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.

Currently Reading

RECOMMENDED READING: When We Lost Our Heads, by Heather O’Neill | Published last year, highly acclaimed Montreal author Heather O’Neill’s latest novel is a scintillating and titillating feminist story divided between two wildly different protagonists – middle-class, dark Sadie Arnett and privileged, fair Marie Antoine – but centred on their special attraction to and bond with each other as it evolves over time and political context. With When We Lost Our Heads, O’Neill continues to hone her talent for portraying women characters, relationships and conflicts, this time in a historically inspired but highly imaginative pseudo-Montreal setting, circa the 19th century. It’s morbid and disturbing, queer and sexy, ridiculous and provocative, all at once. In a word: delicious. —TS

Currently available from local independent booksellers such as Massy Books and Upstart & Crow.*

Ultra-Processed People, by Chris Van Tulleken | Full of wit and engaging material, and backed by rigorous reporting and a crazy self-experiment, Chris Van Tulleken’s astonishing new book is all about how we view the foods we eat and why we struggle to understand that most of it isn’t actually food. Additives, colours, dyes, and preservatives find their way into almost everything we eat, sickening us while also making us infertile and helpless against future microbial threats. Ultra-Processed People will make you question what you eat and how it was produced. — JM

Currently available to order from local independent booksellers such as Upstart & Crow and Massy Books.*

UP NEXT: Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, by Naomi Klein | Naomi Klein’s latest book marks a departure for the cult author/journalist known for her highly researched counterculture ‘bibles’, including The Shock Doctrine and No Logo – in large part because of its inward angle and accounting of her experience with her own personal doppelgänger, and what she coins as “the Mirror World”. As her website describes it, the book is “a guidebook for our unsettling age, inviting all of us to view our reflections in the looking glass. It’s for anyone who has lost hours down an internet rabbit hole, who wonders why our politics has become so fatally warped, and who wants a way out of our collective vertigo and back to fighting for what really matters. Braiding together elements of tragicomic memoir, chilling political reportage, and cobweb-clearing cultural analysis…” Sounds intriguing (and terrifying)! — TS

Currently available to order from local independent booksellers such as 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

Naomi Klein on Conspiracy Culture and “The Mirror World” | Speaking of Klein, last month The Intercept interviewed her about her new (aforementioned) book for their ‘Deconstructed’ podcast, just days after its publication on September 12th. Read (and/or listen) to the interview here. No spoilers, I promise! — TS

A Baker’s Secrets: Why Ted Odell abandoned his cult-favorite cookies | A detailed and multifarious long read using one exceptionally memorable cookie as its jumping off point. Take a look into the mind of a reclusive old man whose famed cookies loom large ever still in the mind of a former student. Life is short, always eat a cookie. — JM

Interview: Fadi Kattan | Apartamento magazine recently interviewed Franco-Palestinian chef/restaurateur, Fadi Kattan, about (among other things): traditions; cooking Palestinian inspired dishes using local and in-season UK ingredients; farmer-to-kitchen connections; and ingredient politics. An insightful and enlightening Q&A shedding light on a struggling nation from a unique, food- and restaurant-focussed angle. Dig in here. — TS

Orange Is the New Yolk: On how the so-called farm egg and its yolk became unlikely fetish objects | A fascinating exploration into everything “egg”. Read it here. — JM

Europe might abandon its animal welfare revolution | Sobering news about how politics and lobbying can obfuscate doing something just. Though not in our backyard, this Vox article by Kenny Torrell is worth a read to better understand how difficult change can be. — JM

WORD: Dagashi | The subject of the first edition of new one-woman-run publication, 08-12 Magazine, is “Dagashi” – i.e. cheap Japanese candy. In the debut issue, 08-12 gets myopic about the details of Kara Zwaanstra’s personal collection, purchased from Kashiya Yokocho (aka Penny Candy Lane) in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture. 160 pages of niche Japanese candy obsession, from packaging design to historical facts, plus sweets-related interviews and art? Yes please! — TS