I've previously read Chesterton's The Man Who was Thursday (review here), Orthodoxy, and some of his Father Brown mysteries and generally enjoyed Chesterton's writing. So I thought it might be interesting to read his autobiography, first published in 1936. Autobiography is, perhaps, a misleading title. What this book really is is a series of essays,… Continue reading Book Review: Autobiography by G.K. Chesterton
I've read all of Heather O'Neill's published work and reviewed two of them here. (Daydream of Angels and Lullabies for Little Criminals) Obviously, I enjoy her work and thankfully her latest novel didn't disappoint. If you like O'Neill's previous work, then I think you'll be pleased with The Lonely Hearts Hotel. Using Montreal once again as her setting,… Continue reading Book Review: The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill
I was inspired to re-read Agatha Christie's famous mystery novel And Then There Were None after reading FictionFan's book review. I'd read this short mystery story a couple of times before, years ago, but it had always stuck in my memory as one of the finest mystery novels I've read. Years ago, reading it for the first time,… Continue reading Book Review: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
A couple of disclaimers first: This book will be released on July 11th by Knopf. I got an Advanced Reading Copy, with no expectation of anything in return. I did not finish reading this book. I made it to page 92/chapter 12 and gave up. I knew I wasn't the target audience of this novel.… Continue reading Book Review: Gork, the Teenage Dragon by Gabe Hudson
After a somewhat awkward incident of an acquaintance thinking I'd borrowed his copy of The Tennis Partner almost ten years ago and never returned it, I decided to take it as a sign and actually read the book. (I got it from the library, however.) Having read Cutting for Stone last year, I already knew… Continue reading Book Review: The Tennis Partner by Abraham Verghese
For most of high school, I lived within walking distance of a Sikh temple in East Vancouver. A lot of my friends were Punjabi and so while there's still a lot I don't know about Sikh culture, I'd say I'm fairly familiar with it over all. So I was excited to read Basran's novel of… Continue reading Book Review: Everything Was Good-Bye by Gurjinder Basran
I'll start off by saying that I almost gave up on this book halfway through. I'm glad I didn't but it isn't a long novel and it took me most of it to feel truly engaged. The story is divided between two characters and times. Yuki is a teenager in New York in the… Continue reading Book Review: Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
You know how, as you get older, you begin to realize that your family is maybe not so normal? That all the things they do that you thought were average, might actually be a little crazy? That's what's happening to Matty Telemachus. Sure, Matty's always known his family is unique. Not many families once travelled… Continue reading Book Review: Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory
After reading Zoe Whittall's most recent novel, The Best Kind of People, I was eager to see what her earlier work was like. I enjoyed Holding Still for as Long as Possible and would even go so far as describing it as more realistic than The Best Kind of People. The description on the front… Continue reading Book Review: Holding Still for as Long as Possible by Zoe Whittall
It's a bit unfair to lump these two story collections in together but I read them almost back to back and, a few weeks later, am struggling to differentiate them in my mind. A Manual for Cleaning Women and Collected Stories are collections of a life's worth of short stories by Lucia Berlin and Grace… Continue reading Book Review: 2 Short Story Collections
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