Reading The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri was an experience. Whenever a book follows multiple generations of one family, it’s typically called a ‘saga’ because it explains to the reader that many years will pass within the pages of just one novel. For some, this may seem a bit daunting, and in the cases of some…
BuzzFeed, you have done it again!!! You’ve taken two of my most favourite things-books and cats-and mashed them together to create a wonderful list of literary pun names for cats. Why is this important you may ask? I counter that question with another question-how is this NOT important? I’m not sure if I’m focused on…
Continuing the pattern of reviewing ‘nice guys that write great books’ that I’ve seemed to stumble upon, I decided to write about Terry Fallis’s latest book No Relation. This is Fallis’s fourth book, and just as good as his previous ones, so I’m glad I picked it up. It’s based on a really interesting premise:…
My sincere apologies for abandoning this blog for the past three weeks,I have a good excuse for my absence though-I was away in Belize! As you will see in the picture below, I had lots of time to catch up on my reading (9 books in total!) so I have lots of writing and reporting…
I just love the picture above, it’s one of my favourites from the Writers Guild of Alberta Conference because it so honestly depicts how fun the event was to host. The crowd in the background of this photo were enthusiastic, supportive and asked wonderfully insightful questions. The panelists Hilary McMahon, Steven Galloway and Leanne Shirtliffe…
I had really high hopes for this book, as I really enjoyed Joshua Ferris‘s last book The Unnamed, which was about a man who found himself compulsively walking days on end, therefore eventually destroying his life because he was unable to stop. Interesting premise right? Well, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour doesn’t have…
Sigh. That’s how I felt reading the pages of this 120 page novella. Not quite a novel, longer than a short story, but terribly written all the same. If you haven’t guessed already, I hated The White House by JaQuavis Coleman, and debated putting it down after the first few pages. Why did I have…
I am forever indebted to my good friend Kayleigh for introducing me to the Calgary Reads Annual Book Sale. How did I not know about this before, and why has it taken me this long to discover it? The sight of walking into a big empty warehouse full of books and book lovers warmed my…
A quick synopsis of The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh: husband and wife go on vacation, step-daughter of wife joins her parents on vacation and brings her slightly older and very attractive boyfriend with her, chemistry ensues between wife and younger man. A saucy summer read: that’s really all you need to know about this…
Have you ever read a book that features a family that makes you think “Hey, that’s kind of like my family”? I just had the pleasure of muttering that to myself as I turned the pages of this latest novel by Elise Juska. Now, The Blessings does not feature characters that resemble people in my…
Nigeria has been in the news quite a bit lately, for awful reasons, so reading a book that showed the lighter side of this controversial country was a welcome change from what I’ve been hearing these past few weeks. That’s not to say that Americanah is a light romp through the complicated territory of race,…
As many of my readers know, I have a soft spot in my heart for Wordfest, mainly because I worked there for five years and 100% support their festival’s mandate of bringing readers and writers together. So, not surprisingly when I received an invitation to the launch of their Book Rapport/Festival des mots program, I…
