One of my favourite pre-pandemic activities was visiting my local Kitchener Public Library. For the last two years (almost to the day as I pen this blog) while COVID-19 raged on in the world, my library visits were brief, almost non-existent. The rest of my family, also being big readers, switched to using their Kobo…
Category: Book Thoughts
Voyage of the Basilisk: A Memoir of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan
Brennan, Marie. (2015). Voyage of the Basilisk: A Memoir of Lady Trent (A Natural History of Dragons). Tor Books; New York. During one lovely evening at my local library, my eye was captured by a brilliantly-designed book cover out under the ‘new releases’ section. I read through the plot description for the novel before checking…
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Burroughs, Edgar Rice. (1912, 2010). Tarzan of the Apes. Oxford University Press; Toronto. This is a fun read to start off what is predicted to be a balmy and beautiful summer season. It will, however, make you feel ashamed of civilization and yearn for the uninhibited jungle life. Or maybe that’s just my particular take…
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
Dick, Philip K. (1977, 2011). A Scanner Darkly. Orion House; London. This is a trippy, amazing, intense ride of a novel. I read it for the first time this past long weekend; it felt incredibly familiar to me. It felt familiar to me because I’ve previous watched the film adaptation. Immediately after I completed the…
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Brontë, Charlotte. (1847, 2009). Jane Eyre. Wilder Publications. Like many other readers, I was young when I first read through Jane Eyre. I recall being, quite possibly, in tenth grade, and was utterly fascinated by the gothic appeal of the novel. A young, brave, and intelligent overcomes an unloving childhood and grows into her own person…
The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
Abbey, Edward. (1990). The Monkey Wrench Gang. Utah: Dream Garden Press. Four main characters, who meet randomly in serendipitous circumstances and are united in their common hatred of industry, drive the plot of The Monkey Wrench Gang. Bonnie Abbzug, a mix of Jewish heritage, cabaret training, and university education, is the beautiful young lover of…
Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman
If you enjoy reading fairy tales, you’ll find this anthology of stories to be a real treat.
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
Bukowski, Charles. (1982, 2002). Ham on Rye. Ecco; New York. Despite finding this book a charismatic and engrossing read, I did not like it. A coming-of-age tale about the young protagonist, Henry Chinaski, it describes every possible dirty and detestable feature of life. References to shit are constant; Henry breaks out in full-body acne/boils which…
Back of Beyond by C.J. Box
Box, C.J. (2012). Back of Beyond. Minotaur Books; New York. Although not specifically based around his best-known character, Joe Pickett, this C.J. Box novel has much in the way of action, adventure, and suspense to offer to the contemporary reader. I was most excited about the setting of the novel in Yellowstone National Park –…
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
Boyden, Joseph. (2005). Three Day Road. Penguin Group; Toronto. Appropriately, I finished reading Three Day Road during my trip to Thunder Bay last weekend. The setting for this novel is partly in the bushes of Moose Factory in Northern Ontario, and partly in Europe during World War I. It ties in many stories of First Nations lifestyle and…
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Orwell, George. (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Penguin Books; London. There are many novels which you will want to read at least once in your lifetime, and this is one of them. Containing suspense similar to the distorted culture of Brave New World, mixed with the apocalyptic fear of The War of the Worlds, and as strangely…
Sylvia Plath Poems – Chosen by Carol Ann Duffy
Plath, Sylvia (Author) and Duffy, Carol Ann (Compiler). (2012). Sylvia Plath Poems. Faber & Faber; London. I am not a regular consumer or producer of poetry; given a pile of poems, I would likely think them all of equal stature. It takes someone with a discerning mind and conscious heart to identify poems of great…
Maria Legault 