Independent Book Reviews for Independent Readers
Rhoda Rabinowitz Green is the author of two novels, Slowly I Turn and Moon Over Mandalay. Her short fiction has been published in magazines and journals across North America, including The Fiddlehead. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart prize and was a finalist in the Canadian Writers Union Short Prose Competition. She lives in Toronto.
Short story collections are always a delight for me to read.… Continue reading
Whether it’s racking up international awards or attracting tourists to the east coast in droves, the world has taken notice of Atlantic Canada’s wine. The Wine Lover’s Guide to Atlantic Canada (Nimbus, 2016) is the definitive guide to region, through the blueberry-wine empire of Newfoundland and Labrador, to the isolated terroir of Prince Edward Island, the lush river vineyards of New Brunswick, and the rich coastal and valley wines of Nova Scotia.… Continue reading
Subtitled “Removal, Resistance and Remembrance at a Canadian National Park,” this 400-page book from the University of Toronto Press is a study of the expropriation and a forced removal of 1200 people from 7 communities, which were then obliterated to make for a more ‘natural’ National Park in 1969. Author Ronald Rudin is a professor in the Department of History and co-director of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University.… Continue reading
New Brunswick author Robert Rayner is the author of three adult novels, nine young adult novels, and five teen novels. His latest young adult novel is Black Water Rising (2016, Nimbus Publishing). His books have been shortlisted for the Ann Connor Brimer Children’s Literature Award and (four times) for the Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award. Six have been included in the Canadian Children’s Book Centre annual “Best Books” list, and one on the US Young Adult Library Services Association “Best Books to Get Teens Reading” list.… Continue reading
Canadian author and retired forensic anthropologist Debra Komar has written her fourth book examining a historical crime, Black River Road (2016, Goose Lane Editions)*. Subtitled “An Unthinkable Crime, an Unlikely Suspect, and the Question of Character”, Ms. Komar searched back through historical court records to find this unique case of a murder committed outside the city of Saint John, New Brunswick in 1869.
The man accused of the murder of Sarah Margaret (“Maggie”) Vail was respected Saint John architect John Monroe.… Continue reading
QC Fiction has released another translation (this time by Katia Grubisic) of a Quebec novel entitled Brothers by David Clerson. This novel (under its French title Frères) won the Grand prix littéraire Archambault 2014. The other two QC Fiction novels, Life in the Court of Matane and The Unknown Huntsman were exceptional in their content, very diverse and humorous in an off-beat way. Brothers is certainly no exception.… Continue reading
Samantha Rideout is an author from Newfoundland and Labrador whose latest book is The People Who Stay (2016, Flanker Press), a novel about a young woman, Sylvia, who returns after ten years to the outport community she left to attend university in the U.S. and pursue a career. She and her American husband come back to attend her cousin Mary’s wedding. While they are there, they find that while things have changed, much has stayed the same, and Sylvia, ten years older and wanting to start a family, comes to understand that life in this outport community can be enriching in various ways.… Continue reading
To date, award-winning Canadian author and retired forensic anthropologist Debra Komar has written four books dealing with historic crimes committed in Canada: The Ballad of Jacob Peck, The Lynching of Peter Wheeler, The Bastard of Fort Stikine and most recently, Black River Road (to be released in September 2016). All are published by Goose Lane Editions. The four books are notable for Ms. Komar’s authoritative, forthright style of writing, covering the historical time period of the case, presenting the facts and pursuing lines of medico-legal reasoning from a present-day perspective.… Continue reading