A lot has happened in bookish and pop culture the past couple weeks since I did one of these posts. So without further ado:
Roundup
Music
Whether she wants to or not, Taylor Swift takes up a lot of air in the pop-cultural space, so it’s no surprise that the lead up to the release of The Life of a Showgirl yesterday was dominated by a lot of speculation and anticipation. Swift is an artist whose albums I normally need to sit with before really getting my head around (I memorably hated Midnights upon first listen and now it’s an all-time favourite album for me.), so I’m going to refrain from rushing to judgment this early on. But my initial thoughts are that if it’s a bit disappointing, it’s only because of the expectations she herself set for it. We were promised an album of wall-to-wall upbeat pop bangers, and I don’t think that’s quite what we got. Of course that doesn’t mean it’s a bad album. Far from it. And the more I engage with it with recalibrated expectations, the more I’m getting out of it. Initial standouts for me a day in are “The Life of Ophelia,” “Elizabeth Taylor,” and “Honey.”
But lest we allow Swift to suck up all the air in the room, there have been some other great releases the past couple weeks that deserve mention. In fact three of my most highly anticipated albums of the year dropped yesterday! In addition to The Life of a Showgirl, HAERTS released their new album Laguna Road, which is a bit on the slow and pensive end of the pop world but excellent, and Gatlin released her first full-length studio album, The Eldest Daughter, after releasing some stellar singles over the past few years. Not to be forgotten, last week saw the release of a great new album from Doja Cat (Vie); she’s not an artist I’ve historically loved, but there are a few tracks here I’ve been coming back to. And, for those who appreciate more traditional vocals, Olivia Dean’s album The Art of Loving is pretty special.
Songs
- “Destination,” by Neko Case
- “Memento,” by HAERTS
- “All Mine,” by Doja Cat
- “Elizabeth Taylor,” by Taylor Swift
Albums
- Vie, by Doja Cat
- The Life of a Showgirl, by Taylor Swift
- The Eldest Daughter, by Gatlin
- Laguna Road, by HAERTS
- The Art of Loving, by Olivia Dean
- Perrie, by Perrie
Reading
Until September, 2025 had been shaping up to be a pretty mediocre reading year for me. I’ve read a lot of very good books, but not much jumped out or grabbed me by the jugular. Thankfully, that changed and I’ve had some astounding reads lately. Here are some of the highlights (not including titles I’ll address in the deep-dive).
- Panenka, by Ronan Hession (2019)
- The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, by Kiran Desai (2025, Booker Prize shortlist)
- Native Nations, by Kathleen DuVal (2024, Pulizter winner for nonfiction)
In Focus: Thoughts on the Giller Prize Longlist So Far (9 of 16)
While the Booker longlist was hit-or-miss for me this year (with the shortlist being even more so, since two I thought were shoe-ins, Endling and Seascraper, didn’t make the cut!), I’ve been having a lot better luck with the longlist for the Giller Prize, which honours Canadian literature. What I love about this list is its diversity, not just in authorship and experience, but especially in genre and tone. A lot of these books take big swings and I’m so glad the Giller committee selected them. To date, I’ve read nine of the sixteen titles on the list and a few of them have been big hits, with only one dud (for me). Here are my rankings so far:
Brilliant
1. Other Worlds, by André Alexis: A fascinating collection of short stories, largely about Black experiences in southern Ontario.
2. The Road Between Us, by Bindu Suresh: A novel in interconnected stories about the lasting impacts of old traumas on otherwise successful adults.
3. The Tiger and the Cosmonaut, by Eddy Boudel Tan: A literary small-town mystery that explores big issues without sacrificing story.
4. Wild Life, by Amanda Leduc: A wild book (pardon the pun) that works far better than it probably should.
Great Books
5. We Love You, Bunny, by Mona Awad: Simultaneously a sequel and prequel to her pandemic-era phenomenon Bunny (2019), this goes even deeper in its satire of academia and the arts. It’s only this low because its strong voiciness became grating after a while; what would have been brilliant for 250 pages was exhausting for 500.
6. The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus, by Emma Knight: This is a really lovely and accessible story. It reads more like ‘general fiction’ than ‘literary fiction’, but that’s not a bad thing.
Close but No Cigar
7. You’ve Changed, by Ian Williams: A searing satire of contemporary urban married life, this comes so close to hitting it out of the park, but for me at least, the male main character was a bit of a dud and a love triangle plot fell flat, resulting in a disappointing experience.
Why Was This on the List?
8. The Paris Express, by Emma Donoghue: This was well-done but just felt unoriginal to me, and perhaps a wasted spot on the longlist that could have gone to a lesser-known author.
9. An Astonishment of Stars, by Kirti Bhadresa: This collection of stories wasn’t bad but only one of the stories was memorable for me. Overall, it was just okay, and I’m surprised it got the committee’s attention.
Matthew Root 