Muggins: The Life and Afterlife of a Canadian Canine War Hero by Grant Hayter-Menzies
The unusual and moving tale of Muggins, a famed fundraising dog who became a mascot of the Canadian Red Cross during the First World War.
WWI
Amid the Splintered Trees by Heather McBriarty
A sweeping novel of the Canadian experience in the First World War, Amid the Splintered Trees is loosely based on author Heather McBriarty's own family history.
A Canadian Nurse in the Great War: The Diaries of Ruth Loggie, 1915-1916 Edited by Ross Hebb
A Canadian Nurse in the Great War grants a peek, through the diary of Ruth Loggie, into a little-known moment of our history. It also offers a glimpse into forbidden territory-women at war.
The History of Rain by Stephens Gerard Malone
Literary historical fiction set in a war-torn Europe and glamourous Old Hollywood, following a lonely landscape gardener, from author of Big Town and I Still Have a Suitcase in Berlin.
Connection at Newcombe by Kayt Burgess
Post-World War I, the small town of Newcombe, Ontario, is in danger of dying. Remote and with fewer than 200 inhabitants, its future is spelled out: slow, drawn-out, painful death as a community. A chance meeting between Francis Barrett, an employee of the Canadian National Railway (CNR), and Cal Bannatyne, a major on his way home from the front, leads to an opportunity: getting a railway station to Newcombe, linking it to the rest of Canada, and perhaps keeping it from dying.
Heard Amid the Guns by Jacqueline Larson Carmichael
A rich and varied tapestry of the First World War, highlighting the personal stories of over 150 men and women from across North America who served overseas.
Somewhere in Flanders: Letters from the Front by Heather McBriarty
Heather McBriarty’s novel, Somewhere in Flanders: Letters from the Front, is a remarkable true telling of what is what like in the trenches during the First World War. It is also a poignant love story.
The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe
Reading a novel by Lesley Cynthia Crewe is like covering yourself in an old quilt. You know you can settle in and get cozy, wrap yourself in the words and let the characters and their memories keep you company as … Continue reading
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.
Best New Brunswick Reads of 2018
Looking back on all the books I reviewed in 2018, there were plenty of good ones that came out of New Brunswick.
Before I get to highlighting just a few of them, I would like to mention how unhappy I … Continue reading
The Crackie by Gary Collins
Newfoundland’s master storyteller Gary Collins returns with a novel written in his cogent style that blends together fiction and history into a uniquely readable book that anyone would enjoy. That may sound like a marketing line you might read on … Continue reading
A Family of Brothers: Soldiers of the 26th New Brunswick Battalion in the Great War by J. Brent Wilson
On the 100th anniversary of the end of hostilities in Europe, Goose Lane Editions has published a comprehensive volume of the history of the 26th New Brunswick Battalion. Over 250 pages of the battalion's history, from its formation in 1914 to returning home in 1918.
The Land’s Long Reach by Valerie Mills-Milde
This is the book that I was awaiting from Valerie Mills-Milde. I had to patiently wait two years from the time that her exceptional debut novel After Drowning (2016, Inanna Publications) was released. That book won a 2017 IPPY Silver … Continue reading
I Remain, Your Loving Son: Intimate Stories of Beaumont-Hamel by Frances Ennis (Editor), Bob Wakeham (Editor)
Inside these covers you will find deeply personal stories of Beaumont-Hamel, told by the soldiers themselves and their relatives back home, by their descendants, and by others who have found distinctive ways of bringing an intimate touch to what is sometimes described as the saddest day in Newfoundland and Labrador history.
A Boy From Botwood by Pte. A.W. Manuel
“Generals, colonels, majors, and captains have all written books about the First World War, but in the years that have since come and gone, I have never read or even heard of one that was written by a sergeant, a … Continue reading