Books

Bad Endings, Short Stories by Carleigh Baker

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I grew up in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Bordered by Lake Maracaibo and the humid rainforest of the Sierra de Perijá, Maracaibo is a city of heavy smells, heavy sun, heavy heat, heavy clouds. It could not be further from the cold waters, lush and cool forests, and thunderless rain of the Pacific Northwest. Bad Endings, a short story collection by Vancouver writer Carleigh Baker, is a book set firmly in the Northwest landscape, where lead-coloured skies, chilling winter rain, and the proximity to wild and majestic nature are part of the everyday palette of sights and experiences.

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The Measure of My Powers – A Memoir by Jackie Kai Ellis

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I sincerely believe in dedicating time to the things we love; it’s the name of this blog and the life philosophy I credit with giving me a second chance at a happy life. There is no “getting over it,” “you are too old for this,” and especially, “you are a mom, so you should not be doing x or y…” Motherhood, on the contrary, was one of the catalysts of my decision to not only never abandon the things I was passionate about—music, movies, reading, writing—but to pass these passions along to my son as the most beautiful gifts of being alive.

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Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

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Every day, women of all ages around the world look in the mirror and hate what they see. As women, our criticism of our bodies is often ruthless; our rolls, dimples, stretch marks, and cellulite are a reflection of our laziness, carelessness, and excesses. In an unending cycle, we hate, try to lose weight, become overwhelmed by the difficulty, give up and then start all over again. This hate is not innate; instead, it has been ingrained in us from an early age through a culture that measures the values of girls and women through their bodies, each pound gained and year aged, lowering that value.

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Just Kids – A Memoir by Patti Smith

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I grew up on classical music and progressive rock. I also grew up in 1990s Venezuela, where musical cliques were so closed-off in their own lanes, it was almost considered treason to listen, or even to admit to like, anything that was considered to be outside the approved bands within the genre.  While in later years these cliques began to open up to a more general appreciation of all that could be considered “rock,” I grew up never listening or learning anything about entire genres, from pop, to soul, to hip hop, all the way to punk

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Wab Kinew’s The Reason You Walk – A Memoir About Reconciliation

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This year Canadians celebrated their 150th anniversary since Confederation. Though the Canadian Government made a great effort to celebrate this milestone anniversary, in true Canadian fashion, the date brought a lot of conflicted feelings and introspection to many Canadians. So while most of us still celebrated the extraordinary accomplishments of this country, many also took the time to reflect on our past and the historical wrongs that have been inflicted towards our Indigenous peoples.

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Sherman Alexie Makes Me Fly

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Flight, by Sherman Alexie, Grove Press, 2007. I thought this was an unappealing cover, but little did I know the author' name on this cover is anything but unappealing.
Flight, by Sherman Alexie, Grove Press, 2007.

A few weeks ago, I went to my local library. I had to return a book, my third in a row from Rachel DeWoskin. I had tried unsuccessfully to renew it for a second time, but to my horror, somebody had dared to put a hold on it!

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Beware of the Perils of Love at First Sight: Rachel DeWoskin and Her Stories of Love

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Big Girl Small, Harper Collins, 2011.
Big Girl Small, Harper Collins, 2011.

“Can you fall in love with a writer at first read?” I asked myself when reading the first few lines of Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin. I am usually wary of things that are too easy to like, of too good first impressions, but the beginning of this book is so strange and engaging that after two paragraphs, I was already telling myself, “Um, I think I’m going to like this book very much.”

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Grab & Go! If everything was as easy as this…

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The Grab & Go series by my local library in Port Coquitlam, BC.
The Grab & Go! series by my local library in Port Coquitlam, BC.

I love my local library.  A few weeks ago I went there to return a big pile of DVDs and children’s books. As I was leaving, I noticed  these large, brown bags lined on the main counter. They looked like big, wonderful presents waiting to be picked. They all looked the same, except for a sticker on the top with the description of what may be inside: Novels, Non-Fiction, Gardening, Cooking & Crafts, Science Fiction. It’s Grab & Go!, titles picked by the library staff and put together in mystery bags for lazy readers like me. What a wonderful idea!  And I’m their perfect audience: I’ve been relying in the last several months on the library recommendations, the new arrivals section and the odd recommendation by a friend or family member. I just don’t have much time to read anything at all, and that includes book releases and reviews.

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The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling

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Casual Vacancy

I am a Harry Potter fan. At the insistence of my mom, who was aware of the books very early on, I started to read the series and soon became a fan as did almost everybody else. It was great to dive into Harry Potter‘s world and to engage in the cultural conversation with my mom, my sisters and, seemingly, the rest of the world.

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