COM Reading Bank: Fiction & Narrative

Summary:
"In the spring of 2011, Leslie A. Davidson was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. About 18 months later, her husband, Lincoln, was diagnosed with dementia." (CBC)

Keywords: Health, Parkinson's Disease, Dementia, Relationships
Format: Creative Non-fiction
Source: CBC Books
Copyright Notes: CBC Content - linking allowed, reusing/distributing content requires permission

Excerpt:
"This reminds me of a constant debate: Should Chinese people adopt English first names when interacting with Westerners?

The benefits of doing so are obvious. Going by a conventional English name—but not weird names like “Candy,” “Promise” or “Devil“—makes everyone’s life easier. But my experiences studying and working in English-speaking multicultural environments in the past few years have made me realize that sticking to your Chinese name is better if you want foreigners to know who you are—and if you want to feel good about yourself."

Keywords: Identity, Multiculturalism, Culture
Format: Essay
Source: Quartz

Excerpt / Summary:
An immigrant's daughter remembers her father's assimilation (and what happens when you wear a Red Sox cap in Queens)

Keywords: Immigration
Format: Creative Non-fiction
Source: Utne Reader
Copyright Note: Reproduction requires permission of author/ publisher.

Excerpt / Summary:
She wants to be independent – and taken care of. She loves rap, while finding the lyrics offensive to the core. In this extract from her latest book, a 'flawed' feminist reveals all

Keywords: Feminism
Format: Book Excerpt
Source: The Guardian

Excerpt:
"When writer Lawrence Hill (Any Known Blood) was growing up in the Toronto suburb of Don Mills in the 1960s, he rarely saw any other children of colour apart from his brother and sister. Their father, Daniel Hill, the first director and chairman of the Ontario Human Rights Commission and, later, the province's ombudsman, was a black man; their mother, Donna, was white. Civil-rights activists in the U.S., they had been attracted by Canada's more tolerant racial environment."

Keywords: Race, Civil Rights, Canada
Format: Essay
Source: Maclean's

Keywords: Society and culture; identity
Format: Article
Source: The Ethnic Aisle (website)

Excerpt / Summary:
Kabuliwala is a Bengali short story written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1892. The story is of a Pashtun merchant from Kabul, who comes to Calcutta (present day Kolkata), India each year for selling dry-fruits and while living in India he becomes friends with a five-year-old girl Mini from a middle-class aristocratic family. [Wikipedia]

Keywords: Family
Format: Short Story
Source: Wikisource
Copyright Note: Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

Summary:
Author of The Sun Climbs Slow: The International Criminal Court and the Struggle for Justice. This is an excerpt from a speech given to the Senior College at the University of Toronto.

Keywords: Canada, Multiculturalism, Society, Identity
Format: Speech
Source: The Globe and Mail

Excerpt:
"One of the consequences of going to space is that it changes the way you view our planet. It's unavoidable. Once you see Earth from space, you can never again think of it in the same way. It's one thing to view small bits and pieces of it from below over time. It's another to gaze on it from above as you go around it once every 90 minutes, 16 times a day."

Keywords: Science, Space
Format: Essay
Source: The Globe and Mail

Keywords: Identity
Format: Fiction / Narrative
Source: The Paris Review

Summary:
"Aliens have once again decided to visit Earth in this lighthearted romp. Rather than having conquest on their minds, they merely wish to visit, and explore." (Craphound.com)

Keywords: Science Fiction, Literature
Format: Short Story
Source: Author's Website
Copyright Notes: Creative Commons license

Excerpt / Summary:
I was extremely fortunate to grow up middle class in Santo Domingo, but I was in the minority. Most of the kids I grew up playing with were from extreme poverty. Their houses often had dirt floors. They couldn’t afford basic necessities like three meals a day, let alone baseball cleats. In the Dominican Republic, the whole dream of going to college, getting a good paying job and working for 40 years is just that — a dream. It’s not reality. In Third World countries, those options don’t exist for most people. You hear that sob story a lot though, right? You’re almost blind to it. And when those poor kids go on to sign a professional baseball contract, it’s like winning the lottery. The reality is a lot more complicated.

Keywords: Immigration
Format: Article
Source: Player's Tribune

Keywords: Identity, Health & Wellness
Format: Fiction / Narrative
Source: The New York Times

Excerpt / Summary:
A man living in present-day Delhi is haunted by visions of the city's past and future. [BBC Radio]

Keywords: Science Fiction, India
Format: Short Story
Source: Lightspeed magazine

Excerpt / Summary:


Keywords:
Format: Short Story
Source: Project Gutenberg
Copyright Note: Public Domain

Excerpt / Summary:
Local events didn't help. One of the turning points in Yemen's recent history came in 1990, shortly after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August. Yemen stood out for its support of [Saddam Hussein]'s invasion, and paid a dear price.

Keywords: Civil Rights
Format: Article
Source: The Globe and Mail

Format: Poetry
Source: Canadian Poetry (website)

Excerpt / Summary:
"Follows the thoughts and perceptions of a young boy who is excited because the day he waits for each year — the day when his family goes to the river — has finally arrived, almost."

Keywords: Childhood, Self-exploration, Mortality
Format: Short Story
Source:The New Yorker

Excerpt / Summary:
The story, about a man sent to prison for a murder he didn't commit, takes the form of a parable of forgiveness.

Keywords: Forgiveness
Format: Short Story
Source: Project Gutenberg
Copyright Note: Public Domain

Excerpt / Summary:
'You shouldn't have gone to another continent just to be a slave. You could get a better job here in Bosnia," my father told me bitterly last month when we met.

It was his honest reaction to my honest need to inform him, which I'd avoided for three years, about my job in Canada. I hadn't expected he'd easily swallow the fact that I was no longer a bookshop owner or a book columnist, as I'd been in Sarajevo, but just a worker in a Holt Renfrew warehouse.

Keywords: Immigration
Format: Essay
Source: The Globe and Mail

Excerpt / Summary:
Dr. Dymov is an earnest and rather boring young physician, who is preoccupied with his patients and his research. Olga, his wife, craves the excitement and gaiety of the artistic life. She discovers a new lease on romance with Ryabovsky, a colorful landscape artist, who takes her on a cruise on the Volga River. As they spoon under the stars, Olga and her lover make light of her bumptious stay-at-home husband.

Keywords: Relationships
Format: Short Story
Source: Project Gutenberg
Copyright Note: Public Domain

Summary:
"A Hanging (1931) is a short essay written by George Orwell, first published in August 1931 in the British literary magazine The Adelphi. Set in Burma, where Orwell (under his real name of Eric Arthur Blair) had served in the British Imperial Police from 1922 to 1927, it describes the execution of a criminal." (Wikipedia)

Format: Essay
Copyright Notes: Public Domain

Excerpt / Summary:
In a town where a lot of poor people suffer and where there are a lot of miseries, a swallow who was left behind after his flock flew off to Egypt for the winter, meets the statue of the late "Happy Prince," who in reality has never experienced true sorrow, for he lived in a palace where sorrow was not allowed to enter. [Wikipedia]

Keywords: Compassion, Relationships
Format: Short Story
Source: Project Gutenberg
Copyright Note: Public Domain

Excerpt / Summary:
To do something well you have to like it. That idea is not exactly novel. We've got it down to four words: "Do what you love." But it's not enough just to tell people that. Doing what you love is complicated.

Keywords: Psychology, Motivation
Format: Essay
Source: Author's Website

Excerpt / Summary: Growing up as a mixed race kid in a white suburb, I learned to internalize a lot of white supremacy. Delving into my Chinese roots is part of healing that, writes Brandon Yan.


Keywords: Canadian content, Identity, Society & Culture
Format: Article
Source: CBC

Excerpt / Summary:
Unable to pay rent in L.A., I slept behind my desk. But what began as a quick financial fix soon became a lifestyle

Keywords: Employment
Format: Essay
Source: Salon.com

Excerpt / Summary: When Alicia Elliott was a teen on the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve, she and her family didn't have access to clean, safe water. Eighteen years later, little has changed.


Keywords: Indigenous
Format: Article
Source:Chatelaine

Excerpt / Summary:
A wicked stepmother kills her husband's young son so that their daughter will inherit everything. In order to conceal the hideous crime, she chops up the little boy's body and turns him into a pot of stew. When his father returns home, he tucks into a hearty meal. "Oh, dear wife, this stew tastes so good!" he declares. And then he demands a second helping. [NPR]

Keywords: Allegory
Format: Fairy Tale
Source: U of Pittsburgh

Excerpt / Summary:
"In Ray Bradbury's "The Last Night of the World," a husband and wife realize that they and all the adults they know have been having identical dreams: that tonight will be the last night of the world. They find themselves surprisingly calm as they discuss why the world is ending, how they feel about it, and what they should do with their remaining time." (ThoughtCo.)

Keywords: Mortality
Format: Short Story
Source: Esquire

Excerpt / Summary:
"At home, I was in the closet. My dad grew up in a village in Pakistan, my mom in a Swiss farm town. There were mosques and churches and cultural norms. In both cases, any liberal views on sexuality were obscured by mountains.

The day I decided to tell my parents, I was trembling. I walked into the kitchen, where my mom was chopping onions, and blurted it out: the girl “friend” I’d been visiting in Montreal was ­actually my girlfriend. I told my dad soon after. “I’m in love with a girl,” I admitted. There was a beat of silence. “Well, we love you and we’ll have to deal with this,” he finally replied. Still, it was hard for my parents; they thought the future they’d envisioned for me was lost. They had no reference point for a gay white picket fence."

Keywords: LGBTQ+, Family
Format: Essay
Source: Toronto Life

Excerpt:
"Sometimes I get bogged down with other thoughts on my mind. These thoughts take up the majority of my waking hours and I don’t know why I think about them, constantly. I have been thinking about this one memory I have and I have been thinking about it since my dad has passed. There is only so much I can recall from this memory.

When I was younger, I used to dance…strip. I started in my hometown of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. I told my family. In fact, I called them up first to tell them. I had people come up to me to tell me that they heard from their grandmother. “Well, I didn’t see your grandma at work,” I would tell them, and then, I would laugh it off."

Keywords: Indigenous, Family, Women, Human Trafficking
Format: Essay
Source: Author's blog

Excerpt / Summary:
Recalls the experience of the author at a French class in Paris. Reason for his relocation to Paris; Attitude of the teacher; Efforts exerted by the author.

Keywords: Communication, Language
Format: Essay
Source:Esquire

Excerpt / Summary:


Keywords: Indigenous topics; Mental health
Format: Essay
Source: Malahat Review

Excerpt / Summary:
Miss Brill is an English teacher living near the Public Gardens in a French town. The narrative follows her on a regular Sunday afternoon, which she spends walking about and sitting in the park. (Wikipedia)

Keywords: Isolation, Perception, Self-reflection
Format: Short Story
Source: Katherine Mansfield Society website

Excerpt / Summary:
"The giant weendigoes that once prowled the forests have returned as corporations, whose appetites are more ferocious than the creatures of the storytellers. 'We want more,' they cry as the mills churn, 'only more will satisfy us'"

Keywords: Indigenous issues
Format: Essay
Source: The Globe and Mail

Excerpt / Summary:
An essay on the one time my family apartment was broken into while we were away on vacation and how I solved the Mystery of the Stupid Morons.

Keywords:
Format: Essay
Source: The New Yorker

Excerpt / Summary:
At 15, I was convinced that the only chance I had at independence was on a one-way flight to Iran. I was in 10th grade and dreaming of boys and getting into Stanford when a fight broke out between my parents. It was over our green cards. My dad wanted them. He was afraid my mom might take us and leave in the middle of the night. I was sure my mother would never do that, but he wanted the cards anyway. He said he paid for them, so he owned them -- her, specifically -- and she was to hand them over.

Keywords: Immigration
Format: Article
Source: Salon.com

Excerpt / Summary:


Keywords: Mortality
Format: Short Story
Source: Tarpaulin Sky website
Copyright Note: Terms of use - link to the original page and provide original author and publisher info.

Excerpt / Summary:
Concerns the final thoughts of a Southern planter as he is being hanged by Union soldiers. In the brief period between the tightening of the noose and the actual breaking of his neck, the man imagines his escape.

Keywords: Mortality
Format: Short Story
Source: Project Gutenberg
Copyright Note: Public Domain

Excerpt / Summary:
Diversity is the literary equivalent of “ethnic” restaurants: they please white people because they provide them with “exotic” new flavours.

Keywords: Indigenous Identity, Representation
Format: Essay
Source: Room

Keywords: Identity; Society and Culture
Format: Article
Source: Bon Apetit

Keywords: Identity; Society and Culture
Format: Short story
Source: Gizmodo

Excerpt / Summary:


Keywords: Relationships
Format: Short Story
Source: Carte Blanche

Excerpt / Summary:
Interview with Sandy Ho. “At first reading was something to pass the time in doctor’s offices. At one point I was really ashamed that this is how I first came to love reading: as a distraction from the ways my disability manifests in ‘health problems.’ But now I’m damn proud of the fact that that is how I first became enthralled. Through all the different ways my relationship with reading has fluctuated, it has also developed alongside my disability identity. As a child who experienced a lot of unpredictable physical pain, I gravitated towards books that gave me finite conclusions — the kind of resolution I wasn’t getting from my body. Once I got older, reading morphed into non-academic education and identity-seeking, a hobby that gave to me more than I took away. It’s equal parts salve and catalyst.”

Keywords:
Format: Interview
Source: Auto Straddle magazine

Excerpt / Summary:


Keywords: Fantasy
Format: Short Story
Source: The New Yorker

Summary:
"Centres around a sleepless white businessman who watches flying Indians crash into Toronto office towers (like the real-life migratory birds who crash into the same buildings, attracted during their overnight flights over the Great Lakes). Although wrapped in a comic image, this story reverberates with incredible sadness over cultural genocide in the Americas, the shiny attraction of Western consumer society, and everything that’s been lost." (Harper Collins)

Keywords: Indigenous, Cultural Genocide, Culture, Consumer Society
Format: Short Story
Source: Canlit.ca
Copyright Notes: Okay to post link. Permission required to reproduce.

Excerpt / Summary:
In the haunting title story, a young girl learns from her father the simple art of making rice. It is a ritual father and daughter can perform together, preparing the evening meal, savoring the tastes and smells of a faraway homeland. But as family members step ever deeper into new ways of life, the dinner table becomes a battleground. No amount of ritual can keep a sense of betrayal and loss from infusing their lives as irresistibly as the flavors from her father's carefully prepared meals.

Keywords:
Format: Short Story
Source: Mostlyfiction.com
Notes: Lengthy but not difficult

Excerpt / Summary:
It had never seemed like a very Native thing to do. I’d never seen our people represented on national teams or anything. Plus there was the whole outsider’s view of an expensive, trendy, elitist activity meant primarily for cash wealthy white people. So I’d poo-pooed the act of skiing for a long time.

Keywords: Sports, Indigenous Culture
Format: Blog Post
Source: Author's blog

Excerpt / Summary:
"In ‘Spider the Artist,’ Nnedi Okorafor takes us to Nigeria of the future, where Big Oil protects the pipelines with spider-like AIs known as zombies, and tells the tale of a woman who faces down one of the murderous machines armed only with a guitar."

Keywords: Dystopian Fantasy
Format: Short Story
Source: Lightspeed magazine

Keywords: Employment; Identity; Society and Culture
Format: Article
Source: Utne Reader

Excerpt / Summary:
"Night after night, the woman with the red hair and the purple dress sits in the harsh light of a 24-hour doughnut shop on Queen Street West.
Somewhere in her bleary eyes and in the deep lines of her face is a story that probably no one will ever really know."

Keywords: Poverty
Format: Essay
Source: The Globe and Mail

Keywords: Communication; Identity; Media & tech; Science & ethics; Society & culture
Format: Short story
Source: The New York Times Magazine

Excerpt / Summary:


Keywords: Mortality
Format: Short Story
Source: Edgar Allan Poe Society

Excerpt:
"Much has been written over the years about the differences between native people and non-native people, and way they view life. I think there’s no better example of this admittedly broad opinion than in the peculiar world of outdoor recreational water sports and the death wish that inspires them.
As a member of Canada’s Indigenous population, I’ve cast a suspicious glance at all these waterlogged enthusiasts for several reasons. The principal one is the now familiar concept of cultural appropriation—this time of our methods of water transportation. On any given weekend, Canadian rivers are jam-packed with plastic and fibreglass kayaks and canoes, hardly of them filled with authentic Inuit or First Nations people, all looking to taunt death using an aboriginal calling card."

Keywords: Indigenous, Cultural appropriation, Sports
Format: Essay
Source: This (magazine)

Excerpt / Summary:


Keywords: Indigenous Issues
Format: Short Story
Source:The Globe and Mail

Keywords: Canadian Content; Society and Culture; Identity; Health and Wellness; Communication; Indigenous Issues
Format: Article
Source: Transgender Quarterly

Excerpt / Summary:
Keywords: Indigenous
Format: Poem
Source: Asymptote
Notes: Can supplement Indigenous readings

Excerpt / Summary:
Games provide me with metaphoric outlets, symbolic opportunities that give me genuine relief in my time of need. Games have kept my head above water, far more than I realized. They have served as a pixelated balm on old, deep wounds. They have provided me with mazes, again and again, and given me opportunities to find my own way out of them.

Keywords: Mental Health, Video Games
Format: Article
Source: The Globe and Mail

Summary:
Aaron Thier contemplates the connections between privilege, addiction, and recovery.

Keywords: Addiction, Poverty, Opioids, Recovery, Mental Health
Format: Article
Source: Longreads

Excerpt / Summary:
Traditional harvesters recognize the individuality of each tree, a nonhuman forest person. Trees are not taken but requested.... Sometimes the answer is no.

Keywords: Indigenous Culture
Format: Book Chapter
Source: Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Copyright Note: eBook from library database. May have limits on printing/downloading.

Summary:
"A short story about an elderly African-American woman who undertakes a familiar journey on a road in a rural area to acquire medicine for her grandson. She expresses herself, both to her surroundings and in short spurts of spoken monologue, warning away animals and expressing the pain she feels in her weary bones." (Wikipedia)

Keywords: Old Age, Resilience, Memory
Format: Short Story
Source: The Atlantic magazine