Source: https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/permanent-record/9781250772909.html?searchType=products&searchTerm=Permanent%20
Book Reviews & Travel Descriptions
Thursday, July 3, 2025
Permanent Record by Edward Snowden: Non-fiction
Source: https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/permanent-record/9781250772909.html?searchType=products&searchTerm=Permanent%20
Sunday, June 29, 2025
FDR Drive: A Crime Novel by James Comey
Friday, June 20, 2025
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on "a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise" (Elizabeth Gilbert).
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Theatre Production: Made in Italy--Created and Performed by Farren Timoteo
It was a sacred space. My Grandmother(whom I called, simply, "Ma") kept it perpetually spotless. Apart from those gatherings, I could only observe the dining room from the threshold of an entrance leading away from the kitchen.
It was not to be disturbed, which, of course, gave enormous significance. As a child, I'd stand safely on the acceptable side of its border and take it in: A long shining wooden table perched steadfastly over a golden rug. At one end, an oaken cabinet with glass doors, behind which my Grandmother kept fine China and glittering Swarovski animals. At the other end, a living room is designated for after-dinner lounging. Even the smallest step into this restricted space might tussle the rug just so, revealing my trespass. So, l'd wait impatiently for those nights when she'd welcome us into this forbidden room to serve us a feast she'd spent all day preparing.
As a gift from the heart, I wrote this play to recreate the tradition of sharing and celebrate the bond we form when we enter a sacred space together, creating lasting memories around wine and food.
Monday, June 2, 2025
Mind Games by William Deverell - Fiction
Friday, May 30, 2025
Paul Simon In Concert - Massey Hall, 178 Victoria St., Toronto


On Thursday, May 29, 2025, I attended the Paul Simon Concert. He performed at Massey Hall, part of the Massey Hall complex in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The second set consisted of his usual hit songs that the audience, including me, were very familiar with. There was significant interaction from the audience during this set.
He told stories and sang. It was a wondrous two hours of listening and watching Simon perform.
Saturday, May 24, 2025
Value(s): Building a Better World for All by Mark Carney
A bold argument by the Prime Minister of Canada and former bank governor on the radical, foundational change that is required if we are to build an economy and society based not on market values but on human values.
Our world is full of fault lines—growing inequality in income and opportunity, systemic racism, health and economic crises from a global pandemic, mistrust of experts, the existential threat of climate change, deep threats to employment in a digital economy with robotics on the rise. Mark Carney argues that these fundamental problems and others like them stem from a common crisis in values. Drawing on the turmoil of the past decade, he shows how "market economies" have evolved into "market societies" where price determines the value of everything.When we consider what we, as individuals, value most highly, we might list fairness, health, the protection of our rights, economic security from poverty, the preservation of natural diversity, and the conservation of resources and beauty. The tragedy is, these things that we hold dearest are too often the casualties of our twenty-first-century world, where they ought to be our bedrock.
In this profoundly important book, Mark Carney offers a vision of a more humane society and a practical manifesto for getting there. At the heart of every chapter is the reform of our infrastructure to make things better and fairer, with outlines of wholly new ideas that can restructure society and enshrine our human values at the core of all that we build for our children and grandchildren.
Source: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/669023/values-by-mark-carney/978077105157.
Personal Commentary: Value(s) Building a Better World for All by Mark Carney is a non-fiction book that was published in November 2022. Three years later, in 2025, he entered the political arena with the Liberal Party of Canada and assumed the role of Prime Minister of Canada. Soon after he assumed this role, the Hon. Prime Minister Carney called an election to get the support of Canadians. The Liberal Party of Canada won a minority government.