Category Books
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 →
C by Tom McCarthy was a finalist for the 2010 Man Booker Prize, listed as a National Bestseller, shortlisted for the Galaxy National Book Awards – Waterstone’s UK Author of the Year. Touted as “fascinating”, “extraordinary” and “brilliant” by well-known… 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 →
I read Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett more than four months ago, in early November. I’d had the book for more than a year, borrowed from my friend Chelle and due to the length of time I… Continue Reading →
I just got home from a midnight screening of The Hunger Games and it was really well done. When the cast list was first announced, I was a little worried about Katniss and Peeta because they didn’t look the same… Continue Reading →
One of the things you may notice on my blog is that I read a lot of Canadian fiction. I am by no means an authority in the area, but I try to keep informed about local authors and Canadian… Continue Reading →
Today marks two annual occasions: International Women’s Day and the finalist announcement for the BC Book Prizes. I worked for three years with the company that produces the BC Book Prizes, so I have a soft spot in my heart… 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 →
I read Angel Wing Splash Pattern, a short story collection by Richard Van Camp, during last semester. Van Camp is now a Vancouver resident, but grew up in the Northwest Territories as a member of the Dogrib (Tlicho) Nation. The… Continue Reading →
I read Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway last semester for an English course focusing on First Nations fiction. I also wrote my term paper for the course on the novel, exploring how redemptive arts expression can be… Continue Reading →
This is the first book of fiction by Stuart Clark, a well-known UK astrology journalist and astophysicist professor. The Sky’s Dark Labyrinth is the first of a trilogy of novels inspired by the history of trying to understand the Universe…. Continue Reading →
Give a book! If you need some great (newish, Canadian) recommendations, check out the Advent Book Blog. The Advent Book Blog is now in its third year and this is my second year participating (if I recall correctly). This year… Continue Reading →
Kynship is the first book in The Way of Thorn and Thunder series by Daniel Heath Justice, published by Kegedonce Press, an Aboriginal owned and operated publisher. The Everland has been home of the forest-dwelling Kyn and the other Eld-Folk… Continue Reading →
The Next Sure Thing is published by Orca Books, a local BC publisher with a lot of unique lines of books. A couple years ago I read First Time by Meg Tilly which was from the Orca Soundings imprint. 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 →
