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.
In this edition, we hone in on a handful of books that hit the road – because what’s summer without a road trip (or a few)? From the casse-croutes of rural Quebec through the flat yet mercurial plains of Manitoba, to the lush wilderness of BC; swerving back in time to seedy 90s-era San Francisco, and from California to New York on a gastronomical (cum-gastrointestinal) rip around Covid-era USA’s varied hot dog destinations…Strap yourself in – it’s gonna be one helluva ride!
Poutine: A Deep-Fried Road Trip of Discovery (Douglas & McIntyre), by Justin Giovannetti Lamothe | If you’re planning on visiting the Quebec region in the not-too-distant future, before you do, consider Poutine: A Deep-Fried Road Trip of Discovery as essential preparatory reading. Heck, it might even prime you for inauguration into the lively conversations and arguments that a poutine eaten in its home province supposedly inspires – if you dare to engage. And even if you simply fancy yourself a real-deal food-lover, this book is sure to enlarge your appetite for the titular famous Quebecois dish – both literally and metaphorically – and add an extra layer of context and appreciation to your next fries-with-cheese-and-gravy experience, wherever and whenever that may be. To summarize Quebecois journalist Justin Giovannetti Lamothe’s 2024 book with an easy analogy, think of it as itself a poutine: A simple investigation into the origins and history of the classic casse-croute fare provides the base (i.e. des frites); while its evolution (and/or mutation) and the political discourse surrounding it stands in for the generous heaping of cheese curds on top; and finally, the author’s personal attachments and anecdotes provide the gravy that holds it all together. Unsurprisingly, there are ‘cheesy’ moments aplenty – from the history of rural Quebec’s dairy industry and Lamothe’s father’s deep connection to it, to the science behind what makes fresh cheese curds so dang squeaky, and the heated debates that this ingredient can inspire – but there also many moments of deep personal realizations, rumination, and father-son connections triggered by the titular dish, proving how important a role food can play in our memories, relationships, and sense of community and identity. DETAILS
Available from such local independent bookstores as Massy Books, Iron Dog Books (special order only), and Upstart & Crow (special order only).*
Blue Hours (Freehand Books), by Alison Acheson | With her latest novel to be added to an already impressive cannon, local author Alison Acheson transports Keith, a writer, along with his seven-year-old son and their old Golden Retriever, Daisy, from Vancouver to Gimli, Manitoba in a borrowed ol’ VW van named “Hopper”. The impromptu road trip is an attempt to process (or distance themselves from) the grief of the all-too-recent death of wife and mother, Raziel (aka ‘Raz’), while also paying a long overdue visit to her sister and brother-in-law. In a gender role-reversal, Keith has always been the primary caregiver (or, more affectionally, ‘house-band’) for Charlie, leaving Raz to indulge in her wanderlust and artistic whims as a professional photographer – as well as her extra-marital ones, he accidentally discovers post-mortem. Raz’s hidden affairs lend a new (blue?) light to Keith’s grief, which he struggles to navigate, while also negotiating his son’s sadness and silent coping methods. Although not an altogether original plot twist, what makes Blue Hours compelling is Acheson’s gender-bending treatment of it, and her special sensitivity to nature, animals, children and elders, and all of their unexpected or inexplicable healing powers. Also worth noting, for all you book- and music-lovers out there: each chapter of Blue Hours leads with a short playlist of corresponding songs, creating a full-length soundtrack to the novel, should you want the extra layer of audio experience. DETAILS
Available from such local independent bookstores as Massy Books, Iron Dog Books, and Upstart & Crow.*
Looking for Her (Baraka Books), by Carolyn Marie Souaid | Although its plain-written prose doesn’t necessarily suggest that Looking for Her was written by a prolific and award-winning poet (it was), the second novel from Montreal writer and artist, Carolyn Marie Souaid, undoubtedly taps into her extensive experience working with Inuit communities in Quebec and teaching abroad in Nunavik. Although 43-year-old protagonist, Cate, is a full generation younger than the author herself, like Souaid she too is a writer and teacher – in Cate’s case, a literature professor at McGill University on sabbatical to focus on completing a piece of scholarly writing. Her first real encounter with the Inuit community comes after a chance meeting with a young woman paramedic, Isabel, who connects her with 19-year-old Nuna, who has moved from up North to live with her problematic boyfriend and is need of stability, a change in address, and a ‘proper’ education. Cate and Liam (her husband, a beloved high school teacher) agree to bring Nuna into their fold (and household), with the former acting as her tutor and eventually – unwittingly – also as her caretaker and pseudo-mother-figure. Cue the drama! The new living and teaching arrangement turns out to be an in-immersion school on colonialism and White-centricism for Cate – although it’s all a bit “too little, too late”. As suggested by the title, Looking for Her culminates in Nuna’s sudden, unexplained disappearance, which bonds Isabel and Cate together (while simultaneously tearing Cate’s marriage to bits) for a full-on woman hunt and investigation into Nuna’s personal life and mysterious past. This entails haphazard mini road trips through rural Quebec, complete with stops at dingy motels and roadside diners and bars, gas station and Tim Horton’s grub for sustenance, and drunken escapades. The investigation is multi-pronged, though, as Cate digs deeper into her own misunderstandings, oversights, assumptions, and the myriad mistakes she made with Nuna, by well-intendedly but recklessly stepping into the role of White Teacher and not taking the time to second guess her methods or motives, or really listen to her. DETAILS
Available as a special order from such local independent bookstores as Massy Books, Iron Dog Books, and Upstart & Crow.*
Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs (Forge Books), by Jamie Loftus | Jamie Loftus, the author of Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs, is first and foremost a comedian – so it’s no wonder that her book about a Covid-era summer spent “hotdogging” across the USA (i.e. road tripping from one hotdog stand to another hotdog restaurant in a cross-country marathon, averaging four or five dogs eaten per day) with her then-boyfriend (and their cat and dog) is supremely entertaining and, at times, f*cking hilarious. However, what is pleasantly unexpected is that in addition to humorous anecdotes and asides (and a slew of poop-related jokes – Loftus’ masochistic streak is strong!), Raw Dog is also smart, candid, and critical. Loftus (the leftist) doesn’t skip over how classicism, racism, and sexism all factor into the hot dog industry past and present, or the crude how-its-made details (including the many infringements on both human and animal rights that come hand-in-hand with the associated factory farming and manufacturing of the food stuff). Much like the piece of gastronomic Americana it is devoted to, Loftus’ hot dog travel-diary-cum-compendium is equal parts appetizing and appetite-turning. In a word, this book is a “trip” – and one I definitely recommend taking. DETAILS
Available from such local independent bookstores as Massy Books (special order only), Iron Dog Books, and Upstart & Crow (special order only).*
Bad Nature (Henry Holt and Co.), by Ariel Courage | Desperation, death, and self-destruction are at the wheel with Hester, the 40-year-old lawyer and misanthrope driving the cheekily titled Bad Nature – Ariel Courage’s 2025 psuedo-road trip tale – leading readers from her home base in NYC to her father’s last known place of residence in California. After an unpromising cancer diagnosis, Hester sets off on her own, in order to find and murder her estranged painter father. However, it’s not long before she gains an unlikely co-pilot for her journey – “John”, a twenty-something-year-old hitchhiker, nomadic photographer, and eco-activist on his own mission to document various corporate-committed ecological obscenities contributing to environmental destruction, sickness, and community displacement. Although it’s incredibly difficult to imagine these two opposite characters coping for long stretches of time confined together in such close quarters and with such obviously conflicting morals, somehow it works, and in the end this unexpected human connection plays a big part in determining the route that the remainder of Hester’s short life will take. Pit stops along the way veer from extravagant hotels and casinos, to cagey dump sites and farmsteads, and Bad Nature spends more time dwelling on family dynamics and human nature than it does on environmentalism.DETAILS
Available from such local independent bookstores as Massy Books, Iron Dog Books, and Upstart & Crow.*
Girls Girls Girls (G.P. Putnam’s Sons), by Shoshana von Blanckensee | The new novel from Shoshana von Blackensee, Girls Girls Girls, brings up valuable questions about everything from queerness, consent, sex work, power and gender dynamics, to religion, family, grief, and assisted suicide – all from the context of a queer young woman coming of age in the mid-nineties in a strict, Jewish household, desperately longing for the freedom to simply and unapologetically be herself. Raised with her sister, Rachel, primarily by their Orthodox Jewish mother (with her less stringent Bubbe acting as a valuable sounding board and support), eighteen-year-old Hannah hits the road to the USA’s queer mecca (San Francisco) with her best-friend-cum-girlfriend, Sam, at the first opportunity they get. A tale of firsts – first love, first sex (gay and straight), first heartbreak, first drug experiences, first encounter with death – Girls Girls Girls is also a “first” of its own, as von Blackensee’s debut novel. Which might explain why, at times, it can feel clunky and awkward in its revelations (the amount of major milestones that Hannah knocks off over the course of a mere eight months seems a bit too contrived) and cliched in its choices; and despite bringing multiple big issues into the fold, few of them actually summon any ramifications and/or are afforded serious contemplation. (For instance: a drug-fuelled, non-consensual sexual encounter between a minor sex worker and her paying client is reconciled with a confession of addiction as the latter’s excuse; and the sexual assault of a stripper while on the job is mentioned in passing simply as a horror story that partially inspires Hannah to rethink her career choice). This stands in stark contrast to the emotional gravitas and details afforded to a family member’s sudden sickening and death by cancer (owing, probably, to the fact that von Blanckensee’s day job is as an oncology nurse), which means that the most powerful passages are those about the relationship between Hannah and her feisty yet ailing grandmother – a surprising, welcome twist to an otherwise predictable story. DETAILS
Available from such local independent bookstores as Massy Books (special order only), Iron Dog Books, and Upstart & Crow (special order only).*
*It would be remiss for me not to mention Vancouver’s various independent and used book stores, and encourage you to pay them an in-person visit to seek out these and other titles.
