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.
Whenever I personally know the author of a book I’m reviewing, I always like to state that outright. Rona Altrows and I are regular acquaintances in the Calgary literary scene, it’s a small industry here in cowtown so we inevitably run into each other at various events. And as I mentioned before, to keep my…
So this will be my last radio segment for a few months as I hunker down and give birth to my second child soon. Strangely, I chose quite dark, depressing books to speak about on-air for this one, which doesn’t bode well for my mood in general, but I think I give pretty good reasons…
Long-time readers of this blog will already know how much I love the Flavia de Luce novels by Alan Bradley. Perfect examples of the cozy mystery, these books depict the precocious 12 year old Flavia who solves mysteries that seem to fall in her lap. Much like my other murder mystery hero Jessica Fletcher, death…
It’s been awhile since I’ve really LOVED a short story collection, but I can finally say that The Dead Husband Project by Sarah Meehan Sirk is definitely one of the best I’ve read in a long time. Each piece in this collection is strong and emotionally affecting, but there are a few that really stood…
I’m really torn between my conflicting thoughts on this book. Into the Sun by Deni Ellis Bechard is extremely ambitious, it goes into many in-depth descriptions of various people’s lives, starting from their childhood and ending with their deaths, all within a somewhat convoluted plot that attempts to explain their connections with each other. But,…
So, I don’t normally review ‘coffee table’ books but I made an exception for this one because it’s a picture book of cats on outdoor adventures. Yes, you read that right, cats are in canoes, hiking mountains and perching on paddle boards in the great white north that is the Canadian wilderness. Bolt and Keel…
I’ve been reading more non-fiction lately…not for any particular reason other than publishers just seem to be churning out more these days so I’m receiving more for review. Although I read far more fiction than non-fiction, I find real-life stories stick with me for longer, probably because the people are real and truly endured what…
My Canadian readers will probably be familiar with this latest can-lit thriller: Hysteria by Elisabeth de Mariaffi. It’s just come out, and it’s getting a hysterical amount of press (obviously I had to use that adjective somewhere in this review, but I promise I won’t do it again). Is this book a page-turner? Yes. Is…
So I’ve never really watched the television show Murdoch Mysteries, but of course being Canadian and a long-time devotee of the CBC I had certainly heard about it, so it’s definitely on my Netflix list of ‘to be watched’. Because of this, when I was given the chance to review a forthcoming Murdoch Mystery book…
There’s something about mysteries that take place on a mode of transportation that seem to get people excited. This is most likely due to the fact that when there is a murder (as there inevitably is in most mysteries), the suspect list is quite limited, making the capture of the criminal imminent. Most recently I…
My Canadian readers won’t be at all surprised to see I’m reviewing Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill because it won the richest literary prize in Canada back in November: the Giller Prize. I’ll be honest though, I had no intention of reading it until my book club chose it. I’m glad I did because first of…
It doesn’t take much to please me these days, as you’ll hear on my latest radio segment with the CBC Homestretch. I admit to wanting to take a vacation on my couch, but don’t we all? An uninterrupted stretch of reading time is all I need for my ‘paradise’, although I realize some people may…
