Pizza Girl, by Jean Kyoung Frazier (2020)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A pregnant LA teenager who works at a pizza place becomes obsessed with a harried mother who always orders pepperoni and pickle.

Review: This is as bold as it is quirky. The main character is a complete mess and she knows it. For the most part, I enjoyed seeing her struggle to figure herself out. ⬇️

After 1177 BC, by Eric Cline (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: An exploration of the latest evidence on the recovery of the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean, and Mespotamian worlds in the aftermath of the Late Bronze Age Collapse.

Review: I am a big fan of Cline‘s book 1177 BC, which documented the disappearance within a single generation of a centuries-old network of civilizations. ⬇️

Vlad, by Carlos Fuentes (2010, transl. 2012)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: The life of a middle-aged Mexican lawyer takes a turn for the horrific when he‘s asked to help an old friend of his boss relocate to Mexico City.

Review: This doesn‘t have great reviews, but I found this to be a very successful piece of contemporary Gothic fiction that played with traditional vampire lore in interesting ways.

Hungerstone, by Kat Dunn (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A Sapphic retelling of Carmilla set in Industrial Britain.

Review: This was a disappointment for me. A Sapphic retelling of an already Sapphic novel, retold in essentially the same time period (though a different location), I was left wondering … why? ⬇️

Hit Girls, by Nora Princiotti (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A closer look at the female pop stars that defined pop culture in the ‘00s

Review: Nora Princiotti is a staff writer for the pop culture site The Ringer (where she also cohosts the popular Every Single Album podcast), and she brings that site‘s patented blend of informed, personal, and referential writing to this book. ⬇️

Strange Houses, by Uketsu (2021, transl. 2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: The discovery of an unmarked space on the floor plan of a house for sale piques the curiosity of a writer and his architect friend, to creepy effect.

Review: Like so many others, I was totally taken by Uketsu‘s Strange Pictures earlier this year. This one doesn‘t quite hit the same highs, but was still a delicious dose of the author‘s macabre and mysterious sensibilities.

Vanishing World, by Sayaka Murata (2015, transl. 2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: This speculative novel explores the social impacts of a world in which sexual reproduction is considered obsolete (and kinda gross).

Review: This is my favourite kind of speculative fiction, changing a single detail about our present world then exploring its impacts to a logical extreme. ⬇️

Medea, by Euripides (431 BCE)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Spurned princess Medea plots revenge upon her faithless lover Jason

Review: Euripides‘ plays have stood the test of time for a reason. They demonstrate a keen and nuanced understanding of the human psyche. Is Medea portrayed as a monster or as a sympathetic victim? ⬇️

A Week to Be Wicked (Spindle Cove 2), by Tessa Dare (2012)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: A burgeoning geologist enlists the help of a notorious rake to get her across the country so she can deliver a paper to a society.

Review: I adored the first book in this series, as well as the holiday novella released before this official book 2. Sadly this didn‘t hit the same highs for me, though this is not likely the fault of the book. Cont.

Warriors of Anatolia, by Trevor Bryce (2019)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A survey of the rise, reign, and fall of the Hittite Empire from one of the major English-language scholars of the field.

Review: Hittite history is notoriously difficult to understand, due primarily to a lack of solid evidence. This volume is a solid attempt at putting the available pieces together. Cont.

Flux, by Jinwoo Chong (2023)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A young man‘s life takes a bizarre turn when, after miraculously surviving a fall down an elevator shaft, he‘s recruited to a work a new tech company that promises to revolutionize the energy sector.

Review: this book is incredibly high-concept—the premise above only touches half of what‘s going on—and every plot line comes at things at odd angles. Cont.

Heart Berries, by Terese Marie Mailhot (2018 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: An unflinchingly honest memoir about growing up and living with abuse and mental illness while Indigenous

Review: This memoir takes a no holds barred # approach and I think is much better for it. Mailhot bares all here, in all her intelligence and education and all her trauma, illness, and heartbreak. Cont.

Proto, by Laura Spinney (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A look at the latest evidence about the history of the Indo-European languages and the people who have spoken them.

Review: This is a truly excellent work of popular history, incorporating archaeological, linguistic, and increasingly genetic evidence to piece together our current best guesses about this diverse language family, which is as mysterious as it is common. Cont.

Mice 1961, by Stacey Levine (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A mysterious narrator looks on as orphaned half sisters find themselves at crossed purposes during a neighbourhood potluck.

Review: This was a surprise finalist for the Pulitzer Prize this year so I was very curious to pick it up. This is an absolute masterclass in setting and atmosphere, and unique in its approach to storytelling. Cont.

The Girl and the Galdurian (Lightfall 1), by Tim Probert (2020)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: An anxious girl teams up with an adventurous stranger to search for her missing wizard grandfather.

Review: This is an adorable graphic novel featuring charming characters and stunning illustrations. I have some quibbles about the plotting, mostly how book one ended without any resolution and I‘m still not sure what the stakes are. Cont.

Run Away with Me, by Brian Selznick (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Two teenage boys fall in mysterious and magical first love in 1986 Rome.

Review: This was very sweet but ultimately I think it felt a bit too scattered. At first I thought there was some fantasy element to the pairing, but that turned out to be a misdirect. And there was a compelling secondary plot involving a mysterious book that deserved more attention. But overall this was fun.

Liquid, by Mariam Rahmani (2025)
⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: An Iranian-American woman struggling to find sustainable work as an academic rethinks her priorities.

Review: Despite some promising marketing copy, this turned out to be my least favourite type of literature: a cancerously excessive postmodern critique that devolves into complaining about everything in the most obvious ways. It‘s also filled with unnecessary pretentious literary references. Cont

Woodworking, by Emily St. James (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Things get complicated in a small town when a high school teacher just beginning to come to terms with her trans identity befriends a brash trans student.

Review: This is a fascinating and unique exploration of the complexities of trans experiences. I love how realistically messy the main characters are: when there are no good options, it stands to reason. Cont.

Scientific Marvel, by Chimwemwe Undi (2024 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A collection of poems largely about the poet‘s feelings of erasure from the Canadian, and specifically Manitoban, story.

Review: I‘m not in a good position to offer an opinion on this one. Cont.

In the Absence of Men, by Philippe Besson (2007, transl. 2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: In 1916 Paris, a queer teenager experiences love for the first time in very different relationships with a middle-aged writer and a soldier on leave from the War.

Review: Once again, Philippe Besson has demonstrated his knack for exceptional, short, melancholic, queer fiction. Cont.

The Horse, the Wheel, the Language, by David W. Anthony (2007)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A thorough exploration of the evidence in favour of the Kurgan hypothesis of Indo-European origins.

Review: This did a great job in filling in the pieces for me in where this area of study has been at this century.It offers a detailed defense of the Kurgan hypothesis through a mixture of linguistic and archaeological evidence. Cont.

YHWH‘S Divine Images, by Dan McClellan (2022)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: An academic study of Ancient Near Eastern conceptions of divinity and what they might mean for the interpretation of the Tanakh/Old Testament.

Review: The author here is a popular social media personality in the informed religion space, so I was intrigued when his academic work found its way to me. Cont.

The Farm, by Tom Rob Smith (2014)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A London man must sort out the truth when his father tells him his mother has had a psychotic break, but his mother insists she‘s being railroaded for uncovering unspeakable crimes.

Review: I don‘t read a lot of psychological thrillers, but this really worked for me. The author did a great job in setting up the story and added just enough to keep me guessing till the end. Cont.

The Voyage Home (Women of Troy 3), by Pat Barker (2024) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A Trojan nurse accompanies the doomed prophetess Cassandra to her fate as Agamemnon‘s entourage returns home.

Review: In a landscape overstuffed with retellings, once again this effort from Pat Barker elevates the genre to its full potential. It was jarring not to have Briseis as our point-of-view character in this third book. Cont.

The Summer of Jordi Perez, by Amy Spalding (2018)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A Los Angeles teen‘s plans for her Summer internship at a fashionable boutique are complicated when she catches feelings for her colleague and rival.

Review: This is a sweet YA novel perfect for Pride. While the romance is solid, where this really impressed me was in its unique take on body positivity and teenage male-female friendships.

Set Piece, by Lana Schwartz (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: Five years after a passionate chance encounter, an up-and-coming Hollywood production designer gets a second chance with one of the industry‘s hottest actors.

Review: This was a really solid romance, with great characters with strong chemistry and understandable conflict.

Bookish Pair: For another good Hollywood romance, Olivia Dade‘s Spoiler Alert (2020)

Elizabeth Rex, by Timothy Findley (2000 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: On the night before her lover is put to death on her orders, a restless Queen Elizabeth I spends time with William Shakespeare‘s troupe and gets into a battle of wits about the performance of gender with a man who has spent his whole career in drag.

Review: This is probably my favourite play-as-literature thus far. Cont.

Under the Eye of the Little Bird, by Hiromi Kawakami (2016, transl. 2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A novel in linked short stories about the distant fate of humanity.

Review: This will no doubt work for a lot of readers, but despite the fact that I can recognize that it‘s very well done, it was not for me. Told in short stories, all at different moments in the future,, this is meant to keep the reader off guard. Cont.

My Own Lightning (Wolf Hollow 2), by Lauren Wolk (2022)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: After getting struck by lightning, a 1940s Pennsylvania girl begins to see the world—and people—around her differently.

Review: With the first book in this series being such a triumph for me, I was a bit unsure what to expect with this sequel. But wow! I think I like it even more! Cont.

The Nimbus, by Robert P. Baird (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A Chicago couple‘s relationship frays when their youngest son starts glowing and they have drastically different reactions.

Review: This is not going to be for everyone, but it was absolutely for me. The premise is big, and, while the author didn‘t go where I‘d have wanted him to, there‘s no doubt where it goes is as realistic as it is unsettling. Cont.

The Dad Rock that Made Me a Woman, by Niko Stratis (2025 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A memoir in essays about the role of music in the author‘s Northern childhood and burgeoning trans identity.

Review: I don‘t have too much to say about this. Each chapter focuses on the role a different artist played in a stage of the author‘s life. Some of these connections are stronger than others. Cont.

Travels with Charley, by John Steinbeck (1962)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: The famed author undertakes a road trip across the United States to reconnect with ‘real America‘, accompanied by a beloved aging pet.

Review: This is a fascinating portrait of a divided country that is still enlightening 65 years later. Cont.

How to Seal Your Own Fate (Castle Knoll Files 2), by Kristen Perrin (2025)
⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A fortune teller‘s words once again set murderous events in motion, and old journals once again hold all the clues.

Review: This was such a huge disappointment for me. The first book in this series was great, but this just repeated the premise from the first, even involving the same cast of characters and inciting incident, cont.

God: An Anatomy, by Francesca Stavrakopoulou (2022)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A reassessment of common ideas about the biblical God‘s body (or lack thereof) in light of parallels in neighbouring ancient civilizations.

Review: This book has a simple and incontrovertible premise: Since the Bible talks about God the same as neighbouring cultures did, there‘s no reason to think ancient Israelites believed God not to have a body. Cont.

The Fabulous Zed Watson!, by Basil Sylvester w Kevin Sylvester (2021 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A flamboyant nonbinary kid embarks on a road trip with friends on a quest to find the lost chapters of a cult classic book

Review: I wanted to love this but sadly it just didn‘t work for me. The plot was laughably implausible and the main character—far from fabulous—came off as insufferable. Cont.

The Diviners, by Margaret Laurence (1974 🇨🇦) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: When her daughter leaves home to find herself, an author recollects her own often difficult journey of self-discovery

Review: This is a deserved classic of Canadian literature, even if it left me feeling a bit empty. It succeeds best in its thematic exploration of storytelling, identity, and dispossession, and how those intersect with race, class, and gender. Cont.

The Railway Conspiracy (Dee & Lao 2), by John Shen Yen Nee & S.J. Rozan (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Judge Dee and his lecturer sidekick Lao get pulled into a series of murders related to an international conspiracy against China.

Review: After how much I enjoyed the first book in this series, this was a huge let-down. Cont.

Once Upon a Winter‘s Eve (Spindle Cove 1.5), by Tessa Dare (2011)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A Christmas ball in Spindle Cove is disrupted by the arrival of a stranger — and possible French spy — who collapses at the feet of a resident about to be sent home to London, and who thinks he seems eerily familiar.

Review: This is a fun holiday romance novella that‘s a delightful addition to the Spindle Cove series.

The Women of Troy (Women of Troy 2), by Pat Barker (2021)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: As the victorious Greek armies are stranded by impossible winds and tensions rise in the camps, the enslaved women of Troy ponder what comes.

Review: I was blown away by the first book in this series, and the sequel did not disappoint. Cont.

Everything on a Waffle, by Polly Horvath (2004 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A Vancouver Island girl‘s life is turned upside down when her parents go missing

Review: This is one of those middle grade novels that is incredibly silly while dealing with difficult themes and ideas. Cont.

Lion‘s Legacy, by L.C. Rosen (2023)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Fresh off a breakup that puts him in a difficult social position, a teenager reunites with his estranged tv archaeologist father to find a piece of ancient queer history.

Review: This is a queer YA Indiana Jones, with all the fun puzzles and booby-traps and ridiculous ‘archaeology‘—and teenage drama—you‘d expect from it. Cont.

Futbolista, by Jonny Garza Villa (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A hotshot college freshman struggles to harmonize soccer culture and his Mexican heritage with his emerging realization that he isn‘t as straight as he thought he was.

Review: It took a while for me to sink into this one and appreciate the main character; this also doesn‘t do much that‘s not been done well before. But I‘m very glad I stayed with it. Cont

The Emperor of Gladness, by Ocean Vuong (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A young recovering addict in 2010 New England develops an unlikely friendship with an elderly Lithuanian immigrant living with advanced dementia.

Review: Oof. I‘m not sure what to say about this one. It is unarguably a brilliant and important piece of literature, telling a story with a strong point of view.
Cont.

The Weather Detective, by Peter Wohlleben (2012, transl. 2018)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: An exploration of how to get more out of one‘s garden by understanding it as part of the natural environment.

Review: This is a very good book that suffers because of its English translated title, which bears no connection at all to the book‘s content! Cont.

Run for the Hills, by Kevin Wilson (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Very different people become an unlikely family discover they share the same father and embark on a cross-country road trip to find him and ask why he abandoned them all to forge very different lives for himself.

Review: Wilson is the king of profound but off-kilter fiction, and this is no exception. Cont.

The Wind That Lays Waste, by Selva Almada (2012, transl. 2019)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: Four lives are changed when an itinerant charismatic pastor and his daughter stop for car repairs at a mechanic shop in drought-ridden rural Argentina.

Review: There‘s a lot to like about this. In barely over a hundred pages, Almada creates and rips open a whole world, with vivid characters and stunning dramatic tension. Cont.

A Night to Surrender (Spindle Cove 1), by Tessa Dare (2011)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Susanna will do whatever it takes to preserve her seaside village that‘s become a haven for independent women, but she meets her match when their quiet life is disrupted by the arrival of a young lord tasked with setting up a local militia.

Cont

A Month in Siena, by Hisham Matar (2019)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: The Libyan-British author‘s reflections on a month spent in Siena, adrift after coming to terms with the reality that he will never find out what happened to his father.

Review: Hisham Matar is a brilliant writer (I still can‘t believe his 2024 novel My Friends didn‘t make the Booker short list!) and this short memoir shows why. Cont.

Hey Nostradamus!, By Douglas Coupland (2003 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A 1988 school shooting in Greater Vancouver reverberates across fifteen years.

Review: I graduated high school a year before the 1999 Columbine shooting and was 21 on 9/11, two events which haunt this novel. Cont.

The Shots You Take, by Rachel Reid (2025 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: After not speaking for twelve years, a retired hockey player returns to his former roommate (and occasion lover)‘s home town to try to make amends for the disastrous end of their relationship.

Review: This is a hockey romance, but it‘s not really a hockey romance. Cont