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.
Being a parent is hard, that’s probably a universally accepted fact by now. My theory is that it’s so difficult because it forces you to confront your personal weaknesses and shortcomings so abruptly, and all at once. Being a single parent is a challenge that I can’t even begin to fathom, as I am not…
Translated from Finnish into English by Tiina Nunnally, The Winter War by Philip Teir is a novel that will resonate with many people, from many difference cultures. It recounts the slow fracturing of a middle-class family over the course of a winter, focusing a few chapters on each member’s perspective to give the reader a…
It’s that time of year again folks; it’s when I list all the books that I’ve read in one year so you can see how much reading I do and how little I actually parent my child. No-I don’t post this list to brag, in fact, I think many people actually see it as proof…
I was getting sick of the way my blog looked before, so I gave it an update, thanks to the fine themes they have available through wordpress. I personally find change difficult, but I hope you, dear readers, appreciate this transformation, because I would like my blog to be more user-friendly; if you can’t find…
It’s Christmas, and I have the perfect way of celebrating: settling down with a cozy mystery featurning my favourite detective, Jessica Fletcher. But Santa has been kind to me this year, and brought not one, but two Murder, She Wrote (MSW) books my way. Murder Never Takes a Holiday features two Christmas-related stories within it:…
Before I began writing the review for Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg, I googled Clegg, just to see what I could find on him, as this can colour my thoughts on a book. I knew for sure that he would have a website, because he’s also a literary agent, so he…
I’ve had Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín on my bookshelf for awhile; it was published in October 2014, which is when I received it for review. I don’t have a great excuse for not reading it until now, other than the fact that I had never read a Colm Tóibín book before so I didn’t know what…
It’s that time of year again, the gift-giving season we all dread/look forward too! Now that I stay at home all day, I have a lot of time to think about what I’m going to get people, and where and when I’m going to get it, so I’ve been thinking about Christmas since the beginning…
I’m really torn about this book. It’s written by someone I’m not familiar with, Tom Stern, who apparently works in the film business as a writer/director. So, when I was asked to review it, I readily agreed after discovering the author was a writer in a different industry. This, at the very least, assures me…
I live in Calgary, my husband and his family work in the oil and gas industry, and I read books. Clearly, Long Change was written for me. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I’ve never read a book by Don Gillmor before, and I really should have, in fact his last book Mount Pleasant…
A few days ago, I received a lovely email from Donna Bailey Nurse regarding my book review of Marina Endicott’s Close to Hugh. Like myself, she was disappointed it didn’t make the Giller shortlist, but she also wanted to share with me a wonderful piece she did on Endicott for the literary magazine Black Iris. For those…
Not bad for a first novel, not bad at all: that was my overall impression of One Night, Markovitch by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen. It’s part of House of Anansi’s foreign fiction imprint Anansi International, and was translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston. Translations are never the most glamorous of books; many people shy away from…
