My birthday present to Peter this year was tickets to Hey Rosetta! in Vancouver and so this past weekend, we headed over to the Big City. There was a time when going to an event in the city was an easy occasion. Throw a change of clothes in a bag, pull up to the ferry… Continue reading Weekend Travels
Sometimes you reach the end of a book and you have to go into the other room and simply sit and stare at your sleeping baby for a few minutes. Yann Martel is, of course, best known as the author of The Life of Pi. A book that powerful is a hard act to follow… Continue reading Book Review: Beatrice & Virgil by Yann Martel
The Lotus Eaters begins with the following quote from The Odyssey: Those who ate the honeyed fruit of the plant lost any wish to come back and bring us news. All they now wanted was to stay where they were with the Lotus-eaters, to browse on the lotus, and to forget all thoughts of return.… Continue reading Book Review: The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
For the first time in the years we've known each other, Peter and I co-ordinated our costumes. Who knows what we are? A narwhal, a baby narwhal, and an Arctic explorer - that's right! (Does your face look kind of like Pearl's face right now?) This costume was borne out of the fact that Peter… Continue reading
Let's talk about story. And narration. And unreliable narrators and memory and aging. Each of these subjects is what Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending is really about. The plot is really more of an excuse to examine these topics. That's not to say there is no plot or that the plot is no… Continue reading Book Review: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
The Tenderness of Wolves - Stef Penney (Penguin Canada, 2006) Read my review here. The Bone Sharps - Tim Bowling (Gaspereau Press, 2007) Read my review here. Remembrance - Alistair MacLeod (McClelland & Stewart, 2012) The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes (Vintage Canada, 2012) Beatrice & Virgil - Yann Martel (Alfred A. Knopf… Continue reading What I Read – October 2015
Last Christmas my terrific brother-in-law and his lovely wife gave us a collection of Little Golden Books. We all remember Little Golden Books from our childhood, right? They're awesome. I love reading books from my own kid days with Pearl. However, sometimes re-reading kids books as an adult casts a new light on them. (Spoilers… Continue reading Book Review: The Tawny Scrawny Lion by Kathryn Jackson, illus. by Gustaf Tenggren (Reading with Pearl)
I really disliked this book. It surprised me how much I disliked this book. And then it surprised me to remember that this book is a Giller prize winner*, an award that is highly respected within Canada. I'm not surprised that a book I don't like won the Giller prize because literary enjoyment can be… Continue reading Book Review: The Bishop’s Man by Linden MacIntyre
There are multiple stories occurring within the scope of this novel. We have Charles Hazelius Sternberg (a real life historical figure), a fossil hunter, creeping closer to the end of his career, possibly losing his mind in the Alberta badlands, in 1916. We have Sternberg's young assistant, Scott Cameron, in the trenches of World War… Continue reading Book Review: The Bone Sharps by Tim Bowling
Royce is sixteen and has just moved with his mother across the country, from Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island. He's bored, lonely, and biding his time until he can escape back east to his former life. In the meantime, his mother convinces him to take on the job of caring for her 95-year-old father. Arthur… Continue reading Book Review: Death Benefits by Sarah N. Harvey
Karissa Reads Books 