I don’t review books.

I read them and sometimes I write what I think about the book or what the book makes me think. I write pretty much what I might answer if you were to call me and say: so how’d you like that book?

But I rarely answer the phone, so please don’t call…

♦

 1979,  by Ray Robertson

A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden, by Stephen Reid

A Pillow Book,  by Suzanne Buffam

A Serious Widow, by Constance Beresford-Howe

A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki

A Walk in the Night, by Alex la Guma

A Woman’s Walks, by Lady Colin Campbell

A Year of Days,  by Myrl Coulter

All Roads Lead to Wells, by Susan Safyan

All Saints,  by K.D. Miller

Almost Everything, by Anne Lamott

‘(An) Evening in the Café’, from Truth or Lies, by Frances Itani

And the Birds Rained Down, by Jocelyne Saucier

At a Loss for Words, by Diane Schoemperlen

Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes, by Michael Cho

Beatitudes, by Hermenegilde Chiasson

Bluets, by Maggie Nelson

Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Brighten the Corner Where You Are, by Carol Bruneau

‘Burt’s Shwarma’, from Boys, by Kathleen Winter

Canada Eats, assembled and illustrated by Margaret Atwood

City Poems, by Joe Fiorito

Close to Spiderman, by Ivan E. Coyote

Comfort me with Apples, by Joe Fiorito

Confessions of an Advertising Man, by David Ogilvy

Culverts Beneath the Narrow Road, by Brenda Schmidt

Deep Water Passage, by Anne Linnea

Elle, by Douglas Glover

Every Man Dies Alone, by Hans Fallada

Falling for Myself, by Dorothy Ellen Palmer

February, by Lisa Moore

Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder, by Julia Zarankin

Fishbowl, by Bradley Somer

Five Roses, by Alice Zorn

From Red Clay to Salt Water, by John Sylvester

Girl of the Limberlost, by Gene Stratton-Porter

Help Me, Jacques Cousteau, by Gil Adamson

Her Name Was Margaret, by Denise Davy

Hotel du Lac, by Anita Brookner

How to Catch a Mole, by Marc Hamer (short review)

How to Catch a Mole, by Marc Hamer (longer review)

If Sylvie Had Nine Lives, by Leona Theis

I’m Over all That, by Shirley MacLaine

Important Artifacts and Personal Property, by Leanne Shapton

Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese

In Praise of Retreat, by Kirsteen MacLeod

In the Spice House, by Marnie Woodrow

In This House are Many Women,  by Sheree Fitch

Inward to the Bones, by Kate Braid

Join the Revolution, Comrade, by Charles Foran

Just Add Water and Stir, by Pierre Berton

Leonard’s Flat, by Steven Mayoff

Letters to a Friend, by Winnifred Holtby

Liar, by Lynn Crosbie

‘Little Bird’, from Oh, My Darling, by Shaena Lambert

Malarky, by Anakana Schofield

Meatless?, by Sarah Elton

Missing Sarah, by Maggie de Vries

Mitzi Bytes, by Kerry Clare

My Life as a Dame, by Christina McCall

Next Year For Sure,  by Zoey Leigh Peterson

Notes to Self, by Emilie Pine

One Woman’s Island, by Susan M. Toy

Our Souls at Night, by Kent Haruf

Nature’s Little Wonders: Bees, by Candace Savage

Newfoundland: Journey into a Lost Nation, by Michael Crummey,  Greg Locke

No Guff Vegetable Gardening, by Donna Balzer and Steven Biggs

One Hour in Paris, by Karyn L. Freedman

Personal Geography, by Elizabeth Coatsworth

Petra, by Shaena Lambert

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard

Player One, by Douglas Coupland

Plainwater, by Anne Carson

‘Plum Dumplings‘, from Ruins & Relics, by Alice Zorn

Pondlife,  by Al Alvarez

Practical Jean, by Trevor Cole

Pull of the Moon, by Elizabeth Berg

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Room, by Emma Donaghue

Savage Fields, by Dennis Lee

Sixpence House, by Paul Collins

Seeds of Another Summer, by Beth Powning

Seeing Lessons, by Catherine Owen

Somewhere Towards the End, by Diana Athill

Slow Curve Out, by Maureen Scott Harris

Stunt, by Claudia Dey

Swimming Studies, by Leanne Shapton

Taxi!, by Helen Potrebenko

The Anthologist, by Nicholson Baker

The Book of Eels, by Patrik Svensson

The Book of Eve, by Constance Beresford-Howe

The Education of Augie Merasty,  by Augie Merasty with David Carpenter

The Fields of Noon, by Sheila Burnford

The Forgotten Waltz, by Anne Enright

The Hearing Trumpet, by Leonora Carrington

The Little Book of Hygge, by Meik Wiking

The M Word, edited by Kerry Clare

The Outport People, by Claire Mowat

The Overcoat, Nikolai Gogol

The Road Past Altamont, by Gabrielle Roy

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating,  by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

The Utility of Boredom,  by Andrew Forbes

The Very Marrow of Our Bones, by Christine Higdon

The Year of Living Danishly,  by Helen Russell

There is a Season, by Patrick Lane

This is Not My Life, by Diane Schoemperlen

To Love What Is, by Alix Kates Shulman

To Measure the World, by Karen Shenfeld

To Speak for the Trees, by Diana Beresford-Kroeger

Toxin, Toxout,  by Brad Lourie and Rick Smith

Treed, by Ariel Gordon

Waiting for a Star to Fall, by Kerry Clare

Walking a Literary Labyrinth, by Nancy M. Malone

Wanda, by Barbara Lambert

Watching You Without Me, by Lynn Coady

What Happened Later, by Ray Robertson

What Is Going to Happen Later,  by Karen Hofmann

What We See When We Read, by Peter Mendelsund

♦

These are also Not Reviews; Nor are Names Mentioned

Hypothetically Speaking

Summer Edition (wherein quality is required)

♦

Not Reviews, in the form of Q&A

Bats or Swallows, by Teri Vlassopoulos

Fatted Calf Blues, by Steven Mayoff

Grid, by Brenda Schmidt

Island in the Clouds, by Susan Toy

Mennonites Don’t Dance by Darcie Friesen Hossack

My Father’s Hands, by Karen Shenfeld

Shore Girl, by Fran Kimmel

The Boy, by Betty Jane Hegerat

The Whirling Girl, by Barbara Lambert

When the Red Light Goes on Get Off, by John Wing

♦

Kid Books (not just for kids)

Not Just for Kids:  why I love picture books

__

Ebb and Flow, by Heather Smith

Everybody’s Different on Everybody Street,  by Sheree Fitch

Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls,  by Elena Favillia and Francesca Cavallo

Leaving My Homeland — A Refugee’s Journey, by Crabtree Publishing

On the Day You were Born, by Debra Frasier

The Adventures of Miss Petitfour, by Anne Michaels

The Cat’s Pajamas, by Wallace Edwards

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Sound of Colors,  by Jimmy Liao

The Moon Watched it All, by Shelley Leedahl

The Triumphant Tale of the House Sparrow,  by Jan Thornhill

Think Again, by JonArno Lawson

What Milly Did,  by Elise Moser

When We Were Alone,  by David A. Robertson

Why Shouldn’t I Drop Litter? , by MJ Knight

♦

This is Not a (Book) Review

The Truffle Hunters