I’m a fan of Séan McCann. Bought his music. Saw him perform with Great Big Sea. Had a joyous time, singing myself hoarse. Now I’ve read One Good Reason – his collaborative memoir – enticingly structured, chapters alternating between spouse-authors McCann and Andrea Aragon.
Unconventional and candid, Marjorie compresses personal experience into a taut and informal poetry that convey exceptional observations.
Penn Kemp’s River Revery came to me just before Christmas. It FELT like a present; the cover – Mary McDonald photo, Mike O’Connor design – a copse of evergreens reaching, waving, to an avian line, all in reverential shades of aquamarine.
RC Weslowski is a clown. No, seriously. I’d never met a real clown before. Sure, class clowns, but they rarely got to hit their creative stride, shows invariably cut short by a trip to the principal’s office, the stage-left yank of a shepherd’s hook wielded by some humour-quashing teacher – you know the type – …
Independent bookstores shouldn’t exist. Brick-and-mortar bibliophile havens are retail models waiting to be business school case studies, “Why These Can’t Work.” TV narcissi could bleat indefinitely as to why they’d never invest in such ventures. But they do exist. And despite every reason why they shouldn’t, they thrive.
With lyrical homage to earth and ocean, Nancy Mackenzie’s poetry in Crisp-Maned Bay pulses through each chamber of our divided hearts with a responsible sense of belonging.
Three narrators. Three perspectives. Kate. Norma. Ivy. All island-bound, or freed. Perhaps we’re left to determine for ourselves. In Fishing for Birds, novelist Linda Quennec efficiently reveals facets of each protagonist, introducing us to these women – a young widow, her mother, and the spry nonagenarian Morrie-esque friend.
Matthew Heneghan is the author of A Medic’s Mind, his memoirs of working as a medic with both the armed forces and in civilian services. His account of dealing with PTSD, his family, alcoholism and more are vividly and candidly explored in his debut publication. At the time of this writing, A Medic’s Mind is on “The Very Best!” Book Awards 2020 longlist for Best First Book (Non-Fiction).
A clink and scrape of flatware on plates. Lips smack. A bronchial cough. Huge potted fichus stoop at the ceiling, the look of good-natured green giants. I have a fifty-cent cup of coffee, which is not a Curtis Jackson reference. That’s the price of coffee at the Carnegie Centre in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), for those of us who belong.
Kerry Gilbert’s quick-paced enthusiasm in conjunction with poignant observation and gritty experience is evident throughout Little Red, her new book of poems.
Mr. De Angelis, an inscrutable northerner, is travelling to a small town perched somewhere in Sicily’s hinterland to negotiate a real estate transaction, only to find himself embroiled in a criminal conspiracy.
Reading Kemp’s work I feel nestled in a sidecar affixed to the master’s motorbike, confident in her route, at times in conversation, storytelling, or akin to a lie-down on a therapist’s sofa. This book can leave one simultaneously inspired and intimidated, seeing genius expand exponentially with time.
Novels, like love and family, take many forms. On every page of Reproduction, his debut novel, Ian Williams finds ways to resist and defy conventional narrative practice while constructing an audacious and uniquely challenging story that crosses generational lines. In the process, he has written a poignant, resonant tale about intersecting lives and the ways that seemingly trivial decisions can have unexpected and far-reaching consequences.
© 2024 | THE Miramichi Reader
Nicholas Selig, Editor-in-Chief
