Monthly Archives: December 2013

Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Lowland. Knopf (Random House), New York. 2013. F;11/13. I was really impressed with this author’s collection of short stories Interpreter of Maladies. But a bit like the difference between Strout’s Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys I … Continue reading →

Atwood, Margaret. Alias Grace. Emblem paper, McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, 2010 (original edition 1996). F; 12/13. Margaret Atwood is a justifiably famous Canadian author (this book won the Giller prize in 1996), but this is the first of her books I’ve … Continue reading →

Cran, Brad. Ink on Paper. Nightwood, Gibsons. 2013. Poetry; 12/13. My kind friend Andrea lent me this little book after a conversation we had about not understanding poetry unless its main narrative line is directly accessible in front of you. … Continue reading →

Ferguson, Will. 419.  Penguin, Toronto. 2012. F;11/13. I’m a bit surprised at the Giller Prize victory of this international crime thriller. The author comes close but still for me doesn’t accomplish the very difficult task (also attempted by Louise Penny … Continue reading →

December 2013 I was taken to this place as a teenager by my parents in the 1960s. It was an awkward experience then, but now I at the other end of my life and this restaurant stubbornly barely having changed at all, I find … Continue reading →

Knocking on Heaven’s Door. Katy Butler. Scribner, New York. 2013. NF, 10/13 I met Katy at a book-promotional reading in San Francisco, and found her charming, sincere, and inspirational. This book is both successful and smack in line with my own … Continue reading →

Any time. This West Coast-Italian daytime trattoria was near a downtown job I had, and caught my interest because of its incredible coffee. Really as good as anything I’ve had in town, which is saying something. Sadly, the morning and … Continue reading →

Any time. (Quite sadly, second owner Stefan wasn’t able to make a go of this place after superb host John Blakeley sold out a couple of years ago, and it closed in August 2018. The loss of this old favourite is … Continue reading →

(Please read critique from December 2015 below as well) December 2013. I’m not sure why this restaurant isn’t more generally celebrated. Joe at Les Amis de Fromage commented that the Austrian chef, Ernst Dorfler, always comes up best in local … Continue reading →