Tag: essay

  • Lattes with Ladies: Victoria Stacey!

    Lattes with Ladies: Victoria Stacey!

    Victoria Stacey is a graphic designer, photographer, blogger, event planner, and A+ volunteer. She founded and ran Passion8 magazine for three years, is an executive for Young Women in Business – Toronto, and an avid crafter.  HPL: What are you reading right now? VS: The Magicians. I’ve read three chapters of it because I don’t get…

  • Am I reading the right books?

    Am I reading the right books?

    I can’t shake the feeling that I’m not reading the right books. When plied with the question “Have you read…?” I almost always shrink with embarrassment because the answer is usually, “No I haven’t.” When asked to recommend a good book to someone I struggle because my reading choices are often miscellaneous, ranging from popular…

  • Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

    Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

    Roxane Gay’s essay collection, Bad Feminist, is essential reading. The professor cum Twitter personality works through the question: “How do we reconcile the imperfections of feminism with all the good it can do?” Beginning with herself, Gay presents the body of a black woman as a platform for analysis, examining the politics of that state…

  • In Defense of the Beach Read

    In Defense of the Beach Read

    I had a conversation with a friend a week ago about what I was reading now that the semester is over which brought us to a confounding realization: the lofty works of literature we had been dying to pick up for months now were too depressing.  Were they well-written? Yes. Were they interesting and thought-provoking?…

  • The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

    The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

    What does twenty-two years old look like? “In love, impressed, humbled, scared.” That is exactly how Marina Keegan felt as she was graduating from Yale in 2012 and how it feels to read her book The Opposite of Loneliness. I selected Keegan’s book after I read the original essay. I heard about her talent, her job…

  • The Walrus: A Canadian Valentine

    The Walrus: A Canadian Valentine

    I first subscribed to The Walrus in the fall of 2010. They had a stand at Word on the Street Toronto, and it was drawing a large crowd. I’m forever glad that I was just as curious as the average person because I walked away with a subscription and a sweet tote bag for the…