The fourth romance novel in the Off the Ice series is focussed on a hockey jock, a brainy coach’s daughter, and… a statistics class. Marred by some “bland, superficial, formulaic characters” and subpar writing, the novel nevertheless features tender romantic moments and “exquisite, genuine interactions.”—Sergio Espinosa reviews Embrace by Bal Khabra (Toronto: Viking, 2026) $26.95 / 9781037803253
In a “charming little story” that’s part of a geriatric amateur sleuth cozy mystery series (say that three times!), there’s a mystery of a locked door, which leads to further inquiries for a formidable octogenarian sleuth. —Valerie Green reviews Stella Ryman and the Search for Thelma Hu—A Fairmount Manor Mystery, by Mel Anastasiou (Langley: Pulp Literature Press, 2025) $24.95 / 97819888865799
“This is why we pick up an anthology: it’s a flight of stories to be savoured, shared with a friend or two, and to find new voices and new eyes to explore.” With that said, the collection’s Toronto-centrism, tenuous cohesion, and puzzling focus raise some questions for our reviewer. —Alison Acheson reviews Women, Walking: Notes on Lives in Motion, edited by Zahra Ebrahim and Jane Farrow (Toronto: Coach House Press, 2026) $25.95 / 9781552455203
Campus high-jinx within the Department of Mathematics at fictional Invigus University in the Fraser Valley involve secrets, lies, a missing prof, intimate apparel, black market drugs, and many, many equations. Six of seven plot elements function admirably. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Topology of Sexy Shoes, by Erik Talvila (Altona: Friesen Press, 2026) $15.95 / 9781038354792
“In recent times, the image of thousands upon thousands of faces scattered alive and dead along the makeshift routes crossing into Europe, Britain, and the United States. It is easy to build a sympathetic distance from the anonymous crowds, who are often from nations without statehood, fleeing conflicts many Westerners are only vaguely aware of. At times, certain stories can break through the wall of complacency to instill humanitarian outrage. This happened in 2015, when the image of a drowned Syrian toddler, washed up on a Turkish beach after having escaped his country’s civil war, went globally viral. The individual tragedy of that photograph emphasized the human story at the centre of every refugee crisis. In Escape from Siberia, Escape from Memory, Paul Wojdak uncovers just such a story in his own family history.” Matthew Downey reviews Escape from Siberia, Escape from Memory: An Odyssey Across Two Oceans & Nine Countries to Arrive Home, by Paul Wojdak (Victoria: Friesen Press, 2024) $32.99 / 9781039196865
“The author was in fact setting out to research the forgotten iconic photographer, H. Walter Barnett. She visited the Victoria & Albert Museum in London where she came across this particularly intriguing photograph of Bernhardt taken by Barnett when Bernhardt was much older, and her career had by then already spanned over fifty years.” Valerie Green reviews Unequivocal Magic: Sarah Bernhardt and the Journey of a Portrait, by Alex Bertram (Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2026) $42.99 / 9781771127189
“Sandra’s story about her family is one of many anecdotes she recounts in Ground to Stand On: A Canadian Literary Life. Growing up she finds that her young life is being shaped by social and economic forces beyond her control and the geography and landscape of Newfoundland. The book is part family memoir and part a recollection of her extraordinary career in academia.” Bill Paul reviews Ground to Stand On: A Canadian Literary Life, by Sandra Djwa (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2026) $34.95 / 9780228027706
A book of “profound, playful work in two parts,” an allusive collection of prose poems 1) subverts “expectations with bold, delightful leaps of logic” and 2) communes with poets (past and present). —Jodi Lundgren reviews Dismantling, by Eve Joseph (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2026) $20.00 / 9781772142563
“For me, that is the greatest inspiration the book offers. It affirms that outdoor adventure is not always about reaching the highest peak or covering the longest trail. Sometimes, it’s about sitting quietly on a shoreline, watching a seal bobbing in the current. Sometimes, it is about recognizing the return of a bird whose call you first heard as a child. Sometimes, it is about returning to a place you thought you knew—and seeing it again, this time with attention.” Amy Tucker reviews Wildlife Weekends in Southern British Columbia: Day and Multi-day Trips from Vancouver for Wildlife Viewing, by Roy Jantzen (Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2024) $45 / 9781771604604
Four cases, four diverse settings, four discrete time periods, and one investigator: an author’s musician/sleuth tackles mysteries on land and sea and reveals his personal history along the way. Plus, colourful characters for days! —Valerie Green reviews Four Short Sets with Jason Davey: A Jason Davey Mystery Collection, by Winona Kent (New Westminster: Blue Devil Books, 2026) $14.99 / 9781739046163
“It seems the last thing Franklin and his congressional confrères might have imagined is that ‘Canada’ would go on to become a sovereign country of its own, the thing the Americans were aiming for, exclusive of the shiny new USA.” Steven Brown reviews He Did Not Conquer: Benjamin Franklin’s Failure to Annex Canada, by Madelaine Drohan (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2025) $27.99 / 9781459754188
“Farrant picks on the connection in Japan’s Zen Buddhist tradition between noticing and waiting. Reaching back further yet, she points to China’s ancient Taoist oracle the I Ching with its emphasis on patience, and on finding harmony within the timing of notable changes. This attention to noticing has memorable forebears.” Trevor Carolan reviews Seventy-Two Seasons: A Memoir About Noticing, by M.A.C. Farrant (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2026) $22.95 / 9781553807438
Set in Montreal and Bangalore over a span of 63 years, a smart and emotionally resonant novel captures the life and times of “[g]uarded, imaginative, prickly, sentimental, [and] superstitious” Asha Mohan. A touch pessimistic and fatalistic, this intriguing, complex character holds the view that “the worst possible scenarios have shaped my life always.” —Alexander Sallas reviews Asha in Her Garden, by Anita Rau Badami (Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2026) $36.00 / 9780735274341
“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.” Linda Rogers reviews 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