Disclaimer: I've met Bill Gaston in real life and because he's a super nice person, it likely colours my review. That said, he is an award-winning Canadian writer so I'm not the only one being nice to him. After all that, I don't feel bad saying that I generally prefer his short stories to his… Continue reading Book Review – The World by Bill Gaston
Happy first day of summer! As you may recall, I am anti the so-called "beach read". Life's too short to read poorly written books. That said, last summer I attempted to tackle (again) Ulysses by James Joyce and failed (again). Partly because that honking great book was not the right choice to backpack through Europe… Continue reading Summer Reading List 2014
Anne Michaels excels at a certain kind of historical fiction. Historical fiction that pulls you deeply in to a character's life. A fiction that feels like the best family history you could hear, like someone you love whispering their secrets in your ear. I had high hopes for The Winter Vault (McClelland & Stewart, 2009)… Continue reading Book Review – The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels
I'm willing to bet that most people who were teenagers in 1999 remember where they were when they find out about the Columbine shooting. It was a sort of JFK assassination for our generation, a year and a half before the World Trade Centre towers fell. It wasn't the first school shooting and it wasn't… Continue reading Book Review – We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
This tiny novel - only sixty-nine pages - is really more of a short story. Yet, by offering it to us in book form, Zadie Smith confers on The Embassy of Cambodia (Hamish Hamilton, 2013) a greater depth and weight. Fortunately, this story deserves it. The Embassy of Cambodia focuses on Fatou, a domestic servant… Continue reading Book Review – The Embassy of Cambodia by Zadie Smith
I did not like this book. I remember when it was released and when it was selling out in stores and was at its height of popularity. Even now, people ask for it and seem to enjoy it. I just don't understand the appeal. The Art of Racing in the Rain (Harper Perennial, 2008) is… Continue reading Book Review – The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Gilead (HarperCollins, 2004) is a novel that shouldn't work but does. And masterfully so. There's not much action and there's even less dialogue and yet Robinson keeps the tension tight and the reader engaged. John Ames is in his late seventies and he knows he will die soon. He doesn't have much in the way… Continue reading Book Review – Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
I'm about twenty years too young to feel much nostalgia over the 1960s but I'm exactly the right age to understand that childhood dreams don't necessarily translate into adult life. The Interestings (Riverhead Books, 2013) starts out with six teenagers at a summer camp called Spirit-in-the-Woods. It's a camp for artistically-inclined youth and for each… Continue reading Book Review – The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
The cutesy cover and title of The Rosie Project (HarperCollins, 2013) might keep you away from this novel. But if you give it a chance, you'll likely find yourself hooked pretty quickly. I laughed for the first time on page 3 when the narrator, Don, says this: "I would have been satisfied with our relationship...but… Continue reading Book Review – The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Asia is a continent of extremes. As countries like China and India grow in global power and importance, I think more people are realizing this. Asia holds extreme wealth and extreme poverty in the same hand. Rich Crazy Asians (Doubleday Canada, 2013) focuses on the extremely wealthy population. This is a novel. Novels don't necessarily… Continue reading Book Review – Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Karissa Reads Books 