Dear Current Occupant - Chelene Knight (Book*hug, 2019) I read this short book in one afternoon after returning home from the library. It brought back a deep and strange nostalgia. The houses I grew up in, the neighbourhoods, the streets. Chelene Knight and I grew up in the 1990s, in east Vancouver, sometimes blocks away… Continue reading Book Review: Dear Current Occupant by Chelene Knight
This is a picture of my kitchen counter on a Saturday morning. Cooking pancakes (one cooling on a plate for Pearl) and planning our meals for the coming week. We do our big grocery shop once a week, usually on Saturday mornings. I cook five or six of those meals. (I'm the one who is… Continue reading Book Review: Cookbooks I Like
Chop Suey Nation - Ann Hui (Douglas & McIntyre, 2019) I will freely confess that I am a Chinese food snob. I'm obviously not Chinese but I was born in Hong Kong and I grew up in Vancouver, a city filled with Chinese people and amazing Chinese restaurants. My family ate Chinese food quite frequently… Continue reading Book Review: Chop Suey Nation by Ann Hui
Crow - Amy Spurway (Goose Lane, 2019) Stacey Fortune has returned home to die. She's crawling back to Cape Breton Island to move in with her mother, her brain riddled with tumours. Her life in Toronto has not turned out exactly how she hoped but she isn't eager to return to Cape Breton either. She's… Continue reading Book Review: Crow by Amy Spurway
Boys: What It Means to Become a Man - Rachel Giese (Patrick Crean Editions, 2018) At first glance, this might seem like a strange book for me to read. As a mom to two girls, I have no need to know how to raise a boy. There are enough things to worry about and figure… Continue reading Book Review: Boys by Rachel Giese
Carry Me - Peter Behrens (Anansi, 2016) One word that comes to mind when I think of Carry Me is "ambitious". A novel covering two world wars, as well as the complex period between them. A novel covering this period over England, Germany, Ireland, and even a bit of America. It's a lot and it… Continue reading Book Review: Carry Me by Peter Behrens
Leaving the Witness - Amber Scorah (Viking, 2019) I received an Advance Readers Copy of this book. It will be on sale June 4, 2019. Leaving the Witness is a very personal and honest memoir of Amber Scorah's experience as a Jehovah's Witness missionary in Shanghai. Growing up in the restrictive boundaries of the Witnesses,… Continue reading Book Review: Leaving the Witness by Amber Scorah
Ordinary People - Diana Evans (Bond Street Books, 2018) The wondering had increased, until she had announced to the midwife that she wanted a VBAC, the term referring to the category of women who are stupid enough to try it again the natural way, to return to the vagina, to risk the rupturing of the… Continue reading Book Review: Ordinary People by Diana Evans
The Night Tiger - Yangsze Choo (Flatiron Books, 2019) The Night Tiger first come on my radar when I read FictionFan's review of it (read it here). Right away I knew it sounded like a book I'd enjoy. A bit of Chinese/South Asian history, a bit of magic realism. I'm happy to say the book… Continue reading Book Review: The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo
The Incendiaries - R.O. Kwon (Riverhead Books, 2018) The Incendiaries left me with a lot of questions. Which isn't surprising in such a taut, relatively short book. But the greatest question was: Is Will a reliable narrator? Will Kendall tells the story of his years at Edwards College, a prestigious (fictional) university on the East… Continue reading Book Review: The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
