Fight Night by Miriam Toews
Those who enjoy appreciating cutting, witty, and sometimes dark humour with a dash of philosophical thought mixed in will find much to like in this Miriam Toews novel.
Feminist
Dear Hearts by Barbara Miller Biles
Dear Hearts is a collection of character-driven stories that are whimsical, sometimes magical, unsentimental yet poignant, and focus on the ways in which girls and women who were teenagers in the 1960s experienced the changing cultural values shaped by feminism.
The Rage Room by Lisa de Nikolits
The Rage Room is a dystopian novel set in 2055 in a world that is controlled by a woman named Minnie. Capitalism reigns. Consumerism is rampant, for everything including the weather is controlled, so people have little to do but work and shop.
Look After Her by Hannah Brown
Upon the death of their art-loving parents, thirteen and fourteen year old Jewish sisters are kidnapped by a family friend and taken to a brothel. There they are held captive by their shared shame and by the younger sister’s forced addiction to morphine. Love and psychodrama gives them the courage to finally escape Vienna.
Swimmers in Winter by Faye Guenther
Faye Guenther’s first collection of short fiction, Swimmers in Winter, is described as a “trifecta …
Seeds and Other Stories by Ursula Pflug
In my years of reading and reviewing, I consider Ursula Pflug one of my “finds”, …
No Girls Allowed by Natalie Corbett Sampson
No Girls Allowed, by Natalie Corbett Sampson, follows ten-year-old Tina Marie Forbes and her family as they fight for her right to play hockey. The Forbes family moves from Toronto to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and are excited to get settled in the town. Early on, Tina reflects, “all you need to do to make friends is play sports. Join a team and there’s a bunch of them ready to meet . . . That’s been true wherever we’ve lived.” Sport is an essential part of who Tina is, and forms the basis from which she builds community.
Lightness by Fanie Demeule, trans. by Anita Anand
According to one source, 90% of all anorexics are females. They lose a few pounds but are still not satisfied. They become obsessed with reaching the “ideal” weight, but it’s a moving target, practically unattainable. Such is the case with the unnamed young woman in Lightness by Quebec author Fanie Demeule, which has been translated into English by Anita Anand.
Secret Lives of Mothers & Daughters by Anita Kushwahal
Anita Kushwaha’s follow-up to her 2018 award-winning novel (and 2020 longlist nominee) Side by Side is Secret Lives of Mothers & Daughters (HarperCollins Canada). It is a generational story of — you guessed it — mothers and daughters and the secrets that they keep from each other.
On the Edge by Lesley Strutt
On the Edge is a novel of a young person determined to take matters into their own hands to find out the truth, solve some family mysteries and to discover her birth parents.
The Allspice Bath by Sonia Saikaley
Award-winning author Sonia Saikely’s newest novel, The Allspice Bath is an enjoyable, yet emotional story about a Lebanese family living in Ottawa in the 70s-90s.
A Philosopher, a Psychologist, and an Extraterrestrial Walk into a Chocolate Bar by Jass Richards
Spike, a psychologist and activist, and Jane, a philosopher and writer, leave their dead-end temp jobs in Toronto and head for Paris–on their lunch break–by car, stopping frequently to stock up on chocolate. Along the way, they meet X, a lost extraterrestrial.
Land for Fatimah by Veena Gokhale
Land for Fatimah is an excellent example of the type of book that exists to broaden the horizons of those with an interest in novels with multi-cultural roots, showing a way of life that is unknown to many of us.
Under the Bridge by Anne Bishop
When stress causes an old trauma to surface, Lucy, a longtime community organizer, teacher and anti-poverty activist, loses control of her life. On probation and living on the streets of Halifax’s North End, all she has left are friends.
The Daughters’ Story by Murielle Cyr
Nadine is banished to a home for unwed mothers in 1950. She’s 15. Her baby daughter, whose father is shrouded in secrecy, is put up for adoption without her permission. Vowing to reunite one day with her daughter, she cuts all ties with her dysfunctional Irish and French-Canadian Catholic family whose past is cluttered with secrets, betrayals, incest and violence.