So. Many. Exciting. Books. October/November is bursting at the seams with titles that I am itching to get my hands on. If I could, I would clear my calendar and hole up with these books until Christmas. Without further ado, here is a list to spur you on to your local indie bookstore. October 25 … Continue reading Fall 2022 is Outdoing Itself: Forthcoming Fiction Titles to Get Excited About
The world of editing can be a bit murky for the uninitiated. If you're a writer and you are thinking of hiring an editor, it is helpful to get familiar with some of the core editorial services on offer. Depending on what stage your manuscript is at, you are going to need different things from … Continue reading What Type of Editing Does My Manuscript Need?
This reading journal was inspired by my dissatisfaction with all the reading journals I've ever owned. This is my personal take on the ideal reading journal — I hope you enjoy it! Here is a quick rundown of its components: The basics — title, author, publisher. I deliberately included publisher here because there are so many … Continue reading Free Downloadable Reading Journal
Once upon a time I had trouble finding books that I enjoyed. I am pretty picky with my reads, and often a book that is getting a lot of press and accolades leaves me cold. Suffice it to say that I had to figure out some ways to find books that I loved without relying … Continue reading Beyond the Bestsellers: How to Find Your Next Favourite Book
I've been a fan of Rainbow Rowell for a long time. She is one of my all-time favourite comfort-read authors, and Fangirl has long been my number one pick of her books (I wrote one of my first blog posts about it). However, these days the Simon Snow trilogy has elbowed its way to the … Continue reading In Which I Talk at Length About Rainbow Rowell’s Simon Snow Trilogy, and Eat Sour Cherry Scones
Keeping in line with my inadvertent summer theme of fantasy novels, I recently turned the last page on A Deadly Education, the first book in Naomi Novik's projected Scholomance trilogy. This has been by far my favourite Naomi Novik book—for me, neither Uprooted nor Spinning Silver lived up to their hype. But this one I … Continue reading A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, Romanian folklore, and some thoughts about perfectionism
Merriam-Webster Dictionary I don’t know about you, but I love this idea. Certain moods call for certain books, and I for one always feel better after a bit of reading. But first of all, in case it bears mentioning: Nevertheless, in the spirit of bibliotherapy, may I present my extremely unqualified “prescriptions” for books to … Continue reading A Little Bit of Bibliotherapy
Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about language. Since I am an editor, writer, book reviewer, and library branch assistant, this might not shock you. But, specifically, I have been thinking about the way in which language shapes reality, and the unconscious choices that we make with our words, … Continue reading Language Matters
Literary paper dolls. Has anyone had a better idea, ever? I'm a little bit late to this party, but starting in May 2019, The Paris Review writer Julia Berick partnered with illustrator Jenny Kroik to create: "what us bookworm-clotheshorse child-adults have always wanted: literary paper dolls." The first one in the series was my very … Continue reading Rereading Old Favourites: an Interlude (with Paper Dolls)
March is here. It came in like a race between the lion and the lamb…yesterday we alternated between glorious sun and blue sky, and wild squalling blizzards. Today is grey and cold; when I tried to let my cats out, they blinked in the frigid air, flicked their paws, and went back to bed. I … Continue reading Careful Attention: Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
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