“[F]orested with a wide variety of poems, or rather, communities of poems, both in style and subject matter,” the volume’s meditations startle and surprise. —Al Rempel reviews Cathedral/Grove, by Susan Glickman (Montréal: Véhicule Press, 2023) $19.95 / 9781550656350
Novelist sets out to “destroy it all … and start over with a handful of survivors, to see if they could build something better,” and then imagines the fraught next steps. —Dana McFarland reviews Post Civ, by Julianne Harvey (Surrey: Ruby Finch Books, 2024) $25.00 / 9780987797841
A fun and easy beach read, this Mexican resort-set murder mystery brings together secrets, ulterior motives, and extravagant wealth. —Candace Fertile reviews The Plus One, by S.C. Lalli (Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2024) $25.99 / 9781443467049
Terrific essay collection covers agri-business, beans on toast, a century-old family recipe for trifle, gender politics, potatoes, and a whole lot more.
—Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Hearty: On Cooking, Eating, and Growing Food for Pleasure and Subsistence, by Andrea Bennett (Toronto: ECW Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781770411
Novel about American socialite struggles to unearth the woman behind the “constant posturing.” —Candace Fertile reviews Peggy, by Rebecca Godfrey with Leslie Jamison (Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2024) $36.00 / 97803458082
Poetry volumes highlight a poet’s “impeccable way of seeing the grieving, dreaming world” as well as another’s “no readily-digested messages.” —Catherine Owen reviews Distractions, by Eve Joseph (London: Baseline Press, 2023) $15.00 / 9781928066873 and Signal Infinities, by Melanie Siebert (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2024) $22.95 / 9780771013980
“At this point, I texted a friend, who wisely said, ‘I think people are reading for sex, not cooking accuracy.’ Remember: this is a romance. The restaurant is just a vehicle for the romance.” —Jessica Poon reviews Knives, Seasoning, and a Dash of Love, by Katrina Kwan (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2024) $24.95 / 9781039012417
Expansive sophomore novel showcases an author’s “talent for delving into the minds of different personalities across several decades.” —Jessica Poon reviews The Leap Year Gene, by Shelley Wood (Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2024) $25.99 / 9781443473163
“A whole tradition of poetry met postmodernism in him, as he has achieved what he set out to do—carry it forward, weave it in, pass it on to us, and then let us swim on upstream, as his hands lift away.” —Harold Rhenisch reviews Poems Selected and New, by D.C. Reid (Victoria: Ekstasis Editions, 2023) $25.95 /8781771714129
“I’m writing this in part to address the request from readers of my other typography texts to write about Bringhurst, or perhaps pursue a retrospective. Both of these requests are solid and probably long overdue, so in this I attempt to take a first look at this pursuit.” Thomas Girard reviews two earlier books by Robert Bringhurst of Quadra Island, bringing readers a discussion on these influential titles: The Elements of Typographic Style & The Solid Form of Language.
Debut story collection balances “visually rich absurdity … and the general malaise of youth with admirable, poetic flair.” —Jessica Poon reviews Hello, Horse: Stories, by Richard Kelly Kemick (Windsor: Biblioasis, 2024) $22.95 / 9781771966078
“What do schools of dead fish, a cure for Alzheimer’s, and nuclear fusion have in common?” A debut psychological thriller answers this question and more. —Jessica Poon reviews The Outlier, by Elisabeth Eaves (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2024) $24.95 / 9781039008045
“Light moves through the exposed
struts of the shattered Dome…”
Gary Geddes presents a selection of his poems to note Hiroshima Day, August 6, 2024
“The book takes us through various phases in China’s modern history, from the Anglo-Chinese wars of the 1840s and the Boxer Rebellion, through both world wars, the Japanese conquest and occupation of China, and the advent of Communism.” Tom Koppel reviews Searching for Billie: A journalist’s quest to understand his mother’s past leads him to discover a vanished China by Ian Gill (Hong Kong: Blacksmith Books, 2024) $25.85 / 9789887554660
“The book suggests that future efforts should prioritize rebuilding Lytton with a strong focus on sustainability and resilience. This involves implementing policies that address the root causes of vulnerability, such as historical injustices and environmental degradation.” Amy Tucker reviews Lytton: Climate Change, Colonialism and Life Before the Fire by Peter Edwards and Kevin Loring (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2024) $36 / 9781039006157
“Though the novel is neither a traditional detective story nor a thriller, the ongoing discoveries and displacements are reminiscent of those genres, but with a rarefied literary focus that makes for a worthwhile page turner.”
—Jessica Poon reviews The Mythmakers, by Keziah Weir (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2024) $24.00 / 978077100029
The trio of cases of a sleep-deprived, hard-drinking ‘terrible detective’ also reveal a man “in a modern world that he seems not to fully understand nor relate to.” —Logan Macnair reviews Stasio: A Novel in 3 Parts, by Tamas Dobozy (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2024) $22.00 / 9781772142266
The closing novel of the McBride Chronicles tetralogy mulls over past and future as it introduces a host of contemporary social issues. —Vanessa Winn reviews Tomorrow, by Valerie Green (Surrey: Hancock House, 2024) $24.95 / 9780888397843
A meister with horror tropes, a debut novelist turns terror-at-home into a mind-bending, spine-tingling entertainment. —Zoe McKenna reviews We Used to Live Here, by Marcus Kliewer (New York: Atria/Emily Bestler Books, 2024) $34.99 / 9781982198787
A poet’s pensive and playful debut volume is also “probing, inventive, clever, fun, provocative, and challenging.” —Steven Ross Smith reviews [about]ness, by Eimear Laffan (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2023) $19.95 / 9780228019022