“As many visitors to Antarctica have remarked, time spent witnessing the stunning abundance of life beyond the polar zone of extreme cold waters and the sheer beauty of that continent is life-changing. Blight witnesses that unlike her experience of previous research sites, which include the Canadian Arctic, Antarctica forever changed her ‘understanding of the world.’ This is her account of that break from ‘The World, The Real World, The World,’ as she and most scientists working in Antarctica refer to the outside world beyond the polar seas. Antarctica is her discovery and recovery back to a saner place of nature, no matter how harsh. It is a place where life meets death and grows from it.” Loÿs Maingon reviews Where The Earth Meets The Sky: A Story of Penguins, People and Place in Antarctica, by Louise K. Blight (Toronto: Doubleday Canada / Bond Street Books, 2026) $38 / 9780385702102
An author’s complexly layered first novel “offers readers a world where ghosts (be them literal or metaphorical) are omnipresent features in the lives of the novel’s ensemble cast” Through them, he develops “perspectives on themes such as grief, personal growth, sexuality, and connection in ways that range from sardonic and humorous to more emotionally resonant, often shifting between the two in quick succession.” —Logan Macnair reviews Super Castle Fun Park, by Daniel Zomparelli (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2026) $24.95 / 978183405026
“By the time I got to Simon Fraser University in the early 1970s, Jim Harding had already left campus but his legacy lingered as SFU continued to fester with student unrest after the historic strike in 1967. That event labelled SFU a ‘radical’ campus and Harding was part of the cohort of students and faculty that openly challenged and defied the actions of the university administration. It was a bold, exciting, and educational moment. Harding was among the leaders.” Ron Verzuh reviews The Long Sixties: Stories from the New Left, by Jim Harding [ed.] (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2026) $29 / 9781773638034
“Seto, mourning the past and given time to resurrect her creativity, recreated the buildings of memory and left them empty so that memory and desire could replace the ghosts inhabiting them with real lives configured with real information, the sensory details, smells and sounds that gave them life.” Linda Rogers reviews Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History, by Donna Seto (Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2025) $29.99 / 9781487011970
Set in war-torn Ukraine, Poland, and Germany during 1945, a wide-ranging and fast-paced novel recounts the urgent movements of Frida and Jakob, “two survivors who hope to start a new life for themselves in a postwar world.” —Bill Paul reviews Rust and Bone, by Dietrich Kalteis (Toronto: ECW Press, 2026) $24.95 / 9781770418509
“There are more than 240 life histories of all the fishes calling the strait home for all or part of the year. Dick Beamish and Jeff Marliave are well-known scientists who have put this book together for you.” DC Reid reviews Fishes of the Strait of Georgia: More than 240 Life Stories, by Dick Beamish & Jeff Marliave (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $80 / 9781990776830
“Victoria’s urban landscape is littered with these remnants or references, in this case, to the golden age of Victoria’s great garden estates. They are a part of a legacy of similar markers, such as iron curbs that once protected sidewalks from steel-rimmed carriage wheels, hitching posts for horses stabled in the Rockland and Fernwood neighbourhoods, or small pockets of Garry Oaks that survived from a pre-settlement habitat that nurtured the Lekwungen people. These touchstones of community memory lend richness and meaning to the built heritage that tells Victoria’s story.” Martin Segger contributes the article Silent Sentinels, adapted from his upcoming book Tending Eden: A garden history of Victoria.
A graphic novel for younger readers tells the tale of twin sisters who cannot wait to start a summer school programme for junior illustrators. Be careful what you wish for, they soon learn. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Inbetweens, by Faith Erin Hicks (New York: First Second, 2026) $20.99 / 9781250838742
“The book is primarily a record of the concept, strategies, and outcomes from an innovative government policy-development approach proposed by then-Premier Glen Clark. At the time Clark’s financially-strapped government was facing ‘an imminent economic crisis.’ The authors explain that Premier Clark was faced with almost 240,000 public employee contracts expiring on the same day, as well as two prior years of restraint.” Richard Fyfe reviews 35 Accords: Re-imagining British Columbia’s Public Sector Labour Relations
by Tony Penikett and John Calvert (Cambridge, UK: Ethics International Press, 2025) $57 / 9781837112791
A quantum “world pushes in on an isolated self” in a batch of playful, meditative, performative, and surreal poetry. “This is hard stuff, looked at with a cold eye. It’s beautiful, fierce, profoundly defensive, smart as heck, and intrusive,” our reviewer remarks. Harold Rhenisch reviews Who Else in the Dark Headed There, by Garth Martens (Windsor: Biblioasis, 2026) $21.95 / 9781771967082
“If they are a choir, Genni Gunn, an Italo-Canadian poet and musician, translator of this volume, lifts it out of sea narrative to angel choir. Her sensibilities, like Maraini’s, bring harmony to the deliverance of a poetically nuanced story to universality.” Linda Rogers reviews The Ship for Kobe, by Dacia Maraini, translated by Genni Gunn (Hamilton: Guernica Editions, 2025) $22.95 / 9781778490019
In a sophomore poetry collection—that’s “a triumph”—set primarily in a psychiatric ward, an author examines their past and envisions an integrated future. The account of a “tremendous and ongoing struggle to heal” is both technically accomplished and visceral. —Joanna Streetly reviews Pitiful, by Brandi Bird (Toronto: House of Anansi, 2026) $22.99 / 9781487014087
“[E]xcellent” debut YA novel reflects an author who “put his heart and soul into this book.” Plus: “Coming to this book in middle age, and as a fairly non-sentimental reader, the novel surprised me when I actually almost cried at one point, so invested was I in this wonderfully well-developed character of Ramin Abbas.” —Trish Bowering reviews Ramin Abbas Has MAJOR Questions, by Ahmad Saber (Toronto: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2026) $29.99 /9781665960694
“In BC, cartoonists like Len Norris, Roy Peterson, Bob Krieger, Dan Murphy, Raeside, and (more lately) Pia Guerra have demonstrated what a sharp wit can do with a sharp pencil. Nurtured for decades by daily spots on the local newspaper’s editorial/opinion page, these giants of jest created lasting and recognizable characters, styles, voices, values, and understandings of who we are.” John Belshaw reviews The Canada Handbook, by Adrian Raeside (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $22.95 / 9781550179538
“The strength of West Coast Mission is the way that Lockhart has sensitively and wisely heeded and attempted to bring the best out of the varied communities he has focussed on. The weakness of the book is the vast variety of other forms of Christianity he has simply not sat with or listened to in the Vancouver area and they are many.” Ron Dart reviews West Coast Mission: The Changing Nature of Christianity in Vancouver, by Ross A. Lockhart (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024) $34.95 / 9780228022862
An immersive and satisfying sequel to a 2015 debut novel finds a youthful protagonist—”a force unto himself,” who’s “always compelling on the page”—in literal wilderness as he sorts himself. —Trish Bowering reviews When the World Was Twice as Big, by Aaron Cully Drake (Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2026) $23.95 / 9780889715042
“Baxter had achieved years of international success for volleyball and women’s sports in general, and was celebrated around the world for her success, but at the young age of twenty-nine had been tossed aside simply because of her sexual orientation. Her internal rage at this unfairness inspired her to become an activist and expose the inequalities and flaws in elite Canadian sports. This book strongly brings out her message of hope for all men and women in sports to strive for success despite the cost.” Valerie Green reviews Outspoken: A Journey from Olympic Athlete to Activist by Betty Baxter (Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2026) $23.95 / 9780889715066
“I had just finished reading Waterfall Hikes in the Canadian Rockies – Volume 1 when I reached for Volume 2 as if drawn by the gravitational pull of cascading water.” Amy Tucker reviews Waterfall Hikes in the Canadian Rockies – Volume 2, by Steve Tersmette (Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2024) $25 / 9781771606882
“While the book may not feature the most extreme, off-the-grid waterfall routes, it is still an excellent reference for experienced hikers. Even for those who have spent decades on the trails, there is always something new to discover, and this book provides a fresh perspective on familiar landscapes.” Amy Tucker reviews Waterfall Hikes in the Canadian Rockies – Volume 1, by Steve Tersmette (Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2023) $25 / 9781771606165
In the eighth volume in an impressive series, an author turns rhapsodic and philosophical about a 300-year-old cedar tree and its value and meaning within his culture. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews The Cedar Mother, by Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson), illustrated by Natasha Donovan (Nanaimo: Strong Nations, 2026) $24.95 / 9781774921586
