A cutting edge psychiatrist faces her own traumatic past and the mysterious deaths of her clientele in a thriller where tension mounts page after page. —Valerie Green reviews High Society, by Daniel Kalla (Toronto: Simon & Schuster, 2024) $24.99 / 9781668032510
“This type of book is Pinterest before Pinterest, a way of gathering inspiration when it was primarily an arduous task. The physicality is something that can never be discounted, and I imagine the authors of the future will continue to always refer to books like this, as nothing quite replaces the ah-ha experience of leafing through it and coming to know to things in an unexplainable way, like a dream guiding you in the middle of the night.” Thomas Girard reviews Pretty Pictures by Marian Bantjes (New York: Metropolis Books, 2013) $99.00 / 9781938922220
Poet foregrounds nature imagery in her thoughtful inquires about family, cultural heritage, grief, and identity. —Daniela Elza reviews We Follow the River, by Onjana Yawnghwe (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2024) $20.00 / 9781773861388
“No wait a moment …. a rabbit and mysterious arms holding it and obscuring the ears? On the back cover, the Princess’s eye has been covered. Before dismissing pretty princesses and bunnies, I needed to look further and so should you.” Christina Johnson-Dean reviews Classification Crisis and Rabbit-Hole, by Sonja Ahlers (Wolfville, NS: Conundrum Press, co-published with Richmond Art Gallery, 2023) $50.00 / 9781926594347
“Brauer visited Ireland, accompanied by his former wife Paula, some years ago, and more recently returned on his own in an attempt to ‘find himself.'” Ian Kennedy reviews Lost Between the Stones and the Sea: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland by Chris Brauer (New Denver: Maa Press, 2023) $25.00 / 9781777349745
An entertaining, raucous, and deeply weird novel splices together a boxing comeback story, veganism, bout fixing, and… Sherlock Holmes. —Logan Macnair reviews Pet, Pet, Slap, by Andrew Battershill (Toronto: Coach House Books, 2024) $23.95 / 9781552454763
A “must-read” collection of poems reveals the poet’s critical examination of both the worlds he belongs to and his place within them. —Harold Rhenisch reviews Teeth, by Dallas Hunt (Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2024) $19.95 / 9780889714526
A retired criminal lawyer revisits his past and “the most significant trial of his career.” The results are engrossing. —Bill Paul reviews The Long-Shot Trial: An Arthur Beauchamp Thriller, by William Deverell (Toronto: ECW Press, 2024) $26.95 / 9781770417540
A poetry collection’s “distinctive power” is founded on a “keen but understated awareness of the interplay between the human world and the natural environment.”—Christopher Levenson reviews Moving to Delilah, by Catherine Owen (Calgary: Freehand Books, 2024) $19.95 / 9781990601583
“What Don has done is create a succinct pattern for each fly, in two or three pages and repeats it for the entire book. The pattern includes a photo of the fly in question, a background story, a trimmed down list of materials and tying instructions in the same pattern for all flies, making this a very quick read for dozens of flies that work in BC.” DC Reid reviews Fly Tying: Proven Flies for the Pacific Northwest by Don Haaheim (Surrey: Hancock House, 2024) $24.95 / 9780888397683
Debut story collection by celebrated young author reveals him as “fully in control of his voice, confident of his reach, and utterly fearless.” —Daniel Gawthrop reviews coexistence, by Billy-Ray Belcourt (Toronto: Hamish Hamilton, 2024) $27.95 / 9780735242036
“The first part of this book is delightful. There’s young Koah with his Portuguese-Canadian father travelling back to his father’s ancestral homeland and imbibing words of wisdom from his father, who introduces him to his grandparents and extended family, all the connections missing from their life together in Victoria, BC.” Sheldon Goldfarb reviews Trust the Bluer Skies: Meditations on Fatherhood by paulo da costa (Regina: University of Regina Press, 2024) $27.95 / 9780889779921
“[F]or those who want to understand something of human journeys—and how to mourn, how to live with grief—” this YA novel “is a study in how we might navigate.” —Alison Acheson reviews Where Was Goodbye?, by Janice Lynn Mather (Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, 2024) $23.99 / 9781665903950
“The idea was this thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we made a list of one hundred authors from one hundred years, then put a pin in their location on a map of the Coast.’ ” Cathalynn Labonté-Smith writes The Sunshine Coast Tale Trail: Where it Fits into 100 Years of Canadian Literary Landmark Maps
Sophomore YA novel offers “a beautiful, heartwarming story about memory and grief with a speculative twist and a sprinkling of romance that’s sure to delight teen readers.”—Greg Brown reviews The Space Between Here and Now, by Sarah Suk (Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2023) $24.99 / 9780063255135
With sculpted sound and rhythmic exuberance a delightful and pensive volume of poems examines the living and the lived. —Michael Greenstein reviews Talking to Strangers, by Rhea Tregebov (Montreal: Signal Editions, 2024) $13.99 / 9781550656602
“Her story is not just a recount of a physical undertaking but a profound voyage into personal resilience and discovery.” Amy Tucker reviews Shifting Gears: Coast to Coast on the Trans Am Bike Race by Meaghan Marie Hackinen (Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2023) $23.95 / 9781774390801
Picture book for elementary school-age readers teaches “vivid ways to tell us where we live and how the world works.” —Ron Verzuh reviews The Bee Mother, by Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson) (Winnipeg: Highwater Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781774920800
“McCrory argues that the horses, known in Tsilhqot’in culture as qiyus, are ‘a resilient part of the area’s balanced prey-predator ecosystem that predates the arrival of Europeans to the region.’ ” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews The Wild Horses of the Chilcotin: Their History and Future by Wayne McCrory (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2023) $39.95 / 9781990776366
In intriguing, complex layers a historical novel portrays queer lives during Europe’s witchomania. It’s a keeper, especially if you’re “of the camp that believes that metacommentary is captivating.” —Jessica Poon reviews Curiosities, by Anne Fleming (Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2024) $35.00 / 9781039004979