“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
Funny, poignant, and joyful, a poetry collection considers parenting and fatherhood. “Here is a book of wonder between a son, his father, his mother and between a father, his daughter, and her mother. A letter of charm, nuance, struggle, humour, love, and affection,” our reviewer writes. —Heather Simeney MacLeod reviews Dad Era, by Jordan Abel (Toronto: Coach House Books, 2026) $17.95 / 9781770569003
Bounding across the centuries—1983, the 2090s, 2586—a debut novel begins with a lonely girl, a budding computer coder. From there, an eclectic, compelling story unfolds. “It’s raw, tragic, and fearful to a degree that’s sometimes difficult to look at, and has a sneaking vulnerability that draws you in bit by bit until it is nearly too much to bear. Yet, more often, it is earnest, hopeful, and intensely heartfelt,” our reviewer says. —Zoe McKenna reviews Homebound, by Portia Elan (Toronto: Scribner Canada, 2026) $26.99 / 9781668206225
“Tender, attentive to small moments of meaning within and beyond the places the poet once pushed or simply didn’t pay attention, this is poetry that, at its best, forces readers to reconsider their own histories.” —Carellin Brooks reviews Gold Star, by Emma McKenna (Toronto: Book*hug, 2026) $22.95 / 9781771669740
“[Untitled],” an excerpt from Dad Era, by Jordan Abel (Toronto: Coach House Books, 2026) $24.95 / 9781552455234
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
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
“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
A memoir-in-essays, an “unabashedly queer view of life, loves, and the bringing up of the generation to come,” ranges widely and speaks candidly. —Carellin Brooks reviews Staying Power: On Queerness, Inheritances, and the Families We Choose, by Zena Sharman (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2026) $24.95 / 9781834050164
A “thoughtful and provocative account of masculine aesthetics in gay male culture” focusses on a seminal Toronto-based community newspaper. In doing so, its author “has created a valuable resource on the evolution of masculinity and libido in queer sexuality.” —Daniel Gawthrop reviews Liberation and Libido: Masculinity, Sexuality, and the Aesthetics of Gay Liberation in Canada, 1971–1987, by Nicholas A. Hrynyk (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2026) $32.95 / 9781487507077
In an inventive, queer-forward collection, stories offer “sustained engagements with a common ethical terrain.” The book’s strength “lies in its refusal to simplify moral experience.” —Michael Bigam reviews Runs in the Blood, by Matthew J. Trafford (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025) $21.95 / 9781834050140
BCR asked some of our regular contributors about books they read in the past year that really stayed with them. Once again, “eclectic” is our word of the year.
The fourth volume of an epic series—with “two branching timelines that have a massive crossover of characters, cities, histories, and wars”—grabs attention for its deft and artful handling of complexity, and for its queer inclusivity. —Myshara McMyn reviews Wake (The Call of the Rift, Book Four), by Jae Waller (Toronto: ECW Press, 2023) $23.95 / 9781770414594
A soulful novel set in New York City at the height of the AIDS crisis “is a meditation on the intertwined nature of love and loss”; it “confronts readers with uncomfortable truths about vulnerability, mortality, and the limits of human connection, while showing that meaning can still be found amid suffering.” —Anna Horsch reviews A Friend of Dorothy’s, by Richard Willett (Los Angeles: Magic Show Press, 2025) $25.99 / 9798992339802
Delightful while sobering and illuminating, a memoir-in-verse celebrates pop music as it revisits cultural history and queer coming-of-age in the ’80s and ’90s. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Soundtrack: A Lyric Memoir, by Michael V. Smith (Toronto: Book*hug, 2025) $24.95 / 9781771669498
“The title’s invocation of Van Gogh’s painting proves apt. Like the artist’s swirling night sky, Mootoo’s prose contains turbulence within careful composition. The result resembles pointillism: individual impressions that cohere into recognizable forms only when viewed from proper distance.” —Selena Mercuri reviews. Starry Starry Night, by Shani Mootoo (Toronto: Book*hug Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781771669566
Venerable poet “delivers an impressive thirteenth poetry book,” “a collection that is not only evocative and visceral but masterfully precise, honouring its namesake (a reference to the formerly common training routine of figure skaters to practice control, precision, and balance).” —Brooke Lee reviews Compulsory Figures, by John Barton (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2025) $20.00 / 9781773861661
Simultaneously black- and warmhearted, a Victoria author’s sophomore novel satirizes corporate culture. In it, a nebbish hero simmers with fantasies of power and revenge… and then strikes a fateful bargain with dire consequences. —Ron Verzuh reviews Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World, by Mark Waddell (Toronto: Viking Canada, 2025) $26.95 / 9780735250321
In a non-linear and associative collection of poetic assemblages, a writer ponders an impressive assortment of ideas: from the afterlife and everyday life to queer masculine desire, settler culture, and the natural world. —Brooke Lee reviews The Idea of an Entire Life: Poems, by Billy-Ray Belcourt (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2025) $25.00 / 9780771014017