I Believe in a Thing Called Love Maurene Goo Farrar, Straus and Giroux May 30, 2017 Korean dramas were never part of Desi Lee’s life plan. Becoming student council president? Sure. Spending four brilliant years at Stanford University? Definitely. But unlike her beloved Appa (Korean for “father”), Desi has never been interested in watching Korean…
Piecing Hope Together in Shattered Warrior by Sharon Shinn and Molly Knox Ostertag
Shattered Warrior Sharon Shinn (Writer), Molly Knox Ostertag (Artist) First Second May 16, 2017 A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Warning: mentions of rape, violence. It was the brown face that caught my attention when I was first presented with the cover for Sharon Shinn’s Shattered Warrior. Jagged…
Manufactured Fantasies: On Kyoko Miyake’s Tokyo Idols
Tokyo Idols Director: Kyoko Miyake North American Premiere: April 29, 2017 It’s sold as a platform where dreams come true. Tokyo Idols is a fairly straightforward film. Like its title, the documentary from Kyoko Miyake is direct in its introduction of Japanese idol culture. We meet 23-year-old Rio Hiiragi as she prepares for a show,…
Toronto and Gilead: The Handmaid’s Tale’s Unseen Spaces Between
There is a strange disconnect in seeing your city as the backdrop of a dystopia. It is the Toronto that I see every day, the tan cement slabs I walk on with my worn sneakers that Offred–once known as June, once a free woman–walks in Hulu adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. Against familiar skylines does Margaret Atwood’s modern…
Doris Yeung On Her New Film Taxi Stories and the Dream of Connections
Taxis are an ubiquitous part of most countries, but few of us consider them beyond serving an immediate need–getting from one place to another. In Taxi Stories, director Doris Yeung focuses the camera on that journey, setting her film and her characters in various forms of taxis over three different countries. From Hong Kong to Jakarta to…
It’s Just a Little Crush: A Review of The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
The Upside of Unrequited Becky Albertalli Balzer + Bray April 11, 2017 Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for honest review Racing heart, dry mouth, a butterfly cotillion in your tummy–Molly Peskin-Suso’s quite familiar with all the weird feelings that a crush can bring, thank you very much. She’s had no less than…
Canada Reads 2017: The Defence
It’s that time of year again! Canada Reads is back with five new books and the Canadian celebrities who plan to defend them. Every year, Canada tunes into CBC to watch four days of painstaking debate on the book that Canadians should be reading right now. We’ve assembled three of our Canadian book lovers to…
Undeniable Comfort and Camaraderie in Sailor Moon R The Movie: Promise of the Rose
Sailor Moon R The Movie: Promise of the Rose Director: Kunihiko Ikuhara Original screenplay: Sukehiro Tomita North American voice cast: Stephanie Sheh, Robbie Daymond, Ben Diskin, Carrie Keranen North American premiere: January 19, 2017 (United States); March 1, 2017 (Canada) It’s the distinctly ’90s thrill of electric guitars and percussion that comes to mind first…
Not Quite a Red Carpet Welcome for the Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde
Queens of Geek Jen Wilde Swoon Reads March 14, 2017 Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by the publisher.
25 Years of Never Being Alone: Sailor Moon and Me
It was an afternoon cartoon, scheduled between other familiar kids’ shows. The art was a little different, a little more dynamic and alive, more unabashedly feminine than I was used to seeing, even at eight-years-old. I don’t remember seeing commercials for this new show, with its pigtailed heroine in a sailor suit, but I remember the…
Making a Way by Moonlight: Charlene Ingram and Sailor Moon R’s North American Journey
For kids of the 90s, Sailor Moon is a classic beloved series, despite its rather unpredictable run on network television. While many of us managed to catch at least up to the second season or Sailor Moon R, we might not have gotten a chance to watch beyond that. That’s where Viz Media comes in, with a…
Sing Once Again with S. Jae-Jones of Wintersong’s Strange Duet
Every year, there’s a novel that catches my eye and I know, without a doubt, that it will be different. Not just new, not just exciting, but the kind of different that wrecks you just a little bit, draws you into the deep of the forest and brings you back changed. In fall 2016, I…