In Real Life Jessica Love St. Martin’s Griffin/Raincoast Books March 1st, 2016 A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. You know when you read a book and you don’t expect it to inject you with so much emotion that it catches you off guard? That moment of…
Canada Reads: In Defence of Birdie by Tracey Lindberg
This year the theme of Canada Reads is “starting over.” Some of our writers decided to join in and defend some of the short-listed titles, including Tracey Lindberg’s Birdie. Tracey Lindberg introduces Birdie and her story to readers not in a prologue, nor on page one of chapter one, but instead in her dedication. We read…
Canada Reads: In Defence of Lawrence Hill’s The Illegal
This year the theme of Canada Reads is “starting over.” Some of our writers decided to join in and defend some of the short-listed titles. My siblings are second generation Canadians, but I, along with my parents, am first generation. My father came ahead of us to set up, while little me (at a year-and-a-half) and my mother…
The Mediator Is Back With a New Novella: Proposal
It’s hard to discuss Meg Cabot without considering the feelings of teen me. I grew up with her writing, and it helped my reading transition from middle school to young adult with The Princess Diaries. From there, I took off devouring almost everything she’s written from series (1-800-Where-R-You) to the standalone (How To Be Popular) to her adult…
Dogears: Under a Painted Sky, The Vegetarian, The Widow
Under a Painted Sky Stacey Lee G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers March 17, 2105 I never thought that I liked Westerns all that much until I read Under a Painted Sky. Or maybe I still don’t like Westerns that much, but rather I just really like feminist Westerns starring two kick ass women…
Book Review: Wide Awake in Slumberland
Wide Awake in Slumberland: Fantasy, Mass Culture, and Modernism in the Art of Winsor McCay Katherine Roeder University Press of Mississippi January 1, 2013 Given the current situation of newspaper comics, it’s sometimes hard to believe that a century ago they were big business, wildly popular, and the source of some of the most innovative…
Time Travel Experiments of a Psychomathematician: Arcadia by Iain Pears
Arcadia by Iain Pears was released in the UK in September 2015 and has now had its North American release on February 9th 2016. The novel takes place over a series of timelines and from a variety of perspectives, so much so that there is an Arcadia iOS and Android App to help readers deep track…
Tell Me a Story: Short Audiobook Reviews
Hausfrau Jill Alexander Essbaum Narrated by: Mozhan Maron Random House Audio March 17, 2015 Anna is a housewife. A bored housewife. She feels alone in a foreign country where she doesn’t speak the language. Her husband’s friends are her whole social circle. She even feels distant from her children at times. She feels as though…
Ten Things I Have Learned About Mental Illness from Jenny Lawson
I have been in therapy for over a decade now. I have tried a variety of medications and experienced a variety of diagnoses—mostly with the same theme: depression, anxiety, obsessive-depressive, obsessive-compulsive like symptoms, and so on. The Bloggess Jenny Lawson has depression, severe anxiety, avoidant personality disorder, occasional depersonalization disorder, self-harm issues, OCD, and trichotillomania….
2014 Hugos Versus 2015 Sad Puppies: Novellas
In this series on the Sad Puppies controversy, I have been comparing the works picked for the 2015 Sad and Rabid Puppies slates with the stories that were nominated for the Hugo in 2014. Were the previous nominees truly overwhelmed with preachy “message fiction”? What kinds of stories had the Sad Puppies chosen to promote…
Dogears: Delicate yet Vicious
These Vicious Masks Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas Swoon Reads February 9, 2016 Were there mutants in Victorian England? Of course there were! Nobody said Professor X and his crew were the earliest gifted! The Misses Wyndham, snarkster supreme, Evelyn, and sweet, slightly underdeveloped, Rose, share the lucky gift of making people well. When Rose suspiciously…
Blood and Glitter: A Book of Art, Perspective, and Choices
“I don’t go into a session intending to make any kind of statement. I’m looking for the mysterious, how to explore the unique enigma of the situation. I think photography is as much about concealing as it is about revealing. The resolution lies in the art of freezing. The thrill is to seize the magic…