Category Archives: Writing

A minor history of food blogging

Posted on 23 August 2020 by andyq

I just scrolled through my oldest blog entries, here on my website, to trace a little history of my food blogging adventures. While I started my website, way back in January 2005, it was a static website, used to promote … Continue reading →

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Hurricane warnings

Posted on 27 July 2020 by andyq

There’s a hurricane warning for Hawaii at the moment. My brother, Tom, who lives in Kaneohe, with his family, says there’s never been a Hurricane Level 1 Warning since he’s lived there, which is now over 30 years. It’s scheduled … Continue reading →

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Why we like the writers we do … or not

Posted on 12 May 2020 by andyq

The pages of the print-out are dated 13 January 2009, in fact, more precisely than that: 12:01pm. It’s an article that I liked in Salon.com from 2002. I suspect that years after I first read it (I was reading a … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Shaun Tan’s The Arrival

Posted on 3 April 2020 by andyq

The Arrival by Shaun Tan My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wow. I’m stunned by this book. I’ve read a lot of comic books in my time, and some graphic novels, so on first glance, I wondered how the format … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Jonathan Franzen’s Purity

Posted on 7 November 2019 by andyq

Purity by Jonathan Franzen My rating: 3 of 5 stars For some reason, my review of Jonathan Franzen’s Strong Motion remains one of the most-viewed posts on my blog. I wonder why that is. Probably because there aren’t that many … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble

Posted on 27 October 2019 by andyq

Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner My rating: 5 of 5 stars Aware that Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s interviews with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Jonathan Franzen are so incisive, well-written and engaging that they’ve become famous in themselves, and … Continue reading →

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Book review: David Foenkinos’s Delicacy

Posted on 11 October 2019 by andyq

Delicacy by David Foenkinos My rating: 1 of 5 stars I should have guessed from the cover. ‘Like an Amélie for grown-ups’, said the blurb. But I thought that Amélie was for grown-ups. So, I could gather from the back … Continue reading →

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Is the United World Colleges worth it?

Posted on 14 April 2019 by andyq

A friend from university wrote and said: “My daughter just got into UWC. Please tell me that UWC is worth it.” So, having attended Pearson College from 1986 to 1988, I can answer the question, at least from my perspective, … Continue reading →

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Ramon’s Books

Posted on 10 October 2018 by andyq

After the memorial for Ramon, I was about to leave when I heard his sister asking a small group of people, ‘What shall we do with his books? They were his most prized possessions. We don’t know what to do … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Books, Creative Non-Fiction | 1 Comment

I was a member of a teenage cult

Posted on 24 August 2018 by andyq

When I was fifteen years old, I entered a program at my high school in Vancouver called B.C. Quest. It was touted as an outdoors education program, and become infamous in 2006 when one of our teachers was involved in … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Creative Non-Fiction | 2 Comments