River Woman by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette
Recommendation from Catherine Souffront, actress
” This book is eaten like a warm apple turnover. It reads like fiction, like a diary, like a fully assumed confession. It is the story of a woman who is outside the norm, so we could say abnormal, but a woman who says: “I am not used to being incomplete.” And I found that powerful. It implies that a woman, her premise of life, is to allow herself to be complete, to be whole. And today, it is the exception to be a woman and whole, it is to be assertive and to be rebellious. And she does not assert it because she embodies it through a love that is not linear, that is not monogamous, but that is specific to her conception. I find that it opens minds to see a woman who is aware of her contradictions.
River Woman
Leaf Merchant
252 pages
Take a breathby Geneviève Jannelle
Recommendation from Christian Bégin, host and actor
” It’s the story of a girl who is in love with a guy who has multiple sclerosis. This novel is incredible. It’s magnificent. I read it in one go. […] It’s an extremely cinematic way of writing, we see that it can very well be transposed to the screen and it completely blew me away, sucked me in. It’s been a long time since I’ve had such a surge for a story that has upset me, challenged me, that I wanted to appropriate and transform. It did me a world of good. It’s really worth discovering. It’s a book that took me through a whole range of emotions, I laughed, I cried – it’s rare that I cry while reading a book, but I cried hot tears, in fact.”
Take a breath
Quebec America
144 pages
A sketch of a smileby Antoine Ross-Trempe
Recommendation from Mathieu Quesnel, director and actor
“The author tells anecdotes, memories, he talks a lot about his children. It’s a collection of all his little writings and I read it everywhere — while traveling, on the plane, in cafes. It’s easy to read everywhere because it’s in short segments and it’s really funny. I laughed a lot. I recognized myself in him a little because he has young children. He plays with language a lot, too. We understand that he’s a guy who says funny things and creates discomfort. It’s full of little remarks about everyday life, like when he goes grocery shopping and something weird happens with the cashier, but it’s always ridiculous!”
A sketch of a smile
Cardinal
240 pages
What I know about you by Eric Chacour
Recommendation from Suzie Bouchard, comedian
” It’s hard to talk about it without giving anything away because that’s part of what’s good about the book, that surprise effect. It’s a beautiful story, it’s well written — I read it in one go. At first, I thought I wouldn’t like the narration in the “you”, but in the end, it contributes so much to the enigma that I loved it. I found it impressive that there was suspense even though it’s not an action novel. It’s a love story, a family story, with a fairly intimate plot; but there’s still a real suspense that builds through it. I really liked it. I found it bittersweet and full of nuances in the way this kind of family drama is approached.”
What I know about you
Alto
296 pages
La-Z-Boy resurrection by Gabrielle Regimbal
Recommendation from Marie-Soleil Dion, actress
“It’s poetry and it’s extremely touching. Gabrielle was diagnosed with breast cancer that was very advanced. She wrote the book during her chemo treatments. She talks a lot about her son who keeps her alive, her son’s love, then her boyfriend’s love for whom she wants to stay. Her words are really beautiful, but it’s sure to bring tears because what she’s going through is unfair. I think it’s beautiful that she wrote it and then launched it. I think she also really wanted to leave this work to her breast sisters, the other women who are going through the same fight as her. At the same time, it’s very accessible as poetry, the images are clear and striking.”
La-Z-Boy resurrection
Hands free
84 pages
Glass people, by Catherine Leroux
Recommendation from Éric Chacour, author
” I’m really at the very beginning. Catherine Leroux is my editor and there too, she’s one of the most beautiful encounters I’ve had. When we started working together, I knew she had written books, so I rushed to read one. It was The future and I really liked it. And now it just came out Glass People. In the first pages that I was able to read, I find Catherine’s incredible intelligence at the service of a very contemporary theme, because she talks about renovictions and a whole bunch of subjects that are quite current.
Glass People
Alto
288 pages
Simone Simoneau, volume 2: Like foxes, by Valérie Plante and Delphie Côté-Lacroix
Recommendation from Justine Laberge-Vaugeois, musician and children’s author
“I just finished it and my daughter is reading it too, and I find it extraordinary because she is a model of a woman that I want her to see. I am not very political or attracted to political reading, but I was told about it and the illustrations really attracted me. For me, it is a breath of fresh air, it gave me hope. […] Valérie Plante, with her character Simone Simoneau, transports us into her political universe. We understand all the workings of this system and how it can work in a more masculine universe. It spoke to me because in music, it was a little bit like that when I started, almost 20 years ago.
Simone Simoneau, volume 2: Like foxes
XYZ
104 pages
May our joy remainby Kevin Lambert
Recommendation from screenwriter and actor François Létourneau
” I bought this book for Christmas. I find it really, really well written. It’s not a universe that interests me right away, the Montreal upper middle class — I feel a little disoriented [rires] —, but I really enjoy reading it. I find it fascinating; there are lots of details, you can feel that he is inspired by real people, there are people you can guess, also, he mixes the true and the false. I am reading it with Yogaby Emmanuel Carrère, which my son gave me. I really liked it The opponent. In this book, he went on a yoga retreat and he wanted to write about it, but he had a bit of a psychotic episode and he was diagnosed as bipolar. It’s really interesting.”
May our joy remain
Heliotrope
380 pages