I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

This has been sitting on my shelf for a number of years and I felt really inspired to read it after reading Sister Mother Husband Dog by Nora Ephron's sister Delia earlier this year.  I've read other books by Nora Ephron before and I have to say, I wasn't a big fan of this book. I found the content to be pretty superficial and boring.

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Ru by Kim Thuy

Dear friend of the blog ASHLEY RYAN bought me this book. How incredibly sweet of her. I didn't know anything about Kim Thuy and I honestly had never heard of Ru, even though it won the Canada Reads competition in 2015. Ru is only 152 pages and I flew through it. I'm glad Ashley got me it so I could give it a try!

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10 of Our Favourite Big Books

Long books are truly one of the greatest art forms we have. There are few things as impressive than authors who can tell such meaningful stories (fiction or nonfiction) over hundreds and hundreds of pages. The fact that we pick these books up and don't put them down until we've finished them weeks (and often months) later is a testament to how strong their writing is. Here are some of our favourites!

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Most Dramatic Ever: The Bachelor by Suzannah Showler

Hi I'm Meagan and I'm addicted to The Bachelor. Not just The Bachelor, but the entire franchise. I started watching in the Trista Sutter era (likely before I should have been, thanks mom) and haven't missed a season since. A friend of mine from high school recommended this on Instagram and I ordered it almost immediately. It's a cultural analysis of my favourite show and the only thing could come closer to my dream of a book would be if Chuck Klosterman had written it.

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Every Love Story is a Ghost Story by D. T. Max

The last author biography I read was The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion by Tracy Daugherty. I remember thinking it was both dull and dense but when you're captivated by someone you'll take whatever you can get to learn more about them. I have read all of Didion's bibliography, as well as all of Jonathan Franzen's - another author I bought a biography of. I have only read a few of David Foster Wallace's works (Infinite Jest, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Girl With Curious Hair) but even though I read the least amount of his work I'm still fascinated by him as a person. Another Wallace enthusiast recommended I check out Wallace's biography Every Love Story is a Ghost Story by D.T. Max and so here we are.

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Our 2019 TIFF Experience

TIFF is our favourite time of the year, because unlike the other times Meg flies to Ontario so we can watch movies together, for TIFF we don't feel like as big of losers telling other people that's what she came here for. It's exciting! King Street is alive, there is music and food trucks and celebrities. And there is something so cool about seeing movies for the first time, often before they have trailers and posters, watching alongside the directors in the audience. We think you'll like most of the movies we saw this year, and a lot of them will be available to watch publicly soon enough.

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Book Adaptations at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival

This is always one of our favourite lists of the year (and also the most time consuming) because it gets us hyped for the festival and helps us decide what we are/aren't interested in seeing. Sometimes we luck out and get to see one of these movies during the festival, but not always. What we love about this list is that if we don't get to see one we're excited about, we have time to go out and read the book before we get out next opportunity. Many of these movies don't get released until much later in the year so have a look and pick one up! Some TIFF tickets are still available so if one of these adaptations look interesting you can see what's left here.

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This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Philipps

I've always been a fan of Busy Philipps but I could never put my finger on why. She's always been annoying in everything I've seen her in. Having read this book I feel like I can finally articulate it: Philipps is a celebrity we all have a real chance of being. Her 'vibe', for lack of a less cringey word, feels mildly attainable to us nobodies.

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Raised in Captivity by Chuck Klosterman

This is the type of book I always struggle with writing a review for. I typically stay away from short stories, especially if the compilation is made up of only the one author. I've been reading Chuck Klosterman's books for almost a decade now and still feel compelled to pick up his newest work all these years later. Raised in Captivity is his newest work and is a collection of short stories.

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A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett

I felt a bit guilty reading this first, because it was Meghan who told me about this book. She also wrote about it in a post we did on upcoming movie adaptations we're excited about. But, I found it for FOUR DOLLARS at Value Village (thank you Marie Kondo) and couldn't resist starting it. It's an incredible true story of a Canadian travel journalist who was held hostage in Somalia for ~15 months.

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Hiroshima by John Hersey

As soon as I learned of this book's existence I was shocked I didn't already own it. It seemed like everything I could ever want to read. The promotional blurb on the front cover literally says "Everyone able to read should read it." As Stefan said, it's one of the strongest endorsements of a book he's ever seen (lol). I borrowed this book from my insane friend Michael Robinson (a journalist who just won a Michener award!!!!) who obviously was interested in it because of its new-journalism style. Michael lent me the book and I finished it in a few days (160 pages).

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10 of Our Favourite Essays

Essays are some of our favourite items to read. They provide the high of a good piece of nonfiction, but immediately, for those of you who lean towards incredibly impatient like we do. You don't waste your time on stuff you don't like when you read essays. There might be a bit of author repetition in this month's list but that's because we are big fans of some pretty prolific essayists. Here is a look at some of our favourite, short non-fiction!

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