Best Fiction – The Third Annual Karissa Reads Books Literary Awards

Fiction being what I read the most of, I always feel like the Best Fiction category is the best reflection of my favourite books of the year and I would say this year is no exception. So far this year I've read 62 novels. I narrowed the least down to sixteen, then down to five,…

Book Review: Hamnet & Judith by Maggie O’Farrell

Hamnet & Judith - Maggie O'Farrell ( In the 1580s, a couple living in Henley Street, Stratford, had three children: Susanna, then Hamnet and Judith, who were twins.The boy, Hamnet, died in 1596, aged eleven.Four years or so later, the father wrote a play called Hamlet.Hamnet & Judith - Maggie O'Farrell With this historical note…

What I Read – September 2020

Read: Family in Six Tones - Lan Cao and Harlan Margaret Van Cao (Putnam, 2020) God in My Everything - Ken Shigematsu (Zondervan, 2013) Hamnet & Judith - Maggie O'Farrell (Knopf Canada, 2020) The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead (Bond Street Books, 2020) The Apothecary - Maile Meloy (Puffin Books, 2011) How Much of These…

What I Read – April 2017

The Unwomanly Face of War - Svetlana Alexievich (Random House, 2017) (translated from the Russian by Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky Do Not Say We Have Nothing - Madeleine Thien (Knopf Canada, 2016) The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray, 2017) A Manual for Cleaning Women - Lucia Berlin (Farrar, Strauss and…

Book Review: Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

I've been to Beijing and stood in Tiananmen Square three times in my life. The first time was, I believe late 1988 or early 1989, before our family moved to Canada at the end of 1989. I would have been about three years old on that first trip and I have no memories of the…

Book Review: Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

We Should All be Feminists was the book I had with me in the hospital when I gave birth to my daughter. We didn't know whether we were having a boy or a girl before Pearl was born and, to be honest, the thought of a girl scared me. Boys seemed straightforward. Girls seemed hard…

What I Read – March 2017

I've fallen behind in reviewing books but am working to catch up and get some reviews posted next week. In the meantime, here's what I read this month: Eileen - Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin Press, 2015) The Dark and Other Love Stories - Deborah Willis (Hamish Hamilton, 2017) She was glad that was done. What a…

What I Read – February 2016

Music for Wartime - Rebecca Makkai (Viking, 2015) The Givenness of Things - Marilynne Robinson (HarperCollins, 2015) (Truth be told, I only read half of this before I had to return it to the library. But I really enjoyed what I read and I hope to borrow it again.) When panic on one side is…

Book Review: The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel

If you're familiar with Yann Martel's work (and you probably are, because he wrote Life of Pi), you know that he does things a little unusually. He writes books with taxidermied animals as the main characters (read my review of Beatrice & Virgil) and he leaves you wondering about the truth of that tiger in…

Book Review – All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

Some books should come with a warning. Something like, "You're probably going to cry before this book is through. Even if you think you're not a crier." All My Puny Sorrows (Knopf Canada, 2014) is Miriam Toews' sixth novel. Like the first five, this novel involves Mennonite characters. Though while being Mennonite is key to…