Summer Shortlisting 2019: Best First Books!

It’s time to start revealing the short-listed titles for the 2019 “The Very Best!” Book Awards! This year, I thought I would streamline the entire process for selecting books for “The Very Best!” Book Awards. While maintaining a running longlist throughout my reading year, I thought it best to pare that huge list down to …

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Ramya’s Treasure by Pratap Reddy

Poor Ramya. A Hindu woman in her late 40’s finds herself out of work (due to downsizing), separated from her husband, childless and nearly friendless. Plus, she is suffering from depression. So much so that she cannot even motivate herself to fill out her papers to get EI assistance. This is the state we meet …

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Announcing the 2018 Shortlist for “The Very Best!” Book Awards!

September is almost here and it is time to announce the shortlist for “The Very Best!” Book Awards. This year, to simplify things, I have narrowed down the categories to three: Fiction (Novel or Short Fiction) Non-Fiction First Book (Fiction and Non-Fiction) Also, this year, for the first time, I have a small, but unique, …

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Watermark by Jennifer Farquhar

[dropcap]When[/dropcap] I was a young lad, my parents owned a cottage that fronted on a small lake in South Eastern Ontario. While I swam in the water by day, I never ventured near the shore at night. That was when all kinds of things came forth out of the depths to languish on the shore …

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The Inward Journey by Kate Evans

“Spin me back down the years and the days of my youth Draw the lace and black curtains and shut out the whole truth Spin me down the long ages: let them sing the song.” – Ian Anderson Sylvia Drodge of St. John’s NL (the former Sylvia Bolfe-Carter of Ireland) has been temporarily relegated to …

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Weaving Water by Annamarie Beckel

Author (and former St. John resident) Annamarie Beckel once conducted behavioural research on river otters* for her doctoral thesis and her fourth novel, Weaving Water (2016, Killick Press) is about Beth, a fiftyish woman who teaches Biology at a university but longs to get back into research, specifically river otters. Her husband Alan is a …

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Ghost Buck: The Legacy of One Man’s Family and its Hunting Traditions by Dean Bennett

When Islandport Press sent me a copy of Ghost Buck to review, I was a little apprehensive about reading it for it is centered around an activity I have never participated in: deer hunting. I’m not even much of an outdoors person, but this book is not in actuality about hunting or wilderness skills. It is chiefly about family and the traditions that they cherish.

Bear War-den by Vivian Demuth

Inanna Publications always has something different to read, so I often look to them for a book that is a change of pace from the norm. While browsing their website, I noticed Bear War-den (2015) by Vivian Demuth. In the brief description on the Inanna site it stated: “Told in an experimental style that mixes realism …

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Bay of Fundy’s Hopewell Rocks by Kevin Snair

[dropcap]Each [/dropcap]year thousands of visitors head to southern New Brunswick’s Bay of Fundy area to visit the Hopewell Rocks, and I doubt any one comes away unimpressed by this natural rock formation enhanced by the extreme variation of the tides. When the tide is out, you can descend the stairs to the ‘ocean floor’ and …

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