BOOK REVIEWS

★ The Inferno

By Lorna Goodison (trans.); Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century narrative poem The Inferno has been praised and loved, adapted and parodied in countless translations over the centuries. For two decades, Jamaican-Canadian poet Lorna Goodison engaged with the cantos of this epic ... Read More »

March 19, 2025 | Filed under: Poetry, Reviews

★ I Remember Lights

By Ben Ladouceur

Hello, gorgeous. Barbra Streisand’s iconic line, as Fanny Brice, captured during the filming of Funny Girl in late 1967, has all sorts of uses. Unbidden, the line came to me as I pored over the ... Read More »

March 12, 2025 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

The Seaweed Blanket

By Nancy Deas and Mike Deas (ill.)

Two young girls, Maren and Ula, visit their aunt by the seaside. They are bored and lonely, stuck indoors as they take care of the needs of their aunt, who seems confined to bed and ... Read More »

March 12, 2025 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books

★ Flesh

By David Szalay

“There’s something terrible about the way normality asserts itself.” The statement, placed in the close third-person consciousness of István, the protagonist of Montreal-born David Szalay’s latest novel, could serve as a thesis for the entire ... Read More »

March 5, 2025 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

★ Shark Girl

By Kate Beaton

Shark Girl’s life in the ocean goes swimmingly until she’s caught in a bottom trawl net and is suddenly dragged into troubled waters. Half human (from her powder blue shoulders up to her flowing mane ... Read More »

March 5, 2025 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books

The Mother: A Graphic Memoir

By Rachel Deutsch

Rachel Deutsch had always wanted a baby, and she had a pragmatic approach to having one – find a partner, improve herself, and become a mother before she got “old.” Although seemingly simple, her new ... Read More »

February 26, 2025 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

★ Every Little Bit Olive Tran

By Phuong Truong

Joyful and celebratory seem like odd descriptors for a book about racism, but author Phuong Truong and artist Christine Wei manage this delicate balance rather deftly in Every Little Bit Olive Tran. The story centres ... Read More »

February 26, 2025 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Miss Matty

By Edeet Ravel

Fran was born to be an actress. After all, she has always been acting in front of everyone, even her best friend Rita – pretending her family isn’t so poor that they can’t afford store-bought ... Read More »

February 19, 2025 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Do Not Turn the Page!

By Jane Blondie and Marcus Cutler (ill.)

Charlie, the narrator of Jane Blondie’s frame-breaking picture book, doesn’t want his readers to turn the book’s pages for self-interested reasons. He knows that every page turned gets him closer to that part of the ... Read More »

February 12, 2025 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books

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