![]() ![]() Laurie Grassi, books editor of Chatelaine, recently predicted ghost stories will be the next big thing. It quietly got some good reviews and just as quietly disappeared. Her first novel Widows of Hamilton House came out with a small press. She has the intellectual playfulness and profundity of her mentor Robert Kroetsch. Even the most well-read Canadians have never heard of Christina Penner. Published in 2008, my pick is not “a classic.” But it is definitely a novel that Canadians not only forgot but missed entirely. ![]() I combed my bookshelves piling up old books, “Important” books, quintessentially Canadian books, but I found myself continually returning to an unlikely candidate - a book I want to recommend so badly that I’m going to cheat. Widows of Hamilton House by Christina Penner: I knew I must have the perfect forgotten Canadian classic. Chris Turner’s new collection of essays, How To Breathe Underwater, will be published in September. From a history of hockey cards to a loving tribute of Expo 67 to a ferocious takedown of ’70s soft-rock king Dan Hill, this is your essential guide to Canadian pop culture in the 20th century. You’d been thinking maybe way too much about Hinterland Who’s Who, but was anyone else? That’s why Mondo Canuck, by Geoff Pevere and my former Shift magazine compadre Greig Dymond, was such a revelation and deserves a place on every Canadian bookshelf between the Pierre Berton histories and that dog-eared copy of Margaret Atwood’s Survival. ![]() Mondo Canuck by Geoff Pevere and Greig Dymond: In those dark days before the Internet was everywhere, you didn’t always know if anyone else shared your pop-culture obsessions - especially Canadian ones. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt. ![]()
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