Mary Pratt: A Love Affair with Vision by Anne Koval

To gaze upon Mary Pratt’s work is to come face-to-face with another world, one that is brighter, more keenly observant, and more knowing, for embedded in the fractal structures of her oft chosen subjects: glass, aluminum, and plastic wrap, are reflections of time and space.

Einstein on Israel and Zionism

Einstein on Israel and Zionism proves to be an important counteragent to the politically-motivated, overly-simplistic and, often, racially-motivated messaging we hear from prominent figures in Western media.

Relative to Wind: On Sailing, Craft, and Community by Phoebe Wang

This is a how-to-sail (if you do well in learning by reading, with no guiding pictures), a meditation on unexpected hobbies, and a toast to community. Wang’s love of sailing is infectious — truly, I’ve sailed maybe once in my life at this point, and I at least idly considered looking up yacht clubs near me to see if any of them worked in the same way Wang’s does.

Throwback: Tom Thomson: North Star by Sarah Milroy & Ian A.C. Dejardin

Tom Thomson, one such artist and adventurer, lived and worked in the park during his short, but prolific career, and it is his life’s work that is so exceptionally curated in the McMichael Gallery’s North Star exposition and its accompanying exposition catalog, published by Goose Lane Editions.

When the Pine Needles Fall: Indigenous Acts of Resistance by Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel with Sean Carleton

How many of us took “The Oka Crisis” at face value of media portrayal? Something along the line of lawless warriors in masks opposing the police in the summer of 1990? There were blockades and a militarized zone. Traffic inconveniences going into Montreal. You may recall that a golf course was set to dig up an Indigenous graveyard. 

The behind the scenes story is more complex, and long-standing, with not a lot of overlap with what was told in the media.

Bone of the Bone: Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class by Sarah Smarsh

Smarsh’s August 9, 2024, essay on Walz easily could have found a home in Bone of the Bone, her new collection of journalism and other non-fiction writings (2013-24). These pieces extend the narrative of Smarsh’s 2018 memoir, Heartland, a survey of her Kansas-born life into poverty, the generations who preceded her, and a finalist for the National Book Award.