So onto my next video review. The book I review below is called Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, and I picked it up because of the premise-it’s timely and unique. It’s also a translation, which prompted me to read it because I love exploring books from cultures and languages other than my own, it’s like…
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…
Do you live in Calgary? Have you always wanted to be a part of a book club, but felt that your friends weren’t ready to actually commit? Do you want to talk about books with treats readily available? Me too! That’s why I’ve started a summertime book club in partnership with Wordfest, to run from…
I’ve been called a ‘bleeding heart’ liberal before, mainly by my husband (whom I typically don’t see eye to eye with politically, although this makes for a more interesting marriage in general), so when I heard about a book that satirizes liberal hypocrisy, I knew I had to read it. Class by Lucinda Rosenfeld features a…
So the basic storyline behind Next Year For Sure by Zoey Leigh Peterson should pique the interest of most people; it’s about a young couple who open up their relationship to other people, effectively creating a polyamorous arrangement. I know right???? Very saucy. But don’t get too excited, you won’t find this novel in the romance…
There is so much to say about this book that I’m going to have trouble focusing on just a few parts of it. But, this isn’t a ‘long review’ type of blog, so I’ll try to keep my points as succinct as possible. First off, Claire Fuller‘s Swimming Lessons switches between two different narratives. The…
I’ve always been a fan of short story collections, especially because they are the ‘hidden gems’ of the literary world; not many them are published because they don’t typically sell very well. But it is my expert humble opinion that readers of all kinds should read short stories, so I’m always happy to profile them…
Mental illness: many people suffer from it, and everyone fears it. It seems like only lately have we begun getting better at talking about it, although that in itself has been a slow progression. But when we think of how people suffering from mental illnesses were treated even 50 years ago, it’s uplifting to reflect…
Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers has a lot going for it, the most important being how funny it is. There were so many laugh-out-loud moments in it that I found myself reading passages aloud to my husband-now that’s a sign of a good book! The majority of the humour comes from the inner…
Happy Valentine’s Day! A book review of a love story is in order. Luckily, I just received a beautiful novel called A Word for Love by Emily Robbins in the mail, and I read it in a mere few days in anticipation of getting this review out ASAP. Believe me, this book is pretty inside…
I’m torn about Melanie Mah’s The Sweetest One. The author has so much going for her book, that it’s hard for me not to love what she’s written. Firstly, she’s Albertan, so I’m excited to read any books written by a local author (she lives in Toronto now, but we won’t talk about that). Secondly,…
When you open the first few pages of a book and there is a trigger warning about violent scenes, you know there’s going to be some difficult passages ahead. Many fair weather readers may re-think their decision to continue reading altogether (in fact I’ve never seen a trigger warning before, although I think it’s a…
