The Quantum Theory of Love and Madness by Jerry Levy

Jerry Levy’s quirky narratives provide a high-spirited alternative perspective on the crushing emotional isolation and myriad pressures that often accompany modern urban life. The fourteen stories in The Quantum Theory of Love and Madness, Levy’s follow-up to his 2013 collection Urban Legend, also frequently stretch the boundaries of narrative plausibility and occasionally veer into pure fantasy.  …

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The Innocents by Michael Crummey

The Innocents is set on Newfoundland’s harsh northern coastline, 100 or more years in the past. The Best family is struggling to establish a homestead in an isolated cove where father Sennet fishes and salts cod and mother Sarah maintains a vegetable patch, cooks and raises the children: Evered, Ada and baby Martha. Then, in …

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To Measure the World by Karen Shenfeld

In To Measure the World, Karen Shenfeld confronts the chimerical nature of love — erotic, domestic, familial — and its power to sustain and harm. The title alone grabbed me, a peripatetic pull akin to the tug of backpack straps on shoulders. Where I write there’s a map of the world on a wall – …

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When the Bartender Dims the Lights, storytelling after 80 by Ron Evans

When the Bartender Dims the Lights, storytelling after 80 by Ron Evans contains “bits and pieces of memory that managed to snag on the fence line and make a story because they sounded right.” A combination of memoir, parable, and wisdom gleaned throughout his life, Evans’ book reflects on the human condition and the complexities …

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some conditions apply by Mary Rykov

When I open a book from Inanna I know I have something worthwhile. Strong, independent feminist work, a mosaic of talent and voice. Mary Rykov’s some conditions apply came to me electronically, during isolation. At times a mobile device, laptop or reader, can lack experiential feel, bound paper enhancing a book’s tone. Not so in …

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Everyone at This Party by Tanja Bartel

British Columbia author Tanja Bartel’s debut collection, Everyone at This Party, delves into a person’s relationship to their environment, their peers, and themselves in a seemingly cynical and yet humorous, honest, and lighthearted way. Many poems centre around location: this party, a sawmill town, a subdivision, and more. Bartel describes what is outside of us …

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Save My Life School: A first responder’s mental health journey by Natalie Harris

Every now and then a reader comes across a book that speaks to them. The words jump from the page and land squarely to the reader’s soul. For me, this was Save My Life School, by Natalie Harris. This book is so real, so raw and so honest that it is impossible not to fall …

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The Waiting Hours by Shandi Mitchell

The Waiting Hours, Shandi Mitchell’s suspenseful follow-up to her award-winning debut novel, Under This Unbroken Sky, examines the professional and personal lives of people working in crisis response: Mike is a cop, Kate an ER nurse, and Tamara a 911 operator. But Mitchell’s novel probes much deeper: into her characters’ personal lives, relationships and traumas. …

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The Story of Lillian Burke, by Edward M. Langille

Lillian Burke is not a household name. If Edward M. Langille, author of The Lillian Burke Story, had his way, that would change. Artist, reconstruction therapist, musician, teacher—American-born Burke was all of these. Though Burke lived the bulk of her life in the United States, she also had a Canadian connection. This came through Elsie …

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