Catherine Vendryes

Catherine Vendryes

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

Tag: Review

  • The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

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    I only wrote this review a few months ago, but there has been an exciting new development in the real world which Lawrence Hill drew inspiration from. The Nova Scotia government has released the real Book of Negroes as an open data set for researchers or anyone to use really. You can see a digitized Read.

  • Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

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    Roxane Gay’s essay collection, Bad Feminist, is essential reading. The professor cum Twitter personality works through the question: “How do we reconcile the imperfections of feminism with all the good it can do?” Beginning with herself, Gay presents the body of a black woman as a platform for analysis, examining the politics of that state Read.

  • Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill

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    A tale of innocence and adolescence will crack your heart right open. Lullabies for Little Criminals is the coming-of-age story of Baby, who lives mostly on the streets of Montreal with her father Jules, a drug addict. O’Neill’s bildungsroman looks at the myriad of issues surrounding street kid culture. Readers are forced to question why Read.

  • Family Life by Akhil Sharma

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    I was transfixed reading Akhil Sharma’s Family Life. The semi-autobiographical novel is full and heavy with grief and comedy following the story of the Mishtra family from the perspective of Ajay, the youngest son, as they cope not only with immigrating to America from India but the tragic loss of their eldest child. Birju becomes brain Read.

  • Truth and Bright Water by Thomas King

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    I picked up my copy of Truth & Bright Water at the 2015 Hagey Lecture featuring Thomas King. His lecture entitled “Love in the Time of Cholera: Canadian Edition” was moving, topical, and, of course, exceedingly funny. Meeting authors I adore is always a panic-filled moment for me. I fear that meeting my hero may reveal a Read.

  • The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

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    The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie was recommended to me by a beloved professor after I had mentioned reading The Inconvenient Indian. This is not my first time reading Alexie. Although I am more familiar with his body of poetry, his short story collection carries his signature voice: thoughtful, well-spoken, Read.

  • The Silver Star by Jeanette Walls

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    I often find in the pursuit of creating a touching, artistic story novels turn the world into a dark and unfair place, which it can be if we’re being honest, but sometimes what readers need is a good storybook ending. It’s okay to say you like a book that has a predictable ending where everything Read.

  • And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne Saucier

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    And the Birds Rained Down written by Jocelyne Saucier (originally in French as Il pleuvait des oiseaux and translated by Rhonda Mullins) was a Canada Reads 2015 contender and also covers the translated book category of the Read Harder challenge (bonus!). Heavy on the imagery, And the Birds builds an isolating, foreign experience of rural Read.

  • The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

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    What does twenty-two years old look like? “In love, impressed, humbled, scared.” That is exactly how Marina Keegan felt as she was graduating from Yale in 2012 and how it feels to read her book The Opposite of Loneliness. I selected Keegan’s book after I read the original essay. I heard about her talent, her job Read.

  • Station Eleven by Emily St. John

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    I got the flu a little while ago and while I’ve been playing catch up in my life I decided to treat myself by falling headlong into the haunting Station Eleven by Emily St. John. I’ve also gotten a case of reader’s fatigue–my pace is slower and it’s more difficult to focus on the page Read.