I’ve been trying to figure out a way to encapsulate all of this year in a word that encompasses both the pain that many have felt but perhaps also the hope that was waiting to be uncovered through that pain. “Empathy” struck…
Please forgive the headline: Depending on the context, it can come across as originating from a cheapskate. But my intention is good. Because of the pandemic this year, you’ve likely read many calls to buy at local businesses. However, the truth is…
When I tried my first cup of loose-leaf black tea, my first reaction was, “Oh, it tastes like black tea.” Hardly a culinary epiphany of gastronomical proportions. I was disheartened and worried my journey into the world of the camellia sinensis plant…
It can often be difficult giving books as gifts to an avid reader in your family: You have to know their favourite genres, favourite and disliked authors, and what books they’ve read and bought. Which is why trying a new author could…
Between Worlds 7: What Will Come releases today! The last of the “second season” of the series, I’m excited to enter into the last few months of such a downer year on such a high note. In this blog post, I’ll share with…
This book hit me in the gut. Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related by Jenny Heijun Wills is a poetic, edgy, sad, and ultimately hopeful memoir about gender, ethnicity, and skin colour. Wills was adopted from Korea as a baby by white parents,…
The subtitle for Kamal Al-Solaylee’s 2016 book is “What Being Brown in the World Means Today (to Everyone).” I picked it up because I couldn’t recall hearing much if anything about people with brown skin over the years. The book description on…
Have you ever read a story or watched a movie only to be disappointed in the ending because the protagonist won too easily? Don’t get me wrong: sometimes I enjoy a little cheese in my entertainment, especially at Christmastime, but I can…
Clothing in Semlac is perhaps the hardest detail to keep track of in Between Worlds. I have photos, but they don’t match the exact years that Between Worlds takes place in. Fashion in between the wars did begin to modernize, but to what extent I…
I have to admit, everything shutting down because of the pandemic caused by Covid-19 has angered me. But I suppose that’s a normal reaction when a lot of important and happy moments are being cancelled. If your family is like mine and…