1 day agoBook Review: “True Story” by Danielle J. LindemannA Sociological Study of Reality TV — Not long after The Apprentice debuted on network TV in 2004, I was attending an Ottawa Senators hockey game on home ice. Beside me, two silver-haired men were talking, and their topic of conversation was the aforementioned reality TV show. They were dismissive of it and laughed a lot as…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
5 days agoBook Review: “Still, I Cannot Save You” by Kelly S. ThompsonA Five-Hanky Weepie — It might seem to be weird that Still, I Cannot Save You is a book being released on Valentine’s Day 2023. After all, even though this is a book about the bond between two sisters, that bond is not necessarily, on the surface, a very loving one. Anyone who has…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
Jan 23Book Review: “Fear Itself” by James K. MoranThe Heinz 57 of Horror — If Stephen King once described himself as the Big Mac and fries of American literature, then I think it would be safe to say that you could maybe call Canadian horror author James K. Moran the Tim Hortons’ everything bagel and Quebecois poutine of horror fiction (even if he’s not…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
Jan 20Book Review: “Last Winter” by Carrie MacA Cautionary Tale — And now we come to a book that I can’t make heads or tails of. Carrie Mac is a Canadian author who identifies as both queer and a woman who suffers from a form of bipolar disorder, but her treatment of a character in her novel Last Winter who suffers…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
Jan 15Book Review: “And Finally” by Henry MarshA Mortality Tale — It is possible to be both the examiner and examined. I can speak with firsthand experience of interviewing hundreds, if not thousands, of people during my career as a freelance journalist, but also can say that I found myself in the reserved role of interviewee when it came time to…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
Jan 13Book Review: “Two Nights in Lisbon” by Chris PavoneUgly Americans — When Chris Pavone’s Two Nights in Lisbon was initially published in hardcover last May, there was a great deal of pre-release hype behind it. I got a print galley, a digital galley, and then a finished copy of the novel — which all came to me by the publisher without…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
Jan 11Book Review: “The Contemplative Tarot” by Brittany MullerA Divine Devotional — I have a story to tell if people would allow me the indulgence (as usual). When I was a teenager, I got a deck of tarot cards for my birthday. Accompanying this gift was another present: a book on how to read the cards and tell fortunes. I was excited…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
Jan 9Book Review: “Valley of Shadows” by Rudy RuizMexican Magic (Realism) — I am suffering from a form of writer’s block as I sit down to pen this review. What can I say about the magical Valley of Shadows? The publisher is trying to sell it as a novel of magic realism — a genre unto its own where the mundane and…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
Jan 7Book Review: “Complicit” by Winnie M LiThe Wail of a Siren — Last month, I published a review of Nghi Vo’s Siren Queen, a work of speculative fiction where a young Asian American girl gets propelled to A-list status of sorts as an actor in Hollywood during an alternate 1930s. Winnie M Li’s Complicit is sort of like reading the inverse of…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
Jan 4Book Review: “In the Land of the Cyclops” by Karl Ove KnausgaardA Short Essay on a Book of Essays — When I was growing up in small-town Ontario, Canada, people considered me to be smart. So smart, it was said, that I could commit a crime and figure out a way to get away with it. When it came time to join the ranks of the workforce I found that…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
