Category: review
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Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
I woke the next morning knowing that nothing would be the same. It would change and go on changing. Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea has been on my list for a long time. The story gives new voice to Bertha, the boogeywoman from one of my favourite novels, Jane Eyre. Reimagined as Antoinette Cosway in Rhys’ beautiful, ripe world…
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Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull
Ed Catmull’s Creativity Inc. was an accomplishment for me. I’ve never been a huge fan of non-fiction books. Not that I shy away from the genre as a whole but that I prefer a deep delve into a narrative which many authors of non-fiction don’t fulfill. Catmull, as one of the founders of Pixar, doesn’t…
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The Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks
I first heard about James Rebanks through his Twitter account @herdyshepherd1 which features beautiful photos of his flock and brought the rural Lake District of England into my daily life. The Shepherd’s Life is Rebanks’ first novel, a memoir told in seasons, capturing the traditional farming lifestyle he was born and raised into. His story and sense…
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On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee has been most aptly compared to the works of Cormac McCarthy and Kazuo Ishiguro. The post-apocalyptic fiction is grim and lyrical but I find it sticks out in a way which its peers haven’t. Lee’s novel has a thread of comfort sewn throughout it in the form…
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The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
I only wrote this review a few months ago, but there has been an exciting new development in the real world which Lawrence Hill drew inspiration from. The Nova Scotia government has released the real Book of Negroes as an open data set for researchers or anyone to use really. You can see a digitized…
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Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay’s essay collection, Bad Feminist, is essential reading. The professor cum Twitter personality works through the question: “How do we reconcile the imperfections of feminism with all the good it can do?” Beginning with herself, Gay presents the body of a black woman as a platform for analysis, examining the politics of that state…
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Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill
A tale of innocence and adolescence will crack your heart right open. Lullabies for Little Criminals is the coming-of-age story of Baby, who lives mostly on the streets of Montreal with her father Jules, a drug addict. O’Neill’s bildungsroman looks at the myriad of issues surrounding street kid culture. Readers are forced to question why…
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Family Life by Akhil Sharma
I was transfixed reading Akhil Sharma’s Family Life. The semi-autobiographical novel is full and heavy with grief and comedy following the story of the Mishtra family from the perspective of Ajay, the youngest son, as they cope not only with immigrating to America from India but the tragic loss of their eldest child. Birju becomes brain…
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Truth & Bright Water by Thomas King
I picked up my copy of Truth & Bright Water at the 2015 Hagey Lecture featuring Thomas King. His lecture entitled “Love in the Time of Cholera: Canadian Edition” was moving, topical, and, of course, exceedingly funny. Meeting authors I adore is always a panic-filled moment for me. I fear that meeting my hero may reveal a…
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Reading Austen’s Juvenilia
I haven’t really been able to live up to my weekly blogging schedule since the school term started so I can only say from here out to do my best to post every now and again. Although the majority of my reading life right now is what my professors have put on my syllabi so…
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The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie was recommended to me by a beloved professor after I had mentioned reading The Inconvenient Indian. This is not my first time reading Alexie. Although I am more familiar with his body of poetry, his short story collection carries his signature voice: thoughtful, well-spoken,…
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The Silver Star by Jeanette Walls
I often find in the pursuit of creating a touching, artistic story novels turn the world into a dark and unfair place, which it can be if we’re being honest, but sometimes what readers need is a good storybook ending. It’s okay to say you like a book that has a predictable ending where everything…