This is the closest I'll get to any sort of "2013 in Review" type post. What better way to look back at a year than to see what I read in those 365 days? Several I reviewed here (click the title to read the review), but many I didn't, so I've listed every book I… Continue reading What I Read – 2013
Category: Book Reviews
Book Review – Reality Boy by A.S. King
Reality Boy is not a book I would have read if I hadn't been given a copy. This is a young adult novel about a teenage boy. I'm not exactly the target audience. However, I thought the premise of Reality Boy was fascinating. Gerald is almost 17. When he was five, his family was featured… Continue reading Book Review – Reality Boy by A.S. King
Book Review – This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
For a book lover, there are few greater things than finding an author you love who is still alive. The thrill of falling in love with a new book is only made greater when you learn that its author is a contemporary who is still writing. At least, that's how I always feel about Ann… Continue reading Book Review – This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
Telling the Truth in Fiction
I used to work in a bookstore. One day, an older gentleman came in looking for our non-fiction section. This question becomes something of a joke to anyone who works in a bookstore; every part of the store that isn't fiction is non-fiction, after all. I didn't question the man though, merely told him where… Continue reading Telling the Truth in Fiction
Book Review – The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon
I'm a few years behind on this train but let me be the most recent person to tell you this: The Golden Mean (Random House Canada, 2009) by Annabel Lyon is a great book. Lyon brings an extraordinary amount of humanity and relevance to the historical story of Aristotle in Macedon. While the action of… Continue reading Book Review – The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon
Book Review – The Blondes by Emily Schultz
Since I first heard the premise of Emily Schultz's novel, The Blondes (Doubleday Canada, 2012), I've been eager to read it. Set in a world much like ours, but one in which a virus has begun to spread. Its victims become disoriented, clumsy, and then savage, reacting violently to everything around them until they kill… Continue reading Book Review – The Blondes by Emily Schultz
Book Review – The Keep by Jennifer Egan
The Keep (Anchor Books, 2006) begins with a castle, an unnamed European country, and a spectacularly annoying character. Danny has just arrived, with a one-way plane ticket to meet a cousin he hasn't spoken to in years, at a dilapidated castle. He doesn't know where he is or why his cousin has brought him there.… Continue reading Book Review – The Keep by Jennifer Egan
Book Review – Galore by Michael Crummey
For a long time I've wanted to visited the Canadian East Coast. Pictures of lighthouses in Nova Scotia look beautiful. I'm a big fan of Lucy Maud Montgomery, who set the majority of her books on Prince Edward Island. But every book I've read about Newfoundland makes it sound like a cold, desolate place. (See:… Continue reading Book Review – Galore by Michael Crummey
Book Review – Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
I love hearing other people's testimonies. You will never hear two the same. Every Christian has a unique story of how they came to be in relationship with Jesus Christ. I think that's so amazing. Testimonies continuously remind me of God's love for us, individually. So I like reading testimonies too. I appreciate when authors… Continue reading Book Review – Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
Book Review – News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is undoubtedly best known for his beautiful "magic realism" prose. In novels like Love in the Time of Cholera or The General in his Labyrinth, Marquez masterfully joins fiction and fancy so that it becomes beautifully impossible to tell what's based in reality and what is not. Even his personal memoir, Living… Continue reading Book Review – News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez