Book Review: Raising expectations (and Raising hell): My Decade Fighting for the Labor Movement, by Jane McAlevey It’s been a tough couple of decades to be a trade unionist. Since the early nineties, with Paul Martin’s cuts to transfer payments, through the Mike Harris’s assaults, to the BC Liberal’s ripping
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Political Eh-conomy: A review of Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything
I have another piece up at Ricochet: a review of Naomi Klein’s big book on climate change, This Changes Everything. It’s friendly but critical, looking at what the book’s themes of austerity, the local and extractivism mean for how we build politics against climate change. I’ve included it in full below… Naomi
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: Memoir of Mourning: Journey Through Grief and Loss to Renewal (Book Review)
Perhaps you fear losing the parent you care for. Or maybe, you fear your own death as you care for your dying relative. Maybe you just don’t know who you will be when your loved one passes and leaves you alone in the world, without the identity of caregiver. Claudia
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: No Saints Around Here (Book Review): Do I Hate It or Do I Love It?
About 20 pages into Susan Allen Toth’s caregiving memoir, “No Saints Around Here”, I decided I didn’t like the author. Not one bit. “How can a wife sigh loudly in front of her Parkinson’s disease-suffering husband just because she can’t have a second cup of tea in the morning?!” I
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Struggling financially? Read ‘The Wealthy Barber Returns’
The original book centred around a rich barber who dispensed financial wisdom to his customers in a narrative form. The author has abandoned that device in this book however, and speaks directly to the reader, and its a wise choice. Too many people are struggling and need to be spoken to directly, not via a kindly older gentleman cutting hair. Our problems typically boil down to hedonistic desires trumping simple common sense. ‘The Wealthy Barber Returns’ has one key theme that is obvious and simple.
Canadian Soapbox: Struggling financially? Read ‘The Wealthy Barber Returns’
I’m 47 years old, and if you’re around my age or older you’ve probably heard of or read David Chilton’s book ‘The Wealthy Barber’. I’m certain that Mr. Chilton is at least partly responsible for the boon in mutual fund investing that occurred during the nineties and early into this
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Struggling financially? Read ‘The Wealthy Barber Returns’
I’m 47 years old, and if you’re around my age or older you’ve probably heard of or read David Chilton’s book ‘The Wealthy Barber’. I’m certain that Mr. Chilton is at least partly responsible for the boon in mutual fund investing that occurred during the nineties and early into this
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: We are Stardust… and Viral Genes
In her classic song, Woodstock, Joni Mitchell ended with the chorus: We are stardust Billion-year-old carbon We are golden Caught in the devil’s bargain And we’ve got to get ourselves Back to the garden Which most people assume is merely poetic licence. Well, Joni wasn’t wrong: we – and every
Continue readingSketchy Thoughts: Progress and Poverty: a response to Krul, Post and Hamerquist from Noel Ignatiev
i often disagree with Noel Ignatiev – and the following essay is certainly no exception in that regard – however his reasoning is often provocative, which though a bit maddening is also not a bad thing. As such, it should not be assumed that the views in the following guest
Continue readingArt Threat: London Triptych traces queer desire across the centuries
Owing in large part to Hollywood’s discovery of its infinite star vehicle potential, the “intersecting lives” narrative has become, in recent years, something of a cop out. When the A-story isn’t strong enough, simply prop it up with parallel stories B through F and have them all fatefully (and conveniently)
Continue readingSketchy Thoughts: Divided World Divided Class Reviewed and Discussed by Matthijs Krul and others
Divided World Divided Class: Global Political Economy and the Stratification of Labour Under Capitalism is a book published by Kersplebedeb (and available from leftwingbooks.net) back in September of last year.Divided World Divided Class charts the history of the ‘labour aristocracy’ in the capitalist world system, from its roots in colonialism to its
Continue readingThe HB-Log : Book Review: The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King
I enjoyed reading Thomas King’s new book “The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America.” I’ll stop short of saying “it’s something everyone should read,” but if you regularly comment on native issues, and have a weak grasp of the history, this is a great way to familiarize yourself. This is why
Continue readingThe HB-Log : Care about equality? Suck up the tall buildings
Over the holidays I read Matt Yglesias fantastic book “The rent is too damn high,” which deals with urban policy in the United States and its effect on housing prices. But really, the book is about equality. Yglesias argues cities in the U.S. have too many regulations for the construction
Continue readingArt Threat: Femininity, fantasy, and fever dreams – Book review: The Lava in My Bones by Barry Webster
In a delirious, hallucinogenic voice, author Barry Webster turns directly toward the place and experience of femininity in a queer life dominated by masculine desires.
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Beyond The Power of Your Subconscious Mind – Book Review
Before undertaking to read and review C. James Jensen’s book, ‘Beyond The Power of Your Subconscious Mind‘, I had already read many books of a similar nature, titles like ‘The Magic of Believing‘ and ‘The Secret‘. I had already formed the opinion that people are very much like ice bergs,
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Leading or aspiring to lead? Invest in ‘The Power of Communication’ – (Book Review)
Author Helio Fred Garcia, Executive Director of Logos Institute for Crisis Management and Executive Leadership has written an important book for individuals who are in positions of leadership, and for those aspiring to leadership roles. This excellent work has already received some pretty hefty endorsements and positive reviews from
Continue readingSketchy Thoughts: MLM Mayhem Reviews Zak Cope’s Divided World Divided Class
My comrade Josh recently wrote a review of Zak Cope’s Divided World Divided Class on his excellent MLM Mayhem blog. You can read it here, but i am also reposting it on Sketchy Thoughts here: These days, at the centres of capitalism, it is en vogue for leftists to attack
Continue readingSketchy Thoughts: The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement Interviews Dr Zak Cope
The following interview appeared recently on anti-imperialism.com, the blog of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement (RAIM), with Zak Cope, about his book recently published by Kersplebedeb, Divided World Divided Class: Global Political Economy and the Stratification of Labour Under Capitalism. Zak Cope is the author of Divided World Divided Class: Global
Continue readingCanadian Soapbox: Rising from the ashes – Don’t let life’s setbacks define you
This dusty little corner of cyberspace attracts its fair share of email. I get all manner of messages suggesting topics to write on, causes wanting some promotion and books looking for reviews. I read every message in my inbox, and though I usually ignore them, I have reviewed one book.
Continue readingArt Threat: Growing up in the muck-stream of America – The poetics of defiance in Rodney DeCroo’s "Allegheny, BC"
“Factories By the River” by Aaron Henry Gorson, Pittsburgh, PA “Allegheny, BC” is Rodney DeCroo’s first published book of poetry. It follows a body of musical work that has received international acclaim. His albums—there have been six so far—have earned considerable respect from reviewers on several continents for the power
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