Did you watch the Giller awards on Monday night? I was glued to the television screen, strangely nervous to see who the winner of Canada’s biggest book prize would be. As you no doubt realized already, Dual Citizens by Alix Ohlin did not win, but I really enjoyed it, despite my negative comments at the…
Let me set the scene for you: two kids live in an extremely isolated cove, their parents die, and they are forced to harvest and catch their own food as a means of survival. That’s it. That’s the book. And in the words of the author-who would want to read about that? I would actually,…
Long title, long book. Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles may scare off people for a few different reasons, one of them being the warning issued at the beginning: “This might hurt a little. Be brave.” But those who are brave will be rewarded. I won’t say I…
Reproduction by Ian Williams, winner of the 2019 Giller Prize is a quirky read. Aside from this book being PAINFULLY LONG, I enjoyed it. It plays with lots of things: format, timelines, even phrasing. That being said, I’m a reader who doesn’t like freaky-deaky experimentation in my books, but I still found this story readable….
There’s always a few jobs out there that one knows for certain they could never handle. Personally, I could never be a teacher because I can barely manage my own two children and I find all their questions annoying (sorry not sorry). But for some reason the monumental task of being an emergency services responder…
Bafflingly, Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams has been called “A black Bridget Jones” by Kirkus Reviews, which in my mind, does a huge disservice to this taut, intelligent and dark read. Although the protagonist is searching for Mr. Right, men are clearly not the solution to any of her problems, in fact, the author uses her…
The Last Neanderthal by Claire Cameron is a unique sort of book; one of the two narratives it includes is told from the perspective of a Neanderthal, someone who doesn’t have developed language capabilities or a significant matter of reference that is relatable to us modern-day humans. Aside from a few necessary exceptions, (Cameron allows…
Ok, prepare yourself; this is a heart-wrenching read. Not this review (hopefully!) but this book: Alice & Oliver by Charles Bock. I must have been feeling particularly masochistic when I read the blurb in the publisher’s catalogue and requested it anyway. Alice and Oliver are happily in love and overjoyed at their new baby daughter…
I try to avoid reviewing two or more novels in one post because I like to give each author their due, but these two books were begging to be compared against one another, and quite frankly, I’m reading so much these days that keeping up with my book reviews is getting challenging. I read The…
Stay Up With Hugo Best by Erin Somers is one of those books that takes place over a specific, short period of time; in this case, it’s the Memorial Day long weekend in the United States. This type of timeline usually works to add heightened drama to the proceeding narrative, infusing everything with a time-sensitive…
I love the suspense that a storm brings to the fore in a fictional book; as the winds change, so do our expectations as a reader. This story begins with a storm, and ends with the same storm, pushing the reader in all different directions and time periods, raging through each character and their own…
Awhile ago, I reviewed two books with very similar topics; wealthy families living in New York, marriage, the struggle to balance your life with kids, etc. Although I enjoyed those books, I’ve just discovered a much more nuanced, well-written version of those, and it has got me so excited I’m looking for excuses to bring…
