With summer officially here, and more time to read, we thought we’d start up our Friday Reads

With summer officially here, and more time to read, we thought we’d start up our Friday Reads posts again. Check out what the gang at Simon & Schuster Canada are reading this week!

Brendan, Editor: I can never read just one book at a time, but I’ve started trying to balance the number of books on my nightstand by picking just one book of poetry and one full-length book. Right now, I’m pairing Adrienne Rich’s The Dream of a Common Language withLincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.  Each writer knows how to craft superb poetry and prose, so even if I don’t read for a long time, every word is exquisite.

Shannon, Publicity Assistant: I’m in the midst of the last in Jenny Han’s latest series, Always and Forever, Lara Jean,and it is just as page turning as To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before andP.S. I Still Love You.  I’m so going to miss these characters, but I’m excited to see where their stories end.  How will Lara Jean deal with moving away to college?  Will Kitty be okay as the only one of the Song Sisters left at home?  Will Lara Jean and Peter make it through all the changes?! I guess I better keep reading to find out!

Alexandra, Marketing Assistant: This week I’ve been reading Roz Nay’s Our Little Secret. This book packs a punch, taking psychological thrillers to the next level. Angela is being held in a police interrogation room and questioned on the disappearance of her ex’s wife, Saskia. Our Little Secret has everything I love in a  book: a sweet romance, intriguing characters, and unexpected plot twists. Trust me, you won’t see this ending coming! 

Samantha, Sales Operations Associate: I tore through James Maskalyk’s Life on the Ground Floor in two days – it’s Maskyalyk’s engaging memoir of life as a doctor in a Toronto emergency room and his trips to Ethiopia to train doctors in emergency medicine.  In Toronto, he works long shifts at St. Mike’s dealing with everything from heart attacks to homeless people looking for a place to sleep.  In Ethiopia, the hospital doesn’t even always have electricity, and there have never been emergency rooms before.  Maskalyk is patient and compassionate in his writing, not ignoring the toll the profession takes on him, but not neglecting the patients’ dignity, either.  It’s clear that outcomes are affected by the resources the hospital has available, but in the end he is hopeful that continuing training and funding will raise standards outside of Canada.  Highly, highly recommended.