Ms. Atwood is, of course, a Canadian literary treasure with books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Her memoir is, predictably, fascinating with her droll sense of humour. First, there is her somewhat unconventional childhood with summers spent in remote northern bush country with her entomologist father and resourceful mother. Second, key moments in her life are linked to books, like writing the Handmaids Tale in 1980s Berlin. And finally, the important people in her life are acknowledged, especially Graeme Gibson. Overall, an insightful and often very funny memoir from an imaginative and thoughtful author. Highly recommended.
Category: Best of 2025
What We Can Know – Ian McEwan
This is one of McEwan’s best books, one that should be read slowly to savour his exceptional writing. In 2014, an acclaimed poet reads a new poem dedicated to his wife on her birthday, at a dinner party in England. But the poem is never published and so is lost. Over the next 100 years, the world undergoes a collapse of civilization with cataclysmic climate change exacerbated by nuclear wars. So in 2119, an academic in a Humanities Department discovers an astonishing clue in surviving archives. Thus a literary thriller about life and love provides profound insight into human nature.
Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil – V.E. Schwab
Ms. Schwab (author of the fantastic The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue) has created an epic story of three women vampires that unfolds over 500 years! Of course, there is graphic blood lust and killing, but also interesting group dynamics, learned restraint, and conflicted love. Thus there is both monstrosity and humanity; a haunting and worthwhile story about cruelty, grace, jealousy and yes, immortality. Finally, this story of three vampires in contemporary Boston evolves into a pursuit thriller. Truly, a must-read book that I could not put down, so highly recommended.
The City And Its Uncertain Walls – Haruki Murakami
Full disclosure: I have a conflicted response to Murakami’s writing, only loving some books like the brilliant 1Q84. Happily, this new book definitely belongs in the great must-read category. This review is necessarily enigmatic because of magic realism content. Can different worlds like a walled-in town with unicorns co-exist with the natural world? Can a shadow and a real person be separated and trade roles? Overall, the story is a fantastical quest, and an ode to love, loss and yearning. And yes, there are dreams and books and libraries!
A Truce That Is Not Peace – Miriam Toews
This exceptional book is hard to describe – a stream-of-consciousness memoir, perhaps, featuring electrifying honesty. There are questions like why does she write? There are letters to a silent sister. And there is profound melancholy when acknowledging the suicides of her father and sister (Page 31: “I was crazy with grief, guilt and dread”). But there are very funny excerpts about a European trip in 1988, and hilarious observations about the current domestic life in her multi-generational Toronto home. Bottom line- this is a powerful story that is both heart wrenching and joyful, in other words, Ms. Toews at her best.
Pick A Colour – Souvankham Thammavongsa
Remarkably, this first novel has been Giller short-listed. Importantly, there is much left unsaid in this accounting of a single day in a Nail Salon in an unnamed city. The three manicurists speak an unnamed language that allows them to talk and gossip freely about their clients. The owner Ning is an self-contained observer, so there is a seductive intimacy to common events. Overall, masterful writing as one might anticipate from a former Giller winner for short stories (How To Pronounce Knife).
Katabasis – R.F. Kuang
Simply put, this is a fantastical story, one of Ms. Kuang’s best. Alice and Peter are graduate students in the Department of Analytic Magick at Cambridge. When their supervisor dies, they descend into Hell to retrieve his soul from the Underworld. What could go wrong? There are outstanding elements in this epic story-telling. First, the psychology of Alice and Peer as individuals is fascinating, and their relationship together largely based on competition and rivalry. And second, the description of the eight levels of Hell is brilliant with some parallels to academia (the first court, pride, is an academic library). As the courts become more sinister and dangerous, there is even an Escher trap, the Penrose Stairs. And finally, there are numerous philosophical discussions about principles like the Liar Paradox, and a brilliant Orpheus joke on page 536! This is a creative book about ideas, learning and thinking, an absolute must read.
My Friends – Fredrik Backman
Simply put, Backman has produced a work of exceptional storytelling. First, there is a famous painting that shows three friends at the end of a pier, a work of art that illustrates friendship and laughter. And 25 years later, a 17-year-old young woman Louisa learns the backstory during a trip with Ted, one of the friends on the pier. The magic reality of relationships is paramount, especially the reckless exuberance of 4 young 14-15-year-olds. Full disclosure: the unfolding story cannot be read without tears; there is fear and profound sadness with cruelty. But there is also great love, both explicit and unspoken. Backman’s prose is evocative and poignant, so the importance of the translator, Neil Smith, must be acknowledged and celebrated. One of my best reads this year – highly recommended.
In Winter I Get Up At Night – Jane Urquhart
Ms. Urquhart is a Canadian literary treasure and this book is one of her best. In the 1920s, the McConnell family travels from Ontario to the Northern Great Plains (aka Saskatchewan). Emer is a young girl whose life is transformed by a catastrophic injury and slow hospital convalescence separated from her family. What follows are transcendent images and memories revealed in a looping non-linear narrative, in other words, the mind of a child with confused imaginations and an adult’s poignant nostalgia. Emer has a profound and moving life – a must read book in my opinion.
What David Read 