In a “charming little story” that’s part of a geriatric amateur sleuth cozy mystery series (say that three times!), there’s a mystery of a locked door, which leads to further inquiries for a formidable octogenarian sleuth. —Valerie Green reviews Stella Ryman and the Search for Thelma Hu—A Fairmount Manor Mystery, by Mel Anastasiou (Langley: Pulp Literature Press, 2025) $24.95 / 97819888865799
Campus high-jinx within the Department of Mathematics at fictional Invigus University in the Fraser Valley involve secrets, lies, a missing prof, intimate apparel, black market drugs, and many, many equations. Six of seven plot elements function admirably. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Topology of Sexy Shoes, by Erik Talvila (Altona: Friesen Press, 2026) $15.95 / 9781038354792
“In recent times, the image of thousands upon thousands of faces scattered alive and dead along the makeshift routes crossing into Europe, Britain, and the United States. It is easy to build a sympathetic distance from the anonymous crowds, who are often from nations without statehood, fleeing conflicts many Westerners are only vaguely aware of. At times, certain stories can break through the wall of complacency to instill humanitarian outrage. This happened in 2015, when the image of a drowned Syrian toddler, washed up on a Turkish beach after having escaped his country’s civil war, went globally viral. The individual tragedy of that photograph emphasized the human story at the centre of every refugee crisis. In Escape from Siberia, Escape from Memory, Paul Wojdak uncovers just such a story in his own family history.” Matthew Downey reviews Escape from Siberia, Escape from Memory: An Odyssey Across Two Oceans & Nine Countries to Arrive Home, by Paul Wojdak (Victoria: Friesen Press, 2024) $32.99 / 9781039196865
“Similarly, the modern University is under threat by a changing focus away from a celebration of the Liberal Arts toward a disproportionate emphasis on the hard sciences due to perceptions around return on investment. Across the world we see reductions in budgets for Liberal Arts and an increase in rhetoric that questions what economic value there is in these programs. This is the destruction of The Shire again before us; the development of the individual into a tool for economic production instead of a cultivation of what makes us uniquely human. The digitalization of education has introduced the logic of efficiency into learning itself, where speed and scale threaten the slower virtues of contemplation and care.” Scott Gibson contributes his SFU Graduate Liberal Studies essay Dreaming Spires and Concrete Halls: The Poetics of Place from Oxford to Simon Fraser University
A book of “profound, playful work in two parts,” an allusive collection of prose poems 1) subverts “expectations with bold, delightful leaps of logic” and 2) communes with poets (past and present). —Jodi Lundgren reviews Dismantling, by Eve Joseph (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2026) $20.00 / 9781772142563
Four cases, four diverse settings, four discrete time periods, and one investigator: an author’s musician/sleuth tackles mysteries on land and sea and reveals his personal history along the way. Plus, colourful characters for days! —Valerie Green reviews Four Short Sets with Jason Davey: A Jason Davey Mystery Collection, by Winona Kent (New Westminster: Blue Devil Books, 2026) $14.99 / 9781739046163
“Perfect Obedience,” an excerpt from What Endures: Stories, by Pauline Holdstock (Windsor: Biblioasis, 2026) $24.95 / 9781771967174
“Farrant picks on the connection in Japan’s Zen Buddhist tradition between noticing and waiting. Reaching back further yet, she points to China’s ancient Taoist oracle the I Ching with its emphasis on patience, and on finding harmony within the timing of notable changes. This attention to noticing has memorable forebears.” Trevor Carolan reviews Seventy-Two Seasons: A Memoir About Noticing, by M.A.C. Farrant (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2026) $22.95 / 9781553807438
Suggestion: Let’s travel to Spain, start a vineyard, and heal our relationship! Reply: Sounds like a dream! [Our reviewer: “A nightmare of troubled (euphemism) male psyches, fraught (euphemism) marriages, an immersive, entertaining thriller.] —Jessica Poon reviews Strangers in the Villa, by Robyn Harding (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2026) $24.99 / 9781538774014
“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
“Jesse Winter, based in Vancouver, has covered wildfires and other climate-related disasters since 2018 for a variety of media. His first experience was that year at Peachland in the Okanagan Valley. He was then a ‘wildfire neophyte’ who had no knowledge of what he was getting into. ‘The sheer volume of what I didn’t know has filled this book.'” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews Wild Fire: Dispatches from a Country Ablaze, by Jesse Winter (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2026) $36.99 / 9781443475822
Cheeky, fun, funny, and sweet, a puzzle-turned-mystery transforms an irritable, short-tempered feline (in a whimsical-drawn world) into an entertaining, albeit crabby, sleuth. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews One Mad Cat: And the Missing Book, by Vicky Fang (Toronto: Candlewick, 2026) $19.99 / 9781536239133
A sultry noir tale set in a Mexican port city circa 1943 involves schemes, repression, acting out, and fifty shades of morally grey characters. It’s “a fast-paced story that combines family scandal, salacious behaviour, and a murder just waiting to happen,” says our reviewer. —Sophia Wasylinko reviews The Intrigue, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Toronto: Del Rey, 2026) $39.99 / 9780593874356
Set in Alberta, a “thoughtful and timely” debut novel offers a “story for everyone, particularly those of us who make up this messy, wonderful, sometimes dysfunctional but very necessary place we call home.” —Trish Bowering reviews Inheritance, by Jane Park (Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2026) $26.99 / 9781487013998
Delightful PNW-set early chapter book takes a self-described bookworm and aficionado of ‘the great indoors’ to Sunnyside Summer Camp. Farting, vomiting, and serious peril ensue. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Surviving Summer Camp, by Paul Breau (Vancouver: TKI Productions, 2026) $13.99 / 9781777976637
Prolific fantasy and romance author treads into the high-stakes arena of computer hacking and heists… there, opposites attract and infatuation blossoms. The poignancy, sharpness, and fun of the writing and premise is diminished somewhat by repetition, pacing, and characterization. —Sergio Espinosa reviews Love Among Thieves, by Katrina Kwan (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2026) 24.95 / 9781039014107
“Other than Apicius, there were no other cookbooks authored in Europe until the 13th century when they began to appear in local languages. The popularity of cookbook writing began in the 10th century in Baghdad and then spread all over Europe. I’ve found no clues as to what Italians ate before Apicius’ Persian-influenced cookbook De Re Coquinaria.” Edward Henderson contributes his essay, Persian influence on Italian cuisine, written initially as a Graduate Liberal Studies term paper at Simon Fraser University.
Beauty, hope, life, death, despair: a roving, eclectic collection of poems ponders “how people come together via the process of thinking things through” as it reflects “on very hard things like mental health, homelessness, and the sometimes invisible distinctions between life, death, and love.” —Harold Rhensisch reviews Existence In All Its Uncoverable Beauty, by Calvin White (Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2026) $19.95 / 9781989689981
“Scholar George M. Johnson just took early retirement from Thompson Rivers University, and has he been productive. Not only is he a Children’s author, but he’s also a screenwriter and playwright. But recently, as he updates The British Columbia Review from the banks of the North Thompson River in Kamloops, it has been his social activism through his songwriting and performing that has defined him, tackling such timely topics as the debt faced by developing nations and the climate crisis facing us all.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview with Kamloops scholar, screenwriter, playwright, Children’s writer….and songwriter…George M. Johnson.
Vancouver Island-set early chapter book tells an “engrossing initiation story”: “Young readers can not only empathize with the protagonist’s sorrow, alienation, and confusion; they can also learn about the collaboration, flexibility, and patience requisite for the growth from innocence to maturity.” —Ginny Ratsoy reviews Eleven Out of Ten, by Stacey Matson (Toronto: Scholastic Canada, 2026) $12.99 / 9781039708792