Alison Manley

Alison Manley bounced around the Maritimes before landing in Miramichi, NB, where she works as a hospital librarian. She has an honours BA in political science and English from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. When she's not reading biomedical research for her work, she likes reading poetry, contemporary and historical fiction, and personal essays. Noted for a love of bright colours (and lipstick), you can find her wandering the banks of the Miramichi River with a book and a paintbrush.

Fenian Street by Anne Emery

October 3, 2022 by Alison Manley

Shay Rynne grew up in the Corporation Flats ― public housing ― in Fenian Street, Dublin. He has always toyed with the idea of joining the Garda Síochána, the Irish police. But in the early 1970s, young fellows from the tenements of Dublin have not been welcomed in the police force. When his friend Rosaleen is killed and the case goes unsolved, Shay decides to put on the uniform of a Dublin garda and sets out to find the killer.

Unrest by Emma Côté

September 29, 2022 by Alison Manley

Brisk, observational, and darkly comic, Unrest is both a road trip story and a touching eulogy on life, death, and what we leave behind.

Reading Indigenous With Alison Manley

September 25, 2022 by Alison Manley

Three reviews of books written by Indigenous authors that Alison Manley (TMR's Associate Editor) read in late 2022.

Some Hellish by Nicholas Herring

September 19, 2022 by Alison Manley

Some Hellish is a story about anguish and salvation, the quiet grace and patience of transformation, the powers of addiction and fear, the plausibility of forgiveness, and the immense capacity of friendship and of love.

Birth Road by Michelle Wamboldt

September 18, 2022 by Alison Manley

Episodic in nature, Birth Road by Michell Wamboldt tells the story of Helen, a young woman from Truro, whose life of heartbreak and challenge will pierce your soul but her pluck and perseverance will warm your heart.

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton

September 19, 2022September 17, 2022 by Alison Manley

Her first full length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people.

The Oxford Widows Murder Club by Bruce Graham

September 10, 2022 by Alison Manley

The Oxford Widows Murder Club is about secrets and what happens when they are and aren’t revealed. How did Earl, that nimble dancer and carver of wooden birds, wind up dead?

Francie’s Got a Gun by Carrie Snyder

August 23, 2022August 23, 2022 by Alison Manley

In Francie’s Got a Gun, award-winning writer Carrie Snyder assembles a chorus of unforgettable characters who are both well-intentioned and flawed.

The Boy’s Marble by Nastaša Nuhanović

August 20, 2022 by Alison Manley

The Boy's Marble tells the story of experiencing a war through the eyes of a child. Separated as children during the Sarajevo Siege, the narrator meeets someone who reminds her of the boy even twenty years later in Montreal, Canada.

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet

August 12, 2022 by Alison Manley

The Booker-shortlisted author of His Bloody Project blurs the lines between patient and therapist, fiction and documentation, and reality and dark imagination.

Susanna Hall, Her Book – Jennifer Falkner

July 28, 2022July 25, 2022 by Alison Manley

Jennifer Falkner’s Susanna Hall, Her Book is another imagining of the life of Susanna, the eldest daughter of William Shakespeare, but one approached from a different angle than most.

Queasy: A Wannabe Writer’s Bumpy Journey Through England in the ‘70s by Madeline Sonik

July 18, 2022 by Alison Manley

Queasy is a set of essays, in chronological order, looking at different parts of Madeline Sonik's teenage experience in England, the directionless wandering through life she’s engaged in, and her desire to be a writer, despite the fact that she dropped out of high school in Canada and knows she needs to do something to get more education.