Books in review 2022

While Shelly Sanders, ‘88, was going through old family photos from her grandmother, she found some had ‘Dvinsk’ written on them, now known as Daugavpils in Latvia. No one in her family talked about Latvia in their family history. This sparked the idea for "Daughters of the Occupation," Saunders' historical novel. 

While completing his graduate degree at the School of Journalism, Mitchell Consky received bad news: his father was diagnosed with a rare and terminal cancer and had less than two months to live. Leaning into his journalistic intuitions, Mitchell interviewed his father daily, audio recording final talks, emotional goodbyes, and the unexpected laughter that filled his father's final days. 

Alumna Shannon Schaefer’s debut book Rudy’s Belly of Bees, external link follows a young girl named Rudy who feels overwhelmed by emotions leading up to her big race at school. Taking from Schaefer’s own childhood experience, Rudy’s storyline differs when a classmate and her teacher share breathing exercises she can use to ease her belly of bees before competing.

Nora Loreto's book, Spin Doctors: How Media and Politicians Misdiagnosed the COVID-19 Pandemic, is a near 400-page summary detailing the pandemic from its beginning to August of 2021.The book covers each wave of the pandemic but views the months detailed through the lens of issues such as racism, misogyny, and ableism. 

Zarqa Nawaz, ‘92, released her novel, Jameela Green Ruins Everything, earlier this year. A hilarious black comedy about the price of success, and a biting look at what has gone wrong with American foreign policy in the Middle East.

For more than two years, reporter Josh O’Kane, MJ’12, had a “front-row seat” to the attempt by Google's sister company Sidewalk Labs to build a neighbourhood in Toronto. When the project collapsed, he decided to write the full narrative arc of one of Big Tech's biggest incursions into Canada. 

Dumplings might be the world's universal food. In a unique anthology, food writers, journalists, culinary historians, and musicians, including several TMU alumni and faculty, shared histories of their culture’s version of the dumpling, family dumpling lore, interesting encounters with these little delights, and even recipes. 

Student and author Sahara Mehdi began writing her book of poetry, “Love Letters to Myself” in a high school creative writing class. It follows a storyline of love, heartbreak and self-discovery. 

Award-winning poet and Journalism at the Creative School professor Marsha Barber launched her fourth book of poetry, Kaddish for My Mother on November 27. The collection explores grief and loss. 

During the summer, three jouranlism alumni were featured as part of Toronto Metropolitan University's summer must-reads! Whether you love taking a long walk with an audiobook or bringing a light read to the beach with you, summer is a great time to discover new books. 

Alumni relations featured journalism alumna Laurie Gelman, ‘88, and her best-selling Class Mom, external link novel series. The Class Mom series sheds light on the invisible labour issue that many women experience in a lighthearted and entertaining way.