Wednesday 6 February 2013

Digression: Books I'm Reviewing—Faith Johnston's "The Only Man in the World"



   The Winnipeg Review asked me to write about The Only Man in the World, a novel composed of fourteen linked short stories that offer an account of the life of soft spoken and agreeable if unremarkable Winnipegger (via Ottawa, via Regina) Heather York, a comforting wife, duty-bound mother, and extended family caregiver. 
   The review can be found here.

Monday 4 February 2013

Digression: Books I'm Reviewing—Spring Books (So Far)




   On the review pile: fiction (Faith Johnston's The Only Man in the World; Don Gillmor's Mount Pleasant; Theodora Armstrong's Clear Skies, No Wind, 100% Visibility) and expository non-fiction (Amber Dawn's, How Poetry Saved My Life and Marina Adshade's Dollars and Sex: How Economics Influences Sex and Love). 


   I've read Gillmor already and now have a frightening vision of what it's like to be a 52 yo heterosexual WASP. Yikes! 
   And Dollars and Sex is a fun, fact-filled Econ class so far. 
   Discussing gender and equality as they relate to the promotion of university professors, for instance, Adshade notes that research by social psychologists finds that "attractive women are considered unsuitable employees in occupations that are considered masculine and in which appearance is unimportant." 
   The same study finds no negative effect for men who are attractive, since "attractive men are always perceived to be more suitable for jobs including ones that are considered to be feminine."