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Canadian Books

“I Read Canadian” 2022

November 2, 2022

For this year’s “I Read Canadian” Day (that’s today), I decided to list books by Canadian authors I’ve read in the past year. And — to adopt a phrase used by the cheesiest of stories online — you won’t believe what I discovered! More than half of the 100 books I read were Canadian! Here are some favourites: Canadian Fiction Butter…

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Books by Women: Pluck: A Memoir of a Newfoundland Childhood and the Raucous, Amazing Journey to Becoming a Novelist by Donna Morrissey; Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi; “Indian” in the Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power by Jodi Wilson-Raybould; Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan; and Dedications: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver

More Books About Women

March 8, 2022

This International Women’s Day post picks up from last month’s post left off, and offers my reaction to a few books by women—fiction and non-fiction—that I’ve rated highly on goodreads so far this year. Pluck: A Memoir of a Newfoundland Childhood and the Raucous, Amazing Journey to Becoming a Novelist  by Donna Morrissey As a longtime…

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Books About Women: The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson, Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez, Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier, The Girl Who Loved Giraffes by Kathy Stinson, Love Every Leaf by Kathy Stinson, and The Lady with the Books by Kathy Stinson

Books About Women

February 2, 2022

When I delivered the 33rd Helen Stubbs Memorial Lecture in the fall of 2021, one of my themes was women. I started it with a reading from Saturday Walk, a book I’d read as a child, back in the 1950s. It’s about a young boy walking with his dad observing all the men at work…

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Are You an Echo? by David Jacobson and What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad

Pandemic Connections

November 24, 2021

What do these books have in common? 1. Both were signed to me personally and mailed to me from the US by their authors. 2. I value both books highly, and even moreso the connections I’ve made with their authors, whom I have never met. This would not be the case, were it not for…

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Beyond Orange Shirt Day

September 29, 2021

Like many Canadians, I’m horrified and saddened by stories that continue to come out about the mistreatment, past and present day, of Indigenous people in this country. So I’m pleased to know that starting tomorrow, we will be honouring the lost children and survivors of residential schools, their families, and communities with a National Day…

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New books by Kathy Stinson

Summer Reading

July 7, 2021

Whether you’re spending your summer close to home or venturing farther afield, I hope you’re enjoying the luxury of some summer reading time. Whether on a beach or an apartment balcony, in a hammock or a tent, there’s something special about the longer, warmer days that says “Relax. Let yourself sink into one of those…

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Bringing Robert Frost Home From Newfoundland

November 6, 2009

A man carried stacks of National Geographic magazines from his truck to a table in the Deer Lake Library. They dated back to the 1950s. One issue caught my eye. The face on the cover was not one I expected to see on a NG cover. It was the April 1976 issue. Inside, unrelated to…

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The Word Collector

A Book Recommendation for Kids AND Writers

April 18, 2018

When I told friend and fellow writer Jean Little I was thinking of auditioning to read for the CNIB, she said, “Well, they don’t take just anybody you know.” It’s true! But they took me. This month I read Book #45 on my list of those I’ve narrated since passing my audition in 2004. Narrating The Word…

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It Began with a Page

Picture Books about Remarkable Women

March 11, 2020

My local librarian recently urged a new book upon me: It Began With a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way, written by Kyo Maclear and illustrated by Julie Morestad. Gyo’s name rang a bell. I couldn’t think why. Soon I recognized her as the creator of books my children and I enjoyed together, forty-some…

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Reading 2019 GG Books

October 9, 2019

Of this year’s 35 nominations for Governor General’s Literary Awards, I have so far read three — all of them, coincidentally, connected to my work at CNIB. Late Breaking by K.D. Miller – Fiction  K.D. Miller was on staff in the CNIB Recording Studio during most of my almost sixteen years there. Alex Colville paintings served…

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