On the Bookshelves of... the Salterrae Exec

The Salterrae exec are hardworking folk – it takes a lot of writing, editing, and designing to make a magazine happen. Ever wonder what they are doing when not huddled around computers in the basement office that still smells ever so slightly of the toxic paint fumes of Once Uponversat? At the end of the day, these busy bees like to sit down and relax with a good book or two.''

Sonia Liang recently read…100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Márquez’ story is many things. When asked what 100 Years of Solitude is about, the author told journalist Rita Guibert, “I merely wanted to tell the story of a family who for a hundred years did everything they could in order not to have a son with a pig’s tail and...ended up having one.” Telling the story of seven generations of the Buendía family in the extraordinary town of Macondo, 100 Years of Solitude is as much the story of a family as the story of a place. The fictional town of Macondo shifts from being a worldly Eden to a nightmare where the basest human urges emerge. Ultimately, the book is a retracement through memory, a way of finding the future in the past. With the two constantly overlapping, Macondo echoes with the force of colonial history, guerrilla fighting, economic exploitation by foreign fruit companies, and the legacy of austere, distant, oddly appealing Colonel Aureliano Buendía.All of it is woven together by Márquez in his distinctive magic realist style, tracing the misfortunes of the Buendía family in a work of complex loveliness.

Helen Picard is perusing through…Passionate Pilgrim: The Life of Vincent Van Gogh by Lawrence & Elizabeth Hanson

Two things inspire Helen’s reading choice: her recent visit to the Art Institute of Chicago, and her completion of the GRE, which manifests itself as a need to further investigate mental trauma - beware 1T7s and 1T8s, this will be you someday. The Hansons are prolific biographers of post-impressionist artists, having covered everyone from Gauguin to Cezanne to Toulouse-Lautrec. Van Gogh’s life story is especially juicy. If you enjoy biographies, art history, or ever wanted to find out more about that missing ear, this is the book for you.

Simone Garcia is currently reading…My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff

Set in late nineties New York, My Salinger Year is the story of an aspiring poet who works as a young assistant for J.D. Salinger’s literary agent. Tasked with answering voluminous amounts of fan mail, Rakoff begins to rebel by disregarding the old reply template and writing back in her own words. This memoir is a story of idealism, romanticism, and ambition, and provides sneak peeks into the world of a secluded and secretive literary icon.

Sheena Singh’s book of choice is…Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

In the spring of their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall in love, only to be torn apart by Fermina’s disapproving father. In the years afterwards, Fermina marries a wealthy and accomplished doctor, while Florentino sleeps with countless women in an attempt to find another genuine love - all the while pining for his lost Fermina. The characters meet again in their last days, and Florentino begs for a second chance. Márquez writes a poignant tale that seamlessly merges the wonderfully fantastical and the deeply tragic. Sheena has been a Márquez fan for quite a long time; this novel was especially touching because she finished it the day Márquez passed away.

Maddy Torrie recommends…A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

This coming of age story tells of two boys, John Wheelwright and Owen Meany growing up in rural New England during the fifties and sixties. Narrated in retrospect by an older Wheelwright, the novel tells of struggles with faith and outcast identities. Plus, there are some identifiable Toronto details as Irving frames the narrative by placing the adult Wheelwright as a teacher at Bishop Strachan School, writing extensively on how to pronounce ‘Strachan’ - a valuable lesson for all 1T8s.

Iris Robin shares a favourite…The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Secret History is an indulgent and quasi-intellectual story of six friends at a small private New England liberal arts college. Tartt’s characters pleasure their minds with Classics studies, and their bodies with copious amounts of booze and cigarettes. While lines such as “she seemed an intelligent, brooding malcontent like myself” make you want to roll your eyes, they also ring undeniably true with the pretension and intemperance that are a defining feature of Trinity College.