If you were ever wondering how to pick up a maid in Statue Square, you will quickly find the answer to your question in Rea Tarvydas’s debut collection of short stories (whew, am I right?). Statue Square by the way, is a real place in Hong Kong, and I’ve tracked down an image of it…
So it’s funny that I’m writing this review today, of all days. Mainly because I was lucky enough to meet the author of Teardown, Clea Young this week for the very first time. But I’ve spoken to Clea many times in the past, we’ve shared many laughs together, as well as many frustrations, but Monday night…
Since I started this blog in 2013, I’ve made a few observations about the book blogging community as a whole. They are as follows: most of us love drinking tea while reading cats are our favourite animal we love holidays romance and YA bloggers are easy to find and are very passionate about these genres…
I had never read anything by Olive Senior before, but I had heard of her, and I knew she was a good writer, so picking up The Pain Tree was an easy decision for me. As was recommending her, and gushing about her publisher Cormorant Books on the radio last week. If you’re looking for…
My fixation on Alberta writers comes with good reason. I’m on the board for the Writers’ Guild of Alberta yo! Their mission is to connect, encourage, inspire, promote and support Alberta writers and their writing, so it would be a down right travesty if I didn’t feature them on one of my radio segments this…
I love reading short stories, and because they’re not as popular as they deserve to be, I’m always taking advantage of a little air time to talk about how great they are. You can click here to listen to my latest segment on CBC’s Homestretch. For those of you who listened to my radio spots…
All summer long, I’m appearing weekly on CBC’s Homestretch to talk about new books worth reading this summer. Each week, I’m focusing on a different genre, and yesterday I spoke about historical fiction. You can hear the segment here if you are interested. I don’t intend on listening to it myself, because hearing your voice…
Oh jeez guys, oh jeez. I seem to have been on a streak lately, reading books about children dying, being kidnapped, and other horrible things. Billie Livingston’s The Crooked Heart of Mercy continues this terrible theme as it begins with the accidental death of a two year-old, while he is at home with him Mom…
People who work at or attend universities seem to make numerous appearances in Amina Gautier’s collection of short stories The Loss of All Lost Things. Is this a problem? No, of course not, and it makes a lot of sense when you discover that Gautier is a professor of creative writing at the University of…
Happy Halloween everyone! I wanted to dash out this post to you in time for the big night tomorrow to help you get into a spooky mood. I’m back from my European tour, and this was the last book I finished on my travels. There’s a photo of its final resting place (a hotel that…
I started reading this book in Canada, and I finished reading it in Germany. This doesn’t really have anything to do with the way I enjoyed it, I just wanted to brag about the fact that I’m travelling to fun places right now. Instead of taking pictures of books with my cats, I’m including photos…
I had never heard of David Constantine before I picked up this book, but after I had quickly scanned his bio on the inside cover of In Another Country, I realized what I was missing. He’s kind of a big deal, being nominated for many different prizes, and according to his Canadian publisher Biblioasis, he…
