BOOK REVIEWS

The Outer Wards

In her second book of poetry, Kingston, Ontario, writer Sadiqa de Meijer crafts pieces that examine maternity. The Outer Wards disputes conventional notions of maternal instinct, instead conceiving of motherhood as a self one consciously ... Read More »

June 11, 2020 | Filed under: Poetry, Reviews

Last Impressions

By Joseph Kertes

In this tender tragicomic novel, Joseph Kertes plumbs themes that have obsessed him throughout his career. How does a family come to terms with a traumatic history that feels too painful to talk about? Can ... Read More »

June 8, 2020 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Index Cards

By Moyra Davey

A collection of 14 essays, many of them extensions of pieces that originally involved other media, along with several reproductions of photographs, Index Cards is a frequently fascinating, if ultimately exhausting, survey of Toronto-born, New ... Read More »

June 8, 2020 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays, Reviews

★ Rain Boy

By Dylan Glynn

Come rain or shine, many situations in life are beyond our control. Two new picture books by debut authors offer insight into reframing attitudes and considering different perspectives. The titular character in Sunny, by St. ... Read More »

June 4, 2020 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books

Sunny

By Celia Krampien

June 4, 2020 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books

Levon: From Down in the Delta to the Birth of The Band and Beyond

By Sandra B. Tooze

When it comes to questions of provenance, who wrote Shakespeare’s plays and who wrote the Band’s songs are a couple of oldies but goodies. Famed literary critic Harold Bloom spent his life highly invested in ... Read More »

June 1, 2020 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

You Don’t Have to Die in the End

By Anita Daher

Anita Daher’s new novel starts off slow and choppy but by the end has you invested and enthralled. Eugenia Grimm’s father died by suicide and her mother left her soon after. One older brother is a ... Read More »

June 1, 2020 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Before the Parade: A History of Halifax’s Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Communities 1972–1984

By Rebecca Rose

“Though we never met, in many ways Anne Fulton is the reason I am writing this book.” That is the opening of the preface for this thorough and intimate history of the first 12 years ... Read More »

May 28, 2020 | Filed under: History, Reviews

★ Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging

By Tessa McWatt

New books by Eternity Martis and Tessa McWatt expertly navigate the experience of coming into their respective authors’ identities as Black women. For Martis, finding a community amid isolation slowly strengthens her. For McWatt, the ... Read More »

May 25, 2020 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews