Not that anyone reading this needs convincing, about how diverse the offerings are on library shelves, but just imagine the dramatically different reading moods each of these four books requires! All of these books were already on my TBR, but the Toronto Public Library Reading Challenge gave me the
The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction lodged in my mind because I really loved its inaugural winner: Kadija Abdalla Bajaber’s The House of Rust when I first read it. Bill and I read it again earlier this year, while anticipating the announcement of this year’s shortlisted books.
Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning (2016) is a doorstopper of a book that grew out of his desire to write an introductory chapter to a book about Black Studies programs in American (i.e. in the United States) universities and colleges. When his chapter was 90 pages long,
It occurred to me to keep The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu as a novella for November. But when I was rushing to leave the house one afternoon, and returned because I’d forgotten my wallet, I slipped TEoKN into my bag on a whim. So, naturally that’s what I read
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
