TheBest Kind of People by Zoe Whittall Avalon Hills, a privileged town in Connecticut, is the picture of respectability. Their renowned prep school is a place where young people go to learn, grow, and get accepted into Ivy League colleges. George Woodbury is a highly respected teacher at this school, winning teacher of the year every […]
Moon of the Crusted Snow By Waubgeshig Rice Waubgeshig Rice’s novel Moon of the Crusted Snowopens in the crisp autumn chill of a northern Ontario reserve. Evan Whitesky, a young husband and father, prepares his home for impending winter. Even in these times of modern conveniences, Evan uses his knowledge of hunting to feed his […]
The Best We Could Do Thi Bui Upon becoming a first time mother, Thi Bui reflects on the lives of her Vietnamese parents. In an effort to understand her tense relationship with her parents, the author explores her family’s story and recreates it in this beautiful graphic memoire. During the fall of South Vietnam in […]
The Thirteenth Tale By Diane Setterfield “There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.” (p. 8) […]
The Summer Before the War By Helen Simonson The Summer Before the War is a slow burning story of the inhabitants of Rye, England at the outbreak of World War I. Despite the threat of war, in typical British style, the inhabitants of Rye keep calm and carry on. Focusing on the everyday lives of […]
Our Homesick Songs By Emma Hooper The Connors live in Big Running, Newfoundland where, for generations, people have lived by the ebb and flow of the cod fishery. The sea is their lifeblood. Emma Hooper masterfully depicts the culture of small town Newfoundland in Our Homesick Songs. Parents Aidan and Martha can remember when fishing […]
By: Djamila Ibrahim Things are good now tells poignant and thought provoking stories of immigrants and refugees to Canada from East Africa and the Middle East. From a female ex-freedom fighter struggling with her new reality of cleaning toilets and hospital sheets to a newly adopted young Ethiopian girl facing the horrors of her first […]
Sometimes I Lie By Alice Feeney Sometimes I Lie, by Alice Feeney is a psychological thriller, a genre that I rarely choose as I don’t like to sleep with the light on. However, I have recently delved into this type of book a little. Having survived The Girl on the Train, I thought I […]
The Overstory By Richard Powers “The most wondrous products of four billion years of life need help.” (p.165) In Richard Powers’ novel The Overstory, trees, the powerhouses of the Earth, draw in a cast of characters from vastly different backgrounds. There’s Nicholas Hoel, whose family has spent generations documenting the growth of the Hoel Chestnut […]
by: David Casarett Ladarat Patalung, nurse ethicist, widow, amateur sleuth? At the Sriphat Hospital in Chang Mai, Thailand, Ladarat is approached by a local detective to help solve a potential case of murder. A woman brought her husband to the emergency room where he then passed away. This is nothing strange in a hospital; however, […]