Space CaseBy Stuart Gibbs Dashiell Gibson is only 12 years old, but he has the privilege of being one of the first people to live on the moon. Although that sounds exciting, life on the moon can be pretty boring. Seeing the same people and doing the same things every day can get tedious. And […]
The Paris Wife Paula McLain The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, is a lilting story of the life of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson. Written from Hadley’s perspective, we get an inside look to what it was like to be a woman in the 1920’s married to a chauvinistic, self-obsessed man who […]
The Kill by Jane Casey I read a lot of mysteries, but surprisingly I have not read anything by Jane Casey before. I’m not sure how I missed her over the years, but I am really glad I stumbled upon her books. The Kill is the fifth book in Jane Casey’s fantastic Maeve Kerrigan’s series. […]
A Darker Shade of Magic by Victoria SchwabJust when I thought that there was nothing new under the sun, I stumbled upon “A Darker Shade of Magic” by Victoria Schwab. At first glance, this fantasy has many elements that might be familiar to readers of the genre: invented languages, magic, a large cast of characters, […]
BirdieBy Tracey Lindberg Everything I read about Tracey Lindberg’s Birdie told me to expect humour. So naturally, I thought I’d be reading a fairly lighthearted novel. Not so. In fact, Birdie was not what I expected at all. Birdie, or Bernice Meetoos, is a young Cree woman from Loon Lake, Alberta. Raised by her mother […]
The Great Paper CaperBy Oliver Jeffers Trees, branches and sticks are mysteriously disappearing. The forest animals are confused and at first, accuse each other. An investigation is launched. The animals follow the paper trail to a house in the woods where, to their dismay, they discover Bear and his wood chipper. What is going on […]
by Steve Olson I was just a baby when Mount St. Helens blew up. I remember my parents telling me about the ash fall, but I always wondered how that could be: the mountain is 500 km away. After reading Eruption: the Untold Story of Mount St. Helens by Steve Olson, now I get it. […]
by Ali SmithAli Smith’s How to Be Both is not an easy read, but it is a clever and engaging one. Split into two separate sections, one set in the Renaissance and one set in the modern era, the stream-of-consciousness style of writing can make it a challenge to grasp the two separate stories and […]
Secret Daughter Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda interweaves the stories of Kavita and Somer, two mothers connected by one daughter. When Somer, in America, realizes she cannot have a child of her own, she and her husband, Krishnan, decide to adopt. Kavita, having already lost one daughter in a country that favours boys, decides […]
Horten’s Miraculous MechanismsBy Lissa Evans Stuart Horten is very short for his age – his name, S.Horten or shorten, is rather unfortunate. When his family moves to another town at the beginning of the summer, Stuart is bored, has no friends, and is tormented by the triplets that live next door: April, May and June. […]