Amla Mater a graphic novel by Devi Menon A woman, it is said, is born twice. The first time is when she is born and the second time when she gives birth to another life. In this heartwarming story about finding a home, the main protagonist, Mili, is about to be born—the second time. And…
Category: Book Reviews
Book Review – Parable of the Sower
Parable of the Sower By Octavia E. Butler Review by Jennie Treadway-Miller Before The Hunger Games, the Divergent series, and The Maze Runner, there was Parable of the Sower. Unlike today’s dystopian novels, where there’s a contest to be won or a large, looming government that manipulates its people for sport, Parable of the Sower…
Book Review – Ordinary Beasts
Ordinary Beasts by Nicole Sealey “Every thing aspires to one \ degradation or another. I want \ to learn how to make something \ holy, then walk away,” echoes the poem “in igboland,” leaving the reader speculating if the poet will yield to the relentless fatigue she faces. This is mid-way through the collection, and…
Book Review – The Natural Way of Things
The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood This novel is a horror story, a parable, about what our society would like to do to women it sees as fallen. Ten young women, each marked by a sex scandal with powerful men, are tricked and taken against their will to the Australian outback, where they…
Book Review – Homegoing
Book Review: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi by Jennie Treadway-Miller Every once in a while I read a book so intense that I have to put it down and breathe. Or cry, or do some sort of mundane task in order to calm down. The Kite Runner is one of those books. In parts, so was The…
Book Review – Marlena
Marlena by Julie Buntin When you grow up, who you were as a teenager either takes on a mythical importance or it’s completely laughable. I wanted to be the kind of person who wiped those years away; instead, I feared, they defined me. —Marlena, Julie Buntin “I feel weird saying this,” Claire said to me…
Book Review – Second Growth
In her debut collection, Second Growth, Canadian Poet Fabinne Calvert Filteau writes of planting trees in northern BC after clearcut, and about being the second growth daughter of a mother who attempted suicide throughout her childhood. She uses both traditional and experimental stanzas throughout the book. As someone who is less comfortable with anything other…
Book Review – What We Lose
What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons is a novel written in first person. Thandi, the narrator, talks to us of the pain of being who she is, as the daughter of a Coloured South African mother and an African American father, as a black girl growing up in a mostly…
Book Review – My Antonia
Willa Cather’s powerful novel offers with each read a freshness and colorful view of life, tolerance, and feminine existence; this review by Sangeetha Bharath intends to pay homage to the tale on its 100th anniversary, addressing its delicate complexities without revealing too much of the story. My Ántonia by Willa Cather I did not grow up…
Book Review – Ants Among Elephants
Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India by Sujatha Gidla I often think about how to explain caste to an outsider, and I always fall back on “It’s like racism, except it is not based on the colour of your skin.” This is the line of reasoning the author takes…
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