Book Review: ‘Short Cuts to Happiness’ by Tal Ben-Shahar
Short Cuts to Happiness: Life-Changing Lessons from My Barber, by international happiness expert and renowned Harvard positive psychologist Tal Ben-Shahar, poses a timely question: In our hurried,...
View ArticleGraphic Novel Review: ‘Hasib and the Queen of Serpents’ by David B.
If ever there was a volume designed to accentuate the joys of basic hand-held print volumes, it’s David B.’s Hasib and the Queen of Serpents (NBM). Subtitled “A Tale of a Thousand and One Nights,” the...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘A Matter of Malice’ by Thomas King
Thomas King is back with another instalment in his series of books featuring ex-cop now photographer Thumps DreadfulWater. A Matter of Malice, from Harper Collins Canada, sees our erstwhile hero...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘The Bird King’ by G. Willow Wilson
Some books are adventure stories, some are fantasies, and some are historical fiction. However very few writers manage to successfully combine all three. With her newest book, The Bird King, from...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘an evening absence still waiting for moon’ Poems by Bruce Kauffman
Kingston Ontario, Canada poet Bruce Kauffman is releasing his fourth collection of poems published by Hidden Brook Press, an evening absence still waiting for moon. Like Kauffman’s previous...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘The Baghdad Clock’ by Shahad Al Rawi
Shahad Al Rawi’s The Baghdad Clock, published by One World Publications, allows us to see the world through the wondering eyes of a child. We watch as her world, at first so big and filled with magic,...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘God’s Rough Drafts’ by Rob Scott
Does the world really need another Young Adult, Science Fiction ,Dystopian Future series? Like a silver mine that’s played out, you’t not think there’d be any new seams left to explore. However,...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘A Brightness Long Ago’ by Guy Gavriel Kay
Guy Gavriel Kay‘s newest release from Penguin/Random House, A Brightness Long Ago, is one of those wonderful books which gradually worms its way under your skin. In the manner of a subtle seduction,...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘Red Birds’ by Mohammed Hanif
Mohamed Hanif‘s latest book, Red Birds, published by Grove Atlantic, brings the surreality of the automation of present day war to life. The new language of war; collateral damage to describe the...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘Season of Fury and Wonder’ by Sharon Butala
Sharon Butala‘s newest collection of short stories, Season of Fury and Wonder, published by Coteau Books, is a thoughtful and sincere look at life from a perspective largely ignored in literary...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘The Traitor’s Niche’ by Ismail Kadare
In The Traitor’s Niche, from Counter Point Press, Albanian author Ismail Kadare has drawn a satirical, and biting, picture of the Ottoman Empire. Albania, like many of the Baltic states, had fallen...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘The Quarter’ by Naguib Mahfouz
Finding a treasure trove of unpublished stories by a Nobel Prize winning author is something that only happens in fiction. However, this is exactly what happened in the case of the recently published...
View ArticleBook Review: Arabicity Edited by Juliet Cestar & Rose Issa
A new book from Saqi Books, Arabicity, provides North American readers with an introduction to the relatively unknown world of contemporary Arab art. Edited by curators Juliet Cestar and Rose Issa,...
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Graphic Novel Review: ‘King of King Court’ by Travis Dandro
King of King Court by Travis Dandro from Drawn+Quarterly shows the complexities and struggles of the world through the eyes of a child. The story is Dandro’s own, recounting the formative years of his...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘Quichotte’ by Salman Rushdie
At first blush Quichotte, Salman Rushdie‘s newest novel, (Penguin Random/House) would seem to be a simple retelling of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. The first character we meet will name himself Quichotte (...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘Year of the Monkey’ by Patti Smith
Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith (Penguin/Random House) is the memoir of a year – 2016 to be specific – the Year of the Monkey in the Chinese lunar calendar – hence the book’s title. However, it’s...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth” (Book of Dust Vol.2)...
The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth (“The Book of Dust” Vol.2) by Philip Pullman (Penguin/Random House) picks up 20 years after the events of The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage and 10 years...
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Graphic Novel Review: ‘Grass’ by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim from Drawn+Quarterly
Grass by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim from Drawn+Quarterly gives the biography of Okseon Lee, a Korean woman who was forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Empire during World War II. As discussed in the...
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Book Review: ‘Unfollow — A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist...
It is horribly easy to hate people you don’t know. Through the distorted lens of a Facebook post or a contextually useless tweet, we all pour out our worst immediate reactions because it’s just pixels...
View ArticleBook Review: ‘Agent Running in the Field’ by John Le Carre
Agent Running in the Field (Penguin/Random House), the latest novel from the master of the spy story John Le Carre, is not only a perfect example of what the genre should be, it’s also a pointed...
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