As 2024 draws to a close, I'm looking back at the reading goals I set at the beginning of the year. What were they? Read 30,000 pages Read 15 translated works Read 30 books I already own. Read 25 books that have been on my TBR since before 2023. And how did I do? I… Continue reading What I Read – 2024
Tag: Karissa Reads Books
The Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards: Best Fiction
Hello and welcome back! This is our final category in these prestigious literary awards and the one I personally find the hardest. Fiction by far dominates my reading each year and I think I read a fairly wide variety of fiction which also makes it hard to choose my favourites. This year I've narrowed it… Continue reading The Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards: Best Fiction
Book Review: God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Guys, why did I think this was a sasquatch story? Why did I spent at least two thirds of this book waiting for a sasquatch to show up? I swear I remember reading this in a blurb or review somewhere but I obviously got it mixed up (or vastly misunderstood). So, let's be clear: there… Continue reading Book Review: God of the Woods by Liz Moore
The Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards: Best Canadian Book
Hello and Welcome Back! Today we're delving into Can Lit. In case you didn't know, I'm a Canadian and I strive to read Canadian fiction. I do this for a lot of reasons but primarily because I actually think Canadian writing is largely really good. I believe that our literature is one of the areas… Continue reading The Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards: Best Canadian Book
The Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards: Best Short Story Collection
Welcome back! Today's focus is short stories. I love short stories and I always wish I read more of them. There's something so satisfying about sitting down and reading an entire story in one gulp. For this category, I'm looking at what was the most satisfying over all collection of short stories. In 2024, I… Continue reading The Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards: Best Short Story Collection
Book Review: Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers
Shy Creatures - Clare Chambers (Mariner Books, 2024) Helen Hansford is an art therapist, working as an art therapist at Westbury Park, a psychiatric hospital. The year is 1964 and art therapy is still something of a new idea. Helen enjoys her work and is challenged by it but psychotherapy is on the cusp of… Continue reading Book Review: Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers
What I Read: November 2024
Read: The Mythmakers - John Hendrix (Abrams, 2024) The Leopard - Giuseppe di Lampedusa (translated from the Italian by Guido Waldman) (Pantheon Books, 2007) Tyll - Daniel Kehlmann (translated from the German by Ross Benjamin) (Pantheon Books, 2020) Rainbow Valley - L.M. Montgomery (Seal Books, 1976) James - Percival Everett (Doubleday, 2024) The Christian Book… Continue reading What I Read: November 2024
The Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards: Best Non-Fiction
Hello and welcome! I'm back with the (somewhat) Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards! I've been doing this for a few years now (inspired by the incomparable FictionFan). My attempt at these awards petered out last year due to the craziness that was my life in December 2023 but this year I've started early and… Continue reading The Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards: Best Non-Fiction
Book Review: Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann
Tyll - Daniel Kehlmann (Pantheon Books, 2022) (translated from the German by Ross Benjamin) I had never heard of Tyll Ulenspiegel before picking up this novel but I gather that he's a well-known German folk figure. A classic trickster type, given to bawdy jokes. Here Kehlmann brings him into the context of the Thirty Years… Continue reading Book Review: Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann
Book Review: The Mythmakers by John Hendrix
The Mythmakers - John Hendrix (Abrams, 2024) Two of the greatest literary voices of the 20th century - and certainly two of the most influential voices in the realm of fantasy literature - are undoubtedly J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. There aren't many readers in the Western world today who haven't been influenced by their… Continue reading Book Review: The Mythmakers by John Hendrix
Karissa Reads Books 