February 21, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews
At first glance, the valley is inviting, deeply so. Verdant with orchards and vineyards that overlook a lake, and situated in a leisurely era before cellphones, Instagram Stories, and overtourism, the unnamed region appears idyllic, ... Read More »
On at least one book website you will find Gary Clement’s debut graphic novel, inspired by the writing and childhood of Franz Kafka, tagged under “Social Themes: Self-Esteem; Self-Reliance.” It’s a classification that almost certainly ... Read More »
February 21, 2024 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
Jessica J. Lee’s debut picture book, A Garden Called Home, is a love story for children of the diaspora. This picture book explores the precious bond between a mother and daughter, and also asks, where ... Read More »
February 14, 2024 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books
Canadian literature is a multilingual territory, and I will admit that my first introduction to the work and life of French-Canadian poet Marie Uguay comes with the recent publication of her journals in translation. As ... Read More »
February 7, 2024 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Poetry, Reviews
The Longest Shot tells the story of Larry Kwong, who grew up in Chinatown in Vernon, B.C., during the 1920s and 30s, and became the first Asian player in the NHL in 1948. His is ... Read More »
January 31, 2024 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Kids’ Books
Cold, the chilling new thriller from prolific Ojibway writer Drew Hayden Taylor, begins with a plane crash. Journalist Fabiola Halan, one of two passengers in a Cessna piloted by Merle Thompson, is on a press ... Read More »
January 17, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews
With Apparitions, Saskatoon writer and Deaf awareness advocate Adam Pottle (Voice: Adam Pottle on Writing with Deafness) has crafted perhaps the most unsettling novel of the year, an account of violence and despair, isolation and ... Read More »
December 13, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews
Brandon Reid’s debut novel Beautiful Beautiful centres around 12-year-old Derik Mormin, who is Heiltsuk through his father and English through his mother. After living in the city for all of his life, he is detached ... Read More »
December 13, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews
The pitch for an article on “demystifying the writing process” that I received in my email within days of reading The Cobra and the Key was the kind of odd, grandiosely worded missive you might ... Read More »
December 13, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews
“Our creative process was born there, in the bottom of garbage cans our parents emptied so that we could sit quietly, observing the world and putting it into words,” writes Caroline Dawson in an autobiographical ... Read More »
December 13, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews