I’ve squirreled away David Sedaris books in my home, ready to read when I feel I need them most. As I’ve said many times on this blog, David Sedaris is my favourite writer, and I savour his stories like a delicious chocolate bar I’ve been pining for. I don’t read his books in order so…
This is the second book by Benjamin Stevenson that I’ve read and enjoyed this year. Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret is obviously a seasonal release, meant to capture those readers who love a good holiday-themed book, myself included. I’ve reviewed stories like this before, and typically enjoyed them. But I knew this book would…
Summertime reading means different things to different people. For me, it means I pick up books that are meant to be ‘fun’, and the fake blood dripping down the cover of this book shouted ‘fun in a different way’ at me. How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive by Craig DiLouie also incorporates a…
The more I read, the more I realize how much I enjoy a book with humour woven through it. I love something that makes me laugh, so when a story is suggested to me that’s going to do just that, I typically jump at it. The Cobra and the Key by Sam Shelstad was presented…
The name of the book may be a mouthful, but The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships by Ali Bryan is well worth the effort. I’ve spoken of my love of Ali Bryan books on this blog before, and lucky for me, she published two different books with two different publishers this year. Like her other books,…
Time for another double review! I waited so long to review the first in the series, The Liquor Vicar by Vince R. Ditrich, that the sequel The Vicar’s Knickers came out before I was able to dig the first out of my bookshelf. So, I read the books back to back to get the full…
I’ve read a few Will Ferguson books in my day, as he’s a beloved local Calgary author who has won many awards for his writing – impressively, in very different genres and categories. In this first of a promised series, Will Ferguson has teamed up with his brother Ian Ferguson in the cozy mystery I…
Quickly becoming one of my ‘must read everything authors’, Samantha Irby has released a new book of essays just in time for the start of my summer reading. Quietly Hostile looks like her other books; a bright cover with a random animal on the front, and it reads exactly like her other books too: hilarious….
Before you begin to wonder if I’ve taken a sharp turn in my reading interests, let me assure you this title is a reference to the city the characters travel to: Paris. The use of ‘rooster’ itself isn’t that obvious in Coq by Ali Bryan, instead it’s an invitation to open up this book and…
I’ve been chatting about books on CBC Calgary’s afternoon drive home show for about 10 years now, so I’ve gotten a clear glimpse behind the curtain of live radio. That being said, there’s A TON I don’t know about this industry, and the inner workings on the morning show here are still a mystery to…
I love a humourous novel – although David Sedaris is my favourite writer, I seek a laugh in both my fiction and non-fiction reading whenever possible. When I came across the 2018 winner of The Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in a Second Story Press catalogue, I requested it right away. Gone to Pot by…
It was pure coincidence that I read this book during a particularly busy time at my day job, but while Careering by Daisy Buchanan is all about a thankless pursuit of a dream career that doesn’t exist, I’m lucky enough to work in the un-glamourous but particularly fulfilling industry of non-profits and charities where I…
