Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues Fowler (Mariner Books, 2019) Stubborn Archivist has a lot of the hallmarks of a debut novel - an unnamed narrator whose life reflects the author's in a lot of ways, a focus more on character and situation than plot, a lot of play with perspective and style including a lot… Continue reading Book Review: Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues Fowler
Girlfriend on Mars - Deborah Willis (Hamish Hamilton, 2023) Amber Kivinen has been accepted as a contestant for the ambitious MarsNow program. One of 24 selected from hundreds of applicants, Amber will participate in a reality TV Program to pick two finalists who will launch into space and be the first man and woman on… Continue reading Book Review: Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis
Bangkok Wakes to Rain - Pitchaya Sudbanthad (Riverhead Books, 2019) Even as I was reading Bangkok Wakes to Rain, I found myself thinking, How am I going to classify this book? It's a novel but not exactly. It's a collection of short stories but that's not quite right either. It has sections that feel like… Continue reading Book Review: Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad
I read an Advance Uncorrected Proof of this book thanks to HarperVia. This book was translated from the original Dutch by Laura Watkinson. The story of how Frankenstein came to be is a famous one. Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and some other guy (John Polidori but I always forget about him) gathered together… Continue reading Book Review: Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout
In the Balkans in the years following the war, Natalia is a young doctor reeling from the recent death of her beloved grandfather. As she travels to a small village across the border to administer childhood vaccines, she is also searching to unravel her grandfather's history. There are two crucial stories that formed him: his… Continue reading Book Review: The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
Tom Lake - Ann Patchet (Harper Collins, 2023) Ann Patchett is one of my favourite authors so any new book by her is a must-read in my mind. I picked up my copy of Tom Lake the day after it came out and then saved it for a week or two until I could devote… Continue reading Book Review: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Translated from Spanish to English by Edith Grossman What does it mean that my thrifted copy of Of Love and Other Demons had a photograph of a dog tucked into it? The photo has a white border and features a semi-rotund husky type dog in the centre, its eyes glowing in the flash of the… Continue reading Book Review: Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Alina is a young woman, a teacher, in the 1970s, living in the Socialist Republic of Romania, under a restrictive Communist regime. She and her husband, Liviu are generally happy and in love but when Liviu's brother defects, both of them fall under suspicion and her increasingly threatened with surveillance and interrogation. As the stress… Continue reading Book Review: Bottled Goods by Sophie van Llewyn
Yellowface is a messy woman/disaster story in the best possible way. It's the sort of book that will have you inwardly yelling at the protagonist about her bad choices but you don't want to stop reading because you just have to find out how it all ends. June Hayward is an author of small success.… Continue reading Book Review: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
The Certainties - Aislinn Hunter (Knopf Canada, 2020) The Certainties is exactly the kind of dreamy, poetic novel that I find it so easy to fall in love with. It's a style of writing that I adore but I also know that it isn't for every reader. This novel reminded me of others I loved… Continue reading Book Review: The Certainties by Aislinn Hunter
Karissa Reads Books 