Warning: another tragic story coming up. I’m not sure what it is lately, but the books I seem to picking off my to be read (TBR) shelf are heartbreaking. Good, well-written, but heartbreaking. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys is based on the real-life maritime tragedy of the Wilhelm Gustloff, which to my surprise, has…
If I was an organized reader and blogger, I would have read this book a few months ago in time for the Canada Reads debate that happened in early March. But, I clearly missed that boat, so my apologies; here is my very late review of the second place winner of Canada Reads 2016, The…
Wowza, what a fabulous book this was. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng is one of those stories that sticks with you for awhile: coming back into your thoughts as you read another book that doesn’t quite measure up, or remembering a particularly poignant image that snakes back into your dreams a few…
Most people would readily claim that someone in their family suffers from mental illness. Mind you, many of these cases are undiagnosed (or completely imagined), but everyone suspects at least one family member of theirs is crazy, because that’s really the only explanation for why they drive you crazy, right? Fire and Air by Erik…
Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom is so much more than a book about slavery. It looks at this difficult time from a unique perspective; that of a man who is born to a white man and black woman, who is therefore considered of mixed blood and subject to the same lack of rights that…
Sometimes, it’s nice to be reminded how truly unique being a woman is. What I mean by this, is that Mona Awad, debut author of 13 Ways of Looking at A Fat Girl has deftly captured the true essence of a woman’s complicated relationship with her own body image; a topic that most females have…
I am so conflicted about this book, but in a good way. I was hesitant to review it because it’s self published, and I don’t typically agree to review self-published books for a host of reasons, the main one being I used to work in traditional publishing, so I know how important the process of…
I have fond memories of my parents reading aloud Linwood Barclay’s witticisms from the Toronto Star newspaper when I was a kid, eating pancakes while they laughed at his latest opinion or humour piece. Back then, they enjoyed reading what he had to say and now I share the same love of his writing today, even if…
Ah yes, “women’s fiction”. Dear Emma by Katie Heaney would most definitely fit into this genre of books, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. Yes, I enjoy thought-provoking literature, but I also enjoy reading a book about a fluffy university girl whose biggest problem is getting over some jerk who didn’t text her back….
So I finished the 563 pages that was Jonathan Franzen‘s latest tome Purity, and my mind is not changed about him. I still think he’s the definition of a literary snob, but he’s also a fantastic writer. Sigh, I hate being so conflicted about books; if I really like the book, I really want to…
“The Brothers Grimm Meets Stephen King” is a quote from the French media outlet La Presse, found on the cover of Claudine Dumont‘s Captive. This book is another translation (side note: I seem to be reading a lot of these lately, which makes me feel much more intelligent than I really am), so it was originally written…
I have a bad habit of judging a book by its author. It’s not fair, especially when I haven’t actually read any books by that writer, but I hear other people’s opinions of them, and I recall reviews I’ve read about their other books, so I think I know what I’m going to read before…
