"The Rosie Project" by Graeme Simsion. A quirky and adorable story about a highly academic, obsessive compulsive scientist. He wants a girl friend but doesn't really know it (yet). I read it a year ago and I'm still smiling!

"Just Kids" by Patti Smith. Everything about this memoir is perfection from the way Patty Smith writes to the photographs included to the inclusion of her poetry to the subject itself. What an amazing tale about an incredible journey from a lost, starving kid to punk/rock star along with her first significant love, the magnificent Robert Mapplethorpe. So much has been written about Mapplethorpe but this is the first time I read that he loved chocolate milk. Every little detail brought that special time and place to life. When they handed Smith the National Book Award, they should just gave her a second one because it is that wonderful.

I'm going to be cheeky and use this space to recommend books I've been featured in! But they're for a great cause and they're really good, I promise. Brave New Girls is a Young Adult Sci Fi anthology, featuring brainy young heroines who use their smarts to save the day. All revenues from sales of this anthology will be donated a scholarship fund through the Society of Women Engineers. Let’s show the world that girls, too, can be tomorrow’s inventors, programmers, scientists, and more! The Warriors Anthology is coming out in Feb of 2017, but you can get your preorders in now. All 12 stories feature protagonists on the LGBTQ+ spectrum who are, in one way or another, warriors. From apocalypse survivors to cage fighters in medieval society, these stories are exciting adventures with marginalized voices at the forefront. I write YA sci fi and fantasy and my first series is coming out in late 2017. It's a YA SF about telepathic children being abducted by the government. You can find more at www.tashmcadam.com if you're so inclined :)

A comfy armchair, a good pipe and a mug of tea. It's time to visit an old friend. The Vancouver drizzle is reminiscent of Victorian London. At the tender age of 11, I read "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". I've been a Baker Street regular ever since. The charm began with Holmes' inventor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. His attention to detail and elegant yet easily approachable prose gave great life to enigmatic character of Holmes and his world. He is a fictional cornerstone of the mystery genre. The short stories are easy and exciting enough to appeal all readers including young adults. So as Holmes would say "The game is afoot Watson!!"

The task of modernity presses one to question the poetic formalism of romanticism. A reaction against such formalism is evinced within the poetry of H.D. Selected Poems. It's a collection of the poet's finest works, drawing from "Sea Garden", "Hymen" and "Helen in Egypt". The ethereal prose urges the reader into a state of conscious imagination, the influence of nature, love, existence propels us to re-imagine the natural world as a loci of meaning. I recommend this to those also drawn to the poetry of Mary Oliver and Anne Carson.

"Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" has an odd haunting twist with some sparks of romance and unique characters that will take you on an enchanting adventure. Ransom Riggs did a brilliant job on his first novel and the rest of the series does not disappoint.

"James Herriot's Animal Stories". The wild Yorkshire Dales are the backdrop for veterinarian Jame Herriot's stories brimming with admiration (usually) for the stoic, taciturn farmers and their animals. Written with an acute eye for telling details which vividly depict the humour and poignancy of life, animal and human, Herriot draws us into his world.

This small book will whisk you away from a helter-skelter day into a quiet, satisfying moment.

"Sabriel" the first book in the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix. He pushes the boundaries of fantasy and YA alike. Nix's writing is clear and easy to understand, but not patronizing, and the world he's built is multi-faceted and original. Sabriel is a refreshing and complicated heroine who fights her own battles and solves her own problems. I recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy, sword-fighting, and magic, and who isn't afraid of some undead antics!"

"Disgrace" by JM Coetzee. This novel is set in post apartheid South Africa, and follows Professor David Lurie as he rapidly falls out of favour with his university due to questionable conduct with a student. Coetzee explores an elaborate web of disgrace in this novel ranging from taboo relationships to heinous crimes. Personal failings, generational misgivings as well as racial tensions create only a few layers of this complex though sparsely worded story. There is not a single likeable character in this novel but through the strength of the narrative in itself I keep coming back for more and more and more.