This book will be released by Little, Brown and Company in January 2019. I received an Advanced Reading Copy. All opinions are my own. When Chinonso stops on a bridge one day to prevent a woman from jumping, his life is changed forever. On impulse, he throws two chickens over the edge to show her… Continue reading Book Review: An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma
This book was so frustrating. The writing is beautiful; evocative descriptions of place full of smell and texture, the people seem visible and nuanced in their appearance on the page, and there is so much history simmering beneath the page. But the actions of the characters are so frustrating I found myself racing through the… Continue reading Book Review: The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli
Pearl is currently in a bit of a car phase so when I spotted this Little Golden Book at a library book sale, I picked it up. The book is originally from 1951 but this copy was republished in 1976. It remains delightfully dated but the pictures are by Richard Scarry. No word on who… Continue reading Reading with Pearl & Rose: Cars and Trucks
I can faintly recall, as a child, watching the national news, noticing a lot of talk about fishing out east. The lack of fish, the death of an industry and a lifestyle. It was my own country but very far away and very removed from my own city childhood on the opposite coast. In 1992,… Continue reading Book Review: Our Homesick Songs
What I Read: Refuge - Merilyn Simonds (ECW Press, 2018) Our Homesick Songs - Emma Hooper (Hamish Hamilton, 2018) Currently Reading: A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth An Orchestra of Minorities - Chigozie Obioma Celebration of Discipline - Richard Foster The Excuses: I'm just over 1000 pages into A Suitable Boy. I'm definitely enjoying it but it's big. It's absorbed a… Continue reading What I Read – October 2018
I received this book from ECW Press. All opinions are my own. Refuge is a novel about, well, refuge. How do we seek refuge? How do we give it? Who do we offer refuge to? At the centre of the novel is Cass. In the present tense of the story, Cass is 96-years-old, living alone on… Continue reading Book Review: Refuge by Merilyn Simonds
Today is Peter's birthday! He recently found himself without a book to read and so asked me to make five suggestions for him. His criteria was simply that they be books we already own. In honour of Peter's birthday, and because it's something different, I thought I'd share the list (plus the longlist because I'm… Continue reading Book Recommendations for the Sometimes Reader
Coming in a little late but here's my September Reading Round-Up: Dubliners - James Joyce (Penguin Books, 1979) I've read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and made two separate attempts at Ulysses. Dubliners was so much easier. It was a very smart, very moving, often unexpected collection of short stories. Herzog - Saul Bellow (Penguin Books,… Continue reading What I Read – September 2018
Stewart Inkster and Ashley Anderson are complete opposites. Stewart is smart and loyal though rather socially awkward while Ashley is beautiful, insecure, and unkind. They are thrown together when their parents move in together. After Stewart's mother dies, his dad finds love again with Ashley's mom and so Stewart and his dad Leonard leave their… Continue reading Book Review: We Are All Made Of Molecules – Susin Nielsen
Washington Black has not even been available for a month but it's already showing up on all sorts of award lists for the year, including The Man Booker Prize and the Giller Prize. (Edugyan won the Giller Prize for her last novel, Half Blood Blues.) I know Esi slightly in real life, back in my Victoria days. She… Continue reading Book Review: Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Karissa Reads Books 