We like consuming words on the page almost as much as we like consuming food on the plate. Welcome to the Scout Book Club: a brief and regular rundown of what we’re reading, what’s staring at us from the bookshelf begging to be read next, and what we’ve already read and recommend.

Earlier this month, July 12-14th, Vancouver’s first-ever Filipino-Canadian Festival took place. Leading up to the event, we asked its three organizers – Nathalie De Los Santos, Dani Alcalde-Sidloski, and Maria Bolaños – for their personal book recommendations for reading this summer, which you can find in this special Scout Book Club edition below.

Currently Reading & Recommended

Nimrods: A Fake-punk Self-Hurt Anti-Memoir, by Kawika Guillermo | Using a raw, hybrid prose-poetic style, Guillermo recounts his chaotic mixed-race upbringing, the impact of his uncle’s death from HIV, his parents’ divorce, his troubled relationship with his father, and how this past affects him as a new, queer father. There is no neat and tidy ending, and Guillermo offers a powerful exchange between present and past lives, previous and current patriarchs, forgiveness and forgetfulness in the admission of the author and father’s truths and living memories.— Nathalie, Filipino-Canadian Book Festival

Currently available from local independent bookseller (and Filipino-Canadian Book Festival partner), Massy Books.*

The Story of Us, by Catherine Hernandez | This book was published in 2023, but it has stayed close to my heart ever since. The Story of Us is really, just that: It’s the story of how, no matter how alone in this world we may feel, the ones who came before us, are with us still. It’s a love letter to our ancestors, to the Trans community, to LGBTQ2IA+ activists and heroes, to the Overseas Filipinx Worker community, to mothers, and to found family. This book centers our togetherness in ways that we need now more than ever before. — Dani, Filipino-Canadian Book Festival

Currently available from local independent booksellers, such as Iron Dog Books, and Massy Books (Filipino-Canadian Book Festival partner).*

Our Echo of Sudden Mercy, by Hari Alluri | “In another version of the story, my notebooks / on the stove, the only things that burn. // You never know when the fire will ask you to be its home.” The smallness of this poetry collection (published by Next Page Press) belies its complexity, and each time I come back to it, I see something new. I read and watch us grow jungles of ourselves, our time tangled with the small and large flotsam of our lives: doing the dishes, watering the garden, ironing shirts; our gods and demons, our people, our loved ones here and gone; the long days that drift by in this un-normal time. I feel this is as much about joy as about grief, rendering the chaos of our lives beautiful – all things that spill, from coffee grounds and egg yolks to peals of laughter over tsismis, and yes, tears. I think of the questions Hari Alluri asks when the mess is so much – each poem is a question – how to be soft, (is) how to be strong. Read the full review here. — Maria, Filipino-Canadian Book Festival

Currently available from local independent bookseller (and Filipino-Canadian Book Festival partner), Massy Books.*

The Memory of Animals, by Claire Fuller | In Fuller’s 2023 novel, the advent of a pandemic causes extreme swelling, diminished taste and smell, memory loss and, eventually, death, in infected humans; a small group of young people of various backgrounds and motives – including protagonist Neffy, a marine biologist – have volunteered themselves to be locked up in an undisclosed location in London to trial a new vaccine. By juxtaposing the volunteers’ containment with Neffy’s revisited memories of her family, lover and her brief (problematic) career, along with composed letters to a beloved octopus, Fuller’s 2023 novel adeptly and slyly explores themes of freedom, autonomy, ethics, captivity and responsibility.

Currently available from local independent bookseller, Upstart & Crow.*

Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang | The fifth novel by author R.F. Kuang follows two friends, June Hayward and Athena Liu, who are both writers in their own respects, but with very different career paths. Nonetheless, the pair find themselves at the very same celebration and are irrevocably changed by it (spoiler: there’s a manuscript, a death and a lie). A transfixing read, full of wit, humour and a litany of societal ills, and a deranged and merciless fight for power. — JM

Available from local independent booksellers, such as Iron Dog Books, Massy Books and Upstart & Crow.*

*It would be remiss for me not to mention Vancouver’s various other independent and used book stores, and encourage you to pay them an in-person visit to seek out these and other titles.

Supplementary Reading

Fever Dream Dinner: A Yelp Review of The Bear | If you had the chance to visit The Bear‘s family-owned Chicago sandwich shop for dinner, how do you think you would you rate that experience? This column attempts to give just such a review. Via The Ringer. — JM

The Bear Is Not a Good Show | “The show now exists as a sort of composite of mannerisms and affectations that it hopes its audience will mistake for good television.” Sometimes a single quote says it all. Via Slate. — JM

The world’s emotional status is actually pretty good, a new global report finds | Did you feel well rested yesterday? Were you treated with respect? Did you smile or laugh a lot? …learn or do something interesting? …experience enjoyment during a lot of the day? How happiness is reported depends on a few things. Read on to learn more. Via Vox. — JM

Jeanne Dielman Burns Potatoes: On the Price of Mother’s Cooking | Famous For My Dinner Parties is an exploration of food and its various significant intersections in life: with film, family, literature, and pop culture; the publication also has sections on food history and theory, plus interviews and recipes. One of the latest articles to pop up on FFMDP’s website is from their print Issue 001 archives, but is still as fresh and timely, as ever as it examines the portrayal of food in Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s landmark film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. A scintillating read no matter whether you’re a film buff or just love all things food-related. Dig in here.

A Canadian literary icon, Alice Munro (1931-2024), recently made headlines for her complicity in the perpetuation of sexual abuse by her husband, Gerald Fremlin, against her daughter (his step-daughter), inciting a lot of scrupulous conversations about abuse and legacy, and re-readings of her canon of work. Read Montreal journalist Toula Drimonis’ op-ed for The Montreal Gazette here; and another, by Constance Grady for Vox here. Then, discuss!