I read Care Of by Ivan Coyote, which was such a perfect book to read during times of doom and despair. It offered connection, empathy, and a small but significant opportunity to leave my existence behind. I was already a fan of Coyote’s, but that book really clinched it. I’ve had Tomboy Survival Guide
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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
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | GREENWOOD – MICHAEL CHRISTIE
Michael Christie’s first novel, If I Fall, If I Die, was one of my favourite books of the past five years. It was a surprise to me, but one I will be forever grateful to have discovered. Since closing the cover of that book, I’ve been waiting for Christie to publish another one. So when
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SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE | 2018 LONGLIST
Yesterday the longlist for one of my favourite literary prizes was announced! It’s the Scotiabank Giller Prize, which is a Canadian prize for fiction. So first, for those of you who aren’t Canadian and/or haven’t heard of the prize before, here’s a little bit about it: The Giller Prize was founded in 1994 by
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CANADA READS 2018 | FINALE & WINNER
Today was the final day of the Canada Reads 2018 debates! If you’ve missed the past few days you can find all three videos and my thoughts on the progress of the debates here. If you missed the finale, here’s the video (and watch to the end because my question made it into the
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CANADA READS 2018 | DAYS 1, 2 & 3
Canada Reads 2018 is now well underway! The first three days of debates are behind us, and with them three books have already been voted off (amidst a lot of drama and controversy), and we are down to our two finalists. Here’s what happened, in case you missed it! If you have no idea
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CANADA READS REVIEW | FORGIVENESS – MARK SAKAMOTO
This is the true story of Mark Sakamoto’s grandparents’ experiences during WWII and how those experiences shaped their lives – but also how they chose to take back control in spite of them. The first section of the book alternates between two stories. His maternal grandfather’s experiences as a young soldier sent to Hong
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CANADA READS REVIEW | THE MARROW THIEVES – CHERIE DIMALINE
This is a post-apocalyptic young adult novel that takes place in a world where climate change has destroyed the land. The coastlines have moved inwards, waterways have become polluted, and populations have become more and more dense as people were forced to migrate inland. In this world, white people have lost the ability to
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CANADA READS | 2018 PANELLISTS, LONGLIST AND SHORTLIST
It’s that time of year again! Canada Reads 2018 is just around the corner. There’s just enough time left to dive into the books you want to read from the shortlist before tuning in for this year’s debates, but first, let’s take a look at the longlist and get to know this year’s panellists. Canada
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CANADA READS | AN OVERVIEW & LINKS TO PREVIOUS YEARS’ DEBATES
I’ve never really felt all that Canadian. My parents came to Canada just a year before I was born, and didn’t really take to a lot of the quintessentially Canadian pastimes and cultural touch points. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot I love about my country. It’s beautiful, diverse, full of opportunities
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | BORN WEIRD – ANDREW KAUFMAN
I thought this book was going to be quirky going into it, but I was still surprised. This is the story of the Weird family, five siblings whose lives have been overshadowed by unique character traits that have both protected and hamstringed them. We first meet Angie, who has been called to her grandmother’s
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | WICKED AND WEIRD – RICH TERFRY
Rich Terfry is a Canadian public figure – I use that term because I can’t think of a better one for a man who has been an (almost pro) baseball player, a hip hop artist and a CBC radio presenter – and is now an author. He is better known by many as “Buck 65,”
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BOOK REVIEW | CRIME SEEN – KATE LINES
A criminal profiler, trained at Quantico, former Chief Superintendent of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Kate Lines recounts her remarkable story using pivotal cases she worked on in the course of her career. How does a farm girl from Ennismore enter a male-dominated field and become a top criminal profiler and groundbreaking leader? For
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RELEASE DAY REVIEW | IF I FALL, IF I DIE – MICHAEL CHRISTIE
A heartfelt and wondrous debut, by a supremely gifted and exciting new voice in fiction. Will has never been to the outside, at least not since he can remember. And he has certainly never gotten to know anyone other than his mother, a fiercely loving yet wildly eccentric agoraphobe who drowns in panic at
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | STATION ELEVEN – EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL
An audacious, darkly glittering novel about art, fame and ambition set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, from the author of three highly acclaimed previous novels. One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | ALL MY PUNY SORROWS – MIRIAM TOEWS
Miriam Toews is beloved for her irresistible voice, for mingling laughter and heartwrenching poignancy like no other writer. In her most passionate novel yet, she brings us the riveting story of two sisters, and a love that illuminates life. You won’t forget Elf and Yoli, two smart and loving sisters. Elfrieda, a world-renowned pianist, glamorous,
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BOOK REVIEW | THE WAYFINDERS: WHY ANCIENT WISDOM MATTERS IN THE MODERN WORLD – WADE DAVIS
“…[R]emember the central revelation of anthropology: the idea that the social world in which we live does not exist in some absolute sense, but rather is simply one model of reality, the consequence of one set of intellectual and spiritual choices that our particular cultural lineage made, however successfully, many generations ago.” A friend
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BOOK REVIEW | PARIS TIMES EIGHT: FINDING MYSELF IN THE CITY OF DREAMS – DEIRDRE KELLY
Paris is probably the only city in the world that is dreamed about by such a wide variety of people – romantics, historians, artists, fashionistas and jet-setters alike. It is a city that is famous not only for notorious home-grown figures like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Victor Hugo, but also for
