Review | The Geek’s Guide to Dating, Eric Smith

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17568806Calling all geeks! Ever wonder how to catch the eye of that gorgeous fellow geek? In this hilarious guide to dating, Eric Smith takes the geeky reader through the various stages of getting the date then beginning a relationship (or, reality check: possibly moving on) after that date.

The chapter titles are given geeky titles, mapping the dating landscape like an old school 1980s video game with some fun Star Trek and Star Wars references thrown in. “Engage, Player One” sets the ball rolling, and “Do or Do Not: There is No Try” gives tips on how to screw up the courage to ask someone out.

The book offers some pretty common sense tips on dating: start a conversation rather than a debate, clean out the junk in your car before picking your date up, put some effort into your outfit, and so on. There’s even a primer on how to kiss someone, though Smith cautions: “This isn’t the Konami code here, and trying to make out according to these directions (Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right) would only make things weird.”

Still, what sets this book apart, and makes it so much fun, is that all the tips are couched in geeky language — video game terms and science fiction references. A section on choosing the right wingman, for example, accords a number of points per option: a “Sharp Eye for Style” gets him “+250 to Armor”. A list of scenarios with tips on how to deal with them includes meeting someone at a video game store, or improving your online dating profile. I admit some of the references completely went over my head (what’s a “Kolinahr”?), but Googling them just added to the fun.

Minor complaint is that the book is completely geared to male geek readers. Smith does address this in the beginning of the book, and explains that while the text is ostensibly directed at males, a lot of the tips are equally applicable to female geeks. Fair enough, but as a female geek, I would have loved to see at least a gender neutral geek guide to dating, and if the tips are applicable to both genders anyway, why not write them as such? Or perhaps add some chapters dedicated to challenges particular to geeks from each gender. Or, on that note, someone please write a female geek’s guide to dating. Given how many books and publications on geekdom are already geared towards male geeks, it would be nice to have one written with a female geek audience in mind. Any female geek humourists up to the challenge?

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Thank you to Random House of Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review | All the Broken Things, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer

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17834903At first glance, the story of Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer’s All the Broken Things appears almost whimsical — a young boy joins the circus to wrestle with bears. Even the book trailer gives the impression of a fantastical adventure… lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Yet the story itself engages with much more sobering subject matter than that. The book is about Bo, a fourteen year old Vietnamese refugee living in Toronto in 1983. His race makes him an outcast — his best friend and neighbour turns into a purported enemy past a certain intersection in the city. His well-meaning teacher only ends up highlighting his difference by asking him to share with the class his experiences of escaping Vietnam on a boat. Perhaps most troubling of all, his younger sister Orange is physically deformed because of Agent Orange, and rather than help Bo and his sister live with this reality, their mother instead opts to hide the young girl from the world. For Bo, full of frustration and bitterness, getting into fights with the school bully turns into an almost comfortable daily routine, part and parcel of his route home from school.

There’s a lot going on in the story, and when Bo stumbles upon the opportunity to fight bears in a circus, it is easy to see why this would provide a welcome sense of direction and purpose. He’s a young boy forced all too soon into an adult world, and readers will want him to succeed. I love the descriptions of his fights with Bear, the overwhelming assault on the senses and the feeling of utter right-ness within the physicality of motion. I love the small romantic subplot as well, and how Bo’s crush is lovely not just because of physical beauty, but also because she’s practically the only character who makes a conscious effort to connect with Orange, even to a greater extent than Bo himself.

Orange is perhaps the hardest character to read about — not because of any failing on the part of the author, but rather because it’s horrifying to think of a child who has been disabled, disfigured and treated as a freak from birth because of warfare tactics far beyond even the child’s parents’ understanding. Her struggle to communicate with others is heart-rending, and when the circus owner wants to add her to his group of freaks, I was right there with Bo in his rage.

The author does a great job detailing Bo’s emotional struggles, from the simmering humiliation of being called in class to talk about his family’s escape from Vietnam, to the explosive rage that causes him to do something he later regrets, and every now and then, to the utter joy when fighting Bear. Best of all is that there aren’t really any villains in this story — even the school bully and the circus owner reveal their humanity at certain points. It feels odd to say that a story about a bear in a circus feels very real, but the characters make this so. Broken Things is a striking story about the need for belonging, and how it can take something as unusual as a bear in a circus to make one belong.

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Thank you to Random House Canada for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

TIFF | Books on Film 2014

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It’s that time of the year again, book lovers and film buffs! While best known for its ten day festival in the fall where some of the best films from around the world hit Toronto, TIFF has also made its mark with amazing year round programming. For book lovers, TIFF presents the Books on Film subscription series — held on Monday evenings and hosted by Eleanor Wachtel of CBC’s Writers & Company, the series examines great cinema that began as outstanding literature. The series offers a rare opportunity to see the authors or the film makers who adapted their works being interviewed about their work.

Now in its fourth season, Books on Film 2014 launches on Monday, March 3, with author Mohsin Hamid on the film adaptation of his book The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which was hailed by The Guardian as one of the books that defined the decade. Other highlights include Yann Martel on Life of Pi (April 14), Andrew Dubus III on House of Sand and Fog (June 2).

Check out this year’s Books on Film lineup:

Mohsin Hamid on The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Monday, March 3, 7 pm

Author Mohsin Hamid discusses Mira Nair’s adaptation of his novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which was hailed by The Guardian as one of the books that defined the decade and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

About the film:
Kiefer Sutherland, Liev Schreiber and Kate Hudson co-star in this adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s international best-selling novel, about a young Pakistani man (Riz Ahmed) whose pursuit of corporate success on Wall Street leads him on a strange path back to the world he had left behind.

Agnieszka Holland on Washington Square
Monday, March 31, 7 pm

Internationally celebrated filmmaker Agnieszka Holland discusses her 1997 adaptation of Henry James’ classic novel about the conflict between a sheltered young woman and her domineering father in the high society of 1850s New York.

About the film:
Jennifer Jason Leigh stars as Henry James’ gentle, sheltered heroine Catherine Sloper, who clashes with her domineering father (Albert Finney) when he accuses her suitor (Ben Chaplin) of being a fortune hunter.

Yann Martel on Life of Pi
Monday, April 14, 7 pm

Canadian author Yann Martel discusses his Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi and its transformation into Ang Lee’s Academy Award-winning film.

About the film:
A young man survives a shipwreck only to find himself sharing a lifeboat with a ferocious Bengal tiger.

Yiyun Li on A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
Monday, May 12, 7 pm

Yiyun Li chronicles her collaboration with director Wayne Wang on the film adaptation of her short story “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.”

About the film:
A retired widower travels from Beijing to the United States to visit his estranged daughter, in Wayne Wang’s quietly touching adaptation of the short story by Yiyun Li.

Andre Dubus III on House of Sand and Fog
Monday, June 2, 7 pm

Award-winning author Andre Dubus III considers the Academy Award-nominated adaptation of his novel House of Sand and Fog.

About the film:
A former drug addict (Jennifer Connelly) is evicted from her home and begins a disastrous dispute with the property’s new owner, a former Iranian army officer (Ben Kingsley).

Paul Fierlinger on My Dog Tulip
Monday, June 23, 7 pm

Paul Fierlinger describes the painstaking process by which he and his wife Sandra Fierlinger transformed J.R. Ackerley’s bittersweet memoir into the first animated feature to be entirely hand-drawn and painted with paperless technology.

About the film:
Christopher Plummer provides the voice of author J.R. Ackerley in this moving animated feature based on Ackerley’s memoir about his 14-year relationship with his faithful German Shepherd.

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Series subscriptions to Books on Film include all six events and are on sale at tiff.net/books. Subscriptions are $180 for adults ($153 for members) and $144 for students/seniors ($122.40 for members). Single tickets are $35 for adults ($28 for members), $29 for students/seniors ($24 for members) and $31.50 for groups.

Full schedule with links to purchase tickets is also on the TIFF Books on Film page.

For foodies, check out as well TIFF’s Food on Film subscription series!