I am a simple girl- I enjoy touching grass, snacks, and books. This makes me a perfect victim of depanneurs and summer reads. Don’t fret! I would not have it any other way. As a matter of fact, I am more than happy to spread the gospel about the books and treats that contributed to my almost Edenic summer, considering Global Warming’s attempts to make it not so. 

In this collection of poems, Amy Ching-Yan Lam exemplifies how the quotidian can be made fantastical (and vice versa) with the use of masterful language. She weaves a cosmogony that encompasses both the terrible and tender ethereal and awkward family road trips. With an incisive sense of humor and a talent for narrating sensations, she will have you experiencing the quirkiness of parenthood and the surreal vertigo of beasts who are born to die.

Tinned fish is girl dinner -this is mere common knowledge. Easy to combine, requiring little to no preparation, and versatile enough to be the perfect addition to any quick or fancy meal. Having secured a permanent residency in my pantry, I was more than delighted to find this niche yet widely relatable cookbook (hey, girl dinners are for everyone) on the history, geography, art, and science of tinned fish. Including suggestions of particularly good ones, how to pair them, how to make use of the storing liquids, and how to keep mercury consumption at a minimum, Anna Hezel will teach you everything you need to become an expert at low-effort feasts.  

Every girl dinner must be properly paired with some Girl Juice, and Benji Nate squeezes nothing but the best. Four roommates navigate their early adulthood in all its grandiosity: tedious jobs, clown boyfriends, mommy issues, and religious imagery, among others. Quirky and messy yet fabulous and detailed, this graphic novel had me giggling, blushing, and uncontrollably sending quotes to my friends. There’s no going back after sipping on Girl Juice!

Julien Magnani is a master collector of movie scenes. Including more than 150 illustrations of popular films, he intimately lets the reader into his childhood living room, and, in posteriori, his own space during the pandemic, through slight changes in color and atmosphere. Both public and private, Magnani’s creation of a roman graphique ciné-familial took me on a nostalgic and intricate visual journey, while also providing exciting additions to my watchlist.

I finally got around to reading Frankenstein at my ripe 26 years of age, and was reminded of why some classics are such. Naturally, I also became obsessed with the eccentric and curious figure of Mary Shelley (born Mary Wollstonecraft). Luckily, Sarah Berthiaume understands this progression, and returned the spark to my life by creating a gothic and dystopic play that freely incorporates elements of Shelley’s life with modern meditations on feminism and science.

For fans of Sontag, Freud, and Barthes, this memoir explores pain, womanhood, and the role of language in expressing our experience. Referencing the history of illness, from the nineteenth-century “hysteria patients” at the Salpêtrière Hospital in nineteenth-century Paris to the contemporary New Age wellness trends, Wells recounts her personal experience as a ballet dancer and a patient of chronic illness. I was delighted to find a book that feels grounded and corporeal whilst remaining thorough in its analysis.

Upcoming books that have lived rent-free in my mind during the past few months:

I am shaking in my boots to read this translingual collection of poems by beloved local writer Klara Du Plessis in collaboration with Khashayar Mohammadi. Written on a Google doc in English, Afrikaans, and Persian, I cannot wait to see what these authors will bring to the poetic table this time around.

Intertwining and highlighting the lives of women of all walks of the Mile End, we are all being called to celebrate Our Lady of Mile End. I am so looking forward to reading Sarah Gilbert’s rendition of a neighborhood that has been a defining part of my experience in Montreal, and that soulfully adds to our culture, and even more excited about it focusing on the women that carry families and businesses on their backs.

Writer Cristina Quintero and local illustrator Sarah Gonzales join forces to create the most delicious picture book. Teaching children and adults about the history of different types of bread around the world, I’m ready to be held hostage by myself in my kitchen as I try out all of these historical recipes.