Canada Day Reading Recommendations
Bookmark the day with these Canadian book titles from two of our coaches
Books shape the stories we help others tell. In this Canada Day special, Book Coaches Canada brings you six Canadian titles that have inspired two of our coaches.
It’s the annual Top 3 Book Picks listing compiled by Dinah Laprairie in her Substack publication The Book Case, where she invites book coaching colleagues to share their favourite books. Today, on the eve of our national holiday, our eyes are on Canadian books.
Dinah is joined here by Nicole Bross, and we think you’ll agree there’s something for every reader here. Between them, their Top 3 book picks span genres and taste. In this list are contemporary stories, historical, and speculative. You’ll find settings rooted in Canadian geography and history as well as explorations of what it means to leave and return home.
Have a look, then let us know what Canadian titles you’ll be reading this summer!
—Book Coaches Canada
PS. If you need more titles for your nightstand, check out last year’s list — there were thirty books mentioned!
🍁Our Top 3 Canadian Book Picks
Nicole’s Top 3 Book Picks
Nicole Bross
Nicole is an ADHD-informed coach for genre fiction writers who struggle to finish their books so they can achieve their dream of authorship.
Coaching specialty: Adult and YA genre fiction | 🌐 Visit Nicole’s website
1️⃣ The Cure for Drowning, by Loghan Paylor
The winner of the CBC Reads competition this year, The Cure for Drowning is set in WWII-era Canada and England. The two queer protagonists caught in a complicated love triangle pulled me in from the first page and the story never flinches at the realities of war, or what it was like to be LGBTQ+ 80 years ago. Not a lot of books can bring me to tears, but this one did.
🔗 Booksellers.ca | Bookshop | Indigo | Find it in a library
2️⃣ Seasons of Glass and Iron, by Amal El-Mohtar
This collection of speculative short stories is so wildly creative I found myself repeatedly thinking, “Where do ideas like this COME FROM?” I love short story collections because they offer the perfect bite-sized reads for the end of a long day, and this is one I can absolutely see myself picking up again for a re-read of my favourites.
🔗 Booksellers.ca | Bookshop | Indigo | Find it in a library
3️⃣ The Bewitching, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Two things that will always make me pick up a book to read: 1. Witches; 2. Multi-timeline POVs. The Bewitching has both, on top of spooky vibes in spades and a mystery that three generations of women strive to solve. I couldn’t put it down!
🔗 Booksellers.ca | Bookshop | Indigo | Find it in a library
🍁 Find out more about Nicole Bross at https://manuscriptalchemy.com. You can also view Nicole’s profile on our Book Coaches Canada page.
Dinah’s Top 3 Book Picks
Dinah Laprairie
Dinah helps people with deep experience transform what they know into books that matter – books that readers understand, trust, and use.
Coaching specialty: Nonfiction & memoir with a message | 🌐 www.dinahlaprairie.com
1️⃣ The Haunting of Modesto O’Brien, by Brit Griffin
Monsters, mining, memory, and magic. Modesto O’Brien arrives in Cobalt, Ontario during the silver rush of the early 1900s. The Northern landscape is already ravaged by desperate prospectors, and some of them are set on revenge, not to mention something decidedly unhuman. Part Western fun, part horror, part commentary on the pillaging of the landscape.
🔗 Booksellers.ca | Publisher | Indigo | Find it in a library
2️⃣ Like Water for Weary Souls, by Liisa Kovala
I call the author a friend and colleague (she’s my co-host of Rekindle Creativity Women’s Writing Retreats), so call me biased, but my book club loved Liisa’s historical murder mystery novel set within the Finnish-Canadian community of Sudbury, Ontario. It explores the push and pull of family ties in first-generation Canadians and how powerful—and dangerous—promises can be when we’re trying to get ahead.
🔗 Amazon | Bookshop | Kobo | Find it in a library
3️⃣ A New Season, by Terry Fallis
While I usually turn to Terry Fallis’ books for his humour, this one has stayed with me for its sentimentality and hopefulness. Jack, newly navigating the loss of his wife, leaves behind his ball-hockey team in Toronto and heads to Paris. It’s about midlife friendship, love, and what we need as we age, and I loved hearing about it from a modern male perspective.
🔗 Booksellers.ca | Amazon | Indigo | Find it in a library
🍁 Find out more about Dinah Laprairie at www.dinahlaprairie.com. You’ll also find her coach listing on the Book Coaches Canada Substack page.
📍Your turn
What Canadian book are you reading right now? Leave a comment and add to the book recommendations!
Only 1 day left to catch the replays!
Tomorrow is the last day you can catch the replays from the Book Coaches Canada Write On summit that took place on May 30-31. Access ends tomorrow, but there’s still time to catch the sessions in the final hours. ➡️ Click here to log in.
In case you missed it:
Have a look at the latest articles from Book Coaches Canada:
Just added some new holds to my library account- thanks!
P. S. Last year, like you I enjoyed Liisa Kovala's Like Water for Weary Souls. I also read Kim Fahner's The Donoghue Girl, also set in Sudbury, Ontario. Both books are historical and richly evocative. I learned a lot about Sudbury's past, and one day I hope to get there.