ARRIVALS

Misery, ugliness, pretentiousness — we can have fun with the more negative things in life. The latest crop of books explores ideas fit for the summer sun.

Pretentiousness: Why it Matters, Dan Fox

Why, asks Dan Fox, does pretentiousness get such a bad rap when it’s really just an expression of originality? It is always used as an insult, “premium-league obnoxious, the teammate of arrogance. . . .” This essay will be balm to those who dare to be elitist, to snub artistic consensus. Fox is co-editor of Frieze, a European magazine of contemporary art and culture.

Measures of Astonishment: Poets on Poetry

The League of Canadian Poets was formed in 1966, but it wasn’t until 2002, that it began its annual lecture series, named for the late Saskatoon poet Anne Szumigalski. This collection brings together the first 13 lectures in a single volume. The collection includes lectures by Margaret Atwood, Anne Simpson, Mark Abley, Don McKay and more.

I’m Right and You’re an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean It Up, James Hoggan with Grania Litwin

The idea for this book was sparked five years ago when public relations consultant Hoggan became chair of the David Suzuki Foundation. Its chapters each focus on an individual with something to say about how we might create space for “higher-quality public debates.”

How To Be Miserable, Randy J. Paterson

We are charmed by the title of this book. It is, after all, a series of self-help essays that, true to the title, are designed to encourage readers to do precisely the opposite of what they counsel. Paterson is director of Changeways Clinic, a Vancouver psychotherapy practice that specializes in mood disorders. His previous books are The Assertiveness Workbook and Your Depression Map.

Ugliness: A Cultural History, Gretchen E. Henderson

Henderson, a lecturer in English at Georgetown University, writes that she became interested in ugliness while investigating the concept of “deformity” and came upon an 18th-century Liverpool men’s Ugly Face Club that cited its roots in ancient times. That led her to this examination of deformity through history. Sarah Murdoch, smurdoch@gmail.com