(Point Form) Book Review: The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr

Point Form Book Reviews are my way of catching up on book reviews where maybe too much time has passed or I don't have a whole lot to say about a book but still want to share some thoughts. I actually don't have a lot of thoughts about this book. It wont the Giller Prize… Continue reading (Point Form) Book Review: The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr

2021 Highlights: Week 40

Mask mandates have changed (again) and masks are now required for all students in schools. Previously, they were only required for students in grades 4 and older. While we've always encouraged (and often required) our girls to wear masks in public spaces, Pearl has never been in the habit of wearing a mask at school.… Continue reading 2021 Highlights: Week 40

Book Review: How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

How to Pronounce Knife - Souvankham Thammavongsa (McClelland & Stewart, 2020) How to Pronounce Knife is the most recent winner of the Giller Prize, probably Canada's most prestigious literary award. It is a collection of short stories, a common thread running through of The Outsider. More specifically, these are stories that detail elements of the… Continue reading Book Review: How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

Book Review: The Innocents by Michael Crummey

The Innocents - Michael Crummey (Doubleday Canada, 2019) Michael Crummey is an absolutely beautiful writer. His prose is evocative and thoughtful and unique. He does description of place in fresh and fascinating ways. His books are usually quite character-driven while also maintaining a certain distance between reader and character. His protagonists are eery, otherworldly, a… Continue reading Book Review: The Innocents by Michael Crummey

Book Review: Lampedusa by Steven Price

Lampedusa - Steven Price (McClelland & Stewart, 2019) Lampedusa is a quiet, contemplative novel about a man close to death. It opens in Sicily, in Palermo, as Giuseppe Tomasi, the last prince of Lampedusa learns that he is dying of emphysema. Giuseppe is an older but not old man, prematurely aged by both his smoking… Continue reading Book Review: Lampedusa by Steven Price

What I Read – September 2019

Read: The Fall - Albert Camus (Alfred A. Knopf, 1957) To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (Warner Books, 1982) Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee (HarperCollins, 2015) The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? - F.F. Bruce (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1981) Everything Under - Daisy Johnson (Jonathan Cape, 2018) Milkman -… Continue reading What I Read – September 2019

Book Review: Late Breaking by K.D. Miller

As I read through K.D. Miller's short story collection, I began to create a web of characters, drawing lines between the names that appeared on the pages of various stories. The stories are linked in the most satisfying type of way. Existing in the same world, primarily taking place in Hamilton or Sackville, the characters… Continue reading Book Review: Late Breaking by K.D. Miller

The Giller Prize 2019: Longlist

The Giller Prize (sorry, The Scotiabank Giller Prize) is, arguably, the major literary prize in the Canadian book scene. The Giller Prize has been awarded annually since 1994 and the winner is now awarded $100,000. When Michael Redhill won in 2017, he shared a picture of his bank statement on social media, demonstrating just how… Continue reading The Giller Prize 2019: Longlist

Book Review: Our Homesick Songs

I can faintly recall, as a child, watching the national news, noticing a lot of talk about fishing out east. The lack of fish, the death of an industry and a lifestyle. It was my own country but very far away and very removed from my own city childhood on the opposite coast. In 1992,… Continue reading Book Review: Our Homesick Songs

Book Review: Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Washington Black has not even been available for a month but it's already showing up on all sorts of award lists for the year, including The Man Booker Prize and the Giller Prize. (Edugyan won the Giller Prize for her last novel, Half Blood Blues.) I know Esi slightly in real life, back in my Victoria days. She… Continue reading Book Review: Washington Black by Esi Edugyan