On the longlist, I’d read just four of the books when the nominees were announced, two last year and two this year. For those who can forgive short stories for not being novels, Lisa Alward's Cocktail will satisfy on many levels. She’s got the sharp observations of writers like
Last year I read 11 of the longlisted titles for The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and with the recent announcement of the 2024 longlist I was prompted to reflect on 2023’s selections. Three of the short story collections I’ve already written about—Talia Laksmni Kolluri’s What We Fed to
My reading this year has a different rhythm. Some year-long projects require only a few pages of reading each week, a chapter maybe. In contrast, reading for work requires bursting through backlists in a week or two. In between, some books have sprawled in that territory between lackadaisical and
Just a few pages into Jessica J. Lee’s Dispersals, I was wholly hooked (the mention of “belonging” in the subtitle got me part way there). One of those reading experiences where you feel as though you are connecting not-so-much with a book but with a way of seeing, a
This morning, the 23rd edition of Canada Reads program launches. I’ve missed the voice of a career writer in the program in recent years and now, with Heather O’Neill’s inclusion (whose Lullaby for Little Criminals was a previous Canada Reads winner) as a champion, my affection for the program’s
