“Alex Rose’s collection of six stories and four essays looks to the personal past as he retrieves snapshots to assemble in his comprehension of now, the shocked realisation of imminent end times and removal of empathy in the equation of human existence.” Acquainted with Grief: Stories & Essays, by Alex Rose (Victoria: Walhachin Press, 2025)
Suggestion: Let’s travel to Spain, start a vineyard, and heal our relationship! Reply: Sounds like a dream! [Our reviewer: “A nightmare of troubled (euphemism) male psyches, fraught (euphemism) marriages, an immersive, entertaining thriller.] —Jessica Poon reviews Strangers in the Villa, by Robyn Harding (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2026) $24.99 / 9781538774014
“Other times he questions the whole notion of Canadianness: is there such an abstraction as Canada? There’s only a collage of Hudson Bay and the Saguenay, Prince Edward Island and Victoria. But other times he makes it sound like the country is more than a miscellany, more a unified collection, unified by hockey perhaps.” Sheldon Goldfarb reviews Meanwhile, Back in Nokomis: Tales from Canada & Elsewhere, by Will Ferguson (Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2026) $24.95 / 9781771624848
“It’s almost more a coffee table book than a cook’s manual, a bibliographic work of art. But then you read it and realize the book is more than a thing of beauty: it is a mine of information and, in the words of Sabrina’s introduction, a ‘love letter to the land [and to] the seasons.'” Harvey De Roo reviews West Coast Kitchen Garden: Growing, Gathering & Eating Through the Seasons, by Sabrina Currie, photography by DL Acken (Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2026) $49 / 9781771514781
“We walk into his past of Rubik’s cubes, Pope John Paul, mullets, rotary phones, and record players and see a young man watching others emanating something he identifies with, but cannot put his finger on it, nor act on his desires at first.” Catherine McNeil reviews Soundtrack: A Lyric Memoir
by Michael V. Smith (Toronto: Book*hug Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781771669498
“Jesse Winter, based in Vancouver, has covered wildfires and other climate-related disasters since 2018 for a variety of media. His first experience was that year at Peachland in the Okanagan Valley. He was then a ‘wildfire neophyte’ who had no knowledge of what he was getting into. ‘The sheer volume of what I didn’t know has filled this book.'” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews Wild Fire: Dispatches from a Country Ablaze, by Jesse Winter (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2026) $36.99 / 9781443475822
Cheeky, fun, funny, and sweet, a puzzle-turned-mystery transforms an irritable, short-tempered feline (in a whimsical-drawn world) into an entertaining, albeit crabby, sleuth. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews One Mad Cat: And the Missing Book, by Vicky Fang (Toronto: Candlewick, 2026) $19.99 / 9781536239133
A sultry noir tale set in a Mexican port city circa 1943 involves schemes, repression, acting out, and fifty shades of morally grey characters. It’s “a fast-paced story that combines family scandal, salacious behaviour, and a murder just waiting to happen,” says our reviewer. —Sophia Wasylinko reviews The Intrigue, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Toronto: Del Rey, 2026) $39.99 / 9780593874356
Set in Alberta, a “thoughtful and timely” debut novel offers a “story for everyone, particularly those of us who make up this messy, wonderful, sometimes dysfunctional but very necessary place we call home.” —Trish Bowering reviews Inheritance, by Jane Park (Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2026) $26.99 / 9781487013998
“Masuda’s memoir itself takes up most of the space in this slim volume, and reading it transported me to 1945, journeying with this young, displaced soldier whose goal is to either be reunited with his family, living to the north in Sŏngjin, or to cross southward at the 38th parallel to territory controlled by the Americans. What made this a unique reading experience was the personal nature of this piece, written for family and not for publication. It was heartfelt and refreshingly unpolished.” Trish Bowering reviews The Broken Map Home: Escaping Korea, 1945, by Konosuke Masuda (translated by Keiko Honda) (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2025) $22 / 9781773861760
“Like Lester’s other American history graphic novels previously reviewed here, Revolution By Fire and Prophet Against Slavery, the action steams off the page through simply wrought black and white scenes that allow readers to literally feel the ‘electric effects’ of the rebellion and its aftermath.” Ron Verzuh reviews The Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad, A Graphic Novel, by David Lester and Mark Rediker with Paul Buhle (Boston: Beacon Press, 2026) $18.95 / 9780807016909
Delightful PNW-set early chapter book takes a self-described bookworm and aficionado of ‘the great indoors’ to Sunnyside Summer Camp. Farting, vomiting, and serious peril ensue. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Surviving Summer Camp, by Paul Breau (Vancouver: TKI Productions, 2026) $13.99 / 9781777976637
Prolific fantasy and romance author treads into the high-stakes arena of computer hacking and heists… there, opposites attract and infatuation blossoms. The poignancy, sharpness, and fun of the writing and premise is diminished somewhat by repetition, pacing, and characterization. —Sergio Espinosa reviews Love Among Thieves, by Katrina Kwan (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2026) 24.95 / 9781039014107
“Other than Apicius, there were no other cookbooks authored in Europe until the 13th century when they began to appear in local languages. The popularity of cookbook writing began in the 10th century in Baghdad and then spread all over Europe. I’ve found no clues as to what Italians ate before Apicius’ Persian-influenced cookbook De Re Coquinaria.” Edward Henderson contributes his essay, Persian influence on Italian cuisine, written initially as a Graduate Liberal Studies term paper at Simon Fraser University.
Beauty, hope, life, death, despair: a roving, eclectic collection of poems ponders “how people come together via the process of thinking things through” as it reflects “on very hard things like mental health, homelessness, and the sometimes invisible distinctions between life, death, and love.” —Harold Rhensisch reviews Existence In All Its Uncoverable Beauty, by Calvin White (Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2026) $19.95 / 9781989689981
“Scholar George M. Johnson just took early retirement from Thompson Rivers University, and has he been productive. Not only is he a Children’s author, but he’s also a screenwriter and playwright. But recently, as he updates The British Columbia Review from the banks of the North Thompson River in Kamloops, it has been his social activism through his songwriting and performing that has defined him, tackling such timely topics as the debt faced by developing nations and the climate crisis facing us all.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview with Kamloops scholar, screenwriter, playwright, Children’s writer….and songwriter…George M. Johnson.
Vancouver Island-set early chapter book tells an “engrossing initiation story”: “Young readers can not only empathize with the protagonist’s sorrow, alienation, and confusion; they can also learn about the collaboration, flexibility, and patience requisite for the growth from innocence to maturity.” —Ginny Ratsoy reviews Eleven Out of Ten, by Stacey Matson (Toronto: Scholastic Canada, 2026) $12.99 / 9781039708792
“Gerson does not neglect literary greats like Shakespeare, Dickens, and Longfellow, and also pays tribute to more modern writers like Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood. Although this book is a heavy academic read, themes of humour are also included to lighten the dense and weighty text.” Valerie Green reviews Literary Life After Death: Commemorations of Writers in English-Speaking Canada, by Carole Gerson (Montreal: Concordia University Press, 2026) $34.95 / 9781988111667
Debut book publication—short stories and a novella—features an elliptical style. Despite the promise of some paragraphs and the “fulsome blurbs,” the overall collection is impacted by issues related to pacing and “physicality.” —Alison Acheson reviews Mom Camp: Stories and Novella, by Veronique Darwin (Picton: Assembly Press, 2026) $23.95 / 9781998336319
“Victoria-based historian Michael Layland, for whom this book is a departure in several respects, does a fine job of not only piecing together Philip Hankin’s life using the man’s sometimes sketchy written memoir, but also in associating the major figures and events of the day that have assembled the province we now call home.” Trevor Marc Hughes reviews Turmoil: The Life & Times of Philip Hankin, by Michael Layland (Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2025) $35 / 9781771514712