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
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
The Stolen Bicycle - Wu Ming-Yi (translated from Mandarin by Darryl Sterk) (Text Publishing, 2017) This was such an unexpected, playful, thoughtful, and informative book. It reads more like a non-fiction story rather than a novel, perhaps because it’s hard to tell at times how much is based on the author’s actual life. And perhaps… Continue reading Book Review: The Stolen Bicycle by Wu Ming-Yi
Intermezzo - Sally Rooney (Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2024) An intermezzo, in music, is a short instrumental movement between larger acts. In chess, it refers to an unexpected move that forces an immediate response. Reading these definitions after I finished Sally Rooney's most recent novel, it struck me immediately what a fitting title the book… Continue reading Book Review: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
The Fox Wife - Yangsze Choo (Henry Holt & Company, 2024) It's so nice when you pick up a book expecting to enjoy it and it lives up to all of your expectations. I was very hopeful for The Fox Wife as it had a lot that gave it points in my mind: 1) Historical… Continue reading Book Review: The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
The Capital of Dreams - Heather O'Neill (Harper Collins Publishers Ltd., 2024) I received an Advance Readers' Copy of this book. All opinions are my own. Publication Date: 9 October 2024 I've read all of Heather O'Neill's fiction (see some reviews here) over the years, starting with the debut novel that launched her into CanLit… Continue reading Book Review: The Capital of Dreams by Heather O’Neill (20 Books of Summer)
I loved this book. Picking up a book by a new author, particularly when the book is the author's first publication, can be a exciting but risky endeavour. I saw The Other Valley on a list of new publications and that it was being compared to books by Emily St. John Mandel and Kazuo Ishiguro,… Continue reading Book Review: The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
What I've appreciated most about Kevin Chong's work in the past is how Vancouver it is. And even though the city and the Chinatown that his latest novel takes place in is never named, it clearly felt like Vancouver to me. The Chinatown I remember in the 90s and early 2000s felt very present to… Continue reading (Audio) Book Review: The Double Life of Benson Yu by Kevin Chong
Antarctica by Claire Keegan and The End of the World is a Cul de Sac by Louise Kennedy are two short story collections by female Irish writers. Since I read them back to back, it was hard not to compare them as I was reading and I felt it made a sort of sense to… Continue reading Book Review: 2 Irish Short Story Collections
A thought took her by surprise: I should have been born a man. But that wasn't it. She didn't want to be a man. She just wanted to be a woman with the same freedom to choose as a man had. Kate Grenville, Restless Dolly Maunder Dolly Maunder is sharp, smart, and ambitious. Born in… Continue reading Book Review: Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville
Karissa Reads Books 