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Zachary Houle
Zachary Houle

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May 27

Book Review: “Mr. Katō Plays Family” by Milena Michiko Flašar

A Man Called Katō? — Milena Michiko Flašar’s Mr. Katō Plays Family is being compared to Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove. At least, it is so by the publicity department at the former novel’s publisher. The reason why is that both books share a “new lease on life” theme, but in the case of…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “Mr. Katō Plays Family” by Milena Michiko Flašar
Book Review: “Mr. Katō Plays Family” by Milena Michiko Flašar
Books

5 min read


May 22

Book Review: “The Lottery and Other Stories” by Shirley Jackson

Oft Imitated — When I lived in Toronto some 15 years ago, I took Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and Other Stories out of the library. I wanted to read “The Lottery” and see what all the fuss was about since I had read that that particular short story was controversial when it was…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “The Lottery and Other Stories” by Shirley Jackson
Book Review: “The Lottery and Other Stories” by Shirley Jackson
Books

5 min read


May 14

Book Review: “The Whispers” by Ashley Audrain

Kitchen Sink Realism — When I was in my 20s, I briefly dated a woman named Whitney who had a five-year-old son. At some point in this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it relationship, we had a conversation predicated on the idea of who would Whitney rescue if me and her son were drowning. She said she would go…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “The Whispers” by Ashley Audrain
Book Review: “The Whispers” by Ashley Audrain
Books

5 min read


May 10

Book Review: “Killing Moon” by Jo Nesbø

Lucky Number 13 — Even though Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole police detective series has run for 13 novels now and has been adapted into one 2017 film, I must admit that I’ve never heard of these books and their protagonist — although its author has made bestseller lists. Thus, I must say that it…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “Killing Moon” by Jo Nesbø
Book Review: “Killing Moon” by Jo Nesbø
Books

5 min read


May 6

Book Review: “The Mountain in the Sea” by Ray Nayler

Octopus’s Garden — I was attracted to Ray Nayler’s impressive The Mountain in the Sea — which goes into trade paperback at the end of May 2023 — by the fact that the work had been blurbed by two science-fiction authors whose work I greatly appreciate and admire: Jeff VanderMeer and Charlie Jane…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “The Mountain in the Sea” by Ray Nayler
Book Review: “The Mountain in the Sea” by Ray Nayler
Books

5 min read


Apr 29

Book Review: “Camp Zero” by Michelle Min Sterling

The American Invasion (of Canada) — Camp Zero is one of those books that has inevitably gotten compared to Emily St. John Mandel’s now classic novel Station Eleven. And the jaded reader could sigh at this because there has been a lion’s share of books that have been influenced directly by Station Eleven: The Wolves of…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “Camp Zero” by Michelle Min Sterling
Book Review: “Camp Zero” by Michelle Min Sterling
Books

5 min read


Apr 26

Book Review: “The Road to Dalton” by Shannon Bowring

Right Next Door to Stephen King Country — The setting of Shannon Bowring’s impressive debut, The Road to Dalton, will be familiar to most readers of Stephen King’s classic horror novels — though there’s not much horror to be had here unless one is referring to the domestic home-life kind. (As an aside, this is a book that…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “The Road to Dalton” by Shannon Bowring
Book Review: “The Road to Dalton” by Shannon Bowring
Books

5 min read


Apr 25

Book Review: “Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday” by Jamaluddin Aram

The Absurdity of War — The recent history of Afghanistan has been tumultuous, to say the least. I know firsthand. When Canada was still fighting the War on Terror in the country, I was involved with a Canadian government aid organization that strove to educate people about changing conditions there. Still, things were fraught with…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday” by Jamaluddin Aram
Book Review: “Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday” by Jamaluddin Aram
Books

5 min read


Apr 22

Book Review: “Ghost Towns of Ontario’s Cottage Country” by Andrew Hind

Ghosts of the Past — Andrew Hind’s Ghost Towns of Ontario’s Cottage Country was not quite the book I was expecting, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As a former resident of Barry’s Bay, Ontario, I thought the “cottage country” related to the book’s title would apply to the area where I grew up…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “Ghost Towns of Ontario’s Cottage Country” by Andrew Hind
Book Review: “Ghost Towns of Ontario’s Cottage Country” by Andrew Hind
Books

5 min read


Apr 19

Book Review: “Truth Telling” by Michelle Good

The Sobering Truth — It turns out that I might have been wrong. This is the conclusion that I’ve reached after reading Truth Telling, a work by an Indigenous author of Canada named Michelle Good (Five Little Indians). This is a collection of seven essays ranging from issues such as residential schools to missing…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “Truth Telling” by Michelle Good
Book Review: “Truth Telling” by Michelle Good
Books

5 min read

Zachary Houle

Zachary Houle

723 Followers

Book critic by night, technical writer by day. Follow me on Twitter @zachary_houle.

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