Exit West by Moshin Hamid In the futuristic, magical novel Exit West by Moshin Hamid, Saeed and Nadia meet in an evening class in an unidentified country that is under siege and about to explode into war. Saeed is contemplative and reserved while Nadia is fiercely independent and confident. As their friendship develops, the fighting […]
The Night CircusBy Erin Morgenstern Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus is a spellbinding fairy tale of a novel. Jumping back and forth through time, and moving from London to Cairo to Boston to Montreal, The Night Circus makes you feel as though magic is everywhere, if you just know where to look. Hector Bowen makes […]
Station Eleven By Emily St. John Mandel A famous actor has a heart attack on stage as he performs King Lear; a paramedic-in-training jumps out of the audience to perform CPR; and a 7-year-old actress watches her mentor pass away. Outside the theatre, snow is falling, and a deadly flu is quickly spreading across the […]
Miss EmilyBy Nuala O’Connor “Oh, chimerical, perplexing, beautiful words! I love to use the pretty ones like blades and the ugly ones to console. I use dark ones to illuminate and bright ones to mourn. And when I feel as if a tomahawk has scalped me, I know it is poetry then and I leave […]
History of Wolves History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund Told through the perspective of 14 year old Linda/Madeline, History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund is an incredible first novel filled with emotion, power and depth exploring Linda’s coming of age in a remote community in the northeastern US. Linda lives in a shack on the […]
The Japanese LoverBy Isabel Allende The Japanese Lover is a love story steeped in history, using San Francisco as a backdrop for its measured progression. The book opens with Irina, a care aide at Lark House, a seniors’ home in San Francisco. Irina’s life begins in poverty in her native Moldova. As an immigrant to […]
Smoke Gets In Your EyesBy Caitlin DoughtyIn preparation for Caitlin Doughty’s second book I thought I would re-read her first. This member of the Order of the Good Death is a YouTube favourite of mine. I regularly enjoy her Morbid Minutes and Ask A Mortician series.Doughty writes very much like she speaks, making this an […]
Minds of WinterBy Ed O’Loughlin In 1845, the Erebus, an Arctic exploration vessel captained by Sir John Franklin was lost to the harsh conditions of the North. Neither man nor artifact was ever recovered from this expedition and there has been much speculation about what happened to the ship and its crew. However, historians […]
Don’t I Know You?by Marni Jackson There is a slightly surreal quality to Marni Jackson’s debut novel, Don’t I Know You? A novel broken into short stories, each one following Rose McEwan’s life from 16-60. These stories go through Rose’s life chronologically, and each one contains a pop culture figure as a central character role […]
The Husband’s SecretThe Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty The Husband’s Secret was an unexpected choice for me as I don’t usually seek out mystery, and am always wary of it getting too dark and creepy. Luckily Liane Moriarty filled the bill on a great, suspenseful read. A mysterious sealed letter from her husband- to […]