Each week, Globe and Mail staffers and readers share what they’re reading now, whether it’s a hot new release or an old book they’re discovering for the first time. Tell me about a book you loved and we might publish your recommendation. Fill out this form, or send your book recommendation to Lara Pingue at lpingue@globeandmail.com
Fall books: 61 notable books to read now
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The Mezzanine, Nicholson Baker
My one and only exposure to “mindfulness training” was at a work event and involved staring intently at a single tinfoil-wrapped Hershey’s Chocolate Kiss. I checked out. For the similarly disaffected, I highly recommendThe Mezzanine, Nicholson Baker’s entertaining exercise in high-octane inwardness, or mindfulness for the easily distracted. The story follows a man on his lunch hour, in and around his office building as he thinks about Styrofoam cups, shoelaces, microwave ovens, magic markers, antiperspirants, Wittgenstein, rotisserie chickens and more. It’s a wild ride, mostly up and down escalators, which are a particular source of fascination for Baker. Readers are advised not to ignore the many, many footnotes. In this novel like no other, they may be the best part.
- Globe reader Farley Helfant, Toronto
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My Heart Will Heal, Nicole Martins Ferreira
Going through a breakup can be a lonely experience. Luckily, a new book by my friend, author Nicole Martins Ferreira, is a comfort. My Heart Will Heal: Breakup Poems for Broken Hearts is a collection of poetry that acts like a friend guiding you through the fallout. Whether you’re reeling from a recent break-up or reflecting on a romance long past, the poems offer a hand to hold. Each poem weaves together a past relationship, both in its actual and idealized form, posing questions that help readers learn to cherish the experience and let go of the hurt of the past.
-Globe reader Emily Farkas, Thornhill, Ont.
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Like an Iceberg, Jane George
Author Jane George spent a decade travelling to the north as a journalist, trying to learn and understand from the people she encountered there in the 1990s. Her captivating book, Like an Iceberg: Confessions of an Arctic Journalist, captures a period of change and challenge in Canada’s North, and she doesn’t sugarcoat any of it. George was not only fascinated by the north, but she was also in love with it and its people. I’d recommend this for anyone interested in the recent history of Nunavut.
-Globe reader Louise Caron, Hatley, Que.
Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told by Jeremy Atherton LinAmazon/Supplied
Deep House, Jeremy Atherton Lin
Is gay marriage just an expedient mechanism for gay Americans to secure full personhood for their non-American partners? In Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told, author Jeremy Atherton Lin poses that question to exhilarating effect. The book traces his years-long relationship with the love of his life, a Brit whom he meets in the mid-nineties, weaving together fraught stages of his partner’s under-the-radar life with him in San Francisco with accounts of the barriers long faced by homosexual Americans. Atherton Lin captures numerous soul-crushing moves by U.S. authorities to monitor, police and suppress gay sex. Against that, the author sets exquisitely raunchy paeans to gay lust and ardour – I couldn’t get enough. What a lovely, unadulterated celebration of all that triggers homophobes.
-Globe reader Viola Funk, Vancouver
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. VanceAmazon/Supplied
Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance
U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance’s 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy is a heartbreaking account of economic hardship in Appalachia, tracing the story of the grandparents who raised him after his mother failed him. This book is a love letter to those grandparents, not a tribute to the American working class. Given his economic history, Vance’s choice to run alongside Donald Trump, whose budget cuts leave so many vulnerable, seems baffling to me. Vance’s experiences of poverty must’ve fuelled his unbridled ambitions for great wealth and power, but he left “his people” to fend for themselves.
-Globe reader Johanna van Zanten, Kelowna, B.C.
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Elbows Up! edited by Elamin Abdelmahmoud
It has been an odd year to be a Canadian. No matter your positioning on the political spectrum, Donald Trump’s first-quarter promise of making Canada the 51st state likely inspired some thought about what, exactly, it means to be a citizen of the true north strong and free. Elbows Up!, a collection of essays mulling this very question, is a timely, thoughtful collection of work from some of the country’s brightest literary luminaries. It’s a thoughtful meditation on Canada’s perpetual – and, suddenly, urgent – identity crisis.
-Rebecca Tucker, Deputy Arts Editor, Globe and Mail
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Dianaworld: An Obsession, Edward White
Just when you thought you could barely stand to read another word about Diana Spencer, once Princess of Wales, in comes Dianaworld: An Obsession, a searing biography by Edward White. White presents a snapshot of a British aristocrat of the highest order, deeply and admittedly uneducated about anything political, but crafty and wise enough to work her way into celebrity status. Unlike all the tripe one reads about her, this deeply researched tale is done by an archivist of the highest calibre. There is so much in this book unlike anything ever written about this woman before. Prepare yourself for a surprising read.
-Globe reader Gail Benjafield, St. Catharines, Ont.
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The Empusium, Olga Tokarczuk
The Empusium is Olga Tokarczuk’s feminist homage to fellow Nobel laureate Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. Billed as a “health resort horror story,” the novel follows a young engineering student, Mieczyslaw Wojnicz, who is sent to a sanitarium in the early 20th century to treat his tuberculosis. Almost immediately, strange and disturbing things start happening. I picked up this book after falling in love with Tokarczuk’s brilliant literary mystery, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, and I was not disappointed; in fact, I may have enjoyed it even more. Part folk-horror story, part bildungsroman and complete with a satisfying plot twist, The Empusium deftly blends philosophy with supernatural elements while exploring themes around gender identity, illness and the very nature of reality.
-Globe reporter Alexandra Posadzki
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We Were the Salt of the Sea, Roxanne Bouchard
I was delighted to discover We Were the Salt of the Sea by Québécois writer Roxanne Bouchard (translated to English by David Warriner). This book is ostensibly a whodunit, but it’s so much more. It tells the story of Catherine Day, who leaves Montreal for a coastal Gaspé village in search of her birth mother. Within days of her arrival, a woman’s body turns up in a Gaspé fisherman’s net. Enter an SQ detective, also from Montreal, also in search of something. As the mystery unfolds, we’re treated to their stories, plus the wonderfully quirky local characters who grudgingly enlighten the two “tourists” about the dead woman and pass on their vivid love of the sea.
-Globe reader Kathryn Woodward, Vancouver
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The Lotus Eaters, Tatjana Soli
I first read The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli after meeting the author at a dinner party, and the book has stuck with me for a long time. It tells the story of a young American photographer determined to show the world a Vietnam at war through her photographs. She finds herself in a love triangle with two men, one a famous American war photographer and the other a former Vietnamese soldier. The book explores what it means to bear witness to war and the juxtaposition of luscious descriptions and horrific actions, although jarring, makes for a truly fascinating read.
-Globe reader Marie Berard, Toronto
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How I Lost My Hair Raising Teenage Girls, Andrew McKinney
Having raised teenage girls myself, I thought the memoir How I Lost My Hair Raising Teenage Girls by Andrew McKinney would be a good summer read, and it certainly was. My girls are adults now, but this hilarious story brought back memories of the teenage years; I especially liked the summary of lessons learned at the end. The escapades of his two daughters and older son keep Andrew and his wife off balance, and I enjoyed the scenic descriptions during their chaotic trip to B.C. and Alberta. The way they handle a critical decision involving their most rebellious daughter, Jackie, surprised and delighted me. This book provides a road map and hope for all parents. I wish there was a sequel.
-Globe reader Helen Collins, Brampton, Ont.
Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The LacunaAmazon/Supplied
La Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
Although Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Lacuna is nearly 16 years old, it feels newly relevant in 2025. Set in the United States and Mexico and spanning the 1920s to postwar 1950s, it tells the story of a boy born in the U.S. to an American father and a Mexican mother, who was mainly raised in Mexico. His return to the U.S. during the Second World War offers a unique perspective on how propaganda fuels both a sense of national unity and, later, a postwar fear. Reading about the rise of the Cold War that brought a new wave of deportations targeting alleged Communists and political dissidents while foreign workers were being deported in California amid riots was an eerie reminder that history repeats itself. This is an entertaining novel, but it also offers a timely lesson. To quote the book itself: “You force people to stop asking questions, and before you know it they have auctioned off the question mark, or sold it for scrap. No boldness. No good ideas for fixing what’s broken in the land. Because if you happen to mention it’s broken, you are automatically disqualified.”
-Globe reader Lana Durst, Scarborough, Ont.
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Tiaris: When the Oceans Kissed, D.M. Buehler
D. M. Buehler’s debut novel Tiaris: When the Oceans Kissed is a deeply compelling time-slip adventure. It follows the story of Canadian teen Tiaris, who moves to Panama for her mother’s sabbatical, only to be transported back in time to when the Panama Canal was being built. To find her way home, she must navigate racism, gender expectations and the dangers of a world very different from her own. With her relatable frustrations, sensitive observations and evolving perspective, Tiaris offers readers – both young and adult – the gift of hope. I couldn’t put the book down, eager to learn more about the era, the setting and whether Tiaris would make it back home. This gripping book reminded me of Where the Crawdads Sing. It has real cinematic potential: lush, immersive landscapes, a deeply personal drama set against a visually striking world and the fascinating historical backdrop of the Panama Canal’s construction.
-Globe reader Alicia Laumann, Collingwood, Ont.
Tell us about a book you love
What are you reading now? Is it a hot new release or an old classic you're discovering for the first time? Share all about your latest literary obsession below.