by prfire | Jan 6, 2020 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
As I write this review from Halifax, a yellow crane lays crumpled at one of the city’s busiest intersections. Toppled over during September’s post-tropical Hurricane Dorian, the crane has remained lodged in the side of a downtown high-rise, looking at times...
by prfire | Dec 19, 2019 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction
‘Ordinary’ and ‘strangers’ are two words that seem contradictory. Yet they fit in this fine book by Bill Stenson, author of Svoboda and Hanne and Her Brothers among others. Sage and Della Howard are a couple on their way to Fernie, BC. After a brief stop in Hope where...
by prfire | Dec 9, 2019 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction
Coopsammy’s novel, set in Trinidad in the 1950’s, features Tessa Joseph who is eight years old when the story begins and nineteen when it ends with her leaving the island, having won a scholarship to attend university in Delhi. Tessa is an avid reader who dreams of...
by prfire | Nov 28, 2019 | Book Reviews, Fiction
Biblioasis, along with famous Canadian cartoonist Seth, have once again released three Victorian ghost stories just in time for the holiday season, and they’re fantastic. Harkening back to the tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas, these stocking...
by prfire | Nov 18, 2019 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
Reading Mary Barnes’ poetry collection, What Fox Knew, is a fascinating journey. It is epic in scope, delightfully composed, and rich in detail. Set in the Southern Georgian Bay area, the characters and their chronicles reveal a deep past of First Nations peoples...
by prfire | Nov 4, 2019 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Lecture
Most of what follows is true reads as the beginning of a blueprint for writing about real places, historical figures and facts, in both fiction and nonfiction. While Michael Crummey gave this lecture in an academic context, during the Kreisel Lecture Series...
