This debut collection is filled with sensory detail. From brisket and chicken soup to gefilte fish and borscht. From paint-by-number clowns to lacy pillow-slips. From red-striped deck chairs to weathered shutters. Inanna Publications, 2016 Whether it's Debussy or lyrics from "Oklahoma", the details matter. But Aspects of Nature is actually preoccupied
It's with a subtle touch, but Nadia Bozak solidly roots the reader in time and place. House of Anansi, 2016 This is not an easy task, because Shell only grows to the age of seventeen in Thirteen Shells -- across thirteen stories, and childhood is inherently rootless. So the details
Lynda Barry says a “happy ending is hardly important, though we may be glad it’s there”. But there’s more to it, she says: “The real joy is knowing that if you felt the trouble in the story, your kingdom isn’t dead.”* Doubleday Canada, 2015 If one reads a
Such good reading this summer, so far. In other respects, perhaps mine has not been the most productive summer. But it all depends what one puts on a to-do list, doesn't it! What if your to-do list was all about the books in your stacks? Cormorant Books, 2015 For
"A man could do a lot for you, he added. I mean, like bulldozing and roofing, heavy lifting, he said. Maybe more." House of Anansi, 2015 So says a character in Lynn Crosbie's Life is about Losing Everything (2012). It might not be the kind of statement that
