Prague by Maude Veilleux, Translated by Aleisha Jensen and Aimee Wall
An unnamed narrator, a woman who has been published as a poet and is presently writing her first novel, tells us her story in little swatches of prose.
James M. Fisher
Wayfarer: A Memoir by James S. Rockefeller Jr.
Living vicariously through books like Wayfarer is what makes reading so fun. While it is a personal memoir, it is also a time capsule from an era when the world held great mysteries, and one had to see them for themselves; there was no Google Earth to rely on.
About Face: Essays on Recovery, Therapies, and Controversies of Addictions in Canada Edited by Douglas Gosse
About Face: Essays on Addictions, Recovery, Therapies, and Controversies seeks to broaden the conversation around addiction in Canada.
Land for Fatimah by Veena Gokhale
Land for Fatimah is an excellent example of the type of book that exists to broaden the horizons of those with an interest in novels with multi-cultural roots, showing a way of life that is unknown to many of us.
Best Canadian Essays 2018 by Christopher Doda (Series Editor) and Mark Kingwell (Guest Editor)
When Tightrope Books claims these are the “best” essays written in the 2018 calendar year, they are not just blowing hot air. There are seventeen skillfully written essays on all sorts of topics here.
Under the Bridge by Anne Bishop
When stress causes an old trauma to surface, Lucy, a longtime community organizer, teacher and anti-poverty activist, loses control of her life. On probation and living on the streets of Halifax’s North End, all she has left are friends.
The Fiddlehead No.278 Winter 2019
The Winter 2019 issue of The Fiddlehead arrived in my mailbox recently and typically the first thing I do is look at the book reviews, specifically to see if any of the books I have read and reviewed in the past appear in the current issue. Well, I was happy to see two of my …
Walmart: Diary of an Associate by Hugo Meunier, Translated by Mary Foster
Hugo Meunier is a veteran journalist who went undercover as an associate for three months in 2012 to discover for himself just what makes the retail giant tick. The result is his book, Walmart: Diary of an Associate, published by Fernwood Publishing.
The Court of Better Fiction: Three Trials, Two Executions, and Arctic Sovereignty by Debra Komar
The Court of Better Fiction is a concise, scathing, and at the same time, sympathetic account of a travesty of justice committed against the Indigenous peoples living above the Arctic Circle.
Phantom of Fire: A Dylan Maples Adventure by Shane Peacock
Phantom of Fire is #5 in the Dylan Maples Adventures. This time, his parents take him on a trip to Bathurst New Brunswick where Dylan and his new friend Antonine encounter the Phantom Fire Ship of Chaleur Bay.
The Daughters’ Story by Murielle Cyr
Nadine is banished to a home for unwed mothers in 1950. She’s 15. Her baby daughter, whose father is shrouded in secrecy, is put up for adoption without her permission. Vowing to reunite one day with her daughter, she cuts all ties with her dysfunctional Irish and French-Canadian Catholic family whose past is cluttered with secrets, betrayals, incest and violence.
The Age of Increasing Inequality by Lars Osberg
This book documents the dramatic and rapid growth in inequality. It identifies the causes. And it proposes meaningful steps to halt and reverse this dangerous trend.
New Brunswick’s Chocolate River Publishing
Riverview, New Brunswick’s Chocolate River Publishing was founded to put New Brunswick on the map (so to speak) on the national and international publishing stage. Their books for children and adults are carefully and lovingly produced to make learning about New Brunswick and Atlantic Canada fun for all. Some of their most recent titles appear …
You and Me, Belonging by Aaron Kreuter
Toronto’s Tightrope Books continue to publish good short story collections by a very gifted group of authors. Most recently, it was Tread and Other Stories by Barry Dempster and The Colours of Birds by Rebecca Higgins. (Their reviews are here.) They were definite examples of sound literary short stories, and you may add Mr. Kreuter’s …
Best New Brunswick Reads of 2018
Looking back on all the books I reviewed in 2018, there were plenty of good ones that came out of New Brunswick. Before I get to highlighting just a few of them, I would like to mention how unhappy I was at the hearing of the passing of Raymond Fraser in 2018. He will leave …
