All summer long, I’m appearing weekly on CBC’s Homestretch to talk about new books worth reading this summer. Each week, I’m focusing on a different genre, and yesterday I spoke about historical fiction. You can hear the segment here if you are interested. I don’t intend on listening to it myself, because hearing your voice…
Many Can-lit fans will know of Peter Behrens. He comes out with a new book every few years, he’s won the GG for his fiction in the past, and he looks like he a real-life cowboy. I will admit that I’ve harboured a bit of a crush on him in the past, and when I…
Most people would readily claim that someone in their family suffers from mental illness. Mind you, many of these cases are undiagnosed (or completely imagined), but everyone suspects at least one family member of theirs is crazy, because that’s really the only explanation for why they drive you crazy, right? Fire and Air by Erik…
“The Brothers Grimm Meets Stephen King” is a quote from the French media outlet La Presse, found on the cover of Claudine Dumont‘s Captive. This book is another translation (side note: I seem to be reading a lot of these lately, which makes me feel much more intelligent than I really am), so it was originally written…
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…
Like the title suggests, A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler (translated from the German by Charlotte Collins) is literally about a man’s whole life, in only 139 pages. Apparently this book is also an international bestseller, so I had high hopes when I cracked it open. Unfortunately, it was a bit disappointing. I can’t say why…
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…
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…
So I’m still in Europe, Switzerland actually, so reading a book that takes place in the German countryside had a particularly relevant angle for me, as I had just come from that wonderful country, and will return to it in a few short weeks. Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller switches between London and…
Ok I am specifically NOT looking at any other reviews of Patrick deWitt‘s Under Major Domo Minor before I post this, because I don’t want anyone else’s opinion to influence mine, or make me second guess myself. Not only did I love this book, but I think it is destined to become a classic, one…
Ahh the Fall. For book nerds like me, this is a great season for a few reasons; one, the weather is getting colder, so we have better excuses to stay in and read, and two, the Fall is when highly anticipated books are released, just before book award lists are announced. Canadian book lovers will…
Okay, Lynn Crosbie scares me a bit, and not for the reasons you think. The stuff she writes is a bit strange, always has been, and yet I’m drawn to her work like a cat to an open box (see below). I discovered her back in university during my Canadian Poetry class with the amazing…
