Arts & Entertainment

Books

SUPPLIED Marcus Kliewer’s debut novel We Used to Live Here began as a serialized short story on Reddit; it went on to become a bestseller, and has been acquired by Netflix.

Caretaker job at a remote house on the Oregon Coast turns into a ritualistic nightmare

Reviewed by Jenna Boholij 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Marcus Kliewer’s supernatural horror novel should come with a warning not to read after dark, unfolding like a scary campfire story that causes you to jump at the snap of every twig and analyze every shadow.

Kliewer expertly blends suspense with evocative prose, and his proximity to the Oregon Coast leaves him well equipped to immerse the reader in its haunting beauty. “And the forest grew more untamed with each step forward. Trees of different types formed gnarled ranks, enclaves of their own,” he writes.

A writer and stop-motion animator from Vancouver, the rights to Kliewer’s best-selling debut novel We Used to Live Here, which originated as a serialized short story on Reddit, have been acquired by Netflix.

It’s established early on that protagonist Macy Mullins is a failure in many respects. The part of the book where she’s introduced, “Unemployed Trainwreck,” sees the plot focus on her pursuit of a redemption arc.

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UBC graduate Lukas Troni poses for a photo in Vancouver, on Thursday, May 14, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

Confusion around postgraduate work permit language resulting in rejections

David Baxter, The Canadian Press 8 minute read Preview

Confusion around postgraduate work permit language resulting in rejections

David Baxter, The Canadian Press 8 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:30 AM CDT

OTTAWA - Lukas Troni graduated from the University of British Columbia in April 2025. He was putting his geography and environment degree to good use in a job at a Canadian environmental organization when a surprise rejection letter from the federal government forced him to stop working.

After graduation, Troni applied for a postgraduate work permit, or PGWP, which allows international students who completed their studies at an approved Canadian school to work for a period of time in Canada.

He was able to work while awaiting a decision on the permit. He expected it would be an easy yes.

But on April 14, Troni got a letter telling him he was being denied a permit because he did not include in his permit application the results of a French or English language test — something which has been a requirement for most applicants since November 2024.

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Updated: Yesterday at 8:30 AM CDT

Books

John Woods / Free Press files Philipp Schott.

Schott’s latest whodunit purr-fectly pleasing

Reviewed by Ron Robinson 4 minute read Preview

Schott’s latest whodunit purr-fectly pleasing

Reviewed by Ron Robinson 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Philipp Schott’s latest mystery is the cat’s meow for animal lovers, cozy mystery fans and locked-room aficionados.

The recently retired Manitoba veterinarian has his fictional vet Dr. Peter Bannerman off on what appears to be a wild goose chase in this, his fourth in a series.

Hassled by his disturbed, hoarder and artistic brother Sam, the autistic vet is on continuous back-and-forth travels from his home base in New Selfoss to the North End of Winnipeg.

First it’s an unexplained death (possibly featuring sexual shenanigans gone wrong) in Sam’s apartment block and then, if that isn’t stressful enough, it’s the disappearance of one of three Bengal kittens from Sam’s apartment.

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Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Books

Hunter’s first story collection lands prize nod

Ben Sigurdson 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Winnipeg author Catherine Hunter is among the five finalists for the Writers’ Union of Canada’s Danuta Gleed Literary Award, a prize that goes to the year’s best debut short-fiction collection.

Hunter is in the running for the $10,000 prize for her collection Seeing You Home, published in September 2025 by Signature Editions.

While Hunter has published numerous novels and poetry collections, Seeing You Home is her first book of short fiction. The other shortlisted authors for the prize are Caitlin Galway (A Song For Wildcats), Tracey Lindberg (The Cree Word for Love: Sâkihitowin), Mikka Jacobsen (Good Victory) and Lelia Marshy (My Thievery of the People).

In addition to the top prize, two of the other shortlisted authors will be awarded $1,000. The winners will be announced in June.

Books

Hugh Chaloner photo Anne Enright’s new essay collection closes with the recollection of trips taken with her husband; particularly memorable are the pair’s cycling jaunts throughout Europe.

Enright reflects on life, love, writerly icons and more in new essay collection

Reviewed by Dave Williamson 5 minute read Preview

Enright reflects on life, love, writerly icons and more in new essay collection

Reviewed by Dave Williamson 5 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

Irish writer Anne Enright, now 63, has written eight novels, including the 2007 Booker Prize-winning The Gathering. Her latest book, Attention, pulls together 24 of her essays, most of them written over the last few years. Topics vary from the fiction and lives of other writers, such as James Joyce and Alice Munro, to how women are faring in today’s world.

Enright leads off with a brief two-pager on how the gender of an author affects a reader’s view of that author’s writing. “If a man writes, ‘The cat sat on the mat,’ we admire the economy of his prose; if a woman does, we find it banal,” she suggests.

In her observations of women’s interactions with men, she points out a great number of differences in views of sex. In her provocative essay, On Consent, she quotes sex researcher Shere Hite as saying that “‘penetrative sex is unpleasurable and demeaning. Women should abandon sex with men.’” Enright cites writer Katherine Angel’s concern that “consent ‘is being asked… to address problems it is not equipped to resolve’… Consent ‘represents sex as something a man wants, and something a woman agrees or refuses to yield.’”

In Ulysses: An Introduction, Enright explains that she always found Joyce’s famous novel difficult to read, though she certainly respected his writing. “These days,” she says, “I read everything slowly; my brain is like an old computer file with too much information in it. I slow down, stop. I go back over it again. This a good way to read Ulysses, with a guidebook, notes, the internet at your fingertips.” She concludes, “If you ask me what Ulysses has to offer — despite the maleness of the text, despite the author’s perversion… — the answer is still, ‘Everything, everything, everything.’”

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Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

Books

Big Smoke murders point to bigger picture

Big Smoke murders point to bigger picture

Reviewed by Andrea Geary 4 minute read Preview

Big Smoke murders point to bigger picture

Reviewed by Andrea Geary 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

Two murdered teens, a strangled sex worker, corrupt and aggressive cops, a morally bankrupt mayor, undercover real estate deals and a city on edge during a long hot summer — this is the volatile mixture that Don Gillmor concocts in his detective noir novel Cherry Beach.

A Toronto writer and editor, Gillmor won the Governor General’s award for non-fiction for his memoir To the River, written in memory of his late brother David. Cherry Beach is his fifth novel; he has also written nine children’s books, has won 12 National Magazine Awards and was senior editor at the Walrus.

In Cherry Beach, Gillmor serves up a tense tale with numerous twists. Toronto Police detective Jamieson Abel is on a mission to solve the three murders while also digging down to reveal dirty dealings linking Toronto politicians, criminals and crooked cops in the city’s high-stakes real estate market.

The book opens with Abel and his partner, Davis, who is the division’s only woman of colour, responding to the call after the teens’ bodies are discovered in an apartment in St. James Town. The two friends were promising athletes and good students, both stabbed to death; the only possible suspect identified is 21-year-old Delroy Staples, the boyfriend of the older girl.

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Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

Books

Clayton J. Mitchell photo Portia Elan deftly weaves story strands together with the flare of a game designer.

Importance of stories links characters in ambitious debut spanning centuries

Reviewed by Anita Daher 4 minute read Preview

Importance of stories links characters in ambitious debut spanning centuries

Reviewed by Anita Daher 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

In her ambitious debut novel Homebound, San Francisco Bay-area author Portia Elan spans 600 years to suggest that no matter how disengaged and divided our world may become, it is the stories we build together that connect us to our communities, both born and found.

The first story begins in 1983. Becks is a 19-year-old aspiring computer game programmer and punk rock fan, devastated by the recent death of her uncle — the one person in her family with whom she shared interests and felt truly bonded. After listening to an old message on her grandmother’s answering machine, she is devastated to learn that her uncle lied to her — he hadn’t died of simple pneumonia, but rather AIDS, which at that time was known as GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency).

Becks feels betrayed that he didn’t share this big truth with her. Her life further spirals when her best friend’s new boyfriend tells Becks that they’re aware her feelings toward Veronica are not just that of a friend. He tells her to stop — her feelings will never be returned.

As her life further unravels, she finally opens an envelope her uncle left for her. Inside, she finds floppy disks that contain the start of a text-based computer game they’d planned to create together. Within the disks she finds the truth of his illness that he hoped to tell her about in person; he’d thought they’d have time. He describes the world of their game as “complex, interconnected, and in transition.” When he adds that this is “our world,” it feels like an Easter egg description that applies directly to the reader.

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Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Books

Movie truck missing in Muskrats mystery

Harriet Zaidman 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

An intrepid team of four friends solve another problem on the Windy Lake First Nation in Manitoba author Michael Hutchison’s The Case of the Movie Mayhem (Second Story Press, softcover, 141 pages, $13), the sixth book in the Mighty Muskrats Mystery Series.

This time the kids are looking for a truck that’s gone missing from a movie shoot on the reserve. Hutchison integrates real-life issues into the narrative at a level appropriate for readers ages 9-12, including grown-up problems faced by Indigenous people. The kids learn about the movie business and about different choices for role models as they search for the culprits, bantering and joking as they go.

● ● ●

The Bunny Ballet by Nora Ericson (Abrams, 40 pages, hardcover, $24) is a pleasant rhyming story about a ballet performance by rabbits: “Through each other’s paws they weave, / Over, under, past they breeze.”

Books

Feathery facts

Pair of bird books offer fascinating insight into the avian world

Reviewed by Gene Walz 6 minute read Preview

Pair of bird books offer fascinating insight into the avian world

Reviewed by Gene Walz 6 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

These two newly-released bird books couldn’t be more different. Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane’s The Book of Birds is artful and poetic; Louis Lefebvre’s A Bird’s IQ is analytical and academic. Each would make an attractive addition to the libraries of people interested in birds — but not without certain provisos.

The subtitle of The Book of Birds is deceptive — it’s not really a “Field Guide” in the usual sense, too substantial and beautiful to carry along on a bird outing. In hardback with a blue cloth spine and a blue-ribbon page-holder, it’s more like a church song missal than toteable identification helper. It’s best kept inside, protected from wind and weather and damp fingerprints.

The Book of Birds is a follow-up to Morris and Macfarlane’s previous collaboration The Lost Words. When the Oxford Junior Dictionary dropped a bunch of words connected to the natural world (such as acorn, otter, fern, newt and wren), the renowned artist and celebrated author created a “spell book” to conjure back 20 of those words and bring increased awareness of the things the words describe. It proved to be immensely popular.

Here they focus on 49 birds, presented alphabetically from avocet to kestrel to sparrow to yellowhammer, that are in danger of disappearing completely from the natural (European) world. Morris provides the spectacular bird illustrations, and Macfarlane waxes poetic on each of them in the hopes readers will not just identify birds, but “identify with them.”

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Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Arts & Entertainment

Felicia from Sweden performs the song

Spain’s Eurovision boycott over Israeli participation leaves contest fans torn

Teresa Medrano, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

Spain’s Eurovision boycott over Israeli participation leaves contest fans torn

Teresa Medrano, The Associated Press 6 minute read Yesterday at 12:43 AM CDT

MADRID (AP) — No special menu, no themed decorations and no shared suspense over which musician's flamboyant performance proves victorious.

For the first time in seven years, Silvia Díaz won’t get together with friends to watch the Eurovision Song Contest finals on Saturday night. Their host called off their annual gathering after Spain’s public broadcaster withdrew from the festival, protesting Israel’s participation over its war against Hamas in Gaza. Díaz will watch on YouTube, but only if she has no other plans.

“It’s not the same watching it alone at home as it is with friends. That’s the only thing that upsets me.”

The five-day song competition drew 166 million viewers last year — considerably more than Super Bowl viewership in the U.S. Spain hasn't won since 1969; nevertheless, after months of television, radio and newspaper play for Spain’s song, friends and families usually watch the final at home and bars, and their contestant's performance dominates the day-after headlines. Spaniards at the event wave the country's flag, wear red clothing, or don the occasional bullfighter costume.

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Yesterday at 12:43 AM CDT

Science & Technology

Director Steven Soderbergh poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'John Lennon: The Last Interview' during the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Steven Soderbergh used AI in a documentary about John Lennon. And he wants to talk about it

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

Steven Soderbergh used AI in a documentary about John Lennon. And he wants to talk about it

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press 7 minute read Yesterday at 9:43 PM CDT

CANNES, France (AP) — The day John Lennon was shot, on Dec. 8, 1980, he and Yoko Ono gave an interview to a San Francisco radio crew from their home in New York's Dakota Apartments.

They were promoting their new album “Double Fantasy,” but the two-hour conversation was wide ranging. Though the interviewers had been warned “no Beatles questions,” Lennon and Ono were thrillingly open. That day, Annie Leibovitz also shot the famous portrait of a clothes-less Lennon wrapped around Ono.

The interview is similarly naked. The two, particularly Lennon, riff on love, their relationship, creativity, life after the Beatles, raising their toddler son, writing songs in bed and much more. At the age of 40, Lennon sounds like someone who has found real clarity.

“I feel like nothing happened before today,” said Lennon.

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Yesterday at 9:43 PM CDT

Arts & Entertainment

Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen from Finland perform the song

The 10 best performances at the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest

Maria Sherman, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

The 10 best performances at the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest

Maria Sherman, The Associated Press 5 minute read Yesterday at 5:05 PM CDT

NEW YORK (AP) — The 2026 Eurovision Song Contest final brought acts from 25 countries to the Wiener Stadthalle arena in Vienna on Saturday night in a spirited battle for the continent’s pop crown. There was no shortage of talent, but not all songs are created equal.

If you're a dedicated follower of Eurovision or simply curious to learn more about the contest's best bangers, we've got you covered.

Here's a list of the 10 best songs from the final, presented in no particular order.

Romania: Alexandra Căpitănescu, “Choke Me”

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Yesterday at 5:05 PM CDT

Books

Cole Burston / Canadian Press files In this 2018 photo, then-detective sergeant Hank Idsinga speaks to the media about an individual possibly connected to the Bruce McArthur case.

Ex-cop’s memoir excels in detailing homicide investigations

Reviewed by Douglas J. Johnston 4 minute read Preview

Ex-cop’s memoir excels in detailing homicide investigations

Reviewed by Douglas J. Johnston 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Hank Idsinga spent 30 years as a cop with the Toronto Police Service (TPS), his last 14 years working homicide cases. For the last five of those years, he was the force’s top homicide inspector.

In 2021, Toronto Life magazine touted his homicide team as having “a murder clearance rate of over 74 percent — among the best for metropolitan areas in North America.” In other words, 74 per cent of TPS homicide investigations were closed as solved cases.

Idsinga’s was a storied career and, not surprisingly, full of stories. But even memoir, though non-fiction, must flesh out its players and places to add depth and colour in the telling.

The first third of Idsinga’s memoir The High Road, which relates his work in two different Toronto police divisions before jumping to homicide duty in 2005, drags.

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Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Music

Fans of Drake dangle their feet off of a concrete structure as they gather near the CN Tower for a video projection promoting the upcoming album

Drake breaks three daily Spotify records for 2026 with new albums

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Drake breaks three daily Spotify records for 2026 with new albums

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Yesterday at 12:06 PM CDT

Drake fans who might have felt left out in the cold waiting for new music after the rapper's last solo album in 2023 seem to have warmly embraced his latest drop.

With the release of three albums Friday, the Toronto-born rapper broke three records on Spotify for 2026. 

Spotify says Drake's long-awaited "Iceman" album became the most streamed album in a single day in 2026, and opening track "Make Them Cry" reached the same feat for most streamed single. 

On the song, Drake shouts out BTS, saying “I’m feeling like BTS ’cause it took the whole career for me to be so discovered.”

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Yesterday at 12:06 PM CDT

Arts & Entertainment

Demonstrators protest against Israel ahead of the Grand Final of the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

The Latest: Bulgarian singer Dara wins this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna

The Associated Press 9 minute read Preview

The Latest: Bulgarian singer Dara wins this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna

The Associated Press 9 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:40 PM CDT

Bulgarian singer Dara’s dance anthem “Bangaranga” won the Eurovision Song Contest held on Saturday in Vienna, her country’s first ever win in the competition. Tight security and rainy weather failed to dent the enthusiasm of the contest's fans — or that of the critics who said Israel should not have been invited to the party.

The up-tempo pop banger “Bangaranga,” was a mood elevator on the stage early in the night and earned 516 points while Israel followed in second place with 343.

Missing from this year’s spectacle were five countries — Spain,, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland, high-profile absentees who boycotting in protest of Israel’s inclusion in the contest following the war in Gaza.

But after a week’s buildup, acts from 25 countries took the stage at the Wiener Stadthalle arena to battle for the continent’s pop crown in what was the 70th rendition of the contest.

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Updated: Yesterday at 6:40 PM CDT

Arts & Entertainment

FILE - Shania Twain performs during the Calgary Stampede in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on July 5, 2025. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)

The ACM Awards are nearly here with first-time host Shania Twain. Megan Moroney leads the nominees

Maria Sherman, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

The ACM Awards are nearly here with first-time host Shania Twain. Megan Moroney leads the nominees

Maria Sherman, The Associated Press 3 minute read Friday, May. 15, 2026

The 2026 Academy of Country Music Awards return for their 61st annual show Sunday night.

There’s a lot that's noteworthy: Women lead the nominations for a second year in a row. Shania Twain will host for the first time, taking over for Reba McEntire. The awards ceremony will also take place May 17 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, leaving the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas, after three years.

And the ACM festivities actually began ahead of Sunday's event.

Before the show, a few trophies were handed out. Jessie Jo Dillon was named songwriter of the year, becoming the first artist to win three times in a row. Stephen Wilson Jr. was awarded visual media of the year for “Cuckoo.” And Avery Anna and Tucker Wetmore were presented with new female and new male artist of the year, respectively.

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Friday, May. 15, 2026

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