iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

On La Journée de l’album Québécois, look what I found in my village record store! #albumQuébécois

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

"We embrace our friends, and we help them in their moment of need. But we bow to no one. And the more we are insulted and threatened and abused, the more we will stand up for ourselves and stand united. I say that not in anger, but as one friend to another." www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMTO...

youtube.com

Former Canada Prime Minister: "Never mistake our generosity for weakness."

YouTube video by C-SPAN

011

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

"There's no such thing as forever enemies or forever allies," a son-in-law says, and don't Canadians know it. Americans invaded in 1775 and 1776, then again during the War if 1812. Let's not focus on 1837, 1838, 1866, 1870, and 1871. They were beaten back every time.

011

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Read for #SpinsterSeptember, this 1921 debut novel of the evolving relationship between a 46-year-old spinster seamstress and a disenchanted younger man during the final year of the Great War. Set in a thinly disguised #Montreal. #CanLit #cdnhist #booksky brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/09/our-...

brianbusby.blogspot.com

<i>Our Little Life</i>: Dressmaker Meet Cheesemonger

Our Little Life: A Novel of To-Day J.G. Sime London: Grant Richards, 1921 394 pages Jessie Georgina Sime's debut novel begins with a tale of...

2121

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Fun fact: The majority of the world's Bald Eagle population is found in Canada. Let's get this guy out of here.

040

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Being a Canadian writer, these past few years I've been working at Canada Post. I've delivered so many books sent by Dolly as part of her Imagination Library. The final letter, when the child was about to enter school, more than touched the heart. It choked me up every single time. RIP Dolly

190

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The 1975 translation of La Femme de Loth, winner of the 1970 Governor General's Award for French-language Fiction. Remarkably, it remains the only one of her 17 titles to have been translated. #WITMonth #cdnlit #booksky #cdnhist brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/08/at-e...

brianbusby.blogspot.com

Looking Back on Lot's Wife

Lot's Wife [ La Femme de Loth ] Monique Bosco [trans John Glassco] Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1975 151 pages De temps à autre, un mot, ...

0101

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Researching the translation of Monique Bosco's Governor General's award-winning La Femme de Loth, this 1975 Toronto Star list of the top 10 fiction bestsellers stuck me for two reasons 1) Five of the ten were by Canadians. 2) The Toronto Star had a bestsellers list. #canlit #cdnhist

030

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Another thing they have in common is Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Color Bleach.

151

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Images of the first package I've received as a member of the @biblioasis.bsky.social Limited Editions Club. Until now, I'd never quite understood the attraction of unboxing videos. #CanLit #booksky #canadianliterature

0121

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

A century-old novel that anticipates A Room of One's Own by three years and is so good that I'm surprised there's never been a Virago edition. Fortunately, our own @invisibooks.bsky.social has made it available again. #CanLit #canadianliterature #booksky brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/08/betw...

brianbusby.blogspot.com

Between Exhaustion and Expression

Shackles Madge Macbeth New York: Waterson, 1927 282 pages The first three pages of Shackles take the form of a letter written by the author...

0171

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

October 20, 2002. The setlist included 23 songs, including a cover of Neil Young's 'I've Been Waiting for You.' Now, if only I could identify the book he's reading. #booksky

050

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

On the heels of Simon's @stuckinabook.bsky.social review of Constance Beresford-Howe's The Book of Eve, I came across this theatrical adaptation. According to the intro, it was the most successful production of the 1976 Stratford Festival, outselling Chekhov, Congreve, Wilde, and the Bard of Avon!

230

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Just read this novelization of a 1957 supernatural CinemaScope thriller. It was written by Robert Switzer, who this Montrealer considers Saskatoon's most mysterious writer. #CanLit #cdnhist #Saskatchewan brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/07/sill...

brianbusby.blogspot.com

Silly Idol

The Living Idol Robert Switzer New York: Signet, 1957 128 pages Robert Switzer's second book, The Living Idol is a novelization of a Hollyw...

130

Reposted by Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰

Michelle Cohen @docmcohen.medsky.social · 07/07/2026

Canadian politics in a nutshell: imitating an unhinged American war criminal while dressed like a fancy bag of milk.

43486136

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

White supremacist neo-fascist militiamen rely on public transportation. Who knew? Another photo for the ages. Happy July 4th from Canada! So glad to be far from any of this shit.

020

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Another chapter in a #canlit mystery, this unrecognized debut novel by entirely forgotten Saskatchewan author Robert Switzer. Esquire thought he was the real deal, publishing 19 of his stories between 1947 and 1957. Switzer hasn't been heard from since 1961. brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/07/livi...

brianbusby.blogspot.com

Living Through Another Cuba

The Tent of the Wicked Robert Switzer New York: Signet, 1956 128 pages We begin in a despot's bedroom. Six soldiers enter, one throws the li...

020

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

There may be more enchanting climes Within a southern zone; There may be eastern Edens deckt With charms to thee unknown; But thou art fairest unto me, Because thou art mine own, Canada, my land. #CanadaDay #canlit brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/07/wm-m...

brianbusby.blogspot.com

W.M. MacKeracher's 'Canada, My Land'

Patriotic and personal verse for the day by William Mackay MacKeracher (1871-1913), the very same man who wrote that old favourite 'My Cana...

030

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

She was a writer worthy of admiration and accolades. She deserved so much better.

030

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Michael de Adder is by far the best editorial cartoonist working today, but he still can't quite capture Donald Trump's teeny, tiny hands.

031

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

My most recent read: A once-popular 1868 Canadian novel about an English baronet whose "one hour of mad, brief bliss" with a beautiful Roma woman leads to decades of well-deserved torment for both he and his family. #canlit #cdnhist #booksky brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/06/back...

brianbusby.blogspot.com

Back to the Gypsy That She Was

The Baronet's Bride; Or, A Woman's Vengeance May Agnes Fleming Chicago: Donahue, n.d. 250 pages Not to suggest that he didn't deserve it, bu...

040

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Celebrating Greenland's National Day. The view from our Canadian home. #grønland #Greenland #vexillology

040

Reposted by Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰

Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Funny, how "The Most Historic Sporting Event of All Time" isn't even "The Most Historic Sporting Event of This Weekend."

591482226

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Is the torture inflicted in co-hosting the World Cup really worth the 1.1 billion paid by Canadian taxpayers? Before you answer, consider this woman's plight as reported in The Globe & Mail, "Canada's National Newspaper."

021

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Another of this week's acquisitions, this 1951 thriller was written by a Hungarian refugee who found a home in New York. It takes place in Montreal, which is interesting in itself, but it's the uncredited cover that grabs. Whoever it was, they really knew the city. #canlit #cdnhist #booksky #mtl

3324

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

This 1895 paperback arrived in today's post. It's not in the best of shape, but this long-time Grant Allen fan had never before seen a copy. I expect @causticcovercritic.bsky.social will understand. With over 350 illustrations in silhouette by the broithers Gould! #canlit #cdnhist

250

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

I've now read every novel by once popular, now forgotten Isabel Ecclestone Mackay (1875-1928). This 1919 novel wasn't her best, but I liked it just the same. Amongst other things, I learned that 1913 experienced "an autumn of tight skirts." #canlit #cdnhist brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/06/mist...

brianbusby.blogspot.com

Mist of Morning on a Monday Morning

Mist of Morning Isabel Ecclestone Mackay Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1919 407 pages "We're piling up fireworks all around — just suppose ...

030

Reposted by Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰

Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

BREAKING: The Trapp Family has withdrawn from Donald Trump's Freedom 250 concert, citing previous unpleasant experiences with fascists.

19351871081

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Come on New York Times, the word is 'murdered,' not 'killed.'

030

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Reading Isabel Ecclestone Mackay's 1919 novel Mist of Morning today I came across this reference to the author's close friend Pauline Johnson who had died just six years earlier. #canlit #cdnhist #booksky

042

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Canadian novelist Phyllis Gotlieb was born 100 years ago today, and so I was encouraged to read her 1964 debut Sunburst. It should be taught in our schools. I mean, c'mon, it was recognized as a classic upon publication. #canlit #cdnhist #booksky brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/05/prob...

brianbusby.blogspot.com

Of Problem Children and Adolescent Angst

Sunburst Phyllis Gotlieb New York: Fawcett, 1964 160 pages Sorrel Park is no place to live, but this wasn't always so. A smallish city not f...

1112

Reposted by Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰

Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

This is what Mother’s Day means to an imbecile whose mother never loved him. Sad.

170799212342

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

At age 23, a Saskatoon boy publishes his first short story in Esquire. He publishes 18 more stories in the magazine over the next 15 years, along with three novels... and then disappears. All I've been able to find about Robert Switzer: #canlit #cdnhist brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/04/robe...

brianbusby.blogspot.com

Robert Switzer, Esquire

A follow-up to last week's review of I Was Going Anyway by Robert Switzer . Robert Switzer's I Was Going Anyway as published as a Cock Rob...

050

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Purchased for the jacket alone. You may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but you sure can sell it. Bibliophiles will understand. The Bells of St. Stephen's Marian Keith [Mary Esther Miller MacGregor] Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1922 #canlit #cdnhist #booksky

040

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Read for the #1961Club, this well-received forgotten novel. The cover describes it as a mystery, but it isn't. The flyleaf gets it right: "original and unnerving chiller... the blend of rueful comedy and bearable tragedy is done to a turn." #canlit #cdnhist brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/04/brin...

brianbusby.blogspot.com

Bringing It All Back Home

I Was Going Anyway Robert Switzer New York: Macmillan, 1961 121 pages Robert Switzer flew under my radar for decades, it was only last mon...

171

Reposted by Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰

Gregory Betts @whatisapoem.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Fixed Trump's sick genocidal rant. The only possible positive outcome of the day.

131

Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰 @brianbusby.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Donald Trump's Easter Sunday message: Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...

truthsocial.com

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!...

120