What I Read – 2019

Over the month of December I shared some of favourite reads of 2019 in my Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards, so feel free to glance back over those posts if you're curious about what I enjoyed reading this year. This post will focus on my overall reading statistics and at the end I'll share a…

Best Non-Fiction

If you follow along here, you might notice that most of my reading is fictional. That said, 2019 has seen me reading more non-fiction than I ever have before. In fact, looking at the numbers, I've almost doubled the amount of non-fiction compared to 2018. Part of this is because of my Writers' Fest Challenge,…

Best Short Stories

The Second Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards got off to a great start this week - thank you to all who shared their picks for best translated work! Today I'm focusing on short story collections. I love short stories. It wasn't until university that I really began to appreciate them - before that my…

Book Review: Here I Am! by Pauline Holdstock

Here I Am! - Pauline Holdstock (Biblioasis, 2019) I received an Advance Reader's Copy of this book. All opinions are my own. I didn't initially plan on reading Pauline Holdstock's latest novel because, hey, I've The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and I felt like I'd heard this story before. Quirky, child…

The Giller Prize 2019: Shortlist

The shortlist for the 2019 Giller Prize was announced yesterday. This is, arguably, the most prestigious of awards for Canadian literature. The announcement yesterday narrows the playing field from twelve to six. This year I've decided to read as many as I can. As it turns out, I've already read 4 of the shortlisted titles…

Book Review: Milkman by Anna Burns

Milkman - Anna Burns (Graywolf Press, 2018) I'll admit, it took me quite a while to finish this book. While that doesn't sound like a rave review, I don't blame Milkman. This was a book that required a certain amount of attention, a certain buy-in if you will. The style of the writing and the…

Book Review: As Many Nows as I Can Get by Shana Youngdahl

As Many Nows as I Can Get - Shana Youngdahl (Dial Books, 2019) I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book. All opinions are my own. In my last young adult book review I wrote, "I do believe that a great book transcends its target audience and can be enjoyed regardless of age" and…