I pulled André Alexis' Despair and Other Stories of Ottawa (1994) off my shelf when Fifteen Dogs was nominated for the Toronto Book Award (since then, FD has also been nominated for the Giller Prize and the Rogers' Writers' Trust Fiction Award). There aren't any notable four-legged characters, but the collection is fascinating.
From my discovery of Neil Bantock's Griffin and Sabine books, I have sought out books that play with form. (Even earlier, I fell hard for Anastasia Krupnik's To-Do lists which appeared as handwritten notes on lined paper in Lois Lowry's books.) Recently, Kim Belair's and Ariadne MacGillivray's Pure Steele (2013) struck
Penguin-Razorbill, 2012 Mariko Tamaki's (You) Set Me On Fire (2012) Read: At the hair salon, on the TTC, standing in line: everywhere. Allison's voice is strong and compelling. I could pick up this story and immediately fall into step with her, even if I only had a very
In the past, I've made large stacks of creepy reading with the RIP challenges in mind, but I have a habit of stacking up many lovely possibilities but then choosing different books altogether later on. Perhaps this is partly because books can surprise you and take you in unexpected directions.
In the autumn of 2014, the press release celebrating Goose Lane's 60th birthday landed in my mailbox. It arrived when I was in a nostalgic mood, and I wandered around the house, randomly pulling their publications from the shelves. Some I could distinctly remember purchasing and others I have picked up on a
