The High Road by Terry FallisMy rating: 2 of 5 stars It simply kills me to give Terry Fallis’ comic sequel, The High Road two stars. Throughout the entire reading, and subsequent post-deliberation, I kept wondering why it was did I not only find Fallis’ humour lacking, but sometimes outright condescending, and what was it about the story arc left me feeling as though I needed a real, fully-balanced meal instead of some meal replacement…

Indian Horse by Richard WagameseMy rating: 5 of 5 stars A CBC Canada Reads book, top 100 Globe and Mail listed, critically acclaimed, much discussed, Richard Wagamese’s novel Indian Horse is deserving not only of accolades but your time. This is simply an excellent, fundamentally Canadian novel, beautifully and sparingly written, with grace, poise, banked passion and heartbreaking insight. Although a work of fiction, Wagamese draws from the lives of people he has known and…

Soul Music by Terry PratchettMy rating: 3 of 5 stars We return to Death in this Discworld edition, by Terry Pratchett, which is a re-examination of the hell-spawned musical instrument, and a spoof on rock and roll. Light-hearted, undemanding, there are some moments of chuckling, and generally entertaining escapism. View all my reviews

The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great by Eva StachniakMy rating: 4 of 5 stars The Winter Palace, by Eva Stachniak is an absorbing, well-written read, spare on embellishment, indicating an author sure of her craft and subject. The story chronicles the rise of Catherine the Great of Russia through a subsidiary character, that of a young woman adopted into the intrigues and espionage of the Russian court. Throughout the narrative Stachniak, an…