“Iron Mike provides an insider’s view of the coaching life aimed at vindicating its author’s brutal winning philosophy and intimidating style. Keenan’s out to settle a few scores, but he also wants us to know that, deep down, he’s a much nicer guy than the tyrant who crashed and burned his way through head coaching gigs in eight different cities before wearing out his NHL welcome.” Daniel Gawthrop reviews Iron Mike: My Life Behind the Bench, by Mike Keenan, with Scott Morrison (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2024) $36.00 / 9780735281851
In an exhilarating YA novel, Gold Rush riches are the goal for Scottish teenager Callum McBay. With theft, attacks, miscreants, shambling outposts, and one “toad-faced abomination,” there’s plenty of hardship before any reward. —Ron Verzuh reviews The Cariboo Trek of Callum McBay, by Colin Campbell (Vancouver: Tradewind Books, 2025) $14.95 / 9781990598333
“Circa 2025, Emma would be in therapy; in Atkins’ 1704, though, knife battles, duels, betrayals, and violent power struggles are just a Tuesday afternoon.” —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Back to the New Adventure, by Trevor Atkins (Coquitlam: Silverpath Publishing, 2024) $14.95 / 9781989459041
Written “with wit and great insight,” a sophomore story collection often focussed “on women who live in world of uncertainty and stress,” conveys the unsteady state of mind that can occur when there’s always “one more thing to look out for.” —Bill Paul reviews Welcome to the Neighbourhood: Stories, by Clea Young (Toronto: House of Anansi, 2025) $22.99 / 9781487013196
In a debut novel, “a party animal of a book that resoundingly delivers,” two sisters—one “prone to shoplifting in her job as a cashier,” the other a “skin care influencer with a cult-ish following” tussle in a wacky story that marries social critique and wit. —Jessica Poon reviews Julie Chan Is Dead, by Liann Zhang (Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, 2025) $24.99 / 9781668079867
“We can look back at our lives and say, look what I survived. We can look back with appreciation and say, look what I discovered by remaining curious, look what joy came my way when I didn’t expect it.” Mary Ann Moore reviews The Erotics of Cutting Grass: Reflections on a Well-Loved Life by Kate Braid (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2025) $24 / 9781773861623
As she portrays hardship and resilience in Saskatchewan and British Columbia, a debut novelist “tells an engrossing story about Clara, a talented doctor and loving woman trying to find the right path to take in late Victorian Canada.” —Valerie Green reviews The Roads We Take, by Christy K. Lee (Toronto: Rising Action Publishing, 2023) $21.99 / 9781998076062
“Although he isn’t related to George Vancouver’s former botanist and surgeon aboard the HMS Discovery, Archibald Menzies experienced extraordinary times, times that Graeme Menzies felt had to be shared. The result was the book Bones: The Life and Adventures of Doctor Archibald Menzies, in which Graeme Menzies tells of how the doctor used reason and his senses, as well as his familiarity of the Scottish clan system, to understand what he found as the lone scientist on board that British vessel of exploration.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment featuring Vancouver author and historian Graeme Menzies.
Set circa 1948 in northern Mexico and BC’s central interior, the 12th book in a lighthearted murder mystery series begins with two missing person cases. Twists, turns, and “all manner of false leads” ensue. —Bill Paul reviews The Cost of a Hostage, by Iona Whishaw (Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2025) $21.95 / 9781771514545
“With the budget and size of the current gallery, it had become difficult to adequately show the collection and avoid being just a storehouse. Hence, the wise decision to have a rotating exhibition for the next five years, so that the public can appreciate the depth and breadth of the collection.” Christina Johnson-Dean reviews the exhibition A View from Here: Re-Imagining the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria Collections curated by Steven McNeil and Heng Wu.
This “compelling case study,” charts the city’s historical transformation, as the “grime of Montreal’s ‘moral decay’ was … scrubbed away by new regulations and bylaws that targeted everything from pornography to lewd or countercultural artwork to pinball machines and tarot readers—anything that might be considered offensive to or in poor taste by the international community that [the mayor] was hoping to entice.” —Logan Macnair reviews Montreal After Dark: Nighttime Regulation and the Pursuit of a Global City, by Matthieu Caron (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 2025) $34.95 / 9780228024774
In this useful picture book for children, a yoga class is an adventure in learning as well as a launchpad for colourful, imaginary travel. —Ron Verzuh reviews Yoga Adventures for Little Explorers, by Megan McDougall / illustrated by Hayley Lowe (Charlottetown: Pownal Street Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781998129232
“[Leavitt] has created a life-affirming, deeply affectionate, intermittently humorous evocation of grief that reminds us that the ones we love are still with us, if we remember them.” Jessica Poon reviews Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love, by Sarah Leavitt (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2024) $27.95 / 9781551529516
Set in Western Canada during the Summer of Love, a coolly stylish novel portrays a juvenile boy’s educational misadventures during an unsanctioned road trip. —Ryan Frawley reviews Amaranthine Chevrolet, by Dennis E. Bolen (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2025) $25.99 / 9781459754775
With glimpses of “one of the greatest spectacles / the city ever sees / twice daily most seasons / dawn to dusk,” a poetry collection draws an array of meanings from urban crows. —Heather Ramsay reviews Crowd Source, by Cecily Nicholson (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2025) $19.95 / 9781772016581
“This book is a tool kit, neither poetry, nor the story inversions that alleviate the pain of living in post-colonial society, but a logical overview from a sympathetic perspective.” Linda Rogers reviews Indigenous Rights in One Minute: What You Need to Know to Talk Reconciliation by Bruce McIvor (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, Nightwood Editions, 2025) $22.95 / 9780889714885
“Existing Music is a deeply layered and memorable work of poetic metaphor and imagery, and Nick Thran succeeds in playing with sound and shapeshifting, or transposition, to evoke an ‘Oh’ in the reader as we look over his shoulder.” —Joe Enns reviews Existing Music, by Nick Thran (Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2025) $19.95 / 9780889714861
Personal darkness and a generational chasm are examined in an urgent long poem—where a grandmother reaches out to a youth immersed in video game realities. —Isabella Ranallo reviews Encrypted, by Arleen Paré (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2025) $20.00 /9781773861647
“Henry Yu is a history professor at The University of British Columbia. He tells The British Columbia Review about how his path to becoming an historian was shaped by the exclusion and challenges of his Chinese Canadian ancestors in BC.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment with historian and UBC professor Henry Yu
“Wright’s psychological exploration—her emphasis on the ‘why was it done?’—takes us into territory beyond the cozy mystery that a series set in a small town and complete with an ongoing romance might invite.” —Ginny Ratsoy reviews Sleep While I Sing: Murder in a Small Town, by L.R. Wright (New York: Felony and Mayhem Press, 2024) $26.95 / 9781631943171
