The Art of Doing, by Jesse Lipscombe (2025 🇨🇦)

Premise: A self-help book about the power of getting over yourself and just doing it.

Review: For being a pretty typical self-help book, this is a wild read. Jesie Lipscombe is like the Forrest Gump of opportunity, unwaveringly game to try anything and everything. Cont

Death in the Spires, by KJ Charles (2024)

Premise: Let go from his job after his employer receives a note calling him a murderer, a man tracks down his old college friends to try to find out who killed one of their own.

Review: Every time I read a KJ Charles book I expect a fun, queer, historical romp, but get something far more interesting. This is a compelling mystery that handles privilege and marginalization really successful. Cont

Fifty-Four Pigs (Dr. Bannerman Vet Mysteries 1), by Philipp Schott (2022 🇨🇦)

Premise: An inquisitive and logical rural veterinarian pokes his nose into the mystery of an explosion at a friend‘s farm.

Review: This has a lot going for it: A unique and memorable setting, an engaging main character (whose strengths are also his weaknesses, which pays of in the story), fun details about veterinary life, and a mystery that worked quite well Cont.

The Silence of the Girls (Women of Troy 1), by Pat Barker (2018)

Premise: The last days of the Trojan War told through the eyes of Briseis, the enslaved former princess of a Trojan ally whose theft by Agamemnon set off the events of the *Iliad*.

Review: The Greek myth retelling fad got old very quickly for me, but this is one of the best. Cont.

Once Upon You and Me, by Timothy Janovsky (2025)

Premise: A Summer camp manager is caught off guard when he finds himself falling for his boss‘s — and ex-wife‘s — personal assistant.

Review: This is a very sweet, queer, age-gap romance, with great representation for bisexuality and ADHD presentation in adults. It doesn‘t do anything unexpected or spectacular, but it does what it needs to do.
Cont

The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans (2025)

Premise: The story of a life and all its joys and tragedies told through the correspondence of an aging retired lawyer.

Review: This is a truly special book — It‘s a moving and intimate portrait of a strong, good, but deeply flawed woman as she looks back on her life, her successes, and failures, while also grappling with what her old age is going to look like. Cont

The Skin of Our Teeth, by Thornton Wilder (1942)

Premise: In this classic play, humanity is portrayed in microcosm as a conventional, suburban American family.

Review: I‘m often surprised by just how early the pastiche, sense of play, and erasure of the fourth wall that I associate with postmodern literature appears in the canon. Cont.

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, by Kim Fu (2022 🇨🇦)

Premise: A collection of speculative short stories that put a creepy spin on contemporary life.

Review: This is a great collection of stories that approach life from a twisted angle that was disturbing but incredibly engaging. Highly recommended.

Bookish Pair: For a similarly fascinating collection of speculative stories, Theodore McCombs‘s Uranians (2023)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis (1954)

Premise: A mediocre college instructor sabotages his career in this searing satire of 1950s British academia and cultured society.

Review: This book regularly features on lists of the best novels of the 20th C, or funniest English-language novels, and I can understand why. But the danger with satire is that it is very specific, and because of this, a lot of this has not aged well. Cont.

Hollow Bamboo, by William Ping (2023 🇨🇦)

Premise: A Newfoundland man is given a unique opportunity to connect with the memories of his Chinese grandfather.

Review: This starts off really strong, with a great smart and funny opening scene, but got a bit lost for me along the way. Cont.

Fishing for the Little Pike, by Juhani Karila (2019, transl. 2023)

Premise: A woman returns home to Lapland on an annual pilgrimage to catch a pike in order to stave off the effects of a curse, but is thwarted by an assortment of creatures from nature and folklore.

Review: Sitting on cusp between fantasy and magical realism, this dumps you off into the deep end in a strange and uncanny northern world. Cont.

Great Big Beautiful Life, by Emily Henry (2025)

Premise: Sparks fly when two writers compete for the opportunity to tell the story of the reclusive heiress of a once-great, scandal-ridden family.

Review: Emily Henry has created a wonderful niche of writing fun and well-written contemporary fiction that gets filed under Romance even though the romance is the secondary plot. Cont.

Treacle Walker, by Alan Garner (2021)

Premise: An isolated boy has his eyes opened to whole new worlds when a rag-and-bone man appears on his doorstep

Review: This was a surprise short-list pick for the 2022 Booker Prize and it definitely has that high literary flair to it. It‘s well-written, well-conceived, and well-executed. I just didn‘t find it all that interesting. It‘s a dull success.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Town with Half the Lights On, by Page Getz (2025)

Premise: A struggling Kansas town gets a new lease on life when a big-city family moves in.

Review: This is a book with wonderful values and a giant heart that is absolutely in the right place. Unfortunately, while I‘m sure this is the last thing the author would have wanted (she is from Kansas), it came across as a bit of a ‘coastal big city‘ version of the ‘white saviour‘ phenomenon. Cont.

The Murder of Mr. Ma, by John Shen Yen Nee & S.J. Rozan (2024)

Premise: When the police seem uninterested in solving a series of murders in 1920s London‘s Chinese community, a visiting Chinese judge and his lecturer sidekick take up the investigation.
Cont

Binge, by Douglas Coupland (2021 🇨🇦)

Premise: A collection of sixty loosely connected (very) short stories, all coming at contemporary life from a slightly odd angle

Review: The subtitle to this collection is ”60 stories to make your brain feel different,” and that‘s as good a way to describe this as any. Cont.

The Postman Always Rings Twice, by James M. Cain (1934)

Premise: A drifter arrives at a California service station, setting off a dark chain of events.

Review: This classic is noir fiction at its absolute best: atmospheric, hard-boiled, and no-holds-barred
Cont.

That‘s What She Said, by Eleanor Pilcher (2025)

Premise: The friendship between two young London women is strained when one takes the other‘s strange request — to help her both to lose her virginity and understand her body better — a bit too far.

Review: At its best this debut is a fun exploration of contemporary urban life and female friendship, with lots of unique representation (particularly for demisexuality). Cont.

Rizzo, by Denise Mina (2021)

Premise: A novella reconstructing the events of an attempted palace coup in in the court of Mary Queen of Scots in 1566, revolving around the assassination of her private secretary, David Rizzio.

Review: I really enjoyed this, and, I think, all the more for its brevity. Cont.

The Thief Lord, by Cornelia Funke (2000, transl. 2002)

Premise: A lovable gang of orphans living in an abandoned theatre in Venice undertake the theft of a mysterious object connected to the city‘s magical lore.

Review: This was a wonderfully enjoyable middle grade novel, featuring easy-to-root-for characters and lots of mystery and adventure. Cont.

The Nothing Man, by Catherine Ryan Howard (2020)

Premise: A man reads a true crime book written by the lone survivor of one of his twenty-year-old crimes.

Review: I don‘t read a lot of thrillers (or in this case thriller-adjacent books) but I try to pick up at least a few each year. I‘d been hearing the praises of this one for years and I‘m very glad I finally picked it up. Cont.

Two Can Play, by Ali Hazelwood (2024)

Premise: Video-game designer Viola is conflicted when she gets the chance to create a game based on her favourite novel series, on the condition that her company collaborate with its archrival, whose proposal is being led by a man who wants nothing to do with her (and who also happens to be her longstanding crush).
Cont.

Enlighten Me, by Minh Lê (illustrated by Chan Chau) (2023)

Premise: A graphic novel for children introducing some basic tenets and stories of Buddhism.

Review: This was surprisingly fun, sort of a like a kids‘ introduction to Buddhism crossed with the 8-bit adventure of Scott Pilgrim. I do wish however there was more story. Cont.

Blood over Bright Haven, by M.L. Wang (2024)

Premise: An ambitious young woman has staked everyone on becoming her society‘s first female high mage, but soon discovers a horrific secret underlying everything she thought she knew.

Review: This is a chilling book, all the more for the way it is all too reminiscent of our own world and the comfortable lies we tell ourselves to hide from inconvenient truths.
Cont

The Late Monsieur Gallet (aka Maigret Stonewalled) (Inspector Maigret), by Georges Simenon (1931)

Premise: Inspector Maigret is called to Sancerre to investigate a murder, but the more he investigates the less everything makes sense.

Review: I find the Maigret novels really hit or miss, and sadly this was a miss for me. Cont

Essential Writings, by Mother Maria Skobtsova (collected 2002)

Premise: Collected texts by the 20th C theologian and justice advocate Mother Maria of Paris.

Review: This is a fascinating collection that includes texts not otherwise available in English translation. Mother Maria‘s incisive intellect, loving heart, and unique point of view come through in every essay. Cont.

Ruthless Vows (Letters of Enchantment 2), by Rebecca Ross (2023)

Premise: As the war between the gods intensifies, newlyweds Roman and Iris find themselves on opposite sides of the battle.

Review: The second half of this duology does what it needs to do in bringing the story to a satisfying enough conclusion. Cont.

Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green (2025)

Premise: A popular-level take on the history, science, and increasingly sociology, of humanity‘s deadliest disease.

Review: The Green brothers just seem like genuinely delightful, whip-smart, gracious, and deeply curious people, and this book hits on all those strengths. Cont.

Strange Pictures, by Uketsu (2022, transl. 2025)

Premise: Apparently disconnected creepy stories fit together to create a disturbing story.

Review: WOW! I can‘t say too much about this without spoiling anything. But, if you love a mystery and can stomach some violence and disturbing imagery, do yourself a favour and read this!

Bookish Pair: For another Japanese puzzle story, Kinae Minato‘s Confessions (2010, transl. 2014)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman 1), by Olivia Waite (2025)

Premise: On a space ship carrying a remnant of humanity to a new home, the ship‘s detective‘s mind wakes up in a stranger‘s body after years of dormancy — a stranger she quickly suspects may have committed a murder.
Cont.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye, by John Scalzi (2025)

Premise: The world is stunned to discover that the moon has been turned into a cheese-like substance.

Review: Scalzi‘s two previous books dealt with ordinary people dealing with extraordinary situations, and here it‘s the whole world dealing with an extraordinary situation. On the plus side, this allows him to cover a wide range of opinions and experiences about the event. Cont.

Saint Francis of Assisi, Brother of Creation, by Mirabai Starr (2013)

Premise: A curated selection of texts by and about, and reflections on St. Francis of Assisi by a respected figure in the ‘spiritual-but-not-religious‘ space.

Review: This is a wonderful little collection of reflections and texts on one of the most important and universally beloved figures in Christian history.
Cont.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder (1927)

Premise: In the aftermath of a bridge collapse in 1700s Peru, a monk tries to understand why the victims were ‘chosen‘ to die.

Review: This early Pulitzer Prize winner explores evergreen themes of fate, free will, the justice of God, and meaning in a world where terrible things happen every day. Cont.

Floating Hotel, by Grace Curtis (2024)

Premise: The stories of the passengers and crew of a spaceship hotel whose best days are behind it.

Review: This is branded as ‘cozy sci fi‘, and while it takes place in space and has low-stakes, character-driven stories, it felt too distant to be cozy. It also could have been set at a grand European hotel during WWII with very little change. Cont.

We Are All Made of Molecules, by Susin Nielsen (2015 🇨🇦)

Premise: Two Vancouver teenagers adjust to challenging new realities when their parents decide to move together and blend their families.

Review: This is a rare YA novel with characters who read as young as they are, which is a bit jarring since the book deals with some mature themes. I thought this was pretty successful and had some lovely messages about belonging and found family. Cont

Hunchback, by Saou Ichikawa (2023, transl. 2025)

Premise: A woman living with myotubular myopathy navigates complex social and parasocial relationships.

Review: This novella is without a doubt one of the most unique and shocking books I‘ve ever read. Cont.

The Secret History of Sharks, by John Long (2024)

Premise: A comprehensive introduction to the long history and evolution of sharks

Review: There is no question that John Long knows his stuff and is able to communicate complex material effectively. I learned more about sharks than I ever wanted to. Cont.

Street of Riches, by Gabrielle Roy (1955, trans. 1957 🇨🇦)

Premise: A series of stories about the author‘s childhood in Manitoba‘s francophone community.

Review: This was a marvelous surprise. These stories — seventy years old themselves, but recounting events of thirty years earlier — strike a perfect balance: You feel the foreignness of this version of Canada from a century ago, while also seeing the seeds for the country we‘ve become. Cont.

Lunar New Year Love Story, by Gene Luen Yang (illustrated byLeUyen Pham) (2024)

Premise: A Vietnamese-American teenager is pulled in many directions after she learns of a family curse that means they are all destined to fail at love.

Review: This was a bit of a mixed bag for me, largely because there were a few too many things stuffed in this particular bag for my liking. Cont.

Harriet Tubman, Live in Concert, by Bob the Drag Queen (2025)

Premise: In an alternative present where figures from the past have come back to life, a queer Black music producer is confronted with his own internalized oppression when Harriet Tubman asks him to make a record with her.

Review: I really wanted this to be something special, but while it has moments of genuine insight, it didn‘t quite get there for me. Cont.

The Unseen World, by Liz Moore (2016)

Premise: As her odd but doting father recedes into dementia, a young woman discovers that he wasn‘t who he said he was.

Review: This is unquestionably one of the best books I‘ll read this year and I‘m shocked I hadn‘t heard about it until this week!
Cont.

The Lost Library, by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass (2023)

Premise: A boy becomes fascinated with the mystery of his town‘s library, which burned down in 1999 under mysterious circumstances.

Review: This is a fun middle grade romp with a memorable set of characters, and a lovely father-son relationship. The problems come if you think about the plot or need a satisfying conclusion to the mystery
Cont.

A Sweet Sting of Salt, by Rose Sutherland (2024 🇨🇦)

Premise: A queer take on the Selkie Wife legend set in 19th C Nova Scotia

Review: This is a legend ripe for a postmodern retelling, and this works really well. I loved the main character and her found family, and the selkie wife herself more than holds her own in a frightening situation. It‘s not perfect but a great read nonetheless.

Jennie‘s Boy, by Wayne Johnston (2023 🇨🇦)

Premise: A memoir of the author‘s childhood living with chronic illness in an impoverished Newfoundland community.

Review: This is close to being a perfect memoir: full of humour, insight, and vulnerability. It does a fantastic job of showing the reader the insecurity of growing up in illness, poverty, and as the child of an alcoholic, but also the power of familial love.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ghosts, by Dolly Alderton (2020)

Premise: An English woman struggles to manage the ever-shifting dynamics of fading friendships, aging parents, and the horror that is twenty-first-century dating.

Review: I‘m pretty sure no author has been able to articulate the highs, lows, and humiliations of the millennial generation as well as Dolly Alderton. Cont.

The Abbey, by James Martin(2015)

Premise: Two suburbanites are drawn into the life of a local monastery.

Review: A good effort at fiction by a popular nonfiction writer, but this probably should have stayed a nonfiction ‘monasticism for dummies‘ book.
Cont.

Stop Me If You‘ve Heard This One, by Kristen Arnett (2025)

Premise: A Florida clown struggles with her career and relationships and the ghosts of the past.

Review: This is sharp, biting, and unflinching, especially when it makes the main character look bad. But I‘ve read many books by queer women that share this sensibility and I definitely felt the diminished returns here. Cont

Water Moon, by Samantha Sotto Yambao (2025)

Premise: The new proprietress of a magical pawn shop teams up with an unsuspecting physicist to track down her missing father.

Review: I was really excited about this one, but I have to say it completely let me down.
Cont.

Lunar Boy, by Jes and Cin Wibowo (2024)

Premise: Set in a futuristic world steeped in Austronesian culture, an adopted child comes to terms with his trans identity, new family, and the cultural impacts of colonialism.
Cont

Into the Woods, by Jenny Holiday (2025)

Premise: In order to reinforce a ‘no more men‘ resolution after being burned out on dating apps, a Minnesotan dance instructor takes a position as a mentor at a summer camp for artistic teens. But fate may have other things in mind, when she meets the grumpy rockstar facing life transitions of his own.
Cont.