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Zachary Houle
Zachary Houle

1.4K Followers

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Sep 14

Book Review: “Deliver Me” by Elle Nash

Deliver Us from Evil — Karl Ove Knausgaard wrote in his recent collection of essays, In the Land of the Cyclops, that he used to enjoy reading detective novels and thrillers. However, he came to realize that these stories don’t have the same literary heft as the classics of literature. From what I can recall…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “Deliver Me” by Elle Nash
Book Review: “Deliver Me” by Elle Nash
Books

5 min read


Sep 4

Book Review: “The Golem of Brooklyn” by Adam Mansbach

Adventures in Judaism — When I was in my first year as an undergraduate at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, I took an introductory Canadian history course (which I aced — I got the only A+ I ever received for an overall subject in school in that class). I was speaking in the class’s…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “The Golem of Brooklyn” by Adam Mansbach
Book Review: “The Golem of Brooklyn” by Adam Mansbach
Books

5 min read


Sep 2

Book Review: “North Woods” by Daniel Mason

House: Songs and Stories — I once worked for an outfit called the Canadian Institute of Historical Microreproductions (who later changed their name to the less wordy Canadiana.org, before getting absorbed into another institution in 2018 or thereabouts.) One of the things I did, and one of the things that I’m most proud of, is…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “North Woods” by Daniel Mason
Book Review: “North Woods” by Daniel Mason
Books

5 min read


Aug 30

Book Review: “Strangers to Ourselves” by Rachel Aviv

Revealing the Hidden Face of Mental Illness — One in three Canadians will suffer from mental illness during their lifetime. One in eight Americans use antidepressants, and a quarter of them have been doing so for more than a decade. By the time Canadians will reach 40 years of age, one in two have — or have had…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “Strangers to Ourselves” by Rachel Aviv
Book Review: “Strangers to Ourselves” by Rachel Aviv
Books

5 min read


Aug 27

Book Review: “Study for Obedience” by Sarah Bernstein

The Outsider — Canadian author Sarah Bernstein is being lauded for her recent novel, Study for Obedience, which was originally published in the United Kingdom but has now been published in Canada. This short novel is on the longlist for this year’s Booker Prize (with the shortlist to be announced in September), and…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “Study for Obedience” by Sarah Bernstein
Book Review: “Study for Obedience” by Sarah Bernstein
Books

5 min read


Aug 26

Book Review: “Hemlock Island” by Kelley Armstrong

The Isle of Terror-ible? — Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please? The early reviews have come in for Canadian writer Kelley Armstrong’s new standalone horror novel Hemlock Island, and they haven’t exactly been kind. Trade publisher Kirkus says this book is “a mishmash of mayhem, with wilderness adventure, supernatural phenomena, environmental activism…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “Hemlock Island” by Kelley Armstrong
Book Review: “Hemlock Island” by Kelley Armstrong
Books

5 min read


Aug 20

Book Review: “Bliss Montage” by Ling Ma

Misery Montage? — When an author publishes a book of short stories, it usually comes after their debut as a novelist. It seems rare that an author comes out of the gate with a short story collection. The idea is that novels sell, while short story collections don’t. Thus, a publisher will only…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “Bliss Montage” by Ling Ma
Book Review: “Bliss Montage” by Ling Ma
Books

5 min read


Aug 19

Book Review: “If I Survive You” by Jonathan Escoffery

Men Leave — Jonathan Escoffery’s groundbreaking and trailblazing debut, If I Survive You, is a book that has come with a boatload of hype. It’s not really a novel, because it is a series of eight interlinked short stories. But it’s also not a short story collection, either, as the stories overlap and…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “If I Survive You” by Jonathan Escoffery
Book Review: “If I Survive You” by Jonathan Escoffery
Books

5 min read


Aug 13

Book Review: “Kick Out the Jams” by Dave Marsh

R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. — I don’t know who originally said it — the following quote has been attributed to everyone, I think, from Elvis Costello to Frank Zappa — but there’s a truism in the idea that “writing about music is a little like dancing about architecture.” It’s an act of futility — an…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “Kick Out the Jams” by Dave Marsh
Book Review: “Kick Out the Jams” by Dave Marsh
Books

5 min read


Aug 12

Book Review: “The Invisible Hour” by Alice Hoffman

A Cult and a Classic — Author Alice Hoffman knows that magic resides in books. She has written about that magic in her latest novel, The Invisible Hour. This is the story of a young girl who finds escape and solace in her local small-town library and within the world of classic novels — even though…

Books

5 min read

Book Review: “The Invisible Hour” by Alice Hoffman
Book Review: “The Invisible Hour” by Alice Hoffman
Books

5 min read

Zachary Houle

Zachary Houle

1.4K Followers

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

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