I vaguely recall seeing The Lost Tarot by Sarah Henstra on a summer reading list somewhere in my scrolling, so I figured it would be a light read that’s best done sooner rather than later. Henstra is also an award-winning Canadian author who I hadn’t read before, so her latest release coming out this past…
Six years ago, I read and reviewed The Break by Katherena Vermette. It was the first in a trilogy about a violent act, and although I didn’t read the second and middle book The Strangers, I’ve now read the last in the series, The Circle. I described that first book as a literary mystery which…
Having never read her first, bestselling book A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, I was excited to pick up Alicia Elliott’s new book, a work of fiction titled And Then She Fell, because I felt like I was missing out on a very new and cool writer if I didn’t. I enjoyed this one,…
When a colleague of mine mentioned that she had raced through Ashley Audrain’s latest book The Whispers, I asked if I could borrow it to read myself. I rarely read books that aren’t my own, simply because I have a shelf bursting with books I already committed to reviewing from my publishing partners, but I…
A slim work of fiction, The Relatives by Camilla Gibb is an understated book that’s been hiding away on my bookshelf for two years. But I love Gibb’s writing, so even though it took me awhile to get to this one, I finally settled in to enjoy it this past week. The emotions are big,…
Whew. This book terrified me, and not in a spooky fun way. It terrified me because I have a daughter, and this is a coming-of-age novel about a teenager who is struggling her way through life as a female. Sharp Edges by Leah Mol is about a lot of things, but it’s mainly about growing…
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….
Bizarre. Creepy. Horrific. Sarcastic. All these words can be used to describe Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality by Lindsay Wong, a collection of short stories that will likely strike every reader differently. To me, these stories came across as a blend between satire and horror. I’m still struggling to decide how I really felt…
Big books come out in the Fall – it’s book awards season and it’s when all the serious award contenders are released, especially those that should sell well for holiday shopping season a few months later. In the case of Fayne by Ann-Marie MacDonald, this book is not only a big deal for Canadian publishing (she’s the…
I did not request this book, I did not pick it out of a publisher’s catalogue. Instead, it landed on my doorstep, and when I realized it was all about video games and the people who make them, I was…less than enthusiastic. Still, its focus fit the theme of a CBC segment I was recording…
Another example of my favourite genre; books about books, The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher tells the story of the infamous book store Shakespeare and Company. Is ‘books about books’ an actual genre? No, I made it up, but it’s a way to categorize my absolute favourite kind of book, and I know that lots…
Alexander MacLeod and his father, celebrated canlit icon Alistair MacLeod are two writers I’ve always felt I should read more of – this is partly due to the wonderful book reviews of Alistair’s writing that can be found on the fabulous book blogs Consumed by Ink and Buried in Print, two book reviewers I follow…
