer: Books That Ask the Big Questions
The Amateurs is Liz Harmer's debut novel, set in a not-too-distant future where most of the human population has disappeared via Ports, doorways to other times and alternate universes from which travellers should theoretically be able to return—except that no one comes back. Are they unwilling to? Are they unable? Told from the perspective of a small group of people who've remained and created a community in the remains of the city of Hamilton, Ontario, and also from that of a man who has spent his career working for the massive corporate entity that built the Ports, The Amateurs grapples with questions like, "what are we here for?", "how do we know what's real and what isn't?", and "what exactly is the nature of love?". In this list, Harmer suggests other great reads that consider similar ideas.
*****
This offbeat list of novels and one short story collection include a few speculative works like mine, a few dystopias, an interest in the nature of God and of the human, and, especially, most of them, lovingly rendered character and place.
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Liz Harmer: Books That Ask the Big Questions
The Amateurs is Liz Harmer's debut novel, set in a not-too-distant future where most of the human population has disappeared via Ports, doorways to other times and alternate universes from which travellers should theoretically be able to return—except that no one comes back. Are they unwilling to? Are they unable? Told from the perspective of a small group of people who've remained and created a community in the remains of the city of Hamilton, Ontario, and also from that of a man who has spent his career working for the massive corporate entity that built the Ports, The Amateurs grapples with questions like, "what are we here for?", "how do we know what's real and what isn't?", and "what exactly is the nature of love?". In this list, Harmer suggests other great reads that consider similar ideas.
*****
This offbeat list of novels and one short story collection include a few speculative works like mine, a few dystopias, an interest in the nature of God and of the human, and, especially, most of them, lovingly rendered character and place.
*
