I loved this book. Brother by David Chariandy is a must-read, and I completely understand why it’s making all the prize lists this Fall. It recounts the childhood and early adulthood of a sensitive Michael, and his older brother Francis. They live in a small apartment in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough with their extremely…
In the past few years I’ve read a handful of books that could be labelled as ‘manly man literary books’. This is of course my highly scientific name for them, which I’m sure will catch on any minute now. What makes these books unique is the writing style which is typically very sparse and straightforward…
So I shot this video on vacation in a rental home, therefore the lighting is terrible and the sound is echo-ey. My bad. Oh, and Smokey isn’t with me, because my husband draws the line at taking our cats on vacation with us (sigh). I’m reviewing Terry Fallis’s latest book One Brother Shy, which I…
Oohhhh boy. I’m struggling with how I’m going to word this review because The Change Room by Karen Connelly is full of…sex. A lot of it. Not like, harlequin romance sex where almost every other page is full of sweaty bodies, but like, at least 5 fairly descriptive sex scenes: some between a man and…
As I’ve mentioned perhaps once or twice before, I’ve got my own book club. And this book club is the best book club in the world, with the best people organizing it, and the best people taking part in the discussions. Last week we had our second meeting where we discussed The Substitute by Nicole…
This past week I spoke about books that deal with the subject of family. I realize this is a pretty broad topic and can encompass most everything that has ever been written, but I used it as an excuse to talk about my favourite picture book ever: A Family is a Family is a Family,…
There’s a lot to love about Grace O’Connell’s sophomore effort, the first being the wonderful title. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but the phrase”Be Ready for the Lightning” seems to be a call for action and alertness as you begin reading which builds the anticipation until major events begin to take place. But…
Writing a review about a book that describes a child dying is always a difficult task, especially for a parent that always thinks the worst (I have an overactive imagination!), but I’m trying to choose my words carefully because I don’t want you to be scared off. It doesn’t help that it’s a translation, and…
This past week I talked about very Canadian books on the Homestretch for my book column, which you may have realized comes around a little more often in the summer. Canada Day had just happened a few days ago, and with the Canada 150 celebrations still fresh in everyone’s mind, I wanted to take advantage…
So I hosted my first book club at the new Wordfest digs, and it was a lot of fun. Over 30 people came out (!!!) and enjoyed treats by Terry Bakes, and Davids Tea. We had a rousing discussion and debate around Zoey Leigh Peterson’s debut novel Next Year, For Sure, which got everyone fired up for…
Ah yes, the psychological thriller. They seem to bloom like dandelions in the summer, don’t they? One after the other, it’s hard to keep track of where they are coming from, and why are there so damn many of them? They’re definitely a trendy genre right now; with the popularity of Paula Hawkins, Gillian Flynn…
Aside from the fact that I’m using the word ‘saucy’ way too much these days, I think you’re really going to like my latest radio segment. A few highlights you can listen for: I make a crude joke near the beginning of the interview and the host laughs despite himself, I try to defend the…
