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
Category: Book Review
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
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THIS BOOK IS ANTIRACIST – TIFFANY JEWELL
This Book is Anti-Racist is a graphic non-fiction book for young readers that covers the basics of racism – history, terminology, identities, and how to deal with and address it. I picked it up mostly because I liked the graphic style and have been looking for books on the topic for any age, as I READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | ALONE TOGETHER – JENNIFER HAUPT, ED.
The past year and a half has been rough. For everyone. In the entire world. Most of us have suddenly had to narrow our lives down to only a few people, some of us haven’t even had that. We’ve been coping with fear, loss, uncertainty. Some of us have been coping with death or READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | REDHEAD BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD – ANNE TYLER
The title of this book is the first thing that drew me in. Who is this redhead? What are they doing by the side of the road? Why are they there? How did they get there? It fascinated me, and I wanted to find out the answers – turns out the explanation isn’t anything READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | HOMELAND ELEGIES – AYAD AKHTAR
This book caught my attention when it first came out – the premise is timely and interesting, and I was curious to explore the mixture of fiction and non-. This novel is about a man called Akhtar (like the author), a playwright who has reached some acclaim (like the author). The novel traces his READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | A CHILDREN’S BIBLE – LYDIA MILLET
This is another book I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read, for a few reasons. First, I’m not well versed in religion. Christianity is, for me, a bit of a mystery. I’ve heard some of the more pervasive references (Noah, Kane and Abel, the story of Jesus’ birth and that of his death, READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THERE THERE – TOMMY ORANGE
I loved the premise of this book. It’s about twelve different Native American characters who live in urban settings, and what it’s like for them in their different walks of life. It shows which parts of their experiences overlap, where they diverge and where they connect – and they all do connect – in READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | SHUGGIE BAIN – DOUGLAS STUART
Shuggie Bain has been hard to avoid over the past year. It’s a debut novel, but seemed to emerge fully-formed, and wowed pretty much every reader it was put in front of. It was nominated for multiple literary prizes, and won the The Booker Prize. It’s interesting to me that Shuggie seems to have READ MORE