Book Reviews

Michael published his first book review in 1991 (Milan Kundera's Immortality) in the University of Waterloo student newspaper, Imprint.

The reviews below are sorted by:
Book review - Zoomer Book Club
Book reviews - Miramichi Reader
Book reviews - Atlantic Books
Book reviews – Art/Life: Scribblings
  • March 29, 2025. Orientalism by Edward Said (1976); Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart (2006); The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday (2014); Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It by Geoff Dyer (2003); Culture & Imperialism by Edward Said (1993); Nostromo by Joseph Conrad (1904); All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks (1999); The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (2004); Money, Lies and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy by Katherine Stewart (2025)
  • February 9, 2025. The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse (1943)
  • January 22, 2025. Lament for a Nation by George Grant (1965, 2005)
  • December 22, 2025. Toxemia by Christine McNair (2024); On Beauty: Stories by rob mclennan (2024); Unless by Carol Shields (2002); February 1933: The Winter of Literature by Uwe Wittstock (2023); The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (1994, English 2019); The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy (1994)
  • October 27, 2024. The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf (2015); Gilead by Marilyn Robinson (2004); Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1955); Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962); Imagining Imagining: Essays on Language, Identity and Infinity by Gary Barwin (2023); What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust by Alan Bradley (2024); Earth to Moon: A Memoir by Moon Unit Zappa (2024); Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie (2024); On Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham (1915)
  • August 16, 2024. Buddha by Karen Armstong (2000); Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh (2018); NW by Zadie Smith (2012); Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (2021)
  • July 3, 2024. Little Fish by Casey Plett (2018); Field Note #2: On Property by Rinaldo Walcott (2021); Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (1878); Recursion by Blake Crouch (2019); Field Note #5: On Browsing by Jason Guriel; Field Note #6: On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche (2023); Field Note #7: On Class by Deborah Dundas (2023); Thomas Jefferson: Author of America by Christopher Hitchens (2005); Ulysses by James Joyce (1920); The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan (2023); George Washington: The Founding Father by Paul Johnson (2005)
  • March 3, 2024. King: A Life by Jonathan Eig (2023)
  • January 17, 2024. Her Body Among Animals by Paola Ferrante (2023)
  • December 31, 2023. The Fraud by Zadie Smith (2023)
  • December 10, 2023. Anecdotes by Kathryn Mockler (2023); Daughter by Claudia Dey (2023)
  • November 15, 2023. Yara by Tamara Faith Berger (2023); Chrysalis by Anuja Varghese (2023); Avalanche by Jessica Westhead (2023); A Tidy Armageddon by BH Panhuyzen (2023); Soldiers, Hunters, Not Cowboys by Aaron Tucker (2023)
  • September 1, 2023. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845); Adam Bede by George Eliot (1859); Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf (1927); The Odyssey by Homer (8th c. BCE); The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1791); The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992); Recollections of My Nonexistence by Rebecca Solnit (2020); The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (2021)
  • July 9, 2023. A Hero of Our Time by Naben Ruthnum (2022)
  • June 4, 2023. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (2007); The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (2021)
  • March 11, 2023. Women Talking: the film (2022)/the novel (2018)
  • Feb 28, 2023. This is Happiness by Niall Williams (2019); U and I by Nicholson Baker (1991)
  • Feb 21, 2023. White Noise & Aboutism: the film (2022)/the novel (1985)
  • Jan 5, 2023. Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (2021); The Last Days of Roger Federer and Other Endings by Geoff Dyer (2022); The Topeka School by Ben Lerner (2019)
  • Nov 25, 2022. In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing by Elena Ferrante (2021); My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (2011); The Magician by Colm Toibin (2021); Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe by George Eliot (1861)
  • Sept 25, 2022. The Eden Express by Mark Vonnegut (1975); Time Quake by Kurt Vonnegut (1997); The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985); All the Lives We Ever Had: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf by Katharine Smyth (2019); Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger (2015); Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937); Best Young Woman Job Book by Emma Healey (2022); King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hoschschild (1998); Role Models by John Waters (2010)
  • July 16, 2022. Rooms: Women, Writing, Woolf by Sina Queyras (2022)
  • July 4, 2022. The Wife’s Tale: A Personal History by Aida Edemariam (2018)
  • May 24, 2022. We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland by Fintan O'Toole (2021)
  • May 9, 2022. The Beautiful Place by Lee Gowan (2021)
  • April 25, 2022. The Book of Grief and Hamburgers by Stuart Ross (2022)
  • April 21, 2022. The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi (2020); August into Winter by Guy Vanderhaeghe (2021); The Woman Who is the Midnight Wind by Terence M. Green (1987)
  • March 27, 2022. Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley (2022)
  • March 24, 2022. Scarborough: A Novel, by Catherine Hernandez (2017); Scarborough: A Film, written by Catherine Hernandez, directed by Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson (2021)
  • March 12, 2022. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (2019); Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (1980); The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (2017)
  • Feb 27, 2022. Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe (2019); The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab (2020)
  • Feb 9, 2022. Gutter Child by Jael Richardson (2021); Five Little Indians by Michelle Good (2020); Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2014)
  • Jan 28, 2022. Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat (2007); Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice (2018); The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (2011); In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (2019)
  • Jan 19, 2022. Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon by Malcolm Gladwell (2021); No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (2021); Speak, Silence by Kim Echlin (2021); The Skin We're In by Desmond Cole (2020)
  • Jan 15, 2022. The Year of No Summer by Rachel Lebowitz (2018); Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (2019); But Beautiful by Geoff Dyer (1991); Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (2020)
  • Jan 9, 2022. To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (1927); All About Me! by Mel Brooks (2021); Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart (2021); Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead (2018)
Book reviews – The Underground Book Club
  • Feb 13, 2015. Anita Lahey. The Mystery Shopping Cart.
  • Feb 1, 2015. Mark Sampson. Sad Peninsula.
  • Jan 31, 2015. Leanne Simpson. Islands of Decolonial Love.
  • Jan 31, 2015. Rae Spoon and Ivan E. Coyote. Gender Failure.
  • Oct 23, 2014. Shawn Syms. Nothing Looks Familiar.
  • Oct 10, 2014. Sheila Heti. How Should A Person Be?
  • Sept 19, 2014. Michelle Berry. Interference.
  • April 13, 2014. Zach Wells. Career Limiting Moves.
  • April 1, 2014. Kerry Clare (ed.). The M Word: Conversations About Motherhood.
  • July 14, 2013. Peter Roman. The Mona Lisa Sacrifice.
  • July 7, 2013. Donald Barthelme. Not-Knowing.
  • July 6, 2013. Sam Lipsyte. The Fun Parts.
  • June 22, 2013. Spencer Gordon. Cosmo.
  • June 9, 2013. Best Canadian Stories 2012.
  • June 3, 2013. Julian Barnes. Levels of Life.
  • June 2, 2013. Primo Levi. The Periodic Table.
  • May 19, 2013. Paul Auster & J.M. Coetzee. Here and Now.
  • August 6, 2012. John Bayley. Widower’s House.
  • August 5, 2012. Shakespeare. Hamlet.
  • May 8, 2012. Eric McCormack. Inspecting the Vaults.
  • April 23, 2012. Derek Hayes. The Maladjusted.
  • March 17, 2012. Russell Wagnersky. Whirl Away.
  • Nov 27, 2011. Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee; A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut; Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens
  • Nov 12, 2011. Steven Heighton. Workbook.
  • Oct 29, 2011. Pretty by Greg Kearney; The Divinity Gene by Matthew J. Trafford; Nothing Could be Further by Tim Conley; Ronald Reagan, My Father by Brian Joseph Davis
  • Oct 10, 2011. Gunmetal Blue by Shane Neilson; Human Happiness by Brian Fawcett
  • Sept 26, 2011. Cigar Box Banjo: Notes on Music and Life by Paul Quarrington; The Perfect Order of Things by David Gilmour; Beauty & Sadness by André Alexis
  • Sept 7, 2011. Clark Blaise. The Meagre Tarmac (Biblioasis, 2011).
  • Sept 5, 2011. Blake Bailey. Cheever: A Life (Knopf, 2009).
  • Sept 3, 2011. Jessica Westhead. And Also Sharks (Cormorant, 2011).
  • Sept 2, 2011. Dimitri Nasrallah. Nico (Esplanade, 2011).
  • June 19, 2011. Wayde Compton. After Canaan (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010).
  • June 13, 2011. Shane Jones. Light Boxes (Penguin, 2010).
  • May 5, 2011. Re: Reading the Postmodern: Canadian Literature and Criticism After Modernism. Edited by Robert David Stacey (University of Ottawa Press, 2010).
  • April 13, 2011. Maggie Helwig. Girls Fall Down (Coach House, 2008).
  • April 10, 2011. Stacey May Fowles. Be Good (Tightrope Books, 2007).
  • March 10, 2011. Zadie Smith. Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays (2009).
  • March 6, 2011. Amy Lavender Harris. Imagining Toronto (Mansfield Press, 2010).
  • Feb 7, 2011. Dany Laferrière. I am a Japanese Writer (Douglas & MacIntyre, 2010).
  • Feb 2, 2011. W.P. Kinsella. Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa (Oberon, 1980), Salvatore Difalco. The Mountie at Niagara Falls (Anvil, 2010), The Journey Prize Anthology #22 (M&S, 2010).
  • Jan 29, 2011. Bruce Serafin. Stardust (New Star, 2007).
  • Jan 23, 2011. Sina Queyras. Unleashed (Book Thug, 2009).
  • Jan 5, 2011. Shane Neilson. Complete Physical (Porcupine’s Quill, 2010).
  • Dec 22, 2010. Cormac McCarthy. Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West (1985).
  • Nov 20, 2010. Jim Smith. Back Off, Assassin! New and Selected Poems (Mansfield Press, 2009), Patrick Lane. Witness: Selected Poems 1962-2010 (Harbour, 2010).
  • Nov 11, 2010. Matt Lennox. Men of Salt, Men of Earth (Oberon, 2009).
  • Sept 6, 2010. David Adams Richards of the Miramichi: A Biographical Introduction by Tony Tremblay (UTP, 2010).
  • Aug 29, 2010. Darwin’s Barstards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow, selected and edited by Zsuzsi Gartner (Douglas & McIntryre, 2010).
  • Aug 17, 2010. Kenneth Sherman. What the Furies Bring (Porcupine’s Quill, 2009).
  • July 29, 2010. Diana Fitzgerald Bryden. No Place Strange (Key Porter, 2009).
  • July 19, 2010. Jessica Grant. Come, Thou Tortoise (Vintage Canada, 2009).
  • June 5, 2010. Peter Darbyshire. The Warhol Gang (Harper Collins, 2010).
  • April 25, 2010. David Solway. Director’s Cut (Porcupine’s Quill, 2003), Carmine Starnino. A Lover’s Quarrel (Porcupine’s Quill, 2004), Philip Marchand. Ripostes (Porcupine’s Quill, 1998).
  • Dec 20, 2009. Lisa Moore. February.
  • Oct 25, 2009. Richard Van Camp. The Moon of Letting Go (Enfield & Wizenty, 2009).
  • Sept 4, 2009. Zoe Whittall. Bottle Rocket Hearts (Comorant, 2007).
  • Sept 4, 2009. John Goldbach. Selected Blackouts (Insomniac Press, 2009).
  • July 24, 2009. Margaret Christakos. Sooner (Coach House Books, 2005).
  • July 11, 2009. Alexandra Leggat. Animal (Anvil Press, 2009).
  • July 5, 2009. Terry Griggs. Thought You Were Dead (Biblioasis, 2009).
  • June 21, 2009. James Salter. A Sport and a Pastime (Farrer, Straus and Giroux, 1967).
  • June 12, 2009. Tish Cohen. Inside Out Girl (Harper Collins, 2008).
  • May 26, 2009. Stuart Ross. Buying Cigarettes for the Dog (Freehand Books, 2009).
  • May 16, 2009. John Metcalf. Shut Up He Explained: A Literary Memoir Vol. II (Biblioasis, 2007), An Aesthetic derground: A Literary Memoir (Thomas Allen, 2003), Kicking Against The Pricks (ECW, 1982).
  • May 10, 2009. Roy MacSkimming. The Perilous Trade (M&S, 2003, 2007).
  • April 28, 2009. Marianne Apostolides. Swim (Book Thug, 2009).
  • March 19, 2009. Richard Yates. Revolutionary Road (1961).
  • Feb 22, 2009. Christopher Paul Curtis. Elijah of Buxton (Scholastic, 2007).
  • Feb 7, 2009. Clark Blaise. Selected Essays (Biblioasis, 2008).
  • Jan 22, 2009. Guy Vanderhaughe. Man Descending (Macmillian, 1982; Stoddart, 1992).
  • Jan 3, 2009. Rebecca Rosenblum.Once (Biblioasis, 2008).
  • Dec 14, 2008. Andrew Steinmetz. Eva’s Threepenny Theatre (Gaspereau, 2008),
  • Oct 3, 2008. Sky Gilbert. Brother Dumb (ECW, 2007).
  • Sept 1, 2008. Jonathan Bennett. Entitlement (ECW, 2008).
  • Aug 30, 2008. Jailbreaks: 99 Canadian Sonnets, edited by Zachariah Wells (Bibiloasis, 2008).
  • Aug 10, 2008. Charles Foran. Join the Revolution, Comrade: Journeys and Essays (Biblioasis, 2008).
  • June 28, 2008. Rawi Hage. De Niro’s Game (2006).
  • June 21, 2008. Richard Ford. Wildlife (1990).
  • June 8, 2008. J.M. Coetzee. Inner Workings: Essays 2000-2005.
TDR book reviews (by book publication date)
  • 2008. Stephen Henighan. The Afterlife of Culture.
  • 2008. Nathan Whitlock. A Week of This.
  • 2007. David Gilmour. Film Club.
  • 2007. Christian McPherson. Six Ways to Sunday.
  • 2007. Brian Tucker. Big White Knuckles.
  • 2006. Bono: In conversation with Michka Assayas.
  • 2006. John Updike. Terrorist.
  • 2006. Max and Monique Nemni. Young Trudeau: 1919-1944: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada.
  • 2006. Moosecall #3: Big Game, Small Stories.
  • 2006. Laura Hird. Hope and Other Urban Tales.
  • 2006. Kenneth J. Harvey. Inside.
  • 2006. Tim Conley. Whatever Happens.
  • 2006. Matthew Firth. Suburban Pornography.
  • 2006. Richard Ford. The Lay of the Land.
  • 2005. Philip David Alexander. The Next Rainy Day.
  • 2005. Craig Davidson. Rust and Bone.
  • 2005. Goran Simic. Yesterday’s People.
  • 2005. uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto.
  • 2004. Douglas Glover. The Enamoured Knight.
  • 2004. The Art of Desire: The Fiction of Douglas Glover. Ed., Bruce Stone.
  • 2004. Jaspreet Singh. 17 Tomatoes.
  • 2004. Gary Barwin. Doctor Weep and Other Strange Teeth.
  • 2004. Coming Attractions 04, featuring Neil Smith, Maureen Bilerman, Jaspreet Singh.
  • 2004. Douglas Glover. The South Will Rise at Noon.
  • 2004. James Grainger. The Long Slide.
  • 2004. Greg Kearney. Mommy, Daddy, Baby.
  • 2004. John Lavery. You, Kwaznievski, You Piss Me Off.
  • 2003. Ray Robertson. Mental Hygiene: Essays on Writers and Writing.
  • 2003. Andy Brown. I Can See You Being Invisible.
  • 2003. Jim Christy. Tight Like That.
  • 2003. J.J. Steinfeld. Curiosity to Satisfy and Fear to Placate.
  • 2003. John Gould. Kilter: 55 fictions.
  • 2003. Stuart Ross. Hey, Crumbling Balcony.
  • 2002. Peter Darbyshire. Please.
  • 2002. Anne Denoon Backflip.
  • 2002. Will Ferguson. Happiness.
  • 2002. Marilyn Gear Pilling. The Roseate Spoonbill of Happiness.
  • 2002. Grunt & Groan: The New Fiction Anthology of Work & Sex.
  • 2002. Sean Johnston. A Day Does Not Go By.
  • 2002. Catherine Kidd. Sea Peach.
  • 2002. Lisa Moore. Open.
  • 2002. Mordecai Richler. The Acrobats.
  • 2002. Rod Schumacher. Habits and Love.
  • 2002. Mary Chan. The Fifth Girl.
  • 2002. Hawksley Workman. Hawksley Burns for Isadora.
  • 2002. Mark Anthony Jarman. Ireland’s Eye.
  • 2001. Matt Cohen. Typing: A Life in 26 Keys & Uncommon Ground: A Celebration of Matt Cohen (2002).
  • 2001. George Elliott Clarke. Blue.
  • 2001. Haruki Murakami. Sputnik Sweetheart.
  • 2001. Hal Niezviecki. Ditch.
  • 2001. Sheila Heti. The Middle Stories.
  • 2001. Matthew Firth. Can You Take Me There, Now?
  • 2001. Mark Doyon. Bonneville.
  • 2001. Douglas Glover. The Life and Times of Captain N.
  • 2001. Terence M. Green. St. Patrick’s Bed.
  • 2001. Michael Redhill. Martin Sloane.
  • 2001. Ribsauce: a cd/anthology of words by women.
  • 2001. Leon Rooke. Painting the Dog.
  • 2001. George Murray. The Cottage Builder’s Letter.
  • 2000. T,F. Rigelhof. This is Our Writing.
  • 2000. Michael Twist. Highs & Lows: A Personal Approach to Living with Diabetes.
  • 2000. Unheard of…. (CD anthology).
  • 2000. Shelagh M. Rowan-Legg. Nitty Gritty: The Film Noir Poems.
  • 2000. Alexandra Leggat. Pull Gently, Tear Here.
  • 2000. Douglas Glover. 16 Categories of Desire.
  • 2000. Terence M. Green. Shadow of Ashland.
  • 2000. John Lavery. Very Good Butter.
  • 2000. The Paris Connection. Anthology.
  • 2000. Jason Gallagher. Three chapbooks & if I could be a bird I’d be a cat.
  • 2000. Penn Kemp. On Our Own Spoke (CD).
  • 2000. Hopi Martin. Harvest.
  • 2000. rob mclennan. Bagne or Criteria for Heaven.
  • 1999. rob mclennan. Bury me deep in the green wood.
  • 1999. rob mclennan. The Richard Brautigan Ahhhhhhhh.
  • 1999. Terence Young. The Island in Winter.
  • 1999. Clarence Bolt. Does Canada Matter? Liberalism and the Illusion of Sovereignty.
  • 1999. Robert Fulford. The Triumph of Narrative.
  • 1999. Peter Jaeger. ABC of Reading TRG.
  • 1999. Jennifer LoveGrove. The Scorpion Wife.
  • 1999. Turn of the Story: Canadian Short Fiction on the Eve of the Millennium.
  • 1999. Brian Panhuyzen. Death of the Moon.
  • 1999. Natalee Caple. The Plight of Happy People in an Ordinary World.
  • 1999. Lynn Crosbie. Dorothy L’Amour: A Novel.
  • 1999. Monica S. Kuebler. Legacy (and other short fiction).
  • 1999. Clive Doucet. Looking for Henry.
  • 1999. A.D. Peterkin. The Bald-Headed Hermit & the Artichoke: An Erotic Thesaurus.
  • 1999. Evelyn Lau. Choose Me.
  • 1999. Russell Smith. Young Men.
  • 1999. Tony Burgess. Caesarea.
  • 1999. T. Anders Carson. Stain (CD).
  • 1998. Tony Burgess. Pontypool Changes Everything.
  • 1998. Natalee Caple. The Heart is Its Own Reason.
  • 1998. Lynn Coady. Strange Heaven.
  • 1998. Michael Holmes. 21 Hotels.
  • 1998. Michael Ignatieff. Isaiah Berlin: A Life.
  • 1998. Mark Anthony Jarman. New Orleans is Sinking.
  • 1997. Mark Anthony Jarman. Salvage King, Ya!: A Herky-Jerky Picaresque.
  • 1997. T. Anders Carson. Salt Pork and Sunsets.
  • 1991. Don DeLillo. Mau II.
  • 1987. Saul Bellow. More Die of Heartache.
Book reviews (by periodical publication date)

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