I recorded my first radio column since giving birth this week, so it sounds like I have a bit of ‘baby brain’ when certain titles and words escape me, but luckily the very seasoned radio host fills in the blanks (thank you Terri!). Hopefully the more sleep I get, the better my radio columns will…
I am a very very lucky book blogger in the fact that my bookshelves fill with free review copies from publishers. I don’t have the need to go out and buy/borrow any books, because I get a steady stream sent to me in exchange for an honest review. That being said, any bookworm worth their…
God this was a funny book. The Figgs by Ali Bryan is absolutely hilarious, and I knew it would be, based on how much I enjoyed her first novel Roost, which also mines the hilarity of family, child-rearing, and the domestic sphere in general. The Figgs centers on a family who finds themselves in increasing turmoil….
Liminal by Jordan Tannahill is a book that pushes boundaries. It doesn’t really have a plot, so it’s pushing the boundaries of what we would typically think of as a novel (although many people see this as more of a memoir, it’s a work of fiction, so we must assume that there are embellishments at…
It’s strange timing that I read this book while pregnant, as The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman describes not one, not two, but three (!) different childbirth experiences. I raced through this book, and everytime I reached one of these scenes, I could feel my body tensing in anticipation (and let’s be honest,…
As I write and post this, I am 39 weeks pregnant with a baby boy: a younger brother to my 3-year-old daughter. I’m well past my ‘nesting’ phase of cooking frozen meals and making sure our diaper stash is stocked- my feet are swollen to hell, so the best thing for me to do at…
Word by Word by Kory Stamper is a non-fiction book about dictionaries. Wait! Before you close out of this blog post, I promise you reading my review will be worth it, because this my friends, is a great book full of entertaining writing. Yes, a book with the subtitle of “The Secret Life of Dictionaries” may…
This book could have easily become a cliche; it centers on the extramarital affair that Maggie has with her penpal-turned-friend-turned-lover James. But there are a few things that keep Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro from spiralling into an overdone narrative. Firstly, Maggie is quite religious, which of course raises a few eyebrows right off the…
It feels like I’ve been reading a lot of ‘dark’ books lately, non-fiction mostly, so I searched for a ‘guilty pleasure’ read to lift the guilt I had been weighed under by reading such devastating memoirs. Strange to some, I chose a thriller, a pretty violent one at that to entertain me after my spate…
This is definitely a first for this blog-the review of a ‘zine’, which is defined by urban dictionary as basically a cheaply made publication filled with passion. I love this definition because it perfectly describes this fashion revolution zine. I ordered it awhile ago, probably about a year ago now when I first started researching the…
I’ll admit I was dreading reading this book. It’s a memoir based on the lives of Clem Martini, his brother Olivier Martini and their mother Catherine. It includes haunting, beautiful images drawn by Olivier, who suffers from schizophrenia (although based on the book, seems to be doing an admirable job of managing it, contributing to…
In the past, I’ve made comments on this blog that basically follow the theme of “it’s usually the parents’ fault” when referring to stories about adult break downs and shortcomings. I of course say this a bit tongue-in-cheek because I’m a parent myself, and now that I know how difficult being a parent is, I…
