Book Review: Best Canadian Essays 2019, Edited by Emily Donaldson

Recording these booktube videos is alot of fun, mainly because I’m not required to organize my thoughts in a coherent way (that I attempt to) when writing out a book review. I typically practice what I’m going to say all of once before I hit the record button, but that’s probably quite obvious with the amount of ‘ums’ I use in the 7 minutes included here.

I really enjoyed reading this anthology of essays because there is literally something for everyone in Best Canadian Essays 2019. The editor, Emily Donaldson is a fabulous Canadian critic, and her intelligence shines through in her introduction. For those who love reading magazines, this is a great book to pick up because it compiles some of the best pieces of journalism that appeared in Canadian magazines this past year, and for those who are sick of big novels, these snappy pieces are a great antidote to what ails you.

At the beginning of the video I also give a little shout out to Teva Harrison’s posthumously-released poetry book Not One of These Poems is About You, and my reasoning for why this type of work is especially relevant during the pandemic.