Book Reviews
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.
Calgary Reads Book Sale!!!
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...
Book Review: The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh
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...
Book Review: The Blessings by Elise Juska
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...
Book Review: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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...
Book Rapport Launch!
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...
Book Review: One More Thing by B.J. Novak (the guy who plays Ryan from The Office)
I've gotten into a terrible habit lately. I visit the Buzzfeed website quite often these days, and I frequently find myself clicking through their lists of whatever, marveling at the fact that whatever they come up with seems to be right up my alley. Literally,...
W.O. Mitchell Book Prize Readings
On Tuesday night, I joined a small but mighty crowd of book lovers in the upstairs of the Rose and Crown on 4th to hear this year's shortlisted W.O. Mitchell Book Prize authors read from their nominated works. Those were: Glenn Dixon for Tripping the World Fantastic...
Book Review: Gin & Daggers by Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain
Yup, you read that right. Jessica Fletcher, my favourite heroine from my favourite television show Murder, She Wrote has written a book. If you follow the show, you will know that Miss Fletcher has written many books, but this is the first book of hers that I've...
Book Review: The Age by Nancy Lee
I don't typically dwell on book design on this blog, but I do want to state, for the record how much I enjoyed the cover of Nancy Lee's novel The Age. Based on my comment above, you can probably tell that I'm grasping at straws a bit here. Not because I didn't like...
Book Review: The Harem Midwife by Roberta Rich
Want to know how successful a writer is? Take a look at their website, that's a clear indication of how many books he/she has sold. How can I make this bold statement? I'll give you an example-take Roberta Rich, the author of The Harem Midwife, sequel to the popular...
Book Review: Boundary Problems by Greg Bechtel
If I had taken science past the required grade 11 in high school, I'm pretty sure I would have failed it. And reading books like this, books that reference physics and other sciency-things of a similar nature remind me of this sad fact. Good thing I stuck to what I...
Alberta Literary Awards Shortlist Announced!
Oh hi there Alberta book lovers (and book lovers in general). Many of you may already be aware that the Alberta Literary Awards Shortlist was announced, but if you're not, you can find the list of nominees here. There, now that you're up to speed, you can decide...