Designed to mimic my Lorna Sage reading project of six women writers each year (here in 2024 and here in 2025), I chose Julia Alvarez, Alexis Wright, Annie Ernaux, Olga Tokarczuk, Gish Jen, and Leslie Marmon Silko for 2026. At first, I thought I would read a few books
Through the first quarter of the novel, I was thinking of this as the story of two lovers. My take would’ve failed the Bechdel test, and I think, now, it’s really a tale of two sisters: Iris and Laura Chase. The girls would have passed, I think: even when
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
In Dog Flowers: A Memoir (2020), Danielle Geller is immediately relatable; as soon as she shares her Arby’s sandwich from the airport with her cat Little Foot, I’m hooked. When she binge watches an entire season of DragRace, with a guy she meets through an online video game,
Taiye and Kahinde are twin sisters, daughters of Kambirinachi: Butter Honey Pig Bread alternates between their perspectives, each woman narrating their contemporary experiences through the lens of key events in their pasts. The sister’s mother is Yoruba and their father is Igbo, something they often have to explain when
