Win a hardcover copy of The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier! Please leave a comment below, and we’ll draw a name at random (Open to legal residents of Canada and the US, 18 years or older. Contest ends 15 February 2016 at 11:59 pm EST). From the book jacket: Ohio 1850. For a modest English Quaker stranded far from home, life is a trial. Untethered from the moment she leaves England,…
Author: Cecile
Cécile Sune was born in Lyon, France, and her obsession with books started when she was 14. Her grandparents had lent her Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and she spent part of the summer indoors reading. Needless to say, her tan didn't really improve that year! It was also around that time that Cécile fell in love with the English language. Several years later, in 1999, Cécile moved to Toronto, Canada, with her cat and 5 suitcases. Her love of reading greatly increased when she discovered that English books were much cheaper than French novels. In 2013, she decided to start a blog to share her passion. Cécile now lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her husband and their daughter, and works as a freelance translator (CS Revision).
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The Witches by Stacy Schiff
In 1692, 14 women, 5 men and 2 dogs were executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. It started in January of that year when two girls experienced strange symptoms, twitching and contorting with pain. In the course of 9 months, dozens of people were affected by this strange epidemic, and hundreds were accused of witchcraft. Daughters pointed fingers at mothers, neighbors implicated each other. A minister was accused of being…
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Confessions of a Paris Party Girl by Vicki Lesage
Vicki Lesage, an American from St. Louis, Missouri, finds herself newly single at 25. When she loses her job in an IT company, she decides it is the perfect time to move to France and start over. As soon as she arrives, she relishes the delicious food and rich culture. However, she soon finds out that making new friends is not as easy as she thought and that life in Paris can be…
New Year
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Happy New Year 2016!
I would like to wish you a wonderful new year, full of laughter and happiness. How many books do you plan to read in 2016?
Reba Riley
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Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome by Reba Riley
Reba Riley was raised in an Evangelical Pentecostal household where they used Jesus-themed paper napkins. After high school, she went to ministry training but started questioning her faith when her parents got a divorce. Later, when she left the Church, she experienced a total loss of identity or, as she likes to call it, post-traumatic church syndrome. Then she started to feel really sick, and doctors were not able to…
Alex Sheshunoff
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Best Books of 2015
Here is a list of the best books that I’ve read this year and that were published in 2015. Fiction The Truth According to Us – Annie Barrows The Sisters of Versailles – Sally Christie The Dream Lover – Elizabeth Berg The Witch of Napoli – Michael Schmicker The Mapmaker’s Children – Sarah McCoy Non-Fiction A Beginner’s Guide to Paradise – Alex Sheshunoff The Undertaker’s Daughter – Kate Mayfield Post-Traumatic…
Event
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John Irving in Ottawa
Yesterday, John Irving was in the city for the Ottawa International Writers Festival‘s last event of the season. It didn’t start on a good note though: when I arrived, I was told that the author would not be signing books and that the audience would need to submit their questions in advance for approval. The public could buy a limited number of signed books at the entrance, but there was…
Mike Martin
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A Twist of Fortune by Mike Martin
At the beginning of A Twist of Fortune, Sergeant Winston Windflower watches in dismay as his girlfriend, Sheila, gets arrested during an illegal protest at the local fish plant. Then a snowstorm hits Grand Bank, Newfoundland, and a pharmacist dies in a car accident on the highway. What seems to be a straightforward investigation turns out to be a lot more when a body is discovered in the trunk of the…
Event
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Ian Rankin in Ottawa
On Thursday 19 November 2015, Ian Rankin was in town for the Ottawa International Writers Festival to talk about his new book, Even Dogs in the Wild. In the 20th installment of the Inspector Rebus series, John Rebus comes out of retirement to help detective Siobhan Clarke investigate the death of a lawyer during a robbery. Ian Rankin was interviewed by Peggy Blair, a local crime writer who got her break thanks to a chance…