I typically post between two and three book reviews a week. Please refer to my review policy if you’d like to submit a book for consideration. I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter to get a summary of my reviews once a month.
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…
So it’s been awhile since I posted to booktube-my bad! I’ve made it up to you with a funny/timely/fascinating book about death/cremation/burial, set against a Halloween-ish backdrop in my home. Bundle up for a six minute video about why I love Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty, and my plans for this…
I think I may have found myself a new favourite author, probably because the brilliance of his writing reminds me so much of my original favourite author, David Sedaris. Toil & Trouble by Augusten Burroughs is a memoir about being a witch, i.e. having special gifts that other people don’t understand or tap into properly….
Can I get a hurrah for linked short story collections? Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta is a quiet yet decisive book that doesn’t gloss over the first and second generation immigrant experience in Canada. And instead of getting a disjointed look at these experiences through a raft of different characters, we follow one person, Kara…
My faithful readers will know all too well how much I love a Ruth Ware book. I’ve had my minor complaints about them over the years, but it’s never enough to put me off reading her. I still get excited each and every time I hear she’s written another, and thank god she’s productive because…
I was first introduced to the music of Tegan and Sara by an old (and short-lived) boyfriend from my university days. He loved them, and their hit song “Walking with a Ghost” was one I immediately added into my playlist. I still have a few of their songs on my iTunes account, and when they…
The Institute by Stephen King is the perfect book to mark the beginning of the spooky season, and even though there are no ghosts in his latest release, there are more than a fair share of ghouls that are terrifying enough to haunt your dreams. Fair warning to those considering this as a future read;…
I wasn’t really planning on reading The Testaments by Margaret Atwood for a few reasons; it had been ages since I’d read The Handmaid’s Tale, I hadn’t seen the television adaptation of it, and I figured everyone else would be reading this book, so why should I? But then, I was offered the opportunity to…
Written by the “grand dame of Dutch literature”, Sleepless Night by Margriet de Moor is 122 pages of reminiscing and remembrance. Translated from the Dutch by David Doherty, it follows a widow over one sleepless night as she bakes a Bundt cake in the dead of winter, recalling the unfortunate and early death of her…
I read Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay in a place far far away from any kind of elevator. I was staying in a cabin in Northern Ontario, dodging mosquitoes but blissfully distant from any and all high rises. Barclay’s name is well known to me, as I’ve read previous books by him AND listened to…
