Review of Joann McCaig’s “Beneficiary”
By Sasha Yurchenko Beneficiary by JoAnn McCaig University of Calgary Press (2026) Seren lived many lives. She was born into a picture-perfect family with matching sweaters and yearly personalized Christmas…
Review of Christine McNair’s “Toxemia”
By Frances Boyle Toxemia by Christine McNair Book*Hug (2024) Toxemia, the first work of creative non-fiction by multiple-award-winning poet Christine McNair, is a powerful and emotive collection of lyric essays…
Review of Lauren Carter’s “The Longest Night”
By Vivian Hansen The Longest Night by Lauren Carter Freehand Books (2025) There are tropes to be observed in the writing of a time-travel novel. The major trope: do not…
Review of Monica Kidd’s “The Crane”
By Jonathan Greenbaum The Crane by Monica Kidd Breakwater Books (2025) Over the years several Canadian novelists have written about Americans who fled to Canada to evade the draft in…
Review of Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike’s “Wish Maker”
By Kendall Bistretzan Wish Maker by Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike Masobe Books (2025) Wish Maker by Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike is a charming juvenile fiction book full of magical realism, relatable characters,…
Review of Wade Davis’ “Beneath the Surface of Things”
By Michael Frey Beneath the Surface of Things by Wade Davis Greystone Books (2024) Wade Davis’ latest essay collection “Beneath” offers a social perspective in both subject and style. Lying…
Review of Rod Moody-Corbett’s “Hides”
By Vivian Hansen Hides by Rod Moody-Corbett Breakwater Books (2024) He is unnamed. But he is well known to us. We have sat in his classroom, shared his bench at…
Review of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “The Serviceberry”
By Vivian Hansen The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer Simon & Schuster (2024) I pluck the easy-going Saskatoon berries, a few sacrificial ones…
Review of Darlene Barry Quaife’s “The Primitives”
By Lori Hahnel The Primitives by Darlene Barry Quaife Friesen Press (2024) The Spanish Civil War of 1936 – 1939 has inspired the work of a great many writers and…
Review of Leanne Shirtliffe’s “The Genius Hour Project”
By Kendall Bistretzan The Genius Hour Project by Leanne Shirtliffe Thistledown Press (2024) The Genius Hour Project is a middle-grade novel that follows eleven-year-old Frazzy, a quirky and scatterbrained girl…