BOOK REVIEWS

★ White World

Saad T. Farooqi’s debut novel White World starts right in the middle of the action – with his protagonist, Avaan, running with a gun in his hand, in a dystopian Pakistan engulfed in a civil ... Read More »

October 9, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Noodles on a Bicycle

By Kyo Maclear and Gracey Zhang (ill.)

Noodles on a Bicycle invites readers to experience the wonder of watching delivery men balance precarious towers of boxed noodles and bowls while cycling through the busy streets of mid-20th-century Tokyo. Author Kyo Maclear tells ... Read More »

October 9, 2024 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books

Hope Is a Woman’s Name: My Journey as a Bedouin Palestinian Activist in Israel

By Amal Elsana Alh’jooj

Hope can be a woman’s name, and it can also be a motivating force. For Amal Elsana Alh’jooj, hope was bestowed upon her at birth when her father decided to call her Amal, which means ... Read More »

October 2, 2024 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Race & Ethnic Relations, Reviews

Keep

By Jenny Haysom

Eventually, whether before a move or after a loss, we all have to make difficult decisions about what stays and what goes. Jenny Haysom’s debut novel Keep begins with a literal version of this challenging ... Read More »

October 2, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

What’s in Alanna’s Secret Sauce?

By Sarah Jane Conklin and Venus Angelica (ill.)

What’s in Alanna’s Secret Sauce? by Sarah Jane Conklin and illustrated by Venus Angelica is a picture book in verse that tells the story of nine-year-old Alanna and her Nan, who are looking to make ... Read More »

October 2, 2024 | Filed under: Kids’ Books, Picture Books

★ What I Know About You

By Éric Chacour; Pablo Strauss (trans.)

When a novel receives multiple international awards and accolades in its original language it’s difficult not to approach the English translation with a combination of trepidation and high expectation. Will the book meet the high ... Read More »

September 25, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

When the Pine Needles Fall: Indigenous Acts of Resistance

By Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel; with Sean Carleton

The summer of 1990 was bookended by one of the most dramatic events in Canadian history. Thousands of paramilitary Quebec police and Canadian Armed Forces laid siege to the unceded territories of Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawà:ke, ... Read More »

September 25, 2024 | Filed under: History, Indigenous Peoples, Memoir & Biography, Race & Ethnic Relations, Reviews

The Unfinished

By Cheryl Isaacs

For Avery, running is the most natural thing in the world. It’s a way for her to exist outside the complexities of her life, to temporarily forget about her mother’s struggles as a newly single ... Read More »

September 25, 2024 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

★ Juiceboxers

By Benjamin Hertwig

When readers first meet Plinko, the focal character of Edmonton writer Benjamin Hertwig’s harrowing and powerful debut novel, Juiceboxers, it is 1999 and he is 16 years old, a fan of The Lord of the ... Read More »

September 18, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim

By Jacob Wren

A Jacob Wren novel is known for several things: narrators undergoing neurotic self-interrogation, a consideration of the gap between theory and practice, and a certain metafictional flair when it comes to signalling the work’s own ... Read More »