By its very nature, reading embodies two things so many mothers could use more of: downtime and connection. That’s why we’ve created a list of some of our favourite forthcoming and recently released books by Canadian authors. From wildly absorbing novels to tender, poignant poetry, to nonfiction that evokes reflection and joyous, kindred solidarity, these are reads that circle and explore ideas of mothering and motherhood for people who know you never stop growing up: there are always new things to learn, and perspectives to share.
14 Mother’s Day Book Recs
Coming into Being: Mothers on Finding and Realizing Feminism, edited by Andrea O’Reilly, published by Demeter Press, 2023.
Coming into Being: Mothers on Finding and Realizing Feminism explores how becoming and being a mother can be shaped by—and interconnected with—how mothers realize feminism and/or become feminists. For many women and mothers, the pieces included in this anthology—which range from personal essays to academic work, to creative nonfiction, poetry, art, and interviews—marks a seismic and long-awaited recognition of how mothering is not at odds with feminism, but one of the most powerful extensions of it. The recognition and solidarity we found in this book were not only affirming but perspective-shattering, especially during this time in history, where the ideas of mothering and motherhood have been co-opted as an extension of oppressive values. With brilliance and heart, Dr. O'Reilly (and her book) afford all mothers (“‘mother’ [referring] to any individual who engages in motherwork; it is not limited to cis-gender women'') a synergetic vantage point from which to find solidarity and strength.
Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest by Ariel Gordon, forthcoming with Wolsak & Wynn, June 4, 2024.
Both personal and entertaining, Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest is the highly anticipated second book of a trilogy and shows Gordon at her best: interweaving the personal with the easily-overlooked local and natural and local world around her, and passing on her contagious delight for the world at—and under—our feet.
Mothering and motherhood are recurring themes in Gordon’s work. The essay, "Mushrooming" in particular is about Gordon'’s decision to add pets to their household after choosing to have only one child. It's about living with a depressed cat and then a depressed teenager, about suddenly being a household with three cats, about adapting to change. Gordon’s essays are fascinating and offers a refreshingly realistic perspective on motherhood and mothering: one that’s far from perfect, but founded in love.
Sunset Lake Resort by Joanne Jackson, forthcoming with Stonehouse Publishing June 1, 2024.
Sunset Lake Resort is the captivating new novel from Crime Writers of Canada winner, Joanne Jackson. Full of thrilling twists, exciting reveals, and gorgeously drawn characters, Sunset Lake Resort tells the story of Ruby whose father passes away but fails to leave her the millions some expected—particularly Steve, her husband of 35 years, who moves out on learning the news. Alone, but in control of her own affairs for the first time in her life, Ruby is torn between panic and relief. When she investigates the remote beach cabin her father had left her instead of his estate, she discovers a dilapidated beach resort in a remote location, seemingly untouched since its former owner, Cecelia Johansen, died under mysterious circumstances. Despite the condition of the property and rumours it is haunted, Ruby decides to move to Sunset Lake Resort, determined to find out why her father bought it, and why he left it to her.
What we particularly love about this story is how it champions the lives of women who are passed middle age, positioning them as the fascinating, vital people they are.
Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas by Gloria Blizzard, forthcoming with Dundurn Press, June 4, 2024.
In this powerful and deeply personal collection, award-winning poet, writer, and song-writer, Gloria Blizzard uses traditional narrative essays, hybrid structures, and the tools of poetry to negotiate the complexities of culture, geography, and language in an international diasporic quest.
The word mother appears in the book 133 times. This speaks to the importance of motherhood’s glorious imperfections. As we cross generations and eras, we attempt and sometimes succeed to engender the growth of another being—a child, an elder, a stranger, a culture—while striving to stand upright. Black Cake, Turtle Soup is a moving and beautiful testament to wayfinding and the complexities and marvels of mothering.
You Break It You Buy It by Lynn Tait, published by Guernica Editions, 2023.
With humour and aplomb, Lynn speaks up with insight and tenderness from a distinctly feminist perspective about our personal and collective failings in her debut poetry collection, You Break It You Buy It. Whether they address narcissistic mothers, racism, climate change, or her son's accidental death from a fentanyl overdose, Tait’s poems resound as she defies a generational standard of silence. Since its release last fall, readers from all over the country have been responding to Lynn's singular voice with passionate enthusiasm, showing that generational divides are not as strong as we think and that our capacity to come together to call out injustice can unite us.
The effect is absorbing and resounds with a sonic call to empathy. Now more than ever, we need this message.
The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards by Jessica Waite, forthcoming with Simon & Schuster, July 30, 2024.
When her husband dies, Jessica Waite finds out he wasn’t exactly who she thought he was. Affairs, addictions, debt, and other betrayals emerge as Waite tries to find her bearings in her new life as a widow and single parent, and reconcile the love she feels for her husband with the pain he continues to inflict in the wake of his sudden passing.
What we love about this book is how lyrical and thrilling it is—thrilling in the sense Waite lays bare how she feels with a heady mix of unflinching rage and tenderness. She writes the book and tells this story—her story, which she has every right to tell—in bold, beautiful technicolour. The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards is a gripping and stunning example of a woman who is not silenced by taboo or the outdated and ultimately, harmful, notion that mothers have to sacrifice their voices and selfhood. This book is a testament to a powerful legacy of love and truth, as messy and complicated as it is.
Garden Inventories: Reflections on Land, Place and Belonging by Mariam Pirbhai, published by Wolsak & Wynn, 2023.
Not all mothers mother people. Mothering can take many forms. In Garden Inventories: Reflections on Land, Place and Belonging, Mariam Pirbhai turns a nurturing eye to the land, looking carefully at the pocket of earth she has called home in Southern Ontario for the past seventeen years. She asks how long it takes to be rooted to a place? And what does that truly mean? Seeing the landscape around her with the layered experience of a childhood spent wandering the world, Pirbhai shares her efforts to create a garden and understand her new home while encouraging others to do reconsider the land on which they live, and how they treat it. The result is a delightful collection of essays that invites readers to decolonize their mindset and see the beautiful complexity of the land around us all in a new way.
Joe Pete by Ian McCulloch, published by Latitude 46, 2023.
Joe Pete tells the story of a young girl, Alison, nicknamed “Joe Pete” because as a child, when her parents were employed at a lumber camp, she used to play in a field of Joe Pye weeds. Much to her mother’s dismay, the nickname spread through the camp and the stuck.
This is a novel of gorgeously sticky stories that lull even as they awaken. When Joe Pete’s father falls through the ice and is never recovered, she lives for and in stories, plumbing their depths for meaning. Weaving them around herself for strength and comfort. There are the stories of her relatives who fought and were maimed in “The Great War.” Of parents who fled to the bush to spare their children the horror of residential schools. Of perseverance and loss and language and voice and purpose; of family and love.
Skater Girl: An Archaelogy of Self by Robin Pacific, published by Guernica Editions, 2024.
Skater Girl, which is artist and activist Robin Pacific’s debut book at 77 years old, traces themes of art, feminism, aging, loss and regret, bringing to brilliant light the ecstatic joy and fragility of our lives. With wisdom, cheek, and defiance, Robin’s essays explore her experiences through spiritual seeking, political activism, mental breakdowns, and breakthroughs. It's a rally against ageism and shows an older woman living authetically and against myopic stereotypes, and thriving in all her multitudes. We love Robin’s equally frank and lyrical writing, and her electric and contagious shit-disturbing attitude.
The New Mascunlity: A Roadmap for a 21st Century Definition of Manhood by Alex Manley, published by ECW Press, 2023.
The New Masculinity : A Roadmap for a 21st-Century Definition of Manhood by AskMen Senior Editor, Alex Manley, is an absorbing and sophisticated exploration of how masculinity got to where it is today, and a prescription of where it could go to stay relevant, and most importantly, healthy. Manley deftly picks their way through a minefield of issues, from toxic masculinity to violence to enjoying anal sex and penetration to men’s mental health, effectively making one question what it really means to be masculine. There are so many crucial insights in this timely book, which in this era, we deem essential reading not just for mothers of boys, or for men, but for everyone. The New Masculinity is singular and stunning for the way it sees men and supports them; how it acknowledges their fear and frustration. It’s a book that provides a way out. A way forward.
If You Lie Down In a Field, She Will Find You There by Colleen Brown, published by Radiant Press, 2023.
If you lie down in a field, she will find you there by Colleen Brown is a stunning and shattering memoir of Brown's mother's life, which had been brutally distorted by the spectacle of her murder by a serial killer. It’s a book that, through Colleen’s struggle to piece together her mother’s life, calls out the dehumanizing effects of our society’s true crime obsession, as well as the difficulties of making sense of someone's humanity through the lens of the criminal justice system. Most of all, this book is a beautiful tribute to love and Colleen’s mother, through the stories of her children.
Becoming a Matriarch by Helen Knott, published by Penguin Random House, 2023.
Becoming a Matriarch by Helen Knott details Helen’s story as she transitions into be a matriarch in her family, after the passing of her grandmother and mother. The book is replete with tenderness and wisdom, and moments of sonic lyricism. “Papa’s blue eyes matched the colour of the mountain waters he’d never see again. They were the kind of blue that made you believe in God and other wholesome things.” This is a gorgeous and powerful story of someone coming into themselves—into womanhood with all the frustrations and fears that comes with being a woman, and an Indigenous woman, specifically.
Medium by Johanna Skibsrub published by Book*hug Press, 2024.
Medium by Johanna Skibsrud is a sweeping and powerful exploration of the lives of women who have shaped history in their roles as mediums—and mediums has a broad meaning. Mediums for life, knowledge, science, spirituality: a medium can be a conduit to a great many things but also, the medium is a thing itself—not merely a means to an end. We love the way the book is structured: with a brief introduction to the woman—just a paragraph—and then the poem follows. Skibsrud’s writing is throaty, beautiful and sonic.
Smoke by Nicola Winstanley, published by Wolsak & Wynn, 2024.
Smoke is children’s author Nicola Winstanley’s first adult work, an unforgettable collection of short stories that is both searing and thought-provoking. Smoke features a cast of characters across Canada and New Zealand, showing us glimpses into their lives of loss and heartbreak. In these eleven linked stories, Winstanley takes a hard look at intergenerational trauma and their impact on characters from multiple points of view. Guilt, self-reflection, compassion, forgiveness, and familyare central themes in this collection of stories that help us understand the degree of responsibility we hold toward the events that happen to us in life.