Tag book review
I received an ARC of this book, published earlier this year, and just rediscovered it in my shelf. I was easily absorbed into the world of Anna and Coleen, who have managed to become private investigators within Edmonton’s secret supernatural… Continue Reading →
This was an assignment for a student-led magazine at my university that was published out of the department’s student union. Unfortunately, this issue (Spring 2012) never saw publication. When I inquired as to the publication date, I was continually told… Continue Reading →
Far to Go by Alison Pick absorbed me fully—smoothly pulling me further and further into its midst. I didn’t want to stop reading and I absorbed the book in less than a week (quite the feat as it was during… Continue Reading →
Monoceros by Suzette Mayr is an emotional novel of incredible relevance, especially to families, schools, and adults trying to navigate the waters of today’s youth. A seventeen-year-old boy, bullied and heartbroken, hangs himself. And although he felt terribly alone, his… Continue Reading →
A Feast for Crows is the fourth title in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire series (aka The Game of Thrones). It seems too good to be true. After centuries of bitter strife and fatal treachery, the… Continue Reading →
The cover art of The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel caught my eye at the library and the back cover copy intrigued me: He holds the secret that can end the world. The truth: Nicholas Flamel was… Continue Reading →
Grant Lawrence recounts his childhood memories and family’s history at their Cabin in Desolation Sound. Mixed in are historical accounts from Captain George Vancouver, who gave the area its name, and tales of adventure and tragedy of the pioneers and… Continue Reading →
I received this book from work shortly after it was published in 2010, and I can’t believe I waited until this summer to read it. Christopher Meades weaves a unique and interesting tale with Henrik Nordmark and his quest to… Continue Reading →
Although Terry Goodkind said he wouldn’t be writing any more Sword of Truth books, he sort of slipped up with The Law of Nines. I’m guessing that book received a lukewarm review and thus The Omen Machine: A Richard and… Continue Reading →
Christopher Moore is one of my favourite humourists for his satirical wit, wry tone, and intelligent material. When I first read A Dirty Job about death and soul-collecting in San Francisco, I laughed myself to tears. Since then (2008) I… Continue Reading →
The second book in the Caster Chronicles by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl is Beautiful Darkness, which I read back in April of this year (oops). It’s a great second novel (published in 2010); a compelling young adult fantasy series… Continue Reading →
City of Bones is the first book in Cassandra Clare‘s “Mortal Instruments” YA series. It sets a fast-paced, engaging tone with strong characters, a fascinating urban fantasy world, and a very thorough back-story. The Paranormal world is hidden in plain… Continue Reading →
I read these three books in quick succession (March/April 2012), and greatly enjoyed the Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater. The writing is simple, straightforward, yet poetry, and the characters are well-rounded. The plot is a little predictable,… Continue Reading →
I wanted to read Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones because of the movie adapted by Hayao Miyazaki. Terrible, I know, but I’m a huge Miyazaki fan and now I want to read more by Diana Wynne Jones, so… Continue Reading →
Drums of Autumn is the fourth book in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, starring Scottish Highlander Jamie Fraser and time traveller Claire. Warning – Even the synopsis has spoilers. It’s difficult to discuss a book in a series without spoilers. It… Continue Reading →
I finished this book in December, and it was the perfect thing to read on cold, wintery nights. The fourth installment of the Buckshaw Chronicles—I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley—opens with Flavia de Luce in full form. It’s… Continue Reading →
I have wanted to read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs since the book trailer was released last year. I watched the trailer and read the synopsis probably six months ago but resisted buying it several times… Continue Reading →
“[Giller] judges said the novel “charts the painful search by a dutiful daughter to learn – and more importantly to learn to understand – the multi-layered truth which lies at the moral core of her dying father’s life”.” wrote The… Continue Reading →
And so A Song of Ice and Fire series continues with the third installment, A Storm of Swords. I finished this book in late August / early September and—without going bit by bit through the novel—let’s just say I enjoyed… Continue Reading →
These book reviews have been lingering for a while, so I figured I’d smoosh them together and call it a post. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens I’m embarrassed to admit that I read this nearly a year ago during… Continue Reading →
“I am Moth, a girl from the lowest part of Chrystie Street, born to a slum-house mystic and the man who broke her heart.” So begins The Virgin Cure, a novel set in the tenements of lower Manhattan in the… Continue Reading →
The Night Wanderer: A Native Gothic Novel by Drew Hayden Taylor is a YA coming-of-age story based in the late 90s on a fictional First Nations reserve in Ontario. A sleepy native reserve. A troubled teen girl. A vampire returns… Continue Reading →
Patrick deWitt is being credited with “reinventing the Western genre”, however The Sisters Brothers didn’t really feel like a traditional Western to me. In fact, it didn’t have to take place in a Western setting at all—the horses, the guns,… Continue Reading →
The Little Shadows will be published on September 27, 2011 but is already receiving a ton of buzz (including the Giller longlist Reader’s Choice). And I have to say that the praise is well-warranted. Gentle prose, quiet plot, and enticing… Continue Reading →
Fruit: A Novel About A Boy and His Nipples by Brian Francis is a heartfelt tale about 13-year-old Peter Paddington, who is overweight, gay, and unpopular. When his nipples poke out and start talking to him—with brutally honest opinions—he tries… Continue Reading →
