"Independent Book Reviews for Independent Readers Since 2015."
James 
In Canada, we say there are only two seasons: summer reading season and winter reading season! (You thought I was going to say construction
season and hockey season, didn’t you?) At any time of year, and for any occasion, books make great gifts.… Continue reading
Good intelligent humour seems to be in short supply these days, especially when we could all use a little of it in our lives given the depressing dross served up as so-called “news.” An Exile’s Perfect Letter (2018, Breakwater Books) fills that need, particularly for those of us Boomers nearing retirement age like Professor Hugh Norman is.… Continue reading
I left off my review of the first installment in the Lindstrom Trilogy (Lindstrom Alone) stating that I very much looked forward to reading the next installment. I’m happy to say I liked Lindstrom’s Progress (2018, Iguana Books) much more than I did its predecessor.… Continue reading
On the 100th anniversary of the end of hostilities in Europe, Goose Lane Editions has published a comprehensive volume of the history of the 26th New Brunswick Battalion. Over 250 pages of the battalion’s history, from its formation in 1914 to returning home in 1918.… Continue reading
Montrealer Leila Marshy is of Palestinian-Newfoundland heritage and The Philistine (2018, Linda Leith Publishing) is her first novel. The Philistine is the story of Nadia Eid, the daughter of a Palestinian father and a Scottish-Canadian woman. Her father, Bishara, lives mostly in Egypt where he works for British Petroleum, so Nadia has seen very little of him over the years.… Continue reading
The novella Down From (2018, Snuggly Books) follows on the heels of Ms. Pflug’s 2017 cli-fi novella Mountain, which was published by Inanna. It’s a little hard to describe Down From, but as I see it, it is a story of two females, Sandrine and Vienna.… Continue reading
In writing hundreds of reviews over the past few years, I have discovered that some books result in a quickly written review while others linger on my read-but-waiting-to-be reviewed table. Refuge by Merilyn Simonds was such a book. Here it is November, and it is about three weeks since I finished reading it.… Continue reading
Anubha Mehta is a Canadian writer and artist who was born in India. With a doctorate in Political Science and two decades of Canadian public service experience, Anubha has been awarded for her leadership work for diverse communities. Her short stories and poems have been published in several Canadian magazines and journals.… Continue reading