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‘Achievable, with delicious results’

“Vancouver-based Reuben came by her love of food and cooking from an early age, and it was a family affair. She writes, ‘I come from a family who expressed their love through food. My paternal grandparents were concentration camp survivors; they knew and felt starvation. Mealtimes became very important to them; feeding their family was the ultimate show of love…’ ” Trish Bowering reviews Eat to Love: Where Health Meets Flavor, by Mikaela Reuben (Toronto: Appetite by Random House, 2025) $32 / 9780525612148

Because the world was ending

“Fillo more than survives, he blossoms during the pandem-y. As a talented musician, song-writer, and singer, he’s thrilled to become a source of comfort to the abandonees of urban life. He realizes his true value as a wandering minstrel in what could otherwise have been a dystopic tale.” Cathalynn Labonté-Smith reviews Singing with the Trees, by Rob Fillo (Victoria: Rob Fillo, 2025) $25 / 9798306571607

Pros and cons of mutability

“Like many love stories, this one involves a love triangle”: with “characters that are not only vivid, but full-on loose cannons,” a Vancouver-set sophomore novel tackles marriage, identity, and contemporary reality. —Theo Dombrowski reviews You’ve Changed, by Ian Williams (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2025) $37.00 / 9781039012356

‘Gays like you…’

Debut novel features “a fast-paced, stream-of-consciousness, interior monologue style” that reveals “layers of complexity in the queer Palestinian immigrant’s experience of life in the West.” The result? A “politically sophisticated and often wickedly funny first novel, grounded in the foibles of human nature and how we respond to them, that’s well worth reading.” —Daniel Gawthrop reviews Three Parties, by Ziyad Saadi (Toronto: Hamish Hamilton, 2025) $34.95 / 9780735250963

Why keep them secret?

“Yes! Yes! Yes! A book with swimming places either a few minutes away or no more than a half day’s drive! I know: I am blessed with where I live, and this book confirms it. As you can guess, an important criterion for a place to live or visit is where I can immerse myself in water and swim. So, this book delivers in many ways.” Christina Johnson-Dean reviews Swimming Holes and Beaches of Southwestern British Columbia, including the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island, by Alex McKeen and George Harwood Smith (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2025) $26.95 / 9781778401336

Magic, gods, a dash of sex

“Don’t mistake my criticisms of this book for my full opinion: there are reasons that I read both Unbalanced and Unbent in very quick succession. The plot kept me enthralled and even when certain moments pushed me out of the story, I was able to quickly jump back in and follow the sisters toward another danger. Formatting, sentence structure, and diction: all put together stunningly.” —Myshara McMyn reviews Unbent, by Courtney Shepard (Calgary: Champagne Book Group, 2025) $31.00 / 9781957228471

Man with a movie camera

“In the late 1990s and 20-naughts, Stan and I lived six blocks apart in Victoria’s James Bay neighbourhood. Stan and Janet’s house on South Turner Street became a modern annex to Dorothy Burritt’s Suite Two. There was a guarantee of good company, good talk, and cups of tea—and films to watch in the big back bedroom, the Fox screening room. (I like to think of it as “The Stanley Theatre.”)” Dennis J. Duffy contributes an essay about trailblazing filmmaker, the late Stanley Fox.

Paddling far afield

“After Andrew gestured to the foyer table where I placed my helmet, I shook his hand and he offered me a glass of water in his kitchen. I fumbled for my questions as I took the glass from him with thanks. At seventy, he still had the kind, calm, and wise visage I knew from his ‘About the Author’ photos. The lines on his face marked a man who had travelled the outdoors, exposed to the elements, and spent a lot of time in the sun.” Non-fiction editor Trevor Marc Hughes contributes a chapter to his motorcycling travelogue about meeting dedicated kayaker and writer, the late Andrew Scott, and their time talking about modes of travel that connect.

Exclusion on ethnic origin

“Catherine Clement’s new book, The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act, and the commemorative exhibition that preceded it, takes an unflinching look at the inter-generational impact of the ‘…fanatical documentation [which] reached its apex with the passing of the federal 1923 Chinese Immigration Act.'” May Q. Wong reviews The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act, by Catherine Clement (Oakville: Plumleaf Press, 2025) $59.95 / 9781069093516

Student activists, unite!

This accomplished trio of “chapter books emphasize the importance of kindness and community, introduce a variety of environmental issues, provide subtle but shrewd insights into politics and capitalism, and deliver road maps to empowering activism.” —Ginny Ratsoy reviews Book Uncle and Me, by Uma Krishnaswami (Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2016)$14.99 / 9781554988082, Birds on the Brain, by Uma Krishnaswami (Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2024) $16.99 / 9781773069449, and The Sunshine Project, by Uma Krishnaswami (illustrated by Julianna Swaney) (Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2025) $16.99 / 9781773067797

The Permanent Residence blues

The promise of comfort and security in a new home continues to elude the proverbially overworked and underpaid characters in a searing novel that highlights exploitation, corruption, and bad faith in Canada’s immigration system. —Ron Verzuh reviews Frosty Lanes, by Harpreet Sekha (translated by Akal Amrit Kaur and Inderpal Kaur) (Chhanna, India: Rethink Books, 2025) $x.xx / 9789348092922

The cultural history connection

“Eventually Maria mentioned that she had touched on some subject or other in a biography that she had written about Emily Carr some years ago. The proverbial light bulb went off in my head. ‘So you must be Maria Tippett?’ I ventured. I can still recall the look on her face – an attractive combination of pride, humility, and pleasant surprise – as she nodded in confirmation. ‘I’m an historian myself and a fan of your work,’ I continued admiringly. She smiled and accepted the compliment gracefully.” Curator and historian Ben Clinton-Baker recalls his meeting and friendship with the late renowned cultural historian Maria Tippett, who passed away one year ago.

The reinvention(s) of B.J. Corneil

Inspired by a fearless and revengeful “Queen of Outlaws,” the spirited young protagonist of a vibrant, prairie-set debut novel begins a lengthy quest for self-determination as she moves from job to job, location to location, and man to man in the early twentieth century. —Trish Bowering reviews I Want to Die in My Boots, by Natalie Appleton (Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2025) $28.65 / 9781990071270

‘To a path of healing’

“Now You Know Me should serve as guide for everyone on how to learn from each other about what truth and reconciliation really means. The book is uniquely composed, giving voice to both men through alternating passages. It is a perfect composition, touching on many topics in 54 short chapters of roughly 300 pages, that is quick to read.” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews Now You Know Me: Seeing the Unhidden Truth in Settler Colonialism, by k’ʷunəmɛn Joe Gallagher and John Matterson (Surrey: Hancock House, 2024) $24.95 / 9780888397829

‘You simply live through it’

With three timelines—1908, 1934, 1998—and “a ghoulish atmosphere that will delight dark academia and horror fans alike,” a prolific author’s latest novel drips with chills, trials, and, of course, witchcraft. —Sophia Wasylinko reviews The Bewitching, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Toronto: Del Rey, 2025) $39.00 / 9780593874325

An ‘otherwise normal conversation’

A “masterful book of poetry” studies and remarks on “the debris of our messy human experience: the relationships, the griefs, the final weeks of someone’s life, and the struggle to make sense of things, as well as the actual litter of our living in this world.” —Al Rempel reviews Parade of Storms, by Evelyn Lau (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2025) $18.00 / 9781772142457

‘“Am I writing anything? Memos.”’

“It was the same when he was very young and had to support himself by working in the UBC Bookstore (or Book Sore, as he called it). But it was worse when he had no jobs and had to resort to begging from friends like Al Purdy and John Robert Colombo, or applying for Canada Council grants, which at first turned him down, leading him to become bitter and complaining.” Sheldon Goldfarb reviews The Weather & the Words: The Selected Letters of John Newlove, 1963-2003, by J.A. Weingarten (ed.) (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2025) $95 / 9781771126830

Fledglings

In a soft-spoken and subtle debut YA novel, a pre-teen boy learns to understand and care for a pair of ducks. It’s a ‘still waters’ sort of book that runs surprisingly deep. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Project Wild One, by Louise Sidley (Leaside: Red Deer Press, 2025) $14.95 / 9780889957633

‘I think we’re hooped’

In “an excitement-packed novel” with a “fascinating premise,” a loose group of family and friends plots an escape from a Canada that has been occupied by the American military. The group faces peril, bad weather, and a fate that’s not revealed until the final pages. —Valerie Green reviews Fleeing the 51st State: A Voyage of Resistance and Hope, by Peter Freeman (Vancouver: Tablet Publications, 2025) $35.00 / 9781069460813

Family, camaraderie, and a stolen ring

The sleuthing elements of this YA novel have their appeal, but the real stand outs include the interplay between teammates and the “multi-generational openness and connections.” —Alison Acheson reviews Rhapsody Smith, Ice Angel, by Lorna Schultz Nicholson (Winnipeg: Yellow Dog/Great Plains Press, 2025) $18.95 / 9781773371306

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