A friend pushed this book into my hands, telling me that she had devoured it over one weekend. She'd found so much to relate to within its pages, she told me, even as she reassured me that her husband is great. It was a statement worth making because the husband on these pages is pretty… Continue reading Book Review: Liars by Sarah Manguso
Intermezzo - Sally Rooney (Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2024) An intermezzo, in music, is a short instrumental movement between larger acts. In chess, it refers to an unexpected move that forces an immediate response. Reading these definitions after I finished Sally Rooney's most recent novel, it struck me immediately what a fitting title the book… Continue reading Book Review: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
The Empusium - Olga Tokarczuk (Riverhead Books, 2024) (translated to English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones) The Empusium - a strange sort of novel set in a sanitorium, health resort town in the early 20th century with a mysterious, plural-voiced ghost-like narration - is a tricky book to describe. I like Tokarczuk's work quite a lot -… Continue reading Book Review: The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk
Our sweet, not-so-little girl is 7! I'm a bit behind in posting this (and Peter has also had a birthday since) but today is Thanksgiving here in Canada and at the top of my Thankfulness List are my girls. Rose is funny, feisty, affectionate, and daring. She loves to be with her friends, she loves… Continue reading Rose is 7!
Small Animals - Kim Brooks (Flatiron Books, 2018) When Kim Brooks' son was 4-years-old, she took him along for a last minute errand at a Target while she was visiting her parents in the state of Virginia. Once there, young Felix wanted to stay in the car and so Brooks allowed it. She locked the… Continue reading Book Review: Small Animals by Kim Brooks
Read: The Names of all the Flowers - Melissa Valentine (The Feminist Press, 2020) Land of Big Numbers - Te-Ping Chen (Mariner Books, 2021) Really Good, Actually - Monica Heisey (Harper Collins, 2023) The Epic of Gilgamesh - trans. N.K. Sandars (Penguin Classics, 1964) The Husbands - Holly Gramazio (Doubleday Canada, 2024) The Heaven &… Continue reading What I Read: September 2024
Lauren comes home late one night, a little drunk, from a night out with her best friend, and is greeted by her husband. But Lauren has never been married and the man in her house is a complete stranger. Yet her phone is suddenly full of pictures of this man named Michael and everyone in… Continue reading Book Review: The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
Melissa and her brother Junior are tight-knit siblings at the tail-end of a large, chaotic family. Growing up in the 90s in Oakland, California, the parents of a Black mother from the South and a white Quaker father. Their mother works nights, sleeping during the day, and their father is a hoarder and the children… Continue reading Book Review: The Names of All the Flowers by Melissa Valentine
Really Good, Actually - Monica Heisey (HarperCollinsPublishersLtd., 2023) Point Form Book Reviews are my way of reviewing books that I don't necessarily have a lot to say about but still want to share a little on. So here are my thoughts on Really Good, Actually: I finished this about 2 weeks and I can't remember… Continue reading (Point Form) Book Review: Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
At the end of August, after I finished off my busy work period with the Writers Festival, we took one last family trip for the summer and headed across the border to the Olympic Peninsula. We've done several trips through Washington over the years but had yet to explore this area of the state. We… Continue reading 2024 Highlights: Olympic Peninsula
Karissa Reads Books 