(The highlighted titles will take you to reviews written by myself or the folks at the Miramichi Reader who are way ahead of me!) Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short FictionBoy with a Problem by Chris Benjamin (Pottersfield Press)Winter Road by Wayne Curtis (Pottersfield Press)The Appendage Formerly Known as Your Left Arm by Julie Curwin (Boularderie Island Press) Ann … Continue reading Atlantic Book Awards Shortlist 2021
I love to walk. There's almost no day that goes by that I don't walk, almost no weather I won't walk in, almost no condition that keeps me from going out. When there's a blizzard, I bundle up and put on my big snow boots. When it's hot and humid, I slow my pace and … Continue reading Born to Walk
My last post focused on Best Atlantic Canadian Reads of 2019. Here’s everything else… Best Books (in addition to Best of Atlantic Canada 2019, in no particular order) Fiction: Quarry by Catherine Graham This Has Nothing To Do With You by Lauren Carter - I also read her recent poetry collection this year, Following Sea. … Continue reading Highlights of 2019: Part 2
Four years ago I decided to challenge myself to read more books from Atlantic Canada. As a result, I have read 100 books from Atlantic Canada in the last four years. You can check out results of previous years here: 2018, 2017, 2016. #of Atlantic Canadian books read: 25 (last year, 23) % of books … Continue reading Highlights of 2019 Part 1: Atlantic Canada
Coincidentally, I had been reading one of Margaret Atwood's poetry books when we decided to go ahead with #MARM. I'm not a big poetry reader, but I was really taken with the poems in Morning in the Burned House (1995). Particularly the ones about a woman's ageing father, and memories of their time together. From … Continue reading Margaret Atwood Reading Month: Poetry and Food #MARM
Do you or someone you know have breasts? How can you be so interested in them?... No, but seriously. They're just breasts. Every second person in the world has them... But they're odd looking. They're for milk. Your mother has them. You've seen a thousand of them. What's all the fuss about? -- Notting Hill … Continue reading boobs: Women Explore What It Means To Have Breasts, edited by Ruth Daniell
When I heard that Craig Davidson was coming out with a memoir about his year of driving a school bus, I was intrigued. Partly because I've been sending my own precious cargo to school on a school bus for the past 10 years, and partly because, from what I hear, his other books are dark, … Continue reading Precious Cargo: My Year Driving the Kids on Bus 3077 by Craig Davidson
Am I allowed to have 36 books on my end-of-year list? Because that's how many I had at first, while trying to write a post like last year's (highlighting my favourite books by the month). So, I decided to simplify. Here's my pared down list (it only took me about 10 years to come up … Continue reading Looking Back On 2015
This is the second book I have read by Erik Larson, the first being his most recent Dead Wake, as well as the second book I have read for Doing Dewey's Nonfiction Book Club. The Devil in the White City tells us two stories: 1) the conception, construction, and aftermath of the Chicago Columbian Exposition … Continue reading The Devil In the White City by Erik Larson
Consumed by Ink 