Tag: fiction
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The Red Palace by June Hur
I first heard about The Red Palace from the author, June Hur, herself. I stumbled across her Instagram reels recapping her various historical fiction novels, and when I read “a dark romantic mystery about a palace nurse and a royal investigator” I knew it was a must-read. The novel takes place during the Joseon dynasty…
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Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Like many, I heard about Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree through hype online. The name alone made it an obvious choice for me, but it helped that I was in the mood for reading something light and fluffy to combat these cold, dreary days. The book is exactly that—a real cinnamon roll of read—heart…
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A Chorus of Mushrooms by Hiromi Goto
I first discovered Chorus of Mushrooms in a used bookstore. It’s red and black cover caught my eye and the title including mushrooms (in these fungi obsessed times) was enough for me to pick it up and take it home. Little did I know at that time this wonderful piece of fiction by Hiromi Goto…
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Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Pachinko is one of those novels that I felt I should have read a while ago. It had been recommended to me so many times, by so many different friends I was curious how I would finally react once I read it. It’s a meaty book that made it perfect for my 2022 holiday break,…
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How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
Souvankham Thammavongsa’s How to Pronounce Knife is a masterful collection of short stories that bite. The book is a meditation on the feelings of displacement, discomfort, and alienation that often comes with the immigrant experience, particularly the refugee experience, in Canada. Most stories end on a melancholic note, but it isn’t all doom and gloom.…
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Beyond Asian Heritage Month: A Reading List
Since 2002, the month of May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada. Being the largest, most populous continent in the world, there are so many works from so many authors to read! The thousands of years of history within each country and between many of them has produced a complex and rich background that it…
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Lattes with Ladies: Jessie Ho!
Our first returning Lattes with Ladies guest: Jessie Ho! I first interviewed Jessie in 2017 while she was living in Hong Kong. We regrouped in March of this year—literally days before quarantine began—and it was fun to revisit what was going through our minds back then. You can follow her on Instagram at @iejessie or…
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Pride Reading List
Pride month is over but that doesn’t mean that celebrations have to stop! Celebrate a second Pride month (or all year around if you like) with these LGBT2Q+ books. In this case, these are books that either are written by LGBT2Q+ authors and/or feature LGBT2Q+ characters, as recommended by members of the LGBT2Q+ community in…
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Lattes with Ladies: Jessica Needham!
In this edition of Lattes with Ladies we are celebrating Pride with the effervescent Jessica Needham! Jess shares her thoughts on queer books versus queering books and her fascinating research into queer media studies.
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Lattes with Ladies: Elizabeth Scott!
This is a long and lovely interview I did with the hilarious and indomitable Elizabeth Scott back in January when meeting up in a cafe was no big deal at all. All of the references to what she had been reading and how many books she read thus far were from when the year had…
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The Boat People by Sharon Bala
Sharon Bala’s The Boat People is controversial, to say the least. Featured in the 2018 Canada Reads competition only to be ousted on day one, it takes an honest attempt to steer the course of Canadian conversation by directly addressing one of our hot-button issues of the moment. In this case, the refugee crisis. Starting in 2009,…
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Lattes with Ladies: Erin Taylor!
After much ado, (a year’s worth of it at least) I finally have another Lattes with Ladies interview featuring my good friend, writer, and globetrotter Erin Taylor. You can follow Erin on her Instagram and wait with bated breath like the rest of us for her first book. HPL: First off, what are you reading…