What to Read and What to Watch — in Sept-October
For readers…
Dangerous Dirty Violent and Young: A Fugitive Family In The Revolutionary Underground. (2026) by Zayd Ayers Dohrn– is brilliant. In the late 70s the author’s mother and father were on the run from the FBI. In a way Zayd was also on the run – from ages 3-5 he and his parents criss-crossed the US by car, taking assumed names and jobs for cash to evade police. His parents were committed Weathermen activists who continued to fight against racism and capitalism. Dohrn’s mother is the infamous Bernardine Dohrn, in the ‘60s, an organizer for SDS (Students for a Democratic Society). She helped found then led the Weathermen in ’69. Thirty years later she taught and practised poverty law in Chicago. and a Weathermen who then practised poverty law. The author’s father Bill Ayers was also a leader in the SDS and the Weathermen. Thirty years later he was a professor of education at a Midwest university. This book is fascinating.
Zayd Dohrn interviews both parents and we get a very nuanced view of their lives and their fears. Dohrn, the author, is a playwright and a professor of English. He can almost weave a spell through his narrative, fitting himself in and out of it.
Season of Migration to the North (1966) by Tayeb Salih may be a kind of national book for Sudan. I first read about it in Son of Elsewhere, Elamin Abdelmahmoud’s 2022 memoir that I reviewed (and liked) here: Abdelmahmoud had read it as a teen; the book spoke to him of his roots in Sudan, the culture and the era of newly independent Sudan. Originally published in 1966 in Arabic, and much later in English, the book begins with an unnamed narrator, who returns to his home village on the Nile after a decade of education at British universities. With a doctorate in hand, he goes back to the village hoping to contribution to building a new Sudan. He remembers most of the villagers warmly, but is surprised by a newcomer to the village, Mustafa Sa’eed. The narrator and Sa’eed get to know each other. Far from being a farmer, Sa’eed had been an economist and lectured at the University of London 30 years earlier. He told the narrator about his love affairs in Europe, and his gaining some acceptance there despite being Black. Their relationship has some red lines – and ultimately the narrator sees events in Sa’eed’s former life have spilled over to his relationships in the village. The outcome is shocking. The intro by Laila Lalami to the English edition sets the background for us – and fills us in on some of the politics of Sudan.
Blood Typed (2026) by Jane Doucet is a light mystery. Doucet is a NS author, and this is her fifth book. Though I’m a fan of mystery – more of thrillers – this book was too nice, too earnest and too predictable for my taste. A murder or two take place in Halifax’s Lord Nelson Hotel during a book awards weekend. The detective is Val Jenkins, a local journalist assigned to cover the gala. One step after the other, Doucet builds an easy to digest mystery – and no one who dies will be missed.
Abra is the very best novel I’ve read in ages. I should say it was published to critical acclaim in 1978, an incredible first book for journalist and London, Ont. resident Joan Barfoot. Abra is a 45 year old woman looking back on a conventional life. A young marriage to a stockbroker launched Abra into the upper middle class in Toronto in the early ‘70s. With no career plans, Abra works in a dress store and doesn’t much like it. She has two children of whom she is very protective and provides them and her husband with everything. When the children are ages nine and twelve, Abra walks out on the family. This is a feminist story with deep feelings, raw insights and an unforgettable Abra. I highly recommend it.
Abyss (2023) by young Colombian writer Pilar Quintana is urgent and authentic. In the novel, Claudia, an 8-year-old girl, divides her affection between her mother, a depressed and insecure woman, and her father, decades older than his wife, who owns a local supermarket. Her mother has an affair with her young brother-in-law; Claudia feels the quaking of her family’s world. Emotional, and raw yet a controlled telling of a familiar tale.
Normally, I hate love stories, and I hate stories about people trying to find themselves. But in this case, the latter gave way to the former, and the result is an impassioned account against Israel’s illegal and brutal occupation. . .
my review of Crossing the Line
The best memoir I’ve read in months is Crossing the Line: An Israeli-Palestinian Love Story by Mya Guarnieri (2025). Fantastic. Normally, I hate love stories, and I hate stories about people trying to find themselves. But in this case, the latter gave way to the former, and the result is an impassioned account against Israel’s illegal and brutal occupation, and how she and her Palestinian boyfriend navigated it. Guarnieri is an American Jew who never fit in. Born and raised in the US deep south in the 1980s, she was the only Jew in her school; she had no immediate relatives and grew up with her mother in a single parent home. As a child, Guarnieri didn’t attend religious school and had no experience of the Jewish community. After graduating university, she went on a sponsored trip to Israel because it was somewhere to go and a place to explore for ten months. Her story, what she saw and experienced is spine tingling and emotionally raw. She decided to make her trip to Israel permanent. Within a year of being in Israel, she had mastered good Hebrew, was studying Arabic most mornings and teaching at a Palestinian university in the West Bank. This is a book I could not put down. Guarnieri’s sense and sensibilities ring true and urgent.
For watchers…
A Nearly Normal Family (2023) on Netflix is worth watching. I think I reviewed this Swedish 6-episode series a couple of years ago but seeing it again, somehow I felt it worked better and I found it very good. As a young teen, Stella is raped by a counsellor at summer camp. The fall out from it isn’t fully evident until five or six years later. At age 19, Stella is now a 19-year-old who, rather than attending university like her friends, works in a bakery in Lund to save money for a trip to Europe. When she is charged with murder – for the knifing of her boyfriend – her parents are shattered. Her dad is a clergyman and her mother is a lawyer. Both go to work to try to defend Stella, yet they differ in how to handle this tragedy. This is a psychological thriller worth seeing. Trailer’s here
A French folksinger, called Plume, goes to zoos and nature preserves to play tunes to the animals. This reel is fantastic—you can see how elephants react to hearing the Bob Dylan song Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door here.
Ramy on CBC Gem is worth watching. This is a 2019 comedy (and three seasons worth) of funny and futile scheming by Ramy and his friends. Ramy is a young Egyptian-American who is trying to lead a good life as a Muslim and a goofy life as an American. Trailer’s here.
Blood Sacrifice, is a Nordic noir mystery straight from Stockholm. Thomas Berg is a chief detective, young, flinty-eyed with limited experience. When three cops are found dead, decapitated (!), Berg tests all his theories, and tries to find the culprit. It’s only when his dad, Alfred, a former (and disgraced) cop and an alcoholic, makes some inroads in the case and insists on being part of the investigation that Berg starts to put together what happened. Five episodes. Not bad. It’s on Netflix. Here’s the trailer.
The Death of The Pastor’s Wife, a 2024 Netflix doc, is pretty good. Lately I’ve noticed their docs are better and more focused in a way I like. And since decent documentaries are hard to come by I tuned into this. Mica Miller was the 25 year old wife of a prominent born-again preacher John-Paul Miller (age 45) at the Solid Rock Church in the tourist town of Myrtle Beach, North Carolina. Despite all her dedication to her Lord, her Sunday school teaching, her service to the flock – her life with JP was not great. In fact, he wasn’t just a philanderer, but also a sadist and an expert gaslighter. Mica, once loved by the congregation, was sidelined. Her death caused by a self-inflicted gunshot wound was more than a shock. Trailer is here.
Never forget Gaza
Some people have seen it, and it will soon be available online – American Doctor (2026) is fantastic. Three doctors from the US, a Jew who is an orthopedic surgeon, a trauma specialist who is a Zoroastrian and a Palestinian-American who is an emergency physician, volunteer in Gaza. This is a film about the three doctors and their work with critically injured and dying Palestinians in several Gaza hospitals. Not only do the doctors confront hospital bombings, they also run up against a complete lack of drugs, anaesthetics, equipment and operating rooms. The doctors are not portrayed as heroes, but we can see how their politics have shifted “left” due to dire conditions and the suffering and deaths of many innocent civilians—especially children. A must see. The trailer is here.
The Lucy Letby case: “There was no murder.”
Still on documentaries, I watched The Investigation of Lucy Letby. First, I urge you to read the excellent 2024 account by Rachel Aviv in the New Yorker here Letby now is 36 years old but at the time of the deaths she was only 25. She was found guilty of killing seven premature babies and attempting to kill six others at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, near Liverpool in the UK. After one of the longest murder trials in the UK, Letby was jailed for life. But many questions have emerged, not the least being Letby was a young, university-educated nurse who had a passion for caring for babies. Why would she do this? Is she a mass murderer? Did she do this? One thing is certain: the doctors, and the hospital administrators lost no time taking zero responsibility and putting the blame for the infants’ deaths on Letby –a recently graduated nurse, who was not a supervisor, with no history of violence, or abuse or alcoholism or indulging in drugs.
Unexpectedly, a Canadian neonatologist has come to her rescue. Dr Shoo Lee, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, now farms in Hay Lakes, Alberta. He had written a 1989 paper on skin discolouration in infant deaths; Letby’s barrister read it and contacted him. Lee disputed some of the evidence when he reviewed the case. He struck an independent panel of 14 international medical experts who worked (without pay) to re-examine the medical files. They found that the infant deaths and injuries resulted from natural causes, bad medical care, and communications difficulties at the hospital. Speaking on behalf of the panel, Lee insists “There was no murder.” The trailer is here.
If you have two minutes you can listen and watch short cartoons for a whole slew of classic books. I watched the short cartoons and listened to The Grapes of Wrath, The Odyssey and To Kill a Mockingbird — check it out here.
Hostage (2025) is a five-episode British political thriller. The husband of newly elected Prime Minister Abigail Dalton is abducted while saving lives as a doctor in French Guiana. Dalton has to ask the President of France, Vivienne Toussaint, to help free Dalton’s husband and the other medics kidnapped. Dalton is subject to pressures inside her cabinet and a challenge to her power. Toussaint is being blackmailed and could lose her presidency. A nicely done thriller – watch the trailer here.
Reawakening (2024) is a good British drama on Kanopy. At age 14, Clare runs away from what seems to be a loving home. Her parents are crushed and live a hellish life for a decade. After ten years, the police ask them to appear on TV to ask the public for any information about her whereabouts. A few days later a young woman who claims to be Clare comes to the couple’s door. The mother welcomes her in and believes – against all evidence – that Clare is her runaway daughter. The father is both skeptical and angry. Does the Clare at the door want money, a safe place to live, or a new family? Did she take on the other Clare’s identity? Though there is no murder, there is a mystery – and the fine acting by the “parents” makes it worth watching. Here’s the trailer.
Another ruined dinner party... 