A collection of essays in honour of Jack Layton's life has just been released as an e-book, available for those with a Kindle, Kobo or Sony Reader. Composed of contributions from Stephen Lewis, David Miller, Steven Page, Rex Murphy, Tzeporah Berman, and Pierre-Luc Dusseault amongst others, Hope Is Better Than Fear: Paying Jack Layton Forward celebrates Layton's life and political activism by asking how those who have survived him can continue to do the work that he started.

Christopher Heard remembers the day when he sat in the lobby of the Royal York hotel with his father, waiting for a train to Montreal departing from Union Station, across Front Street. "I told him, 'I'd like to live in this place. I'd like to come here one day and just not leave.'"

The Toronto Review of Books went live earlier today, though the first thing that prospective readers will want to know is that literary affairs will serve as the starting point for the publication rather than as its sole focus. Launched as an online quarterly, the TRB promises to bring a critical sensibility to wide array of cultural productions that catch the eye of its contributors, which based on the first issue will include such things as books, e-books, websites, poetry, film and social media (and I'm quite sure a lot more).

Here's a list of the top 20 novels set in Toronto that we put together via suggestions from our readers. When the question was first posed, the responses came in fast and furious — far more so than initially expected — and were quite varied. Along with CanLit giants like Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Morley Callaghan and Timothy Findley, the list below shows off younger writers working in a wide range of genres. A rather well-known series of graphic novels and those written for young-adults are even represented (as they most definitely should be).

Dink quotes deserve dink headlines. So that's what Doug Ford gets for his latest comments regarding Toronto public libraries. When it was brought to his attention earlier today that Margaret Atwood has been campaigning on Twitter to prevent the closure of library branches, the mayor's older brother and Etobicoke North councillor delivered a gem that rivaled his Tim Horton's comment from last week:

Friday evening witnessed the launch of a limited edition print-run of Well & Good's latest e-book, A Face a Name. Hosted at the Baitshop, the event also served as the occasion for an art show featuring the work of Adrian Forrow, Cindy Blažević, Gene Pendon, Mediah, Pascal Paquette, and We Kill You (to name only a few). The book, which is $5.99 to download and $48 for the print collector's edition, features a lengthy series of profiles of Toronto and Montreal-based artists and cultural producers in their own words (for a list of those featured, check here).