Independent Book Reviews for Independent Readers.
James
These three new titles from Newfoundland’s Breakwater Books have something for everyone, from very young to a more mature audience.
The Secret of Bowring Park by Christine Gordon Manley (with illustrations by Laurel Keating) is a fairytale for all ages, not just children.… Continue reading
In 2016, I crossed an item off my so-called bucket list: climb Campbellton’s Sugarloaf Mountain. Not being in the greatest shape to do so, I found I should have taken an AED along with me! My wife and her friend had climbed it a few years earlier, and I didn’t want to be left out.… Continue reading
I believe I may have found a new “favourite” writer in Dian Day. I recently read her new book The Madrigal (clicking the link will take you to another site) and I was very impressed by it. It was an intriguing read about the life of Frederick, the seventh son (all the other six were twins) and the issues he had to deal with growing up and some that haunted him up to his adult life.… Continue reading
I was contacted by the owner of Literary Book Gifts and was offered an exclusive discount for visitors to The Miramichi Reader of 20% off at checkout. Before agreeing to this promotion, I visited the site to see what they had to offer.… Continue reading
On the back cover of Nirliit (2018, Véhicule Press) there is a quote by Dorothée Berryman of La Presse that perfectly sums up how I felt about reading this small, but transcendent novel: “I’m about to reread this book because its powerful beauty haunts me.” I did reread the book, but only after I was almost finished it and I felt I needed to go back to recapture the mood of the book; I felt I was reading it too fast and not absorbing the acute perceptions of the author regarding her time spent in the northern Quebec Inuit village of Salluit.… Continue reading
Saint John, New Brunswick native Jerrod Edson has published his fifth novel, The Moon is Real (2016, Urban Farmhouse press) the manuscript of which won the Writer’s Federation of New Brunswick’s David Adams Richards Prize in 2013. A novel of urban restlessness that is set in Saint John concerns the lives of four main characters, who appear to be settling for the status quo of everyday life.… Continue reading
Readers of true crime will be happy to hear that Nate Hendley is back with The Boy on the Bicycle (2018, Five Rivers Publishing). This was a project Mr. Hendley had put on hold while finishing his encyclopedic book The Big Con, which was a history of confidence men, hoaxes and frauds from past to present.… Continue reading