Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq What a physically beautiful book this is, with its white jacket and red edging. I hate to take it back to the library. There are snippets of beauty between the covers, too - but like the long bright summer days and the cold dark winters of the north, the moments … Continue reading Two From the Giller Longlist: “Split Tooth” and “Vi”
As with The Luminous Sea, the cover of this lured me right in. Covers with sea creatures on them always catch my eye, so when I saw this book on the "new book" shelf at the library, I grabbed it. The first thing I noticed when flipping through the book is that all the chapters are … Continue reading Land Mammals and Sea Creatures by Jen Neale
Of course it started with a conversation. We were chatting about Margaret Atwood’s books - the ones we haven’t read yet and the ones we want to reread - and it quickly became clear that we could spend a year at this. Why not start with a month? So, here is Margaret Atwood Reading Month: … Continue reading Margaret Atwood Reading Month: November 2018 #MARM
Anyone who loves the sea, or feels drawn to stories of the sea, will likely feel drawn to The Luminous Sea by Melissa Barbeau, like I was. I was even nervous going into this book - I so wanted it to be good. Happily, it is more than good - it is splendid in every … Continue reading The Luminous Sea by Melissa Barbeau
Dear Evelyn is the story of a long marriage (over 70 years), and how that marriage and the individuals involved change over the years; sometimes in a good way, often not, but always in a way that is moving and complex. Harry and Evelyn meet and fall in love right before the Second World War, … Continue reading Dear Evelyn by Kathy Page
This is the second book by Catherine Leroux I've read. The first was The Party Wall, which the Shadow Giller jury (of which I am one) chose as their 2016 winner. In both cases I have found that Leroux's books are not just well-written stories (although they are that, too)... they are also cleverly imagined … Continue reading Madame Victoria by Catherine Leroux, translated by Lazer Lederhendler
From the first paragraph of this book, I was hooked. 1979: This was the year the parents in my neighbourhood began killing themselves. I was eleven years old and in Grade 6. Elsewhere in the world, big things were happening. McDonald's introduced the Happy Meal, Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran and Michael Jackson released his … Continue reading That Time I Loved You by Carrianne Leung
