On Nathalie Collard’s radar

The world of ideas is in turmoil. Find out what’s on our columnist’s radar.



The power of females

Animals always have things to teach us. In Bitch: the power of females in the animal world, author Lucy Cooke deconstructs preconceived ideas about masculine and feminine. Biology is also patriarchal, this zoologist reminds us, and several researchers have knowingly dismissed observations about the domination of females. Did you know that males also secrete estrogens, and that transgenders are found in marine crustaceans? These are neutral scientific facts that should silence those who defend ad nauseam the idea that there is something “natural” in gender roles.

Bitch: the power of females in the animal world

Bitch: the power of females in the animal world

Albin Michel

Consult the book page on the Librarians website

Women’s toilets

With The mystified woman by Betty Friedan, Women’s toilets by Marilyn French is undoubtedly one of the most significant books of the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s. I read it for the first time when I was 14. I obviously didn’t understand everything, but despite my young age, I was deeply moved by the tone, the criticism of the patriarchy and the feeling of revolt that emanated from it. French died on May 2, 2009 and to mark the 15th anniversary of her death, we are reissuing her flagship work with a new preface by the author. The opportunity to revisit a classic.

Women's toilets

Women’s toilets

Robert Laffont

Consult the book page on the Librarians website

Betray and avenge your own

They say of the book Rue Duplessis by Jean-Philippe Pleau that it is a story of a “class defector”, and that it is in line with the works of Annie Ernaux and Édouard Louis, two authors who recounted this passage from a social class to another in their work. In Betrayal and revenge: Paradoxes of class defector stories, published in France by La Découverte, two specialists in the French language wonder if this type of story – which shares a common thread – might not be “in the process of being canonized”. In a text which condenses certain ideas from their book, they ask questions which will undoubtedly provoke an excellent debate. The essay should appear in Quebec at the end of May.

Betrayal and revenge: Paradoxes of class defector stories

Betrayal and revenge: Paradoxes of class defector stories

Discovery

Read the text “The class defector story: a media “script”? »

Inuktitutthe book

If you were captivated by Inuktitut by Elisapie, an album in which the singer-songwriter reappropriates classics from Led Zeppelin, Cyndi Lauper, Pink Floyd and Blondie, you should know that there is a book that accompanies this album. Written in collaboration with writer Heather O’Neill, it is a collection of lyrics that tell the stories and memories behind each song. The texts are accompanied by illustrations and personal photos of the artist. A super nice complement to the music, to browse while listening to Elisapie’s magnificent voice.

Inuktitut

Inuktitut

Elisapie

Consult the book page on the Librarians website

Barbara Walters: bio

The great journalist and presenter Barbara Walters told her story in 2008 in her autobiography Audition: A Memoir, a book that I devoured at the time. It must be said that this pioneer has had a breathtaking career. She has broken the glass ceiling more than once, while suffering the scorn of her male colleagues. One of the interests of the new biography written by journalist Susan Page is that it recounts Walters’ last years, from 2008 to his death in December 2022. It also sheds light on angles of Walters’ life that the latter had not explored. The title of the book says it all: The Rulebreakerthat’s what Barbara Walters was.

The Rulebreaker

The Rulebreaker

Simon & Schuster


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