Marion Agnew

I seem to enjoy using the words "reflection" and "retrospective." Hmm.  It’s apparently customary for people who write and read to reflect on their writing and reading at the end of the year. Even if, like me, you consider reading your vocation as well as work, yet somehow don’t have “reading goals.”* My to-be-read pile:  nothing but good times ahead I do track what I read (because it involves writing in a notebook, as much as for any other reason, and what is not to love about writing in a notebook?) and I (separately) record thoughts as I read. I am also, on occasion, moved to share thoughts publicly, sometimes in formal reviews and sometimes on Instagram and/or Twitter in a #SundaySentence post.   However, I don’t have goals like “read XXX books this year” or “revisit Author Name’s work” or “read a lot of books about maps,” although I have, in various recent years, done both of those last two.   This past year, as in the year previous, I consciously bro...

 OK who's thinking of alligators and crocodiles, as well as headgear? Light blue golf visor, the kind held by a sproingy cord around the back of the head, with a pattern of birds; and a straw hat. Settle in, I'm about to extend a metaphor. I've always had a big head. Possibly also metaphorically, but I'm talking about physically. As in, it's hard to find hats to fit.  Luckily, my sister has kept me well-stocked with adjustable golf visors, which are awesome. They keep the sun out of my face and let me stay cool--they don't retain the heat a baseball cap would.  However, lately I've found that visors give me a headache if I wear them too long. Also, they don't protect the top of my scalp from biting bugs or the sun. (It's been a while since the part in my hair burned--THAT's not fun.).  So I've "adopted" a straw hat from my husband, just to try it out, and I like it. I'm sampling other straw hats, just for grins.  The point is, s...

  Last week I wrote about The Road , Cormac McCarthy's litmus test of hopefulness. It occurred to me later that I post about books on Instagram quite a bit, and there I share sentences on Sunday (and on Twitter: #SundaySentence is a fun hashtag to browse). And I share other book thoughts some other days, too.  Just to mix it up from photos like these.  For example. Recently, I've posted about Beloved , by Toni Morrison. Twice !  Also about The Woo Woo , Lindsay Wong's memoir about ice hockey, demons, and more.  I'm still thinking about the stories in Jack Wang's collection, We Two Alone . And Ross Gay's appropriately named The Book of Delights .  And Alexander Chee's How to Write an Autobiographical Novel . So good. I keep photos of some of his words on my camera roll, for the times when I wonder if it's all worth it. One of the best parts of reading more widely in the past year is learning how much I enjoy it--and one of the most difficult parts is seei...

Is it an accident that two of my favourite books of the past year both address the concept of receiving or claiming credit? (No.) In If Sylvie Had Nine Lives , by Leona Theis, Sylvia wonders why there's no real way to get credit for all the things she manages to not shoplift.   And in Marina Endicott's The Difference (AKA The Voyage of the Morning Light ), Kay wishes that people could know just how many pieces of cake she has managed not to eat, how chubby she might have been. Sorry, I don't have page references for these ideas--you'll just have to read the whole books (you'll thank me later). My point here is this: in December of most years, I look at what I'd hoped to accomplish and see where I fell short. It's harder, in spite of all the urging from self-help self-care gurus, to think about what I did get done. I try--I even write a list every Friday of things that happened that week that I'm proud of. But it's easier to focus on the areas where ...

Last month, I showed a stack of books that constitutes part of my antiracism reading since June. I’ve written about How to Be An Antiracist most recently, here ; about Me and White Supremacy , here ; and about So You Want to Talk About Race , here . Today I want to highlight Black people in Canada. Although all people currently living in North America share history, Canada also has its own history to reckon with. And the two books below are excellent places to start. The Skin We’re In , by Desmond Cole , has won All The Awards, and deservedly so. Cole, a journalist and activist, writes about one year (2017) in journalism in Canada, primarily Toronto. Thirteen broad topics, all different and all depressingly the same, shed light on parts of Canada’s past and present that most of us would prefer to ignore. It’s full of research and great explanations, straight talk and vivid descriptions. I appreciated how Cole doesn’t mince words. Early on, he sets up the reader for what to e...

My reading life (and, you know, everything) changed a lot in 2020. Woefully late--far too many years too late--I've begun reading difficult books that relate to racism.  "Difficult" as in "worth doing." "Difficult" as in "prompting re-evaluation of uncomfortable life moments."   NOT "difficult" as in "poorly written" or "wrong."  I can heartily recommend most of the books I've read about Black lives in North America--certainly all of those by Black writers.  This one, How to be an Antiracist , by Ibram X. Kendi , especially. It's valuable not only as a reader but as a writer.  As a reader, I felt that Kendi was my host and companion on a journey. He shows the same generosity of spirit demonstrated in Braiding Sweetgrass , by Robin Wall Kimmerer, who also teaches by invitation and in community. In some ways, How to be an Antiracist is like other nonfiction. As you can see above, the book is explicitly des...

Last week I wrote about some of the Mattie Rigsbees I have known, and how Me and White Supremacy , by Layla F. Saad, has helped give me tools to see them with clearer eyes. You can read that here.   This is a Manitoba Maple I saw while walking and listening to an episode of It Was Said. I goofed around with editing tools on my iPhone. I have so much to learn about anti-racism. Besides reading, I'm listening.   Here are some podcasts I recommend, if you're interested in learning but feel as if you can't read all the things. Links are to web pages or Apple Podcasts. Note that although much of the content focuses on the US, Canada shares a great deal of its history and attitudes. 1619, by The New York Times . Also, this article in Politico about fact-checking the podcast is interesting. Here's a quote from the article:  Overall, the 1619 Project is a much-needed corrective to the blindly celebratory histories that once dominated our understanding of the past—histories t...

Sometimes a book—or a series of books, or a cultural shift—comes along that causes lasting change.    In the past five years, I’ve been part of many conversations about cultural appropriation, creativity, and Indigenous visibility. In the past four or five months, conversations around Blackness in North America have increased in frequency and intensity.   It’s come to a head, recently. I’ve spent the past month reading and working through Me and White Supremacy , by Layla F. Saad. It’s been intense. I may be able to speak about the experience coherently in the future.   For now, I want to talk about a recent re-reading experience, of a different book.   +++++   One of my favourite Book Groups (as they’re known in the US; Canadians don’t seem to mind saying “book club”) meets electronically. It’s small, just two of us. We used to be in groups together in Colorado, before we both moved.   One of our books back in the day was Walk...