Books

The best way to understand the present and future is to study the past. That’s why we read history. Grit your teeth and dig in. You won’t be disappointed. This is a compelling book set in 1766 about a treasure hunt for a trove of gold ore. It begins in the Canadian sub-Arctic at a Hudson Bay North Atlantic trading post. Mayhem is foretold as the post administrator organizes the expedition…

Mysteries are never top of my mind for reading because they are so formulaic. But I often succumb to their ease of reading as a bit of popcorn for the mind. Fortunately, they are often fun and surprising. Here’s a list I’m sharing with you, along with my thoughts about each book.

We all have a story to share. One of mine, purely fiction, stemmed from a conversation with a colleague who tested positive on a work screening for a sexually transmitted infection (STI). That evening, her husband shook her hand in lieu of a goodnight kiss. The handshake joke continued until she received her corrected, decidedly negative, results…

Every reader has experience with debut novels. In my journey, I’ve learned to be aware when I’m reading a debut novel. The six following range from okay to excellent. Some foreshadow the greatness of the writer; others are debuts that surmounted the challenge of publication but left me feeling my time could be better spent…

I first discovered Little Free Libraries while traveling through Bellevue, WA. I was driving through a beautiful neighbourhood when I noticed what looked like an oversized birdhouse or a miniature garden shed standing at the front of a home. It was mounted on a post and featured a small glass door, but it was not a birdfeeder. Inside were books…

As I listened to Becky Ann Baker’s wonderful narration of Laurie Frankel’s book Enormous Wings, I couldn’t help but think, What would I do in this situation? The protagonist, Pepper Mills, is 77, newly and unwillingly relocated to the Vista View Retirement Community in Austin, Texas. Her grown children strongly suggest (insist)…

I devoured Sebastian Fitzek’s Therapy over the course of a single foggy, drizzly weekend, and in hindsight, the weather couldn’t have set a more fitting mood. I picked it up for a fairly simple reason: this year marks 20 years since Fitzek’s German original novel was first published, and the anniversary arrived with a new audiobook edition…

Remember when teachers told you reading was good for you? They were right. And now reading is even associated with living longer. Researchers at the Yale University School of Public Health have discovered that book…

There’s a particular kind of freedom that arrives, if you’re lucky, in the last chapters of a life. Not the freedom of open roads and infinite possibility – that’s a young person’s freedom, showy and exhausting. This is quieter: the freedom of no longer caring what people think, because you’ve run out of time to perform for them…

I spent much of last year in a reading rut, and I couldn’t understand why. It seems like book recommendations are everywhere; podcasts, Facebook posts, and the viral ‘bookstgrammers’ I like to follow have no shortage of suggestions for me. At first I thought…