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…
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…
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…
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…