I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou (Ballantine Books, 2015) This is the type of book that I'm not sure I can fairly review. Partly because it tells a story that isn't mine to judge or critique but also partly because I just really loved it. I didn't enjoy every moment -… Continue reading Book Review: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Etched in My Memory - xwu'p'a'lich, Barbara Higgins (Creator's Touch Press, 2017) I really enjoyed this book. The stories are full of personality and interesting anecdotes and the unique place in which I am fortunate enough to live really comes alive through the author's histories. xwu'p'a'lich, or Barbara Higgins, is an Indigenous woman, born in… Continue reading Book Review: Etched in My Memory by xwu’p’a’lich, Barbara Higgins
How We Disappeared - Jing-Jing Lee (Hanover Square Press, 2019) This is a story that takes place in three parts. In one part (what I would argue is the heart of the novel) We follow Wang Di through the years of World War Two, a young woman living in Singapore with her family. Her family… Continue reading Book Review: How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee
Hold on to Your Kids - Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate (Vintage Canada, 2005) Attachment theory is at the heart of this book. Children need a safe, secure, and nurturing attachment with a loving adult in order to mature and develop in a healthy emotional manner. As our society becomes increasingly peer-oriented, parents unconsciously encourage… Continue reading Book Review: Hold on To Your Kids by Gordon Neufeld & Gabor Mate
Emma Hansen is 39 weeks and 6 days pregnant with her first child when she wakes in the morning and feels something is wrong. An ultrasound reveals that the baby has died in the womb and the next day, on her due date, she delivers her stillborn son. While all of my book reviews are… Continue reading Book Review: Still by Emma Hansen
Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi (Anchor Canada, 2017) The scope of what Yaa Gyasi achieves in Homegoing is truly impressive. In just over 300 pages, she lays out eight generations, two branches splitting out from one woman. The story begins with two young women, Effia and Esi. Daughters of the same woman, they grow up in… Continue reading Book Review: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
The Mercies - Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Little, Brown and Company, 2019) In Finnmark, Norway in 1617, a sudden storm strikes out of nowhere one day, killing forty men in the small fishing village of Vardo. This represents almost all the men of Vardo and in the months following the women left behind must figure out… Continue reading Book Review: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
When I first saw Ducks, Newburyport on the shelf at the bookstore and when I first read about it, I thought, "Well, there's a book I'll never read." The story clocks in at 988 pages. It's a stream-of-consciousness novel, told mostly in one rambling sentence. The parts that aren't this stream-of-conscious are told from the… Continue reading Book Review: Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
No More Nice Girls - Lauren McKeon (Anansi, 2020) I received an Uncorrected Proof of this book. All opinions are my own. We tell girls that they can be anything they want to be. But is this really true? Are they truly going through life with the same opportunities as their male peers or is… Continue reading Book Review: No More Nice Girls by Lauren McKeon
Bleak House - Charles Dickens (W.W. Norton & Co, 1977) A 500+ page book with a focus on an obscure aspect of 19th century British law doesn't exactly sound gripping and yet Dickens brings it all to life in a story filled with humour and emotion. In many ways, all of Dickens' best elements are… Continue reading Book Review: Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Karissa Reads Books 