What I'm Reading This Week

Here are the two books I've been enjoying this week.

Why I Hate Canadians



I originally read this in it's first release 10 year ago, just after the Quebec referendum. It's now been re-released and updated for its 10th anniversary. I find all of Will Ferguson's writing very funny. But this one goes beyond that. It explains Canadians better than any book I've ever read on the subject. And it doesn't so much explain it to Americans, or Europeans, or Asians, as it does to other Canadians. We are a country of people that have a hard time identifying ourselves. The best most of us can do is to say: "well, we're not Americans". Read this book and have a wonderful laugh at your own expense.

Michael Tolliver Lives



This is the "not a sequel" to the Tales of the City series.

Tales of the City was a wonderful series of 6 books written by Armistead Maupin in the 1970's and '80's. It started as a regular newspaper column in the San Francisco Chronicle about a group of young people in San Francisco in the 1970's. Some were gay, some straight, some male, some female, all a little outrageous... and very fun. The column was eventually published in book form and Mr. Maupin went on to write a few sequels.

Michael Tolliver Lives is a follow up book of sorts. It works as a stand-alone novel, but contains many of the loved characters from the original columns / books. If you don't know this series, Start with the first: Tales of the City and work your way forward. I can't rave about them enough. Or the miniseries that came from the first 3 books - but that's another blog.