I was first introduced to the music of Tegan and Sara by an old (and short-lived) boyfriend from my university days. He loved them, and their hit song “Walking with a Ghost” was one I immediately added into my playlist. I still have a few of their songs on my iTunes account, and when they…
I don’t buy a lot of cookbooks; I get them given to me as gifts, and I have a few stand-by Best of Bridge books that I like to rotate through on a regular basis. I’m also a fan of the Looneyspoon sisters and all their iterations. I also get some for review (like these…
Now that I review and recommend books professionally I’m attempting to be a well-rounded reader, which in my mind means that I read a wide variety of books, even books that I suspect I’ll dislike. I’ve fulfilled this promise to myself by picking up a memoir written by a professional WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) wrestler,…
This book won’t have a lot of relevance for you unless you listen to the podcast My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. It’s one of the few podcasts I listen to, and it’s basically true-crime with humour mixed into it (which sounds weird, but it actually ties into a coping mechanism for…
With thoughts of Mother’s Day no doubt swirling around in everyone’s minds this weekend, I thought I’d post a review of a book of 15 essays about motherhood. What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About, Fifteen Writers Break the Silence are all fairly short pieces written by authors about their mothers. They range from…
I knew I’d like Nobody Cares by Anne T. Donahue before I even opened the front cover. Why? Please refer to my list below: The author Anne T. Donahue has the same first name as me, AND we’re the same age, so obviously we are soul sisters. She grew up in and still lives in…
So when I first received this book in the mail I thought: ‘great my 96-year-old Grandpa will love this one!’. But when I noticed a few other books arrived on my shelf that dealt with spies and espionage, I thought I’d give this one a whirl to see how it stacked up to the rest…
I am a terrible excuse for a girl named Anne who loves books. I’m embarrassed to put this down in writing, but I have never read Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. What kind of Canadian book-lover am I? A poor excuse for one, that’s for sure. And instead of going ahead and getting…
I’ve never had the experience of doubting whether I could finish a book. I love reading, and even when I don’t really like a book I’ll usually finish it; my DNF rate is extremely low. Reading The Boy on the Beach by Tima Kurdi is the first time I found myself unsure as to whether…
I frequently refer to memoirs as their own subsection of the ‘self-help’ genre, because I believe that learning about someone else’s life circumstances is a wonderful way of gaining a new perspective on your own. This theory is once again being proven with Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive by…
Those of us who are lucky enough to have the luxury of living in peaceful countries may be asking themselves what we can do to help the refugee crisis; I would argue our first job is to listen to their stories in an attempt to understand what they are fleeing from and why. With the…
I find the words ‘fed up’ particularly evocative. This may sound sexist, but I think women are pushed to this point much more than men, simply because we (females) take it upon ourselves to make everyone around us ‘comfortable’, whether we realize it or not. It’s not because we think it’s fun, or because we…
