Reviews

Holden After and Before: Love Letter for a Son Lost to Overdose

When Tara McGuire’s son Holden died from an accidental opioid overdose at the age of 21, she was flattened by grief. There is no playbook for how to mourn the loss of your child, particularly ... Read More »

September 28, 2022 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

The Vanishing Past: Making the Case for the Future of History

By Trilby Kent

In January of this year, a minor kerfuffle arose down south over a Virginia state bill intended to ban the discussion of “divisive concepts” in schools. Naturally, these included material about civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, ... Read More »

September 28, 2022 | Filed under: History, Reviews

★ We Spread

By Iain Reid

We Spread – the dizzying, stunning fourth novel from Ontario writer Iain Reid – begins in isolation. Octogenarian Penny lives alone in the apartment she once shared with her partner (referred to only as “he”) ... Read More »

September 21, 2022 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Mukbang

By Fanie Demeule and Anita Anand (trans.)

One statement from a mother to her child – “You scare me” – changes everything. In Mukbang, Fanie Demeule’s sixth book, the author explores the insatiable hunger of those who were raised on the hollow ... Read More »

September 21, 2022 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda

By Michael Hingston

In Try Not to Be Strange, Edmonton author (and publisher of Hingston & Olsen Publishing) Michael Hingston happens upon the work of Javier Marías, the famous Spanish writer and translator, and finds an odd thread ... Read More »

September 14, 2022 | Filed under: History, Memoir & Biography, Reviews

Some Hellish

By Nicholas Herring

When most people think of the Prince Edward Island of literature, the image that comes up is of red-haired Anne Shirley and her romantic, sentimental adventures. But there is another, more rugged tradition of Atlantic ... Read More »

September 7, 2022 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Quiet Time

By Katherine Alexandra Harvey

“Have you ever heard of kintsukuroi?” Grace’s therapist, Trevor, asks her near the end of Katherine Alexandra Harvey’s grim, piercing debut, Quiet Time. “It’s this amazing Japanese art form. ... they repair vases that have ... Read More »

September 7, 2022 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Ordinary Deaths: Stories from Memory

By Samuel LeBaron

It really is possible to find life amid the fear and pain of death. Samuel LeBaron – a retired family physician, Stanford University professor, and one-time clinical psychologist – has collected his lessons from a ... Read More »

August 31, 2022 | Filed under: Health & Self-help, Memoir & Biography

★ Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

By Kate Beaton

More than a decade after the release of her first bestselling comics collection Hark! A Vagrant, Cape Breton cartoonist Kate Beaton returns with her first long-form graphic memoir, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands. ... Read More »

August 24, 2022 | Filed under: Graphica, Memoir & Biography, Reviews

★ Jones

By Neil Smith

Humour abounds in Jones. On practically every page, there it is. “Gerbils are rats with better PR,” opines Joy Jones. She’s called Brassy Broad by her teenage daughter, Abigail, who possesses “the long, straight, ... Read More »

August 17, 2022 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

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