book review

ILLUSTRATION: A cover of Joy Johnson's fictional memoir, Lead With Joy, Leader is Johnson. The Cover should say "SFU bookstore bestseller."
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Lead with Joy: how Johnson’s memoir is touching millions

Peak Web June 3, 2025

By: A humble grad student, forever changed Have you ever wondered, “what if Brené Brown ran a university like a Fortune 500 company — but make it The Chair?” Then SFU president Joy Johnson’s long-awaited, totally real, best-selling memoir is the answer you didn’t know you needed (but are now required to cite in every funding application). Where Ji-Yoon collapses under the weight of moral contradictions, Johnson ascends — brand-safe, donor-friendly, and backed by a communication team reportedly headed by Margaret Thatcher’s ghost.  From the (co-)author of more than 180 peer-reviewed articles, Lead With Joy: Leader is Johnson isn’t just…

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The book cover for The Nickel Boys (left), which shows two boys standing against a red splotch on a white background, beside the film poster for Nickel Boys (right) depicting two boys standing side-by-side and looking up at the camera.
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Film and literature tell the story of The Nickel Boys from different angles

Yildiz Subuk March 12, 2025

Content warning: this piece talks in-depth about slavery and racial segregation.  Colson Whitehead’s novel The Nickel Boys tells the story of two boys doing time in a reform school. Elwood Curtis, who is falsely accused of a crime he didn’t…

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The cover of The Lyre’s 15th volume, which features the exterior of a house surrounded by shrubbery, is visible on a laptop screen situated near a window.
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SFU’s The Lyre makes ripples across campus

Hailey Miller January 9, 2025

The Lyre is SFU’s literary magazine produced through the university’s world languages and literatures program, publishing works from undergraduate students, artists, and SFU graduates, as well as students from other universities. The magazine includes poetry, short stories, essays, translations, photography,…

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A brown book with a scrapbook-looking design (words written all over, patches of red, black, blue, and white). 'The message' is written in white.
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The Book Nook: Investigating narratives about oppression in The Message

Yildiz Subuk November 6, 2024

Content warning: mentions of slavery and genocide.  “Even plunderers are human beings whose violent ambitions must contend with the guilt that gnaws at them when they meet the eyes of their victims.” — Ta-Nehisi Coates, author and journalist  Ta-Nehisi Coates…

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Crooked Teeth is a queer Syrian refugee’s reconnection “home”

Yasmin Hassan June 10, 2024

Crooked teeth is the young boy who swears he likes women. Crooked teeth are in the mouth of an officer staring back at you coldly. Crooked teeth is being the only racialized panelist discussing refugees. Crooked teeth is the wet…

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A review of The Hundred Years War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

Sude Guvendik November 28, 2023

Content warning: discussions of genocide. Rashid Khalidi’s book, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, is an essential read if you want to understand the history of Palestine. The notion that this history is too complicated to understand is often used…

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An illustration from the graphic novel of 3 South east asian women reading books. Two of them are sitting on a yellow couch, and one is sprawled on the floor. They are surrounded by books, and a sage green background, with a plant and a lamp beside them. They’re dressed in colourful, business casual clothes, including a striped shirt, deep blue tights under an orange pencil skirt, and a black blazer.
4 min 0 1952

Graphic novel combats racism in the publishing industry with humour

Saije Rusimovici June 23, 2023

A Career in Books: A Novel about Friends, Money, and the Occasional Duck Bun by Kate Gavino exemplifies all the reasons a writer and book-lover might strive to work in the world of publishing — while pointing out how this…

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lllustration from But I Live book cover of two boys holding blankets in a forest with a blue colour scheme.
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Jewish Book Festival presents a collection of vivid graphic novels

Aditi Dwivedi January 26, 2023

Every year, the shelves of the Cherie Smith Jewish Community Centre’s Jewish Book Festival, one of Vancouver’s “leading cultural and literary events,” are filled with powerful narratives, knitting together a community of prominent and emerging writers dedicated to vocalizing the…

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What Are Our Supports? co-edited by Joni Low and Jeff O’Brien, and co-published by Information Office, Doryphore Independent Curators Society, Richmond Art Gallery, and Art Metropole. Book is laying flat on a grey surface.
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New anthology explores how Vancouver’s support structures can guide us through precarious times

Saije Rusimovici January 23, 2023

In the midst of a global pandemic, climate change, and economic instability, What Are Our Supports? provides a unique look at the ways artwork can inspire human connection. The anthology, which was published on January 21, recognizes how support structures…

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Queer Little Nightmares purple book cover that includes the hand of a monster with long painted nails
3 min 0 2179

Queer Little Nightmares reveals the humanity in monstrosity

Tianne Jensen-DesJardins November 15, 2022

My first encounter with the monstrous was Frankenstein. In my first read, I appreciated Frankenstein for Shelley’s writing skill — the novel is a Russian nesting doll of stories within stories. It wasn’t until the fourth or fifth time interacting…

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