Hello and Welcome to the Fifth (yes, fifth!) Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards! This is my annual, very rigorous, very competitive, highly esteemed way of looking back at what I've read over the past year and rating it by a merit system known only to myself. Eligible books must have been read by me… Continue reading The Fifth Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards
Category: Book Reviews
What I Read – November 2022
Read: Dandelion - Jamie Chai Yun Liew (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022) Good Inside - Dr. Becky Kennedy (Harper Wave, 2022) A Room Made of Leaves - Kate Grenville (Text Publishing Company, 2021) Away - Amy Bloom (High Bridge Audio, 2007) Trinity, Trinity, Trinity - Erika Kobayashi (Astra House, 2022) (translated from Japanese by Brian Bergstrom)… Continue reading What I Read – November 2022
Book Review: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Elizabeth Zott is a brilliant chemist. She should be excelling in her field, pursuing her research, widely respected by her colleagues. The problem is - Elizabeth is a woman in the early 1960s and at every turn she is hampered not exactly by her gender but by men who don't believe she can do more… Continue reading Book Review: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
(Audio) Book Review: Away by Amy Bloom
When Lillian Leyb's whole family is killed in a Russian pogrom - brutally slaughtered by their neighbours simply for being Jewish - she boards a ship to a new country and ends up in New York City, sharing a cramped apartment with a cousin and a rotating cast of other roommates. A job at a… Continue reading (Audio) Book Review: Away by Amy Bloom
What I Read – October 2022
Read: A Place for Us - Fatima Farheen Mirza (Random House Audio, 2018) The Daughter of Doctor Moreau - Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey, 2022) Chivalry - Neil Gaiman & Colleen Doran (Dark Horse Books, 2022) Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday Canada, 2022) Pallbearing - Michael Melgaard (Astoria, 2020) The Collected Short Stories of… Continue reading What I Read – October 2022
(Audio) Book Review: A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
A family is brought together to celebrate a wedding. Rafiq and Layla are celebrating the wedding of their firstborn, their daughter Hadia, who is marrying for love unlike their own arranged marriage. Rafiq and Layla met only a few times before their marriage, when Layla left her home and moved to the United States to… Continue reading (Audio) Book Review: A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
Book Review: Buck’s Pantry by Khristin Wierman
I received an Advance Readers e-copy of this book thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. All opinions are my own. Three women's paths cross one night at a convenience store in small-town Texas. Lianna is a New York businesswoman in town for an important meeting, who already hates the whole state even before she is… Continue reading Book Review: Buck’s Pantry by Khristin Wierman
Book Review: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
This is the second book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia that I've read (the first was Mexican Gothic) and so I feel comfortable saying that she has a knack for taking a familiar style of tale and adding her own flavour to it. In particular, a knack for telling a story from a Mexican perspective as both… Continue reading Book Review: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Book Review: Chivalry by Neil Gaiman & Colleen Doran
Chivalry - Neil Gaiman & Colleen Doran (Dark Horse Books, 2022) What if the Holy Grail ended up in thrift shop in a quiet town in England? What if a little old lady who frequented the shop found it and, liking it, brought it home? What if she liked the way it looked on the… Continue reading Book Review: Chivalry by Neil Gaiman & Colleen Doran
Book Review: Pastoral by Nevil Shute
Pastoral - Nevil Shute (William Morrow, 1945) I've read two Nevil Shute books now - A Town Like Alice and On the Beach - and enjoyed them both a lot. I appreciated the way Shute balances the reality and tragedy of war and death while focusing on individual characters and creating ones who feel like… Continue reading Book Review: Pastoral by Nevil Shute
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