Sometimes it feels good to just have a little cry, and you’ll have to keep the therapeutic benefits of sobbing in mind if you plan on reading If You Hear Me by Pascale Quiviger, translated from the French by Lazer Lederhendler. It’s a daunting read knowing it centers on the fracturing of a family’s life…
Picture yourself in a dark basement club in downtown Montreal, small votive candles burning away on each little table. Across from you is a woman with a raspy voice smoking a cigarette, telling you her life story in between sets on stage. She is surprisingly forthcoming considering you’ve never met, but she seems have this…
When I saw the cover of this book I was intrigued (and mildly grossed out?), but when I read the description of it, and the promise of sex scandals with professors on campus, I thought – sounds spicy! Perfect for this time of year when everything is melting, muddy, and generally dingy outside of my…
I’ll admit to being a bit confused about what My Best Friend was Angela Bennett by Suzanne Hillier was when I picked it up – a non-fiction account of a particular woman during WWII? A tale of female friendship loosely based in reality? A memoir? In my defense, I received the printed pages of it,…
I seem to have great luck with the translated books that I read, and that success is mostly due to the careful eye of the editors at the Arachnide imprint from Canadian press House of Anansi. They regularly choose the best and the brightest when it comes to translated works that will impress English Canadians…
I had been saving the latest book from David Sedaris on my shelf for awhile, because I wanted to ‘treat’ myself to it when I was ready to enjoy my favourite author without interruptions. So when I managed to score myself a ticket to his Calgary show on February 27, you can imagine how delighted…
I don’t like taking risks, but when I do, they are usually book-related. I threw caution to the wind last week and started reading a mystery series five books in. Obsidian by Thomas King is the latest in his DreadfulWater Mystery Series which I’ve had recommended to me for years, but finally got the chance…
Does a book called “Hot Stew” all about a crowded neighborhood kind of give you the willies? Normally I’d say ‘me too’, but because I’ve spent the last two years avoiding people, Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley sounded like something I wanted to dive into immediately. It’s set in the present day (sans Covid) in…
Classic films and television have never been an interest of mine; perhaps it’s because I don’t have time to watch much these days, the thought of sitting down to something produced decades ago never held much appeal, but knowledge of films from the 40s, 50s and 60s would have come in handy while reading The…
I’ve come to that point in my reading life that I no longer can recall if I’ve read certain books. I was so certain I had read an Ann Patchett book before this one, but according to my hand-written reading log and Goodreads, These Precious Days is my first Patchett book. Perhaps I had read…
This slim little novel piqued my interest when I saw a short description of it in a catalogue. It touches upon race, class, gender, and the existential dread that millennials in particular seem to dwell upon, (what does it all mean? etc.) made even worse by the pandemic. Although Assembly by Natasha Brown doesn’t include…
I’ll admit that the suggestion of ‘treats’ in the titles of these books appealed to me, as I’ve got an insatiable sweet tooth. And the dynamic author and illustrator duo Jory John and Pete Oswald have a popular streak of books behind them, so without even flipping through the pages of this picture book I…
