All My Friends are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman (Coach House Books)

The perfect length for visiting friends and relatives to finish before they've overstayed their welcome. Original, witty, fun and touching, Andrew Kaufman's novel All My Friends are Superheroes should be on every guest room night table. Just check their bags before they leave.

more...

Too Bad by Robert Kroetsch (University of Alberta)

Kroetsch has created a lot of wonderful stuff and he keeps doing something different. In this, his latest book, he writes an hilarious autobiography of sorts in short and highly readable poems. They combine childhood memories and often embarrassing stories about his life as an adult writer. If at some point you don't laugh out loud or feel a catch in your thoughts you aren't reading. Almost everyone has noted the humour in Kroetsch's books; we have less often noticed the anguish that is in them. This book gives us both in a fresh and winning way.

more...

Sid Fleischman, prolific novelist, biographer, and magician, passed away last week, the day after his 90th birthday.

In addition to scores of charming and peculiar novels, including the Newbery Award-winning book The Whipping Boy, Fleischman had written fantastic biographies of Harry Houdini and Mark Twain. Before his death, he completed Sir Charlie, a biography of Charlie Chaplin, which is set to release June 1, 2010.

more...

Reading is a journey - an opportunity to explore the unknown. When I read, a book must meet this expectation, transporting me to different parts of the globe and acquainting me with the arts of a foreign culture. Two examples of this which I am currently reading are A Girl Made of Dust by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi and The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim.

more...