The novel opens with Sadie Woodbury, elementary school student, finding herself face-to-face with a would-be school shooter. Sadie (and, presumably, the entire school or at least the secretary the shooter came to kill) is saved by teacher George Woodbury, also her own father. This is a rather heavy-handed way of letting the reader know how… Continue reading Book Review: The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall
One of my 2017 reading goals is to read more short stories. Readers seem to have a love 'em or hate 'em relationship with short stories (especially short story collections) but I fall firmly into the love 'em category. Particularly in my life right now, I enjoy being able to finish a whole story in… Continue reading Book Review: Barrelling Forward by Eva Crocker
Last week we celebrated because our girl turned two! We've been talking with Pearl for a while about her birthday and that she would be two and she'd figured out the response to, "How old are you?" ("Two!" said with a huge amount of glee.) Though "two" also became the response to any other question… Continue reading Pearl is 2!
Here I Am is 500+ pages and it took me about half of that to begin enjoying the novel. Having read Foer's work before, I was sure my commitment would pay off. At the same time, my expectations of Foer's work led to some initial disappointment with Here I Am. Foer's two previous novels, Extremely… Continue reading Book Review: Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Conjoined - Sookfong Jen Lee (ECW Press, 2016) Here I Am - Jonathan Safran Foer (Hamish Hamilton, 2016) Jacob was a man who withheld comfort but stood at thresholds long after others would have walked away. He always stood at the open front door until the car pool drove off. Just as he stood… Continue reading What I Read – February 2017
The Conjoined is filled with everything you hope will never happen to your daughter. Although set in the city of Vancouver whose streets and neighbourhoods I recognize, the story seems to exist in some alternate universe where Vancouver is terrible, always dangerous, where nothing good exists, everyone is evil, and you might as well not… Continue reading Book Review: The Conjoined by Jen Sookfong Lee
Lotto and Mathilde meet at the very end of their final year of university and marry two weeks later. They're young, broke, and both shocked by the fact of falling in love. Fates and Furies follows them through the next twenty or so years of their marriage, detailing the ups and downs, the secrets that… Continue reading Book Review: Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
Sandra Boynton is currently one of Pearl's favourite authors. Her books are colourful, goofy, and full of animals. While Boynton has many, many books for children, the ones pictured above are the titles we own. Boynton uses lots of rhyme and song to keep the books entertaining and fun to read. Pearl will ask for… Continue reading Reading with Pearl: Sandra Boynton
Father Dowling is a young Catholic priest in a city parish. One day he happens to meet two young women, prostitutes, and begins a sort of friendship with them. His love for them is strong - perhaps even Christ-like - but shockingly naive and his increasing single-mindedness and involvement in their lives becomes distorting and… Continue reading Book Review: Such is My Beloved by Morley Callaghan
After the three of us recovered from our extended colds, January turned out to be a pretty good month around here. Pearl is now 23 months! Her hair is long enough that it occasionally gets in her eyes, she is currently getting a new tooth, and she is full of energy. We stayed away from… Continue reading January…
Karissa Reads Books 