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…
There are so many domestic thrillers lurking around my bookshelves at the moment, it’s hard to be truly impressed by anything in the genre at this point because everything seems to be ‘done’. So authors are going to greater and greater lengths to surprise the reader, or put a unique twist on a story that…
Everyone gets excited when Lisa Moore releases a short story collection, mainly because she hasn’t in a while, and it’s the form she ‘broke out’ with. I’ve only read her novels thus far, but I love her writing, so I knew I would enjoy this newest group of stories titled Something for Everyone-I was not…
For those of you who have read Ami McKay’s first book in this series of sorts, The Witches of New York, you will have undoubtedly devoured her latest, Half Spent Was the Night, which is billed as its sequel. Despite it being so short it packs in quite a bit, furthering the stories of our…
Probably for the first time ever, I spent months reading one book. Many would take that as a sign that I didn’t like it, but in fact it is quite the opposite. Amina Gautier’s collection of stories At-Risk is quite affecting; stark in its unapologetic depictions of young, black, impoverished youth. I savoured each story…
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…
Obviously I had a tough time naming this review, because although this book is technically A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the book is part of the Puffin Plated series, which incorporates classic stories with modern-day recipes from famous chefs. If you find something like this too commercial or sacrilegious, you might as well stop…
I’m not sure I’ve ever actually read the classic Dickens story A Christmas Carol from beginning to end. Sure I’ve seen the adaptations, but I’m not as familiar with it as I would like to be. So when Miss Marley, an imagined prequel to A Christmas Carol landed on my doorstep a few weeks ago,…
The Dinosaur Artist by Paige Williams is an in-depth exploration of dinosaur bones; where they are typically found, how they’re formed, the best way to mount them, etc. Thankfully though, the book focuses more on the people behind the bones (or more accurately, fossils) rather than the dinosaurs themselves. Eric Prokopi is at the center…
Full disclosure: Fran Kimmel is a good friend of mine. Luckily, I know she also writes amazing books too, so I was more than delighted to review her latest book No Good Asking. Her first novel The Shore Girl is sort of a cult classic in these parts, I’ve come across many people who list…
I’ve seen this book described as a cozy mystery by some, although I’d have to disagree with their label. Does some awful character die by murder and a lovely but bumbling detective solve the mystery of whodunnit? No, in fact it’s a sad book, a little too melancholy to have given me any ‘cozy’ feelings….
