The Mothers Brit Bennett Riverhead Books October 11, 2016 Disclaimer: An Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARC) of the book was provided by the publisher for an honest review. I found out about this book while reading the October 2016 issue of Vogue. Lupita Nyong’o was on the cover looking gorgeous as usual, and I came across…
Dogears: Strangled by Scarves
Exit, Pursued By A Bear E.K. Johnston Dutton Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House Canada March 15, 2016 Disclaimer: A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Full disclosure: I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and talking to E.K. Johnston many times on Twitter and at events….
Short Story Collections You May Have Missed in 2015
It took me a long time to really appreciate the short story. I hated reading them in high school and university, and was convinced my time would be better spent on novels. People would give me collections as gifts and they would sit, unread on my bookshelf collecting dust. A few years ago, however, I…
This Gulf of Time and Stars: Returning to the Clan Chronicles with Julie Czerneda
Canadian author, Julie Czerneda, first broke onto the science fiction scene in 1997 with her novel, A Thousand Words for Stranger, which transported readers to the far future, where interstellar travel is possible and humans and aliens intermingle. She also introduced readers to the Clan, a wealthy and powerful alien race, who look like humans and have been…
Book That Shaped Me: Great Expectations
I’m the reader and writer I am today because of Great Expectations, by which I mean, I’m the reader and writer I am today because I watched an episode from season one of South Park. Wait, what? Let me explain … As kids, most of us experience pop culture through adaptations, whether they’re the large-print…
A Blood-Soaked Girl: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly Stephanie Oakes Dial / Penguin June 9, 2015 Minnow Bly has spent twelve years in the Kevinian cult. Twelve years living away from society, twelve years of her parents blindly following everything the Prophet says. Their decisions have cost her a home, a family, and perhaps worst of all,…
Dogears: Korean Jane Eyre, Polish Fantasy, and Everyday Barf
Re Jane Patricia Park Pamela Dorman Books May 5, 2015 Despite the book’s problems—you know, the colonialism and portrayal of Bertha Mason—I have always loved Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I loved how independent and even snarky she could be for a 19th century heroine. Jane’s return to brooding, jerky Rochester at the end of the…
Two Takes on An Ember in the Ashes
An Ember in the Ashes Sabaa Tahir Razorbill/Penguin April 2015 Breakout author Sabaa Tahir has been in book news quite a bit over the last few months. I first read about her when PRI successfully baited me into clicking on their headline, “Why ‘An Ember in the Ashes’ could launch Sabaa Tahir into JK Rowling territory.”…
Dogears: The Next Generation of Unapologetic, Obstinate Busybodies
How it Went Down Kekla Magoon Henry Holt and Co. October 21, 2014 Do you know the phrase, “there are two sides to every story?” Instead of two, this book presents about a dozen. The only facts of the story—presented in a foreword titled “The Incident”—are that black teenager Tariq Johnson, was shot twice by…
The Ten Must Read YA Novels of 2014
This was a big year for Young Adult novels. Some big series came to and end and some new ones exploded onto the scene. Scandals broke out, articles were written. Dystopian stories finally began to fade away and stand alone contemporaries were all the rage. So it’s no wonder that it took three Women Write…
Joseph Boyden Edits New Collection of First Nation Stories
Joseph Boyden, Canadian author and winner of the Giller Award and Canada Reads, has announced his latest project — Kwe: Standing With Our Sisters. Kwe is an anthology of stories about First Nations women in Canada, featuring work from more than fifty contributors, including Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Gord Downie, Thomas King, Lee Maracle, and Yann…