Category: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

A review of Ascending Spiral by Bob Rich

Though the ultimate purpose of the book does appear to be didactic – global warming and impending environmental catastrophe are generally accepted within the mainstream scientific community as proven fact – and the parallels between Dr Lipkin and the author’s own studies are probably the subject of at least a few fascinating interviews, the story reads well as fiction, creating each world entirely so that the reader becomes engrossed in the historical time and place along with the protagonist.

A review of The Long March Home by Zoë S. Roy

This is a historically consistent plot turn, but to make no mistake, it is one Western readers in particular will like. The book is hardly anti-China, but Roy, a Chinese-Canadian, also does not sugarcoat the oppression, fear, and insanity of Mao’s regime.

A review of Tea and Biscuit Girls and The Love Immigrants by Barbara Celeste McCloskey

Many works of fiction have been set during World War II. Two of my favourites are the TV Foyle’s War and the movie Yanks. It is a well-known fact, however, that if one assigned the same topic to a room full of fiction writers, each would come up with something unique. McCloskey’s novels show her flair for exploring women’s friendships and feelings and will attract and educate today’s generation of young woman readers about an intense, dramatic time in history.

A review of Blue Skies Tomorrow by Sarah Sundin

Sundin certainly did her homework on the period, accurately capturing both life in the military and on the home front during World War II. This was an era where a family kept their secrets and did not share their troubles with outsiders—not even their closest friends.

Interview with Jennifer Maiden

The author of Liquid Nitrogen reads from and talks about her new poetry book, about her themes, about the combining of the personal and political, about writing topical poetry, about meta-poetics, mentorship and parenting as it plays out in her…

A review of Liquid Nitrogen by Jennifer Maiden

Though the description of the Nebula alone is worth the price of the book, this building up of smaller things into something larger, powerful, transformative, is exactly what Liquid Nitrogen does, taking the many cultural, political and literary characters and references, in order to create something large, complex, woven on a “spinning jenny.”

A review of Now What: A Philosophy of Freedom and Equality by Michael Lydon

The book is entirely empirical, encouraging readers to conduct regular and direct (that is, immediately experiential) experiments in order to prove the tenets, and then to live by its dictates. Because the book is almost childlike in its optimism, inclusiveness and warmth, it functions as a kind of self-help guide to living an authentic and happy life

A review of Blood Fugue by Joseph D’Lacey

A rural American community is content in its ignorance of malevolent forces in nearby woods kept in check by Jimmy Kerrigan. But he’s overwhelmed, misunderstood, and beguiled to the point where the town might be lost. The key is a giant intriguing tree and its erotic, mythical secrets. “Joseph D’Lacey rocks!” – Stephen King.

A review of Designs on the Body by Lyn Reeves

The senses are not only invoked, but mingled in such a way that the metaphors combine and grow, illuminating each moment presented in a full body experience. By the end of this book the reader feels drained, enlivened, wiser somehow, as if a full live had been lived between its pages.