Best in Class by Tim Clancy
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book via a Librarything giveaway. If you teach, it is that time of the year. The time when questions such as, “I know I didn’t do any of the work, but can I still pass the class” get asked. It is the time when you read essays that are done at the last minute so students write things like “I think that it is the title of the movie” or “two other sources that I didn’t right done”. […]
Iron Bar and Bookshelves by Louisa Blair
If you go to Quebec City, take the time to go to the Morrin Centre. It was a prison, a school, and then a library. I highly recommend the tour . This gem of a book presents the history of the place. It is split into three sections, not counting the introduction by Louise Penny, and […]
The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky
The Wolf in the Whale is a fantasy. It is a what if fantasy. It is a mixing of Inuit belief with Norse mythology. It is about the clash of cultures. The story is told by Omat, a young Inuit who first tells of his life with his family, a family who needs more people, and then what happens when more Inuit show up, and then what happens when funny looking pale people show up. The thing is that, if we are being honest, this […]
Big Lonely Doug by Harley Rustad
Big Lonely Doug is a big lonely tree on Vancouver Island. It is a Douglas Fir and has become a symbol of the need for forest preservation. The book is slightly, only slightly mistitled. While Doug is the focal point, the actual text covers quite about forests, trees, conservation, and logging in Canada. It is worth noting that the sections that deal with logging are relatively even handed. True, it is impossible to less the impact of Doug standing alone in the midst of a […]
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
While this book is one the surface a novel about a family, it is hard to shake the idea that the book is also about the power of reading. In some ways, the story is about the power of the reader to create life, to give the characters life beyond what the writer of the story can do. It is important that the book starts and ends with a sense of memory because in many ways that is what reading is. The history of the […]
The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns
“The Juniper Tree” is a Brothers Grimm story that is at once both unremembered and remembered. Many people think they don’t know, but when you tell them the plot, they go, “oh yeah”. It is also a rather bloody piece of work. (Not as bloody as their story about playing pig slaughter). Barbara Comyns reinvents the tale from an almost feminist perspective. She might not be as rich in language as Angela Carter, but despite its short length the book is far deeper than it […]
