The Rapture

by Liz Jensen.

Quickie Recap: Bethany has already driven one psychologist crazy: she's a young girl in a high security facility because she stabbed her mother to death with a screw driver. And now she's predicting deadly storms culminating in Armageddon...or is she causing them? Her new therapist, fresh from her own wounds, has to sort out the difference while keeping her sanity.

Quickie Review: Oh man. This was intense. It takes extremes of religion and environmentalism and makes the end of the world sound all too plausible. It's light on psychological fare, surprisingly, and heavier on psychic abilities, so yes, suspension of disbelief is necessary. But fun.

Quickie Recommendation: Pretty okay.

The Unit

by Ninni Holmqvist.

Quickie Recap: On her 50th birthday, Dorrit is declared by her government to be disposable, so she, and others like her, are whisked away to the unit. They have no children, and no fame to redeem them, and so they are used as lab rats until such a time as they can ultimately be used for spare parts and make one big "final donation."

Quickie Review: Destined to be viewed as a great dystopian novel, I was immediately angry, fascinated, repulsed, and drawn the fuck in. Irresistible. Imaginative. Scary as hell.

Quickie Recommendation: Oh yeah, this one is very, very high on my list of loves.

The Answer is Always Yes

A novel by Monica Ferrell

Quickie Recap: Matt is a high school loser with big ambitions for college. Over the summer he's carefully crafted a definition of cool - but despite his painful efforts, he fails. But then he's discovered by the owner of a popular club, and as a new promoter he suddenly has everything he always thought he wanted.

Quickie Review: A professor supposedly researching the socialization of children contributes to the novel via footnotes that are mostly just distraction. The main story is familiar but interesting and would be more readable if it stood on its own. It does an excellent job of portraying cringe-worthy loserdom. Oof.

Quickie Recommendation: Needs editing.

Lullabies for Little Criminals

by Heather O'Neill.

Quickie Recap: Baby is being "raised" by her junkie dad, who had her when he was all of 15. Really, he's barely capable of keeping tabs on her, as evidenced by her constantly falling into the hands of others - foster homes, detention centres, homeless shelters - and all of these better than her fate if the pimp who has his eye on her gets his way.

Quickie Review: Oh, sigh. Big sigh. This has been in my to-read pile for so long that I'm so tickled to have finally gotten to it. It was worth the wait! My friend Luc read it just before me and gave it his seal of approval so of course I couldn't wait to rip into it. But then I stalled. Well, not stalled, exactly. But my enthusiasm paled. Not because the writing wasn't stellar, because it was, but because it's tough. You want to give this little girl a home, even though you know she's not real, but your chest tightens because you know there are actual little girls just like her. It's messy. It makes you emotional. I kept looking up from my book to exclaim things because I needed to interrupt myself, cut the tension. Really, really good read.

Quickie Recommendation:

The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy

by Yves Engler.

Quickie Recap: While at a Propaghandi show in Toronto, the band promoted Engler's book and my mates took it upon themselves to order me a copy for my birthday (thanks, boys!). Engler writes to expose the foreign policy myths engineered by the government and believed by the citizens - namely that we are peacekeepers well-respected throughout the world.

Quickie Review: It is important to remember that such subversive material is probably being printed by a small, brave press and so tolerance toward typos and other mistakes needs to be exercised. Engler obviously goes out of his way to do an enormous amount of research and for that reason alone I feel that this is an important book for Canadians to have read. There is a bias in our media and certainly in what our government is telling us, and if Engler sometimes goes too far the other way, at least it helps balance out the perspective we are normally presented with. He takes a look at our dealings in all the various regions and tackles our favourite lies about ourselves as a find, upstanding country. Maybe we are, but not always, and there's a lot that's kept under the radar. Engler is not even afraid to take on Lester B. Pearson, whom you may remember was awarded (perhaps erroneously, according to Engler) the Nobel peace prize. Personally, I especially respected the piece on our Israel\Palestine stance and the tracking of where exactly and how exactly our so-called "foreign aid" is being spent. Yes, it is disappointing to read about so many of our failures, but it also highlights the areas where we can improve as a nation who takes pride in what we do for others.

Quickie Recommendation: For anyone who suspects that there is more to this than what Harper tells us.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

by Michael Chabon.

Quickie Recap: Clay is the lucky boy born and raised in America in the 1930s and has all the big dreams to prove it. His cousin, Kavalier, escapes Prague just in time and arrives with only one ambition: to earn enough money to send for his family. Together they create a comic book featuring The Escapist, and hope it will lead them to fame and fortune.

Quickie Review: I could fall in love with this author based solely on his vocabulary. It's tremendous. It's exciting just to read his words, never mind what they mean when they're all strung together into a story. But what a story! Kavalier & Clay is not new to me, but having recently read the Yiddish Policemen's Union, I got the bug to reread this one, and I'm always glad when I do. It's a tapestry of incredible stories and feels to me what a "great American novel" should be.

Quickie Recommendation: For everyone, yes.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.

Quickie Recap: Yes, it really is the bones of our favourite Austen story, with Miss Bennett and Mr. Darcy and the whole crew, plus a few undead thrown in for extra fun. And it is! If you've read the "original" as I have, you can't help but delight in Elizabeth sparring verbally with her lover and pausing only to disembowel a zombie. It's genius!

Quickie Review: You'll laugh, I promise. You may also wince in disgust. It'll open your eyes to a whole new side of Austen that she probably never intended but I think is a whole pile of enjoyment nonetheless.

Quickie Recommendation: I liked it. Apparently I like watching a classic be defiled. Actually, that's not generally true. I hate remakes. This is just different. It's cute. It works.