It’s that time of year again: Canada Reads is getting Canadian booklovers all jazzed up about one of the most popular readers’ choice competitions in the country, and it’s the perfect opportunity to get to those backlist books that may have fallen off your radar. Greenwood by Michael Christie is one of five books competing…
I won’t say my reading is influenced by awards, because it rarely is – quite often, my book choices depend on the themes I’ve come up with for my monthly radio segment, and the books that land on my doorstep for review. But every so often I break out of this pattern and pick up…
I’ve never had the experience of doubting whether I could finish a book. I love reading, and even when I don’t really like a book I’ll usually finish it; my DNF rate is extremely low. Reading The Boy on the Beach by Tima Kurdi is the first time I found myself unsure as to whether…
I adored this book. I found it difficult to read, and when I finished each chapter I had to put it down and sigh out my emotions, but I already know this will be one of the best books I read this year, if not THE best. And yes, I’m aware this year just started. The…
Canadian bookworms are generally a shy bunch. We don’t get out much because we’re so busy reading and drinking tea (especially in the winter months) and our book awards are not as numerous as the Americans, so rarely do we get a chance to have national discussions about a book’s merit. That’s why the Canada…
Most people have heard of Lisa Moore. She’s an extremely well-known Canadian writer because she’s been on almost every book prize list at least once AND won Canada Reads a few years ago. She’s one of those literary stars we love to boast as our own, so it’s not surprising she’s taken the plunge into writing…
If I was an organized reader and blogger, I would have read this book a few months ago in time for the Canada Reads debate that happened in early March. But, I clearly missed that boat, so my apologies; here is my very late review of the second place winner of Canada Reads 2016, The…
So this is a first for ivereadthis: a book review of a graphic novel! And what a perfect book to start off this trend: The Outside Circle by Patti LaBoucane-Benson, art by Kelly Mellings. Powerful, this book is so powerful, and very necessary. It tells the story of Pete, a young Aboriginal man who comes from…
Continuing the pattern of reviewing ‘nice guys that write great books’ that I’ve seemed to stumble upon, I decided to write about Terry Fallis’s latest book No Relation. This is Fallis’s fourth book, and just as good as his previous ones, so I’m glad I picked it up. It’s based on a really interesting premise:…
Two important things happened this week in the Canadian book scene. The first, and probably most interesting (yet complicated) is the fact that the Writers Union of Canada will now allow self-published writers to join their ranks. Find out more about it here on their website. Some of you may not be aware of this,…
This book piqued my interest for a number of reasons, one of them being the controversy over at Canada Reads a few years ago which touched upon the same subject-the revolution and human rights violations in Tehran. In that particular Canada Reads year, author Marina Nemat had a book in contention that described her experiences…
