Marcello Di Cintio's latest book is Walls: Travels Along the Barricades—a finalist for the 2012 British Columbia National Award for Non-Fiction, the 2013 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction and named to The Globe 100 for 2012—and asks the question, What does it mean to live against a wall? What does it meant to be walled out, or in, and to live a barricaded life? In Walls, Di Cintio sets out to discover which societies create walls, and what societies the walls themselves create. It stands to reason perhaps that Di Cintio's Lit Wish List is Five Books that Find Beauty in Unexpected Places.

Bull Head
John Vigna
Arsenal Pulp Press, 2012

Somehow, John managed to finish writing this book while simultaneously editing mine—thus proving his skills at multitasking are only surpassed by his deft storytelling. Vigna’s debut collection of short stories squeezes a sort of brutal and masculine beauty from men whose bloody-knuckled lives no reader would envy.

Believing Cedric
Mark Lavorato
Brindle & Glass, 2011

Mark is another multitasker, at once a photographer, musician and writer. Believing Cedric is an odd little book that begins with the most basic human question: If I could go back and live moments of my life over again, what would I do differently? Mark spins the answer into lush and poetic prose.

The Sheikh’s Batmobile: In Pursuit of American Pop Culture in the Muslim World
Richard Poplak
Penguin Canada, 2009

I am not sure exactly what Poplak is doing in this travelogue. Is he revealing American culture through Muslim eyes? Or is she revealing the Muslim world through American pop culture? Either way, its terribly ambitious. And hilarious. And brilliant.

The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film
Michael Ondaatje
Knopf, 2004

This book finds beauty in the cutting room, and forever changed the way I watch movies, even classic films I’ve seen dozens of times. The book also changed the way I approach the editing of my own writing. The Conversations is a revelation to anyone who creates—or simply enjoys—artful narrative.

Falling Hard: A Rookie’s Year in Boxing
Chris Jones
House of Anansi Press, 2001
As a junior sports reporter for the National Post, Chris spent a year among men who hit each other for a living. What results is a fascinating, disturbing, and surprisingly beautiful account of ritualized brutality. What interested me the most about Falling Hard was how covering boxing changed Jones’ own relationship with violence. (That and the story about the poor guy who found the chunk of Holyfield's ear that Tyson bit off.)
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Marcello Di Cintio is the author of Harmattan: Wind Across West Africa, winner of the Henry Kriesel Award for Best First Book, Poets and Pahlevans: A Journey Into the Heart of Iran— winner of the Wilfred Eggleston Prize for Best Nonfiction at the Alberta Book Awards and nominated for the Edna Staebler Award—and Walls: Travels Along the Barricades—a finalist for the 2012 British Columbia National Award for Non-Fiction, the 2013 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction and named to The Globe 100 for 2012.

Born in Calgary, Di Cintio studied Microbiology and English at the University of Calgary where he was a member of the University of Calgary Wrestling Team. In 1997, he graduated with a pair of degrees (a BA and BSc) and two cauliflower ears. He lives in Calgary with his wife and son.
 
Visit him at www.marcellodicintio.com.

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