Empathetic first novel portrays Kayla, a new arrival in Kelowna who lives on the street and supports herself with sex work. Adept characterization and vivid description add to a tale whose “value also lies in its representation of the humanity and lives of people who find themselves where none of us wants to end up.” —Janet Pollock Millar reviews Still, by Joanna Cockerline (Erin: The Porcupine’s Quill, 2025) $22.00 / 9781774221709
“Harper’s words tell this story but Marriott adds the historian’s tools of archival documents, war histories, and news reports. He provides a section on sources that explains how he knit together the word-images that take readers to the killing fields. Those vivid pictures of warfare on the Western front are often unimaginable.” Ron Verzuh reviews Till We Meet Again: A Canadian in the First World War, by Brandon Marriott (Toronto: Simon & Schuster, 2025) $39.95 / 9781668208236
Vancouver-set thriller, “full of gunfire and revelations,” features a shady biomedical research firm, a MacGuffin that L’Oréal would kill for, criminal intentions left and right, and a hapless RMT named Jackson Teague in the middle of it all. —Jessica Poon reviews On Borrowed Time, by Tony Berryman (N.p.: Twintree Books: 2025) $22.95 / 9781777133566
“Chapter by chapter Dr. Bonnell highlights the slow progression of wildlife use, exploitation, and conservation from the original inhabitants to the fur trade and then the influx of miners and settlers.” Dennis A. Demarchi reviews Stewards of Splendour: A History of Wildlife and People in British Columbia, by Jennifer Bonnell (Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum, 2023) $34.95 / 9781039900004
“The Yeadon-Jones have drawn the routes they used to explore the region which are helpful, especially for novices to these waterways. Each entry includes text explaining the particulars of the locality.” Marianne Scott reviews The Broughtons and Vancouver Island – Kelsey Bay to Port Hardy, by Anne and Laurence Yeadon-Jones (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2024) $49.95 / 9781990776991
With a wealth of imagery and motifs, a captivating sophomore novel tells a tale of an uncertain pilgrimage; it “presents a more complex truth than typical family reunion stories: that survival sometimes requires accepting fundamental uncertainty about our own stories.” —Selena Mercuri reviews Rufous and Calliope, by Sarah Louise Butler (Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2025) $24.95 / 9781771624572
A chilling and enthralling “psychologically perilous tale of deception, manipulation, and murder” is anchored by Esther Maile, a character who strives “to fill her need for connection in the most maladaptive ways.” —Trish Bowering reviews Days of Feasting and Rejoicing, by David Bergen (Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2025) $25.00 / 9781773103433
“The 36 chapters in My Soul Lives in these Mountains combine a series of linked stories, poems and paintings that makes this book a finely threaded together collection of geology, history, amusing treks taken, research done as part of the larger project for Chilliwack Search and Rescue-RCMP and a valuable telling of the three fatal airplane crashes in the area.” Ron Dart reviews My Soul Lives in these Mountains: A Collection of Stories, Poems and Paintings of the Chilliwack Cascades —Land of the Ts’elxwéyeqw, by Peter D. Scott (Surrey: Hancock House, 2024) $24.95 / 9780888397881
“The strength of Martin’s book, and its value as an analysis of the Canadian experience in Afghanistan, is in the way that he personifies the political experience of the Afghan war through his anecdotes. There is a point where he elucidates the three circles of power in Afghanistan – the first being the local power brokers and warlords, the second being the government of the democratic regime, and the third being the international forces.” Matthew Downey reviews Unwinnable Peace: Untold Stories of Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan, by Tim Martin (New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781990160349
“So, let’s welcome Enns as a new master poet to this tradition of fisher poets. Like the others he is a master at throwing a line—in his case, literally. At their best, the lines of his verse are exquisite casts. The poems through which they flash, stream, curl, and bend are pools of still water. Heart, mind, and world merge into attention.” —Harold Rhenisch reviews No Lines in Nature, by Joe Enns (Nanoose Bay: Joe Enns, 2025) $17.00 / 9781069299918
Selfhood, interpersonal relations, family history, and the wonders of the world are examined acutely in a debut collection book of verse, where some poems have greater immediate appeal than others.—Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Stolen Plums, by Alice Turski (Montreal: Signal Editions, 2025) $19.95 / 9781550656770
“If you’re looking for dour, deeply depressing escapism, go fish. But if you’re in the mood for humour and meta-humour…”: in this novel, self-involved TV personalities and mystery writers congregate for a festival where—gasp!—there’s a murder. Dialogue is snippy, the mood is light, and the shenanigans are frequent. —Jessica Poon reviews Killer on the First Page, by Ian Ferguson and Will Ferguson (Toronto: Harper Collins Canada, 2025) $24.99 / 9781443475099
With a surprising ending that’s “perfect” and a convincing portrait of a recognizably unjust present day political reality and hopeful responses to it, a debut novel thrills as it portrays bookish and venerable activists. —Valerie Green reviews Make No Mistake, by Julie Wise (Penticton: Wise Publications, 2025) $20.99 / 9781069525505
“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
“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
“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
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
“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
“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
“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