It may be the first time I’m blogging about Canadian-born writer Eleanor Catton, but I’ve been following her career since I read her first book – a breakout novel that her publisher pushed into my hands, predicting she would be huge. Although she hasn’t necessarily found commercial success, she’s won enough book awards (most recently…
Its fabulous title originally drew me to the short story collection Not the Apocalypse I Was Hoping For by Leslie Greentree, but the fact that it’s a locally published and authored work, right here in Calgary at the University of Calgary Press, was reason enough for me to read this one; I love a book…
The phrase ‘love marriage’ means different things to different people, but in the context of the book Love Marriage by Monica Ali, it refers to the fact that Yasmin’s Indian parents formed a relationship based on love alone; an assumption for many, but a radical idea for some. Is this the goal for everyone: to…
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…
After seeing Some Hellish by Nicholas Herring win the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize late last year, I made the mental note to dig it out of my (rapidly expanding) bookshelves and give it a try. The fact that it didn’t have a clear plot scared me away from it until now, but I…
Released back in January 2019, Talent by Juliet Lapidos has been starting at me from my bookshelf for quite awhile now. I took it with me on my family Christmas vacation, that in-between time where my reading commitments are minimal, and I can finally get to some of those books that are long overdue. Normally…
I’ve only read one other Celeste Ng book, you can find the review here. I don’t mind remember being wowed by it, but her latest release, Our Missing Hearts is definitely a new favourite of mine. There’s good reason why this book is yet again a Reese Witherspoon book club pick, and I’m sure this…
I was at a book event a few weeks ago chatting with my bookish friends (usually a mix of publishers, authors and librarians, the best kind of people) when I was introduced to a local author. She pitched her new book to me, which I just had happened to have on my shelf anyway, (one…
I came across Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson in a publisher’s catalogue, and requested it for some unknown reason (likely, on a whim). It sat on my shelf until it was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, which prompted me to a) remember I even had a copy of it and b) make a…
I had seen brief reviews and mentions of The Sentence by Louise Erdrich around, but never received it from the publisher for review, so accepted the fact I wasn’t likely to read it. But then I read a great review of it by Consumed by Ink which outlined that it was a ghost story that…
Although Possessed by Jowita Bydlowska has ghosts in it, but they are beside the point. Mental health struggles, abusive behavior, and depression are truly at the heart of this book. A work of literary fiction that made me uncomfortable, I found myself moving between episodes of interest and horror, mainly due to the thoughts and…
Woman Eating by Claire Kohda explores the life of a vampire through the lens of a millennial and the struggles unique to that generation: someone who is struggling with living on their own, providing for themselves, reconciling who they are, all while dealing with a parent in a care home. Although I wouldn’t call the…
