March 8, 2024
Stars between the Sun and Moon: One woman’s life in North Korea and escape to freedom By Lucia Jang and Susan McClelland Douglas & McIntyre 287 pages, $32.95 Reviewed by Julia Leggett Stars between the Sun and Moon, Lucia Jang’s memoir (as told to the journalist Susan McClelland) is an engrossing account of Jang’s childhood […]
January 9, 2024
Adult Onset By Ann-Marie MacDonald Knopff Canada, 384 pages, $32 Reviewed by Julia Leggett Adult Onset, Ann-Marie MacDonald’s latest book, is genre bending. A sort of fictional autobiography, the novel explores a week in the life of Mary Rose MacKinnon, a part Canadian-part Lebanese, lesbian woman who spent her early years on a military base in […]
December 17, 2023
The First Principles of Dreaming By Beth Goobie Second Story Press 265 pages, $19.95 Reviewed by Julia Leggett The First Principles of Dreaming is veteran young-adult author Beth Goobie’s first novel length work intended for adults. Goobie delves into unsettling and challenging territory here, just as she does in her work for younger readers. A […]
October 16, 2024
Gone South and Other Ways to Disappear, Julia Leggett’s debut collection of short stories (Mother Tongue Publishing, 188 pages, $19.95) is both polished and compelling. She was born in Calgary, but grew up in Zimbabwe, which she left at age 18. Leggett makes her home in Victoria now and is pursuing a master’s degree in […]