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Salty Ink Reviews Archive
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A Snapshot of, and Sample Poem from, George Murray’s Whiteout
Posted on April 17, 2012 | 1 CommentQuite a few big names have released collections this spring, but I’ll endorse Whiteout as the must-buy collection of spring 2012. I confess I’m biased, he might be my favourite... -
Salty Ink on Russell Wangersky’s WHIRL AWAY
Posted on April 4, 2012 | 3 CommentsWhirl Away (Thomas Allen, March 2012) Short fiction by Russell Wangersky Whirl Away is the fourth book by multi-award-winning author and journalist Russell Wangersky, and his powerful body of work... -
Year-end Review: A Chat with Jacob McArthur Mooney and an Overview of Folk
Posted on January 10, 2012 | 4 CommentsThere are a lot of people in the world. Billions. To make a national or even regional award’s shortlist is quite a feat, but to land on one for an... -
Ed Riche Week: The New Novel, Easy to Like
Posted on December 12, 2011 | 2 CommentsA good bottle of wine reflects the characteristics of where it comes from. It captures the quality of a time and place, be it Côtes du Rhône, circa 1999, or... -
You Could Believe in Nothing Wins Fitzpatrick Rookie of the Year Status
Posted on December 6, 2011 | 1 CommentCBC’s Jamie Fitzpatrick stepped onto the ice in fine form with his debut novel, You Could Believe in Nothing. Before being drafted by Nimbus’s Vagrant Press, he’d already won the... -
This Month’s Canadian Affair, Part 2: Patrick deWitt’s THE SISTERS BROTHERS
Posted on November 16, 2011 | 10 CommentsFirstly: This novel has been shortlisted for The Giller, the Man Booker, and won the GG award, and the Rogers Writers Trust Ficiton Award. Secondly: Film rights have been sold... -
Grand Theft Auto(biography): A Review of Lynn Coady’s The Antagonist
Posted on October 11, 2011 | 2 CommentsNews of Lynn Coady’s fall release with Anansi caught my eye and anticipation months ago. There’s no logo in publishing more reliable than that Anansi A, and over the course... -
Salty Ink’s Accidental Canadian Affair: APOLOGETIC FOR JOY by Jessica Hiemstra-Van Der Horst
Posted on September 18, 2011 | No Comments* I finished this article, and went to mention where she’s from. Turns out she doesn’t live here and never has. Oops. A book comes in my mailbox, and I... -
Shiny Review of Nicole Lundrigan’s GLASS BOYS
Posted on September 3, 2011 | 1 CommentI reviewed this one for The National Post. They happen to run the best book blog in the country, in case you haven’t heard of the Afterword. http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/09/02/book-review-glass-boys-by-nicole-lundrigan/ -
Salty Ink on Patrick Warner’s Double Talk
Posted on June 4, 2011 | 1 CommentDouble Talk is the debut novel from a well-respected and multi-award-winning poet, whose poetry tends to look for meaning in places and things where there may not be any. In... -
March’s Featured Book of the Month
Posted on February 28, 2011 | 2 CommentsMoonlight Sketches (Creative Books, 2011) Short Fiction by Gerard Collins DUE OUT THIS MONTH This is a compelling collection with everlasting images and a cloud-thick atmosphere. Collins excels in hooking... -
February’s Featured Book of the Month: Alexander MacLeod’s Light Lifting
Posted on January 31, 2011 | No CommentsLight Lifting (Biblioasis, 2010) Short Fiction by Alexander MacLeod Funny story about this book: I was heading out of town to work on my new manuscript, over Labour Day weekend.... -
Janaury’s Featured Book of the Month: R.W. Gray’s CRISP
Posted on December 31, 2010 | 1 CommentCrisp (NeWest Press, 2010) Short fiction by R.W. Gray The title, Crisp, is taken from the title story “Crisp,” a story in which two brothers watch their father get burnt... -
December’s Featured Book of the Month: Alison Pick’s FAR TO GO
Posted on November 30, 2010 | 2 CommentsFar to Go (Anansi, 2010) Fiction by Alison Pick In Far to Go, her second novel, Alison Pick takes a widespread tragedy — the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia — down to the... -
Salty Ink on Sharon McCartney’s FOR AND AGAINST
Posted on November 29, 2010 | 2 CommentsFor and Against (Goose Lane, 2010) Poetry by Sharon McCartney Poetry can be fierce or beautiful, and at its best, as in McCartney’s For and Against, it can be both.... -
November’s Featured Book of the Month: Michael Winter’s The Death of Donna Whelan
Posted on October 31, 2010 | 1 CommentThe Death of Donna Whelan (Penguin/Hamish Hamilton, 2010) Documentary Fiction by Michael Winter The Death of Donna Whalen is an unprecedented novel by one of the country’s most innovative writers:... -
Russell Wangersky’s The Glass Harmonica, Structured Like a Carnival Ride
Posted on October 22, 2010 | No CommentsThe Glass Harmonica (Thomas Allen, 2010) by Russell Wangersky The Glass Harmonica exposes the lives and secrets of a dozen or more McKay Street residents by dissecting the fictional St.... -
October 2010′s Featured Book of the Month: Craig Francis Power’s BLOOD RELATIVES
Posted on September 30, 2010 | 6 CommentsBlood Relatives (Pedlar Press, September 2010) By Craig Francis Power 293 pages, $21 A condensed version of this review appeared in the Telegram on Sept. 24th, 2010 With more and... -
Like Father, Like Son … Sort of. Alistair’s son, Alexander MacLeod, a New and Compelling Voice out of Atlantic Canada
Posted on September 7, 2010 | 4 CommentsLight Lifting (Biblioasis, Sept.20th, 2010) Short fiction by Alexander MacLeod The apple may have fallen from the tree, but Alistair and Alexander are two very different apples, writing-wise. Green and... -
September’s Featured Book of the Month: Joey Comeau’s OVERQUALIFIED
Posted on August 31, 2010 | No CommentsOverqualified (ECW, 2009) a novel (sort of) by Joey Comeau Joey Comeau’s Overqualified is September’s Book of the Month because it is what we’re all looking for, or at least what... -
Salty Ink on Steve McOrmond’s Strong Third Offering, THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT ARMAGEDDON
Posted on August 28, 2010 | 1 CommentPEI poet Steve McOrmond made his mark in 2004 when his debut, Lean Days, was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award ( an award for the best first book by... -
For Those of You Who like It Rum-soaked & Raw: Danila Botha’s GOT NO SECRETS
Posted on August 24, 2010 | No CommentsGot No Secrets (Tightrope Books, 2010) Short Fiction by Danila Botha Here’s a book for those of you who like your literature hungover, angst-ridden, strung out, and with trackmarks. Though... -
August’s Featured Book of the Month: Samuel Thomas Martin’s THIS RAMSHACKLE TABERNACLE
Posted on August 1, 2010 | 3 CommentsThis Ramshackle Tabernacle (Breakwater Books, 2010) Short fiction by Samuel Thomas Martin I hate writing reviews because what is left to say, really? “An exciting debut.” “A real pageturner.” The... -
Salty Ink on Poet Laureate Lorri Neilsen Glenn’s New Collection, Lost Gospels
Posted on July 22, 2010 | 2 CommentsLost Gospels (Brick Books, 2010) Poetry by Lorri Neilsen Glenn A truly moving collection of poetry that dwells in profoundly personal yet universal subject matter. A book a blaze so you... -
A Quick Review of Lynn Coady’s STRANGE HEAVEN: If You missed it the First Time, Don’t Make the Same Mistake Twice
Posted on July 17, 2010 | 3 Comments2010 Re-release Reader’s Guide Edition of Lynn Coady’s Strange Heaven - A GG finalist and Winner of the Atlantic Bookseller’s Chocie Award; a winner of the Dartmouth Book Award and... -
Going Backwards and Laughing Out Loud; A Brief Overview of Larry Mathews, or, Rather, an Insistence You Read Him, and Agree with my New Burning Rock Parallel.
Posted on July 12, 2010 | 3 Comments…… On Larry and his latest novel Larry Mathews is credited as the founding member of the Burning Rock Fiction Collective. A writer’s group that includes names like Lisa Moore,... -
July’s Featured Book of the Month: Kathleen Winter’s ANNABEL
Posted on June 30, 2010 | 8 CommentsAnnabel, by Kathleen Winter (Anansi, 2010) * Note: A slightly different form of this review appeared in The Telegram Kathleen Winter is no stranger to writing, in any form. She... -
June’s Featured Book of the Month: Amy Jones’s What Boys Like
Posted on May 31, 2010 | 3 CommentsWhat Boys Like by AmyJones Biblioasis (2009) Winner of the hip-assuring Metcalf-Rooke award! (Previous winners: Rebecca Rosenblum & Kathleen Winter) This is fresh, new, fearlessly vibrant writing. Amy inhabits moments,...
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