Humour – The Miramichi Reader

Fishnets & Fantasies by Jane Doucet

February 15, 2021 by Lana Shupe

Well, well, well. Jane Doucet, you have done it again. Just like your first novel, The Pregnant Pause, you have given your reader delightful, multi-faceted characters and laugh out loud passages that made this reader blush. The title of … Continue reading

The Rise and Fall of Derek Cowell by Valerie Sherrard

April 5, 2020April 5, 2020 by James M. Fisher

, the high-school years. Especially the Junior grades when you are still finding your way around a new academic setting, while at the same time discovering your own way in life. When the opposite sex gets thrown into the mix, … Continue reading

I Am Herod by Richard Kemick (Guest Review by Chris Benjamin)

March 26, 2020 by James M. Fisher

On a whim, armchair-atheist Richard Kelly Kemick joins the 100-plus cast of The Canadian Badlands Passion Play, North America's largest production of its kind and one of the main tourist attractions in Alberta. By the time closing night is over, Kemick has a story to tell

Bill Arnott’s Beat: World Poetry

June 2, 2020March 9, 2020 by Bill Arnott

I was making my way across town. Town being Vancouver, BC. We have to say that as there’s another one, a perfectly pleasant American one, its pleasantness being its proximity to Vancouver, BC. I was to be the guest on World Poetry Café, an unassuming FM radio program with a shockingly large listenership – one-hundred-thirty-three countries, at last count.

Bill Arnott’s Beat: Independents’ Day

February 29, 2020February 23, 2020 by Bill Arnott

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.

The Transaction by Guglielmo D’Izzia

May 3, 2020February 7, 2020 by James M. Fisher

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.

The Sign on My Father’s House by Tom Moore

September 6, 2019 by James M. Fisher

This is the funny and at times heartbreaking tale of a young man's rough ride into adulthood. Felix Ryan is on a journey to discover who he is and where he is headed. He moves from rural Newfoundland to the hectic life of Memorial University in the late 1960s.

Even Weirder Than Before by Susie Taylor

August 1, 2019July 6, 2019 by James M. Fisher

Susie Taylor's Even Weirder Than Before is an enjoyable chronicle of Daisy Radcliffe's life journey from Grade 8 through the end of high school in the late 80s/early 90s.

A Philosopher, a Psychologist, and an Extraterrestrial Walk into a Chocolate Bar by Jass Richards

June 22, 2019June 22, 2019 by James M. Fisher

Spike, a psychologist and activist, and Jane, a philosopher and writer, leave their dead-end temp jobs in Toronto and head for Paris--on their lunch break--by car, stopping frequently to stock up on chocolate. Along the way, they meet X, a lost extraterrestrial.

Bad Ideas by Missy Marston

April 15, 2019April 15, 2019 by James M. Fisher

Bad Ideas is a great read, a well-balanced mix of pathos and humour that I rated as four stars at Goodreads.

An Exile’s Perfect Letter by Larry Mathews

November 21, 2019November 13, 2018 by James M. Fisher

Sixty-two-year-old English professor Hugh Norman is getting ready to retire and just going through the motions. He’s detached, irreverent, and quite pleased with himself. But then he learns of a long-lost friend’s sudden death, and shockingly discovers a body while walking through a city park

Deli Meat by Tom Halford

July 7, 2019September 22, 2018 by James M. Fisher

At one point in Deli Meat (2018, Crooked Cat Books), Bree Arms tells her husband Todd that she is reading a book called, um, Deli Meat. She tells him it “is weird as hell and twice as strange,” which … Continue reading

Bag of Hammers by Edward Riche

January 22, 2018January 20, 2018 by James M. Fisher

I‘ve always been a fan of good satire. Back in the late 70’s and 80’s I read National Lampoon magazine monthly, watched Saturday Night Live and SCTV weekly. Read Doonesbury and Bloom County Babylon daily. Then came This Hour … Continue reading

Grandpa Pike’s Outhouse Reader by Grandpa Pike

September 7, 2017 by James M. Fisher

Laurie Blackwood Pike, a.k.a. Grandpa Pike, is the author of Grandpa Pike’s Outhouse Reader (2017, Flanker Press). Grandpa Pike grew up out in the country in Newfoundland, and later in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, when outhouses were common and … Continue reading

This is the Cat by Berni Stapleton

June 25, 2017 by James M. Fisher

Stapleton is a Newfoundland- Labrador writer and performer. She is a past recipient of the WANL award for best work in non-fiction for her contribution to the book They Let Down Baskets. Her short stories and essays have appeared … Continue reading