BOOKLOVES

Content warnings: Child sexual abuse A sensitive, utterly riveting autobiography about a life of countless reinventions In Karmic Math, Tobias Maxwell deftly explores sexual abuse, addiction, escaping working-class Ontario, and reconciling with sexuality, gender, spirituality, and artistic callings. “The name on my birth certificate is Joseph Denis Rhéal Allaire. That’s probably the most difficult admission […]

A moving and reflective literary novel about atonement, reconciliation, and one woman grappling with her dark past Donna has carried the shame of her past like Sisyphus and his boulder: perpetually and futilely. The actions of her youth have haunted her, the weight of her guilt slowly crushing her. But on Halloween night 1991, twelve […]

The distraction is a dropped tray. Teacups shatter on the marble, every guard in the corridor rushes to help, and a princess who has never once walked anywhere unwatched darts across the hall into the crown prince’s rooms. Within the hour Layla of Sawan is in a hooded cloak in the Dakarian capital, stealing half […]

The first garment of the day is an infant’s gown the colour of marsh marigolds, lace spotted with blood. The woman kneeling in the River Bàsail works the stains out against the stones and sings a lullaby she cannot stop singing, because the curse pulls the song out of her throat. Elsewhere in the kingdom […]

Fresh starts become false ones in this thoughtful meditation on addiction, illness, and vulnerability in 21st-century America. In one sense, The Seventh City of Refuge arrives as a remix of author John Whittier Treat’s debut novel, Lambda Prize finalist The Rise and Fall of the Yellow House. Both focus on a mismatched central couple (thirty-something […]

A brightly glowing picture book about community and the magic of nature Hildi is watching snow fall on her beloved beachfront property off the coast of Maine with her dog Finn. The scene is magical and beautiful all on its own, but soon, something will arrive that goes far beyond her understanding of the magic […]

An energetic and fresh installment about a battle-hardened team geared to stop a sentient disease turning people into monsters Shifting from Ashe and his Brigands to a new set of people fighting on an entirely different front, The New Players moves beyond events in the previous two books of the Players of the Game series.  […]