The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami’s latest novel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls, is a towering achievement.
Fiction
ANOMIA by Jade Wallace
After reviewing Jade Wallace’s poetry book Love is a Place But You Cannot Live There, I was hoping to see a sort of poetic influence reflected in this novel and it delivered. Wallace proves to be skilled in multiple genres and is a natural storyteller in all of them.
Yellow Barks Spider by Harman Burns
There’s palpable tension in the spare opening pages of Yellow Barks Spider, a debut novella by Vancouver-based Saskatchewan transplant Harman Burns. Even before the story begins, a dedication—“for ██████ wherever you are” —draws any curious eye. A technique Burns revisits later, redaction—with its there/not there visibility—prompts inevitable questions: what’s the masked name and the story behind …
A Way To Be Happy by Caroline Adderson
In her latest short story collection A Way To Be Happy, Caroline Adderson pursues the question of happiness – the fleeting, highly-theorized, and hotly pursued topic.
Finding Mr. Write by Kelley Armstrong
Finding Mr. Write is a rom-com written by someone who doesn’t write rom-coms. Kelley Armstrong writes fantasy, mystery, and horror. This is her first venture into the world of writing romantic comedy and I believe she has succeeded in not only writing an exceptional rom-com, but a fun one, too.
Too Close for Comfort (A Sgt. Windflower Mystery) by Mike Martin
A series of fires has lowered public confidence in the small Newfoundland town of Grand Bank where acting RCMP Inspector Winston Windflower is stationed. The most recent fire reveals the presence of a body in the kitchen—dead, not by smoke inhalation, but by multiple gunshot wounds. Thus the latest novel in the Mike Martin’s Sgt. …
One Book, Two Reviews: Johnny Delivers by Wayne Ng
Johnny Delivers by Wayne Ng is a top read of this year for me … Family tensions dominate the action in Wayne’s Ng’s pulsating novel, Johnny Delivers.
Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
We follow Dave Win, the son of a Burmese man who he never knew and a white British mother, forever an outsider in his conservative village, who receives a scholarship to a local boarding school.
The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel
Seventeen years ago, something came between a group of university friends. This particular weekend though they are reunited as one of the group, Alfred, has bought an old house in their university town. He renovated it into The Hitchcock Hotel, a homage to his favourite director, which is now celebrating its first anniversary.
A Case of Matricide by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Graeme Macrae Burnet’s A Case of Matricide is a beautifully written noir novel.
Peggy by Rebecca Godfrey with Leslie Jamieson
From mentions in major publications to impressive stacks in local and national bookstores, Rebecca Godfrey’s Peggy is everywhere — and with good reason.
The Treasure Hunter’s Club by Tom Ryan
A brilliant novel that ensured I would read anything Tom Ryan decides to write.
The Suspension Bridge by Anna Dowdall
Set in 1962 and 1963, this tale starts and ends on a bridge, literally and metaphorically.
