Short version: In Covid’s Wake presents an excellent overview of the policies and actions in several regions of the world (primarily the US) during the Covid-19 pandemic, evaluating these for lessons learned for future crises. The authors do an excellent job analysing the rationales for the various approaches and the outcomes and impact on the... Continue Reading →
A Way to Be Happy, by Caroline Adderson. Pub 2024
This book was a birthday gift last year, from a good friend and colleague with whom I meet regularly for lunch and discussion. For our birthdays, we often exchange books, and I always find something new and interesting in these gifts. Short stories are a tricky space. The author must get the reader engaged early... Continue Reading →
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller. Pub 1961.
A book appearing on many “best novel” lists, this has been drifting around on my bookshelves for years. Seeking an entry for the “should read” category, I started on this in mid-January, thus embarking on a 4-month slog in the truest sense of the word. Set in a fictional location in the very real WWII... Continue Reading →
The Lion Women of Tehran, by Marjan Kamali. Pub 2024.
This was another recommendation from the folks who suggested The Berry Pickers. Of all their recommendations, all of which fall in the “mainstream” category, this was my least favourite – not terrible, just okay. Set primarily in the turbulent 50s and 60s Iran, we meet Ellie and Homa, schoolmates and friends from different backgrounds. Ellie... Continue Reading →
Wizard and Glass, by Stephen King. Pub 1997
Book 4 of the Dark Tower series was an epic in both storytelling and proportions – nearly 900 pages, and covering several significant storylines. Continuing where book 3 left off, our merry band of travellers survives the murderous train ride to find themselves walking a yellow brick road in Kansas and discovering an emerald castle... Continue Reading →
We Do Not Part, by Han Kang. Pub 2021. Translation by E. Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris, Pub 2025.
I got this book when I read that the New York Times had selected it for its book club in March. I had also vaguely heard of it at my local bookshop, and with the added imprimatur of the Nobel Prize in 2024, it seemed like a good bet to try out this new-to-me author.... Continue Reading →
The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene. Pub 1951
This book was part of my September binge of favourite bookstores in Victoria (specifically, Russell Books and their terrific selection of used and remaindered). I’ve enjoyed my previous Greene novels, and since this one is well known for its film versions (neither of which I’ve seen) and for being Greene's best (indeed one of the... Continue Reading →
Changing My Mind, by Julian Barnes. Pub 2025
Upon seeing this new volume by Barnes, I instantly ordered it, raced down the bookshop when it arrived, and made it my next read. I confess to being disappointed when I got it – it is so small – 57 small pages. But it’s Barnes, so it was, to me, essential reading, even if it... Continue Reading →
Curiosities, by Anne Fleming. Pub 2024
This was a Christmas gift from my sister, who heard an interview with the author and thought it sounded interesting. She was oh-so right. This book was terrific – engaging, surprising, well-written, and lives up to its name. This is historical fiction at its finest, with a few kernels of real history enveloped in an... Continue Reading →
Kairos, by Jenny Erpenbeck. Pub 2021. Translation by Michael Hoffman, Pub 2023
I went for this book specifically because it won the 2024 International Booker prize, and so knew it would fulfill a booklist category. Otherwise, I knew nothing about this book, other than its original language was German. The title Kairos refers to the Greek god or characteristic of a chance encounter. This is how the... Continue Reading →
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