In the womb, you hear people talking and their voices sound like someone you're in love with talking in their sleep. from "Heaven" Heather O'Neill excels at creating metaphors that are both etirely unique and powerfully, strangely accurate. This skill - seen in her novels (Lullabies for Little Criminals and The Girl Who Was Saturday… Continue reading Book Review: Daydreams of Angels by Heather O’Neill
I was surprised to realize that No Great Mischief is Alistair MacLeod's only novel. He's a well-known name in Canadian literature but his reputation comes largely from his short stories. In his novel he displays the same careful prose - each word chosen with deliberation and intent. Like the rest of his writing, No Great… Continue reading Book Review: No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
Grace River is a slim little novel, told from the alternating perspectives of four residents of a small town in British Columbia called Grace River. It's a town where most people know each other, where most people grew up nearby, and the main industry is the smelter, Axis. Our four narrators are Jessie, Daniel, Kali,… Continue reading Book Review: Grace River by Rebecca Hendry
A few years ago I heard Michael Christie read from his then new short story collection, The Beggar's Garden. I enjoyed the stories and so was curious to read more from him, now in novel form. If I Fall, If I Die doesn't disappoint and I found it even more readable and enjoyable than his… Continue reading Book Review: If I Fall, If I Die by Michael Christie
Remembrance is a short book, more of an essay, really than maybe even a story. I read it in one middle-of-the-night baby-feeding session. It's the story of three David MacDonalds; father and son and grandfather. The focus is primarily the first David MacDonald, who left his pregnant wife and young daughter to serve with the… Continue reading Book Review: Remembrance by Alistair MacLeod
Sometimes you reach the end of a book and you have to go into the other room and simply sit and stare at your sleeping baby for a few minutes. Yann Martel is, of course, best known as the author of The Life of Pi. A book that powerful is a hard act to follow… Continue reading Book Review: Beatrice & Virgil by Yann Martel
I really disliked this book. It surprised me how much I disliked this book. And then it surprised me to remember that this book is a Giller prize winner*, an award that is highly respected within Canada. I'm not surprised that a book I don't like won the Giller prize because literary enjoyment can be… Continue reading Book Review: The Bishop’s Man by Linden MacIntyre
There are multiple stories occurring within the scope of this novel. We have Charles Hazelius Sternberg (a real life historical figure), a fossil hunter, creeping closer to the end of his career, possibly losing his mind in the Alberta badlands, in 1916. We have Sternberg's young assistant, Scott Cameron, in the trenches of World War… Continue reading Book Review: The Bone Sharps by Tim Bowling
This is a book with a surprisingly tight plot. I say surprisingly because there are a lot of plot lines going on here and yet each one is compelling, thoughtful, and well fleshed-out. There's a murdered French trapper, a remote Hudson Bay Company fort, a Norwegian religious community, the twenty year disappearance of two young… Continue reading Book Review: The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
Nothing so reminds you like the sea that the enemy of life is not death but loneliness. For some reason, the names of the men who vied to reach the South Pole are far better known than those who competed to reach the North. I know about Scott and Amundsen and, of course, Shackleton, but… Continue reading Book Review: The Navigator of New York by Wayne Johnston
Karissa Reads Books 