If you want to read a book that will truly horrify you, I recommend The Reality Bubble by Ziya Tong. It packs a scary punch, and not the kind of spooky Halloween-y read I typically recommend to frighten people. No, this book will terrify you because it highlights how much we don’t know or understand…
Calgary Through the Eyes of Writers by Shaun Hunter isn’t a book I’d typically read; it’s an anthology of writing about Calgary, so it’s not meant to be read all the way through, which is pretty much the ONLY WAY I read books. But, I did just that, read it all the way through, and…
Did you watch the Giller awards on Monday night? I was glued to the television screen, strangely nervous to see who the winner of Canada’s biggest book prize would be. As you no doubt realized already, Dual Citizens by Alix Ohlin did not win, but I really enjoyed it, despite my negative comments at the…
Let me set the scene for you: two kids live in an extremely isolated cove, their parents die, and they are forced to harvest and catch their own food as a means of survival. That’s it. That’s the book. And in the words of the author-who would want to read about that? I would actually,…
Long title, long book. Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles may scare off people for a few different reasons, one of them being the warning issued at the beginning: “This might hurt a little. Be brave.” But those who are brave will be rewarded. I won’t say I…
Reproduction by Ian Williams, winner of the 2019 Giller Prize is a quirky read. Aside from this book being PAINFULLY LONG, I enjoyed it. It plays with lots of things: format, timelines, even phrasing. That being said, I’m a reader who doesn’t like freaky-deaky experimentation in my books, but I still found this story readable….
So I know Halloween is over, but I’m the type of person who likes to read spooky stories all year around, especially in the winter when I’m curled up by my fireplace. Agnes, Murderess by Sarah Leavitt landed on my doorstep unexpectedly, so the good folks at Freehand Books must have known how much I…
Now I know I’m not the only one who feels a sense of smug pleasure when reading a non-fiction book extolling the positives of a habit you already practice. Doesn’t it feel good to read a news article talking about how coffee is good for you, when you drink it regularly? Or how dark chocolate…
Holiday picture books are my absolute favourite way to get in the ‘mood’ for something. Even though we read them all year around, they seem to radiate an important aura as the relevant date approaches, getting both myself and my kids event more excited for what’s to come. I received two Halloween books in the…
Are you a fan of ‘noir fiction’ ? Do you even know what ‘noir’ means? There are various definitions for it, but I found this wikipedia listing pretty thorough, and the first sentence does enough for my purposes here: “In its modern form, noir has come to denote a marked darkness in theme and subject…
There’s always a few jobs out there that one knows for certain they could never handle. Personally, I could never be a teacher because I can barely manage my own two children and I find all their questions annoying (sorry not sorry). But for some reason the monumental task of being an emergency services responder…
Dear reader; I wanted so much to like Lampedusa by Steven Price. At the time I’m writing this, it was announced as a shortlist contender for the Giller Prize, and because so many people in Canada are forming their reading lists based on this prize alone, I may be one of the few who are…
