Busy Doing Nothing Book Review

Rekka Bellum
Crossing the Pacific in a small sailboat for 51 days, Rekka & Devine’s sense of adventure is impressive to say the least. But there’s nothing showy or attention-seeking about their journey. This annotated logbook orbits around the small details of life aboard their vessel, Pino — food, sleep, weather, warmth. The ocean’s dangers pounce unexpectedly, and so do its moments of joy. There is some room for philosophical asides, but for the most part this is a book about the reality of the world right in front of your face.

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Crosshairs Book Review

Catherine Hernandez
If this were written five years ago, a story about Canada’s sharp turn toward fascism would seem too outlandish to be taken seriously. But the rise of white nationalism in recent times gives me pause to consider a world where forced labour, martial law, and oppression of LGBTQ and minority groups are the norm. This novel portrays the very plausible fear and uncertainty of such a society with gripping suspense. But it falls apart by not spending enough effort on developing characters’ humanity and personality — they feel like caricatures.

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Saga Boy Book Review

Antonio Michael Downing
Downing’s memoir travels between the broken-up pieces of his several lives, several personalities, several identities. Without being deterministic about it, he keeps coming back to the duality between colonial influence and Trini folk tales — two opposing forces that have shaped him and his family. In a culture so focused on defining authenticity, this is a refreshing dive into the multitudes that the author contains.

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The First True Lie Book Review

Marina Mander
A full-on tragedy with no glimmer of hope, it’s a good thing for my mental health that this book is a short one. When young Luca’s mother doesn’t wake up one morning, he decides to carry on going to school, feeding the cat, and shopping for groceries on his own. “How many times have I wanted to grow up soon, straight away? Here we go. It’s happened. It might have happened better, but that’s how it is.” This is a story about how the children of single parents deal with loyalty, responsibility, belonging and loss.

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Tri-City Hip Hop

Explore the places in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge that have shaped local hip-hop culture. Featuring music videos and first-hand stories from the artists themselves.

https://tricityhiphop.com

Bylines

Subscribe to your favourite Canadian writers no matter which publication they appear in.

https://bylin.es

Contexts

Slides from a presentation I prepared about software architecture in the real world. Tech isn’t a bubble. It’s affected by, and affects, a user’s environment, social biases, business models, and the other software it interacts with.

http://samnabi.github.io/contexts

Traction

A self-hosted, file-based solution for mass email campaigns. Traction was developed for Hold The Line Waterloo Region’s campaign against Bill 66. We coordinated with dozens of local advocacy groups. Community members sent over 18,000 emails to local mayors, councillors, and members of provincial parliament. In less than a month, Bill 66 was amended to respect our demands.

https://github.com/samnabi/traction