Catherine Vendryes

Catherine Vendryes

An expert storyteller who brings big and small brands to life.

Tag: Review

  • Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

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    The funny thing with reading a lot and only writing in my odd spare moment on weekends means that I often have to remind myself what I read and if I had written a blog about it yet. I was surprised this morning when I realized that I hadn’t actually written my review of Hag-Seed Read.

  • The Pain Tree by Olive Senior

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    I picked up The Pain Tree at the Word on the Street festival in Toronto this past fall. It was recommended to me at the Cormorant Books tent, and always happy to pick up more Canlit and Caribbean lit, I couldn’t say no! Olive Senior is a prolific writer, having published many volumes of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and Read.

  • The Witches of New York by Ami McKay

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    I got Ami McKay’s latest book, The Witches of New York, in a swag bag from a special sale at Joe Fresh on Queen St. This is a rare book for this blog – one that I didn’t choose for myself nor was it recommended to me by a close friend. By coincidence, it also turned Read.

  • Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

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    Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a critically acclaimed new novel from Madeleine Thien. Winner of the Giller Prize and Governor General’s Award as well as shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and longlisted for an Andrew Carnegie Medal, it is effectively the book of 2016. I can’t believe I actually read it before Read.

  • A Brief History of Seven Killings by James Marlon

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    Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings opens with a Jamaican proverb: “If it no go so, it go near so.” As a fictional account of very real events, it’s hard to think of a more fitting phrase. I’d been meaning to read A Brief History for many months. A year, in fact, as a Read.

  • Rich and Poor by Jacob Wren

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    I picked up Rich and Poor at the Book Thug tent at Word on the Street. Struck at first by its beautiful cover, the synopsis really hooked me with its brutal honesty: “Rich and Poor is a novel of a man who washes dishes for a living and decides to kill a billionaire as a political act.” Read.

  • Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

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    I woke the next morning knowing that nothing would be the same. It would change and go on changing. Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea has been on my list for a long time. The story gives new voice to Bertha, the boogeywoman from one of my favourite novels, Jane Eyre. Reimagined as Antoinette Cosway in Rhys’ beautiful, ripe world Read.

  • Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull

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    Ed Catmull’s Creativity Inc. was an accomplishment for me. I’ve never been a huge fan of non-fiction books. Not that I shy away from the genre as a whole but that I prefer a deep delve into a narrative which many authors of non-fiction don’t fulfill. Catmull, as one of the founders of Pixar, doesn’t Read.

  • The Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks

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    I first heard about James Rebanks through his Twitter account @herdyshepherd1 which features beautiful photos of his flock and brought the rural Lake District of England into my daily life. The Shepherd’s Life is Rebanks’ first novel, a memoir told in seasons, capturing the traditional farming lifestyle he was born and raised into. His story and sense Read.

  • On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee

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    On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee has been most aptly compared to the works of Cormac McCarthy and Kazuo Ishiguro. The post-apocalyptic fiction is grim and lyrical but I find it sticks out in a way which its peers haven’t. Lee’s novel has a thread of comfort sewn throughout it in the form Read.