Ryan

From Margaret Atwood's poem “Woman Skating” to Alice Munro's short story “The Moon in the Orange Street Skating Rink”, skating has long been a cherished subject of the writing of Canada's most gifted writers. With her 2016 book “Serpentine Loop”, Elee Kraljii Gardiner adds her name to that esteemed list.

In “Scribe”, the very first poem in the collection, Gardiner establishes a firm connection to and respect for skating history: “I was on the ice before I could walk. // In the womb then in her arms.” She refers to her mother, Olympic Gold Medallist, World, North American and U.S. Champion Tenley Albright. History is everywhere in this book. From an 1849 rescue of a drowning skater on the frozen Schuylkill River to the sombre meditation of school figures, Gardiner takes you along on a journey through time. If you close your eyes, you can almost smell the ice and hear the sound of a loop being patiently carved.

People, places and things from skating history jump out at every (three) turn: Charlotte, Maribel Vinson Owen, Henning Grenander, the Skating Club Of Boston, the Mercury Scud. The stories in this gem of a book give skating history new life.

If you're looking for something very light with a sprinkle of humour, Harper Sinclair's new romcom is just what you need in your life.

Emily Thompson is a bit of a lovable bungler type character.

When we first meet her, she is struggling financially and working a job she doesn't love at a diner. She's never dated before. She always seem to put her foot in things in a slightly amusing way.

Emily's roommate Lisa shows her a casting ad for a reality dating show (a la Bachelor) and the $150,000 prize is too good to pass off.

When she arrives at the set of the show - a mansion dubbed the Love Nest - she discovers that reality TV is anything but unscripted. Everything from her bedtime to fashion choices were dictated by a contract. Drama is encouraged.

Emily is a bit like a fish out of water on the set at first, but an innocent mistake during a filmed confessional turns her into a viral sensation on social media. Soon romance sparks, not
with the show's leading love interest Chad. Instead, Emily falls for Hot Ben from the Production Crew. The whole thing goes off the rails as a result.

The whole plot is a bit of a comedy of errors that checks off all of the tropes of the genre, but it's pulled off very well. There's a happy ending, but it doesn't come about in the typical way you might expect - and that's what makes this book a success.

A candid look at the skating career of three-time Canadian Champion Josée Chouinard. We learn a surprising amount about Josée's story in this book, from her early beginnings in the sport in Quebec to her successes and struggles with nerves in competition and her career as a professional. One particularly interesting anecdote brought up is the impact of world events in September of 2001 on her farewell tour. Not a long read but an interesting one for any Canadian figure skating fan.

One of the most candid skating biographies that emerged from the figure skating boom in the 1990s. From his youth in Czechoslovakia to the Olympic podium and beyond, ‘Jumpin' Joe' is extremely honest about his life both on and off the ice in this book - the good, bad and ugly. Jozef was not an overnight sensation as a professional - it actually took him quite a few years to really become an A-lister - and this book does a fine job in explaining the how and why. A very interesting read.

Andrea Spinosa's new short story anthology “Chronicles and Tales from Other Planes” promises a bit of everything - horror, fantasy, sci-fi, dystopia... in short, a little something that might appeal to a wide variety of literary tastes.

The author showcases some creative ideas and plenty of imagination in this collection.

That said, the execution of some some of these pieces left a little bit to be desired... “Shadows of the Enchanted Detective” was written in the style of a play script and the dialogue was quite clunky. “The Enchanted Veil: A Bard's Epic” had some plot holes. We are introduced to a Scottish bard who bids farewell to his home in Scotland and poof! He's in South America. How? Why? The only explanation we get is that he's there to “unravel the threads of... forgotten tales”.

As for strengths... though “The Shadows of Wisdom: A Tale of Philosophy and Dread” is unusually vague, its atmospheric and philosophical writing style make it the clear highlight of this collection.

I was very familiar with Julie Broad, from both her YouTube channel Book Launchers and previous book “Self-Publish and Succeed”. When I heard she was doing a book specifically focused on marketing, I was absolutely delighted... so delighted in fact that I read “Self-Promote and Succeed” in one sitting.

The book offers a wealth of useful information for authors and probes some truly revealing questions... Do I need to be a bestseller? What does success look like to me?

I liked the fact that marketing being a long game was acknowledged, and that what works for one person might not be at all applicable to every author's journey. This is especially important for nonfiction authors, who so often fall into the trap of applying marketing techniques which are tried and true favourites in fiction spaces - and super ineffective in nonfiction ones.

Having watched many of Julie's YouTube videos, I wasn't at all surprised that a great deal of focus was placed on using one's book as a means to brand building through courses, public speaking opportunities, etc. Depending on one's goals and (especially) nonfiction genre this may or may not be every author's greatest focus, but what I loved about the book was that it offered helpful suggestions for almost every marketing path imaginable.

One of my favourite messages in the book was, “Your book is not for everyone, and if you try to make it for everyone, it will be important to no one.” Julie stressed the importance of writing (and marketing) for your ideal reader - which is something we all need to keep in the forefront of our minds with every marketing decision we make as authors.

I found the chapters on library marketing and ARC readers particularly enlightening. The tangible facts and figures in the chapter about bookstore marketing was great food for thought and set reasonable expectations about how ‘worth it' pursuing that avenue was. My favourite chapter was the one about launch day - I loved the analogy of a book launch being like a birth. It was extremely validating to hear that an author who's had as much success as Julie has faced the same challenges that I have (as a very niche blogger turned author) and how she overcame them.

This book succeeds because there's nothing abstract about the advice it offers. Julie deals in facts and solutions and clearly wants to help set people up to succeed in the fabulous (but always challenging) world of self-publishing.

I received a free advance copy of this book and I am leaving an honest review.

Melina Druga's book “Heinous: Forgotten Murders From the 1910s” is a fascinating anthology of lesser-known true crime stories curated from the back pages of dusty old newspapers. The author's research skills are second only to her storytelling ability. The first chapter, which offers an overview of crime in general during the Edwardian era and Great War, is an excellent overview. I especially appreciated the fact the author included a bibliography to appeal to academic audiences. They really did their homework, and as a result, the stories of these victims will not be forgotten. An outstanding read.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

From its gripping and heartbreaking opening in post-Great War era America to its surprising climax, Gail Lukasik's new Gothic mystery a beautifully crafted and alluring page turner. Nellie Lester is a character that readers can get behind. I really enjoyed this book immensely and I think anyone looking for a good mystery would love it.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The best part of this book is its gentle kick in the pants to let the hard things go, remember who you are and take pride in what you have accomplished. I appreciated the no-nonsense approach and humour and the interesting discussion on self-sabotage. I also very much enjoyed the ninth chapter, which talked about failed New Year's Resolutions and how we can choose to make positive life changes that we will actually stick to. There are some really practical tips on taking care of yourself - lovely little things we know will spark joy that we never seem to make the time for but should. Were there are any great revelations in this book? I don't know about that... but it was beautifully written, very encouraging and I think there's a lot of truth in what the author has to say.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I love a good Agatha Christie-style whodunit and this one was right up my alley! So often fiction authors tackling a historical setting really don't do their homework but the care and research that went into accurately portraying the spirit of the 1920's was so evident in this book.

Dora was up against a brick wall from the very get-go but her determination and sleuthing skills allowed her to break through barriers and take on a staid old boy's club with aplomb.

A charming and well-conceived mystery.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Tlalane Manciya's debut book “Love, Lies and Lilies” is an engaging collection of poetry interspersed with meme-style quote snippets.

The collection is certainly a varied one. The poems touch on everything from romance and love to heartbreak and loss. The lovely poem “Float like a butterfly (The Ballerina”, which interprets the choreography and movements of a ballet dancer, juxtaposes strongly with the heartbreaking poem “My darkest night”, which provides an emotional account of a long night spent next to an unconscious loved one in a hospital bed. I enjoyed the darker poems more than the romantic ones that started off the book.

The standout piece of the collection was a vivid and vibrant poem called “Give me roses while I'm living”. The piece had great imagery and very reminiscent of Christina Rossetti's famous poem “Remember” in a way.

I really can't honestly say that I was 100% in love with the presentation. The inclusion of the meme-style quotes was unflattering to the author's content, which was so obviously heartfelt.

As a Maritimer, I've always been familiar with the stories of the Titanic and the Atlantic. The sinking of the Empress of Ireland is certainly a tragedy I'd heard of but it wasn't a story I knew much about.

I found Nicholas Kinsey's book absolutely fascinating and could certainly draw parallels between the Empress of Ireland's tragic sinking and the Lusitania's. They both happened so quickly that there was absolute chaos on the decks. They also both resulted in intense inquiries afterwards.

The historical research was first rate and based on primary sources. Though the book is historical fiction, the facts shone through and it were presented in a very readable way.

An important (though terribly sad) part of Canadian history that more people should learn about.

Sage Willowbrook's “Tea Witchcraft for the Green Witch” is a fountain of knowledge for anyone interested in herbal wellness. It is a compendium of information on teas, decoctions and elixirs that promise health, success, confidence, happiness and abundance.

While the book is written for an audience of those who practice witchcraft, it is really that anyone might find interesting.

What I loved about this book was its simplicity. The recipes were easy to follow and mainly used fresh ingredients you'd already have in your herb garden, like rosemary, sage, peppermint and lemon balm, as well as the usual dried versions you'd find in your spice cabinet.

The book included helpful tips for harvesting ingredients and steeping instructions.

I tried the Rosemary and Thyme Restoration Tea, recommended for mental clarity and found it quite refreshing. I'm looking forward to trying some of the other recipes in the book in the coming weeks!

A ten-hour redeye flight from Canada to Santiago, Chile serves as the backdrop for much of Marlene Faye Cheng's memoir “Devotion & Loss”.

As we all know, your mind definitely wanders on along haul flight. The author uses her rich imagination to reinvent what is being said on an in-flight pay-per-view documentaries other passengers are watching. These lucid stories are based largely on the experiences of Raven, a soldier who served in Africa and the Middle East and Tree and Oriole, who lived in a refugee camp in Kenya before immigrating to Canada.

Following the flight, the author briefly recounts her time spent in South America, return home and life after this trip, intertwining her own experiences with those of the protagonists of the stories she imagined while on her bucket list vacation.

The author's ability to meander from one story to the next is seamless and her writing style is effective. My only small criticism, if I had to make one, would be that I would have so enjoyed to hear more of the author's own story. The glimpses into her character revealed a self-depracating but entirely relatable person with a wry sense of humour that made me cackle at times. Her inner dialogue about her seat mate on the plane was a wonderful example of this.

Overall, I think this was very well done and I really enjoyed it!

At sixty-one pages, this autobiography of World Champion is a very quick read geared towards a younger audience. The book offers Jill's perspective of the women's competition at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary. The book's message is a great one for its target audience - that the Olympics aren't about medals alone. We don't really get to know much about Jill's backstory before the Games - but this was, after all, a young adult book about her experiences at the Games - not an in-depth biography geared towards adult audiences.

Kelly Miller's reimagination of Jane Austen's classic 1813 novel “Price and Prejudice” is a slow-paced but more than satisfactory historical fiction/romance novel.

The retelling is certainly charming in its creativity, but if I had to make one tiny criticism of the book, it would be that more could have been done to capture the spirit of the Regency era. It's a great story and the readers really get to know the protagonists intimately - but we learn precious little about the setting or the context of the times. The characters were very well-developed but more attention to the setting would have done so much to really build the mood in the story and take it to the next level.

The book flows beautifully, however, and the incorporation of dialogue is top notch. If you're looking to take a trip back in time, I really think that you will enjoy this book.