branta

the might of write

Archives for the ‘Book Reviews’ Category

An end-of-year-list of 2012 Canadian poetry chapbooks

By rob mclennan • Jan 17th, 2013 • Category: Book Reviews, Editor's Picks, Lists, Poetry, Recommended Artistic Consumption

For many, year-end means a moment of reflection, and the appearance of lists, lists and more lists. I’ve received and picked up numerous poetry chapbooks, and thought it might be worth compiling a list of the Canadian titles that really stuck out, over the past calendar year.



New book from Noah Richler drops April 20!

By Colleen Kitts • Apr 12th, 2012 • Category: Book Reviews, Goose Lane Authors, Happenings



Erin Knight talks to Ashliegh Gehl about Chaser

By the Branta Webcrawler • Apr 12th, 2012 • Category: Book Reviews, Feature Post, From the Interweb, Goose Lane Authors, Interviews, Poetry

Unlike The Sweet Fuels, her first collection of poetry, Chaser is more like one long poem inspired by a handful of texts. Her interest in other people’s mail propelled her to read the letters of John Keats and Katherine Mansfield, taking note that most writers from a certain time period suffered from tuberculosis simply because it was just something everyone seemed to have. But it was in Keats’s letters that she started to tap into the value of his words.



Three poets (Canadian women, all) for the ages

By the Branta Webcrawler • Jul 10th, 2011 • Category: Book Reviews, Editor's Picks, Poetry

Susan Musgrave, Lorna Crozier and Sharon Thesen, three vital, important Canadian poets, manage to do this. All three have been publishing for at least 20 years, reside in British Columbia (in fact, all have poems that take place on or refer to Haida Gwaii) and it is fair to say that they are all at the top of their games. In terms of tone and poetic style, that’s pretty much where the similarities end. Their new books are simply stunning.
Zoe Whittall/The Globe and Mail



Review of As You Were

By the Branta Webcrawler • Jun 5th, 2011 • Category: Book Reviews, Editor's Picks, Goose Lane Authors

The book is written in a clear, engaging voice and never descends into sensationalist finger-pointing. Fostaty spends more than half the book recounting the events of the tragic day, but his narrative moves along briskly, without unnecessary detail or excessive editorializing. And his analysis of both the media coverage of the incident and the subsequent government investigation is concise and objective.
Paul Challen/Quill & Quire



Review of Tide Road

By the Branta Webcrawler • Jun 5th, 2011 • Category: Book Reviews, Editor's Picks, Goose Lane Authors

Compton’s beautifully written novel captures us and drags us underneath the surface story, deep into the protagonist’s memories. Interestingly, Sonia’s excursion into her past leads her through an experience not unlike falling through thin ice into a cold, dark lake: the protagonist’s memories are blurry, but the pain she feels is always raw and vivid.
Julie Leroux/Maple Tree Literary Supplement



Modern and Normal a Poetry Month review

By the Branta Webcrawler • Apr 4th, 2011 • Category: Book Reviews, Editor's Picks, From the Interweb, Poetry

Modern and Normal
It’s National Poetry Month, so every Monday in April I will be reviewing/discussing a book of Canadian poetry.
Angela Hickman/Books Under Skin



Poet loves power of syntax

By the Branta Webcrawler • Mar 13th, 2011 • Category: Book Reviews, Editor's Picks, Goose Lane Authors, Poetry

Transcendental poets such as Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman, who were also inspired by and deeply connected to the physical environment, used nature to show what it meant to be human. They were convinced that immersion in nature can teach us to understand ourselves, and in an era when we spend less and less time outside (less than any other in history), Armstrong’s poetry is a powerful reminder of what we’re missing.
Megan Power/Chronicle Herald



Review of Jeffrey Donaldson’s Guesswork

By the Branta Webcrawler • Jan 30th, 2011 • Category: Book Reviews, Editor's Picks, Goose Lane Authors, Poetry

From the elegiac quality of “Fetal”, in which the speaker tells of a stillborn twin, the indelible understanding of timing in the way Donaldson breaks a line, to the wit and humour in poems such as “A Note To My Poem”, wherein the speaker addresses the poem as if it were a lover, and the ease of the transition from one stanza to another, Donaldson’s unerring fit of form to sense pervades.
Heather Craig/Telegraph-Journal



A funny slice of life – slacker-dude style

By the Branta Webcrawler • Jan 5th, 2011 • Category: Book Reviews, Feature Post, Goose Lane Authors

If you were ever a teenaged badass in Montreal, the girl version, you will know Lee Goodstone. He’s the kind of dealer you can befriend with ease; he’ll smoke you up for the exchange of his appreciative glances and harness the kind of wit an adolescent girl will swoon for in its cynical wisdom, and later recognize as trite.
Zoe Whittall reviews You comma Idiot for Globe and Mail