Books about books will always pique my interest, but when highly lauded author Patrick deWitt releases one, I get even more excited. I had really high hopes for The Librarianist and it did not disappoint. It’s a quiet novel about a quiet man, with glimpses of humour and humanity throughout its 300ish pages. The majority…
I’ve read novels by both Nick Cutter and Andrew F. Sullivan in the past, so I had some reasonably high expectations of this work going into it. Nick Cutter is a well-known Canadian horror writer, also writing literary fiction under his real name, Craig Davidson. Sullivan has written gritty literary fiction in the past as…
Marie-Renée Lavoie writes in French, but has become one of my ‘must read everything (translated) authors’. She’s the author of a hilarious series of books that follow Diane, a disgruntled divorcee. You can check out my reviews of those two books here and here. Her latest book Some Maintenance Required, translated by Arielle Aaronson includes…
The bestselling Women Talking by Miriam Toews is one of those books that I never read when it first came out in 2018, but have wanted to ever since, especially based on the success of its film version this past year. A popular Canadian author, Toews is often on the bestseller and award lists, but…
I’ve read a few Catherine McKenzie novels so far; Please Join Us is her 13th book. She’s known for writing thrillers, none of them gory or violent, but definitely page-turners. I read this latest in approximately 24 hours – I was up at the cottage on vacation, it had a great premise with a protagonist…
I’m not sure what it says about me when I proclaim cozy mysteries as one of my favourite genres to read. Apparently I love murder, but only when it happens to the bad guys. And I love it even more when a kind, unlikely community member is the one who investigates and solves these murders….
I’ve read a few Will Ferguson books in my day, as he’s a beloved local Calgary author who has won many awards for his writing – impressively, in very different genres and categories. In this first of a promised series, Will Ferguson has teamed up with his brother Ian Ferguson in the cozy mystery I…
Although I stay mostly off social media these days, I dip into Twitter every now and then, which piqued my interest in the new release from Canadian author Amy Jones. Pebble & Dove is her latest novel, which is a lighthearted take on family politics and the bonds we draw and break within that sphere….
Quickly becoming one of my ‘must read everything authors’, Samantha Irby has released a new book of essays just in time for the start of my summer reading. Quietly Hostile looks like her other books; a bright cover with a random animal on the front, and it reads exactly like her other books too: hilarious….
Before you begin to wonder if I’ve taken a sharp turn in my reading interests, let me assure you this title is a reference to the city the characters travel to: Paris. The use of ‘rooster’ itself isn’t that obvious in Coq by Ali Bryan, instead it’s an invitation to open up this book and…
It’s hard to define Mad Honey by Katie Welch in terms of genre; we begin with a literary novel steeped in family history and resentment, slowly move into the territory of a mystery, and end up in the world of a thriller. Despite these leaps, the plotting is well done and I couldn’t read this…
I’ve got some promising horror books on my shelf at the moment, so I thought I’d clear some of them away before spooky season in the Fall brings even more my way. Bad Cree by Jessica Johns was a big spring book here in Canada; everyone was talking about it, and I was excited to…
