Canada’s best book blog 49th Shelf chose PEDAL as a Book of the Year. Yay!

Jen Neale reviewed PEDAL in the Coastal Observer! “The underlying message is inarguable—the right of women to define their own experiences of abuse.” Yes.

“PEDAL’s greatest achievement is not its writing, which is lucid and graceful, nor its characters, knowable yet irreducible. Trumping both is this novel’s creation of a space in which to think freely, naturally, about questions that shame and fear too often suppress.” –Charlotte Rogers, a very nice review in this week’s issue of The Grapevine, an arts and culture paper out of Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

Thank you to everyone who has joined me during my launch of PEDAL! Final readings in Nova Scotia are listed here:

November 7th, 6pm, The Company House, Halifax

November 9th, ***2pm***, Weston Community Centre, Weston ***The time for this event was listed incorrectly in the Chronicle Herald. The time of the event IS 2PM!!!

November 13th, 6-7pm, The Box of Delights Bookshop, Wolfville. *This is a double header! I’ll read first and El Jones, poet laureate of Halifax, reads at 7pm!

In honour of my first novel, the fantastic people at Literary Press Group asked me some questions about some important firsts: first job, first pet, first airplane ride, et cetera. Read my answers here!

BOOK LAUNCH and PANEL DISCUSSION

Join my Wednesday October 15th, 730pm, at Cottage Bistro for my book launch party! It’s going to be fun.

Join me Thursday October 16th, 7pm, at the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch for a panel discussion called Stigma Shmigma: Writers on Stuff you Shouldn’t Talk About. It’s going to be fun and informative.

PEDAL’s first review! The Vancouver Sun gave a mostly positive review of my first novel, admonishing me for taking on too many difficult topics for a slim book, but ultimately determining that “(w)ith the confident tackling of difficult topics and her headstrong narrator, however, Rooney makes a promise that she’ll impress us again with strong storytelling from a distinctive and uncompromising point of view.” Sweet.

I review the incredible Margaux Williamson’s I COULD SEE EVERYTHING for The Capilano Review. Check it out here! 

I review Un/Inhabited, Jordan Abel’s new book of poetry that maps the terrain of the public domain to create a layered investigation of the interconnections between language and land. Read it here!

The wonderful folks at 49th Shelf asked me to write a list of books that influenced my ideas on sex and gender. Here it is!