I’ve had Lowland on my shelf for years. I’ve had it recommended to me over and over again, and I’ve seen it in more must-read lists than I can count. And yet, this is the first Jhumpa Lahiri book I’ve gotten around to trying. It’s a quiet book, an internal exploration. It follows one READ MORE
Category: Sunday Review
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY – RACHEL JOYCE
Harold Fry has been languishing on my shelf for years, just waiting for me to get around to meeting him. I was expecting a charming, sweet story of personal challenge and growth. I was expecting something heart warming and deeply emotional. What I got was… not exactly that. This book has a simple story READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | WE ARE NOT FREE – TRACI CHEE
A book that will take you into an often overlooked or hidden part of American history during WWII, and one that desperately needs to be brought to light, shared, talked about, and faced. This is the story of a group of young Japanese-Americans who live in San Francisco, in a community of immigrants (and READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | SEVEN KINDS OF PEOPLE YOU FIND IN BOOKSHOPS – SHAUN BYTHELL
I adore books about books, reading or readers. There are so many things I relate to when I find books about readers. Little details of how the world looks different if you spend a chunk of your life between the pages of books. The inability to walk past (or leave) a bookstore is probably READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA – TJ KLUNE
This book is magical. And I’m not just talking about, you know, the actual magic. I hadn’t really heard anything about either this book or this author before. Then it seemed like, overnight, it was everywhere. And I noticed it because, well, have you seen the cover? It’s stunning. But it turns out that READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | DIARY OF A SOMEBODY – BRIAN BILSTON
I picked this one up because my Dad was reading it and said it was amusing him. I’d been meaning to get to it and just not getting around to it for a while. It’s a comedic journal of a diffident man who likes to write witty poetry. The diary follows him through various READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES – DEESHA PHILYAW
There have been a few books from the past year or so that seem to keep popping up everywhere I look. It’s not a book I normally would have been drawn to – I’m not religious and don’t have much interest in the topic, so the title wouldn’t have appealed. I don’t normally read READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | PROJECT HAIL MARY – ANDY WEIR
Any fans of The Martian out there? Because I’m a big one. I re-read it this summer – I decided to give the audiobook a try – and loved it every bit as much as I did the first time I read it. And I instantly wanted more. The combination of complex scientific problem READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | FURIOUSLY HAPPY – JENNY LAWSON
I first read this after having my kid when I was suffering from a brutal combo of post-partum depression and anxiety, and was understanding, for the first time in my life, just how tenuous and delicate the mind’s hold on reality can truly be. I didn’t really understand what was happening to me at READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE ARGONAUTS – MAGGIE NELSON
For a short book, this packs one hell of a punch. It’s a memoir, kind of about everything. But if I had to try to distill it down I’d say it’s a critical assessment of society’s need to categorize people based on their gender and sexual orientation. It’s also a deep dive into what READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | JONNY APPLESEED – JOSHUA WHITEHEAD
I’ve been meaning to read this book for ages, ever since it started making waves in the Canadian literary scene. I heard Joshua Whitehead talk a couple of times in online presentations, and loved his candor, humour and intelligence. But it wasn’t until this book was selected as September’s book for the Storykeepers podcast READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE WINDOW SEAT – AMINATTA FORNA
I loved this book. I’ll say that right up front, in case you only see the tiny excerpt of this post. I adored it, I enjoyed every minute I spent reading it, and though I just finished it, I already want to read it again. I hadn’t ever read anything by Aminatta Forna before READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | CONSENT – ANNABEL LYON
The main reason I picked this book up was that it was nominated for the Women’s Prize for Fiction this year, and it was one of the few books on the list available in audiobook format from my local library. I didn’t really know anything about it going in, and there were a few READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | SPINNING SILVER – NAOMI NOVIK
Anyone who’s been here for a while will know: I’m not really into science fiction or fantasy. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it’s just not usually what I gravitate towards. I have a hard time with complex world-building, I have a hard enough time understanding humans so anything that involves other READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | CONCRETE ROSE – ANGIE THOMAS
I’m a huge fan of Angie Thomas’ writing. I read The Hate U Give and it became one of my all-time favourite YA books. I read On the Come Up and I found it challenging, unflinching and real. I was just a little bit excited to read her newest book and prequel to The READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | CALL THE MIDWIFE SERIES – JENNIFER WORTH
I’m a huge fan of the TV series Call the Midwife based on this trilogy of books. For those who don’t know, these books are the experiences of a young midwife working in Poplar, a poor neighbourhood in East London following WWII. She is one of a team of midwives who READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | BORN A CRIME – TREVOR NOAH
I’ve been meaning to read this book for years. I’ve tried it a few times, and liked it, but not gotten absorbed into it. I finally decided that audiobook was the way to go. Which was the perfect choice since it’s narrated by Trevor Noah, and everything’s better when it’s read by Trevor Noah. READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR – PAUL KALANITHI
This is probably one of the best-known memoirs to come out in the past decade. It’s written by a neural surgeon who was diagnosed with terminal cancer just as he was preparing to finish his training. So going into it, you know it’s going to be an intense read, and that you should probably READ MORE