20 Canadian books to get your mom on Mother's Day 2023
In need of a gift for Mother's Day? From thrillers to cookbooks to romance and more — here are 20 Canadian books to give to the maternal figure in your life.
Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier
Things We Do in the Dark is a thriller by Jennifer Hillier. When Paris Peralta is arrested in her bathroom covered in blood with her celebrity husband dead in the bathtub, she knows she will be charged with murder. Twenty-five years earlier, Ruby Reyes was convicted of a similar murder in a trial that riveted Canada in the early 1990s. When Reyes is unexpectedly released from prison, she threatens to expose all of Paris's secrets and Paris must confront the dark past she left behind.
Jennifer Hillier is the author of several psychological thrillers, including Wonderland, Creep, Freak, The Butcher, and Little Secrets. She lives in Toronto.
A History of Burning by Janika Oza
A novel that spans India, Uganda, England and Canada, A History of Burning is about four generations, three sisters and one impossible choice that reverberates across generations of a family.
Janika Oza is a writer, educator and graduate student based in Toronto. She won the 2019 Malahat Review Open Season Award in fiction for her short story Exile, the 2020 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Award and the 2022 O. Henry Award. A History of Burning is her first novel.
Don't Worry, Just Cook by Bonnie Stern & Anna Rupert
Don't Worry, Just Cook is a cookbook of comforting family recipes written by mother-daughter duo Bonnie Stern and Anna Rupert. Stern and Rupert infuse this book with the encouraging and educational love of food they both share with one another. This book includes simple recipes for every meal – soups, starters, vegetarian options and desserts, as well as ways to modify each dish to your taste.
Bonnie Stern is a culinary teacher and author of several cookbooks, including Bonnie Stern's Essentials of Home Cooking. She is also the founder of the Bonnie Stern School of Cooking in Toronto, which she ran from 1973 to 2011.
Anna Rupert is a speech-language pathologist, health and social care manager, researcher and consultant in Toronto. Don't Worry, Just Cook is her first book.
Coronation Year by Jennifer Robson
Coronation Year is a historical fiction novel inspired by Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. Excitement builds for the residents at the Blue Lion Hotel, where the Queen is set to drive by in a carriage. Edie, the owner of the hotel, is hoping the festivities will bring in a crowd that saves her from financial ruin. Stella Donati is a Holocaust survivor and photographer looking for a fresh start. James Geddes finally found a home in the Blue Lion after facing racial discrimination; if Edie can make enough money to keep the doors open, he could see a future here. When someone makes threats against Coronation Day the residents of the Blue Lion Hotel take it upon themselves to find out who is behind them or risk losing the security and peace this day promises to usher in.
Jennifer Robson is a Toronto-based historical fiction writer. Her books include Goodnight From London, Moonlight Over Paris, After the War is Over, Somewhere in France and Fall of Poppies.
Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron
In Accidentally Engaged, Reena Manji refuses to be attracted to the man her parents have set her up with — the charming and attractive Nadim. But when Reena gets the opportunity to enter a cooking competition, she will do anything to win — including pretending to be engaged to Nadim.
Farah Heron is a writer from Toronto. She is also the author of the romantic comedy The Chai Factor and YA novel Tahira in Bloom.
Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
Hotline is a story about the sacrifices and strength of an immigrant mother. When Muna Heddad and her son moved to Montreal in 1986, her goal was to find a job quickly so that she could earn money and raise her family. In the new country, the only work Muna could find is at a weight-loss center as a hotline operator, where she takes calls from different people who share stories about their personal lives. Even as her daily life in Canada is filled with invisible barriers at every turn, Muna has access to her clients' deepest secrets at work.
Hotline was championed by bhangra dancer and educator Gurdeep Pandher on Canada Reads 2023.
Dimitri Nasrallah is an editor and writer from Montreal. He is also the author of the novels The Bleeds, Niko and Blackbodying.
A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny
A World of Curiosities is Louise Penny's 18th book in the Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series, which takes place in a warm, eccentric, tight-knit community known as Three Pines. In A World of Curiosities, Gamache gets caught up in a story involving two young siblings who have appeared in the village. The pair were young when their troubled mother was murdered, leaving them damaged. Gamache must uncover why they have arrived in town — before it's too late.
Louise Penny, a former CBC broadcaster and journalist, is the author of the Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries. Her bestselling mysteries include Still Life, Bury Your Dead, A Trick of the Light and Glass Houses. In 2013, Penny was named to the Order of Canada.
The Porcelain Moon by Janie Chang
The Porcelain Moon is set in the final days of the First World War in France. The book is about a young Chinese woman named Pauline who runs away from an arranged marriage, and meets a French woman named Camille who is escaping from an abusive marriage. The two women become friends when Pauline stays with Camille. However, they must make a terrible decision that will bind them together forever when their perilous situation escalates.
Janie Chang is a B.C.-based historical fiction writer. She is also the author of the novels Three Souls and Dragon Springs Road.
Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
Bad Cree is an Indigenous horror-infused novel about a young woman named Mackenzie who is haunted by nightmares and the guilt of her sister Sabrina's untimely death. When a murder of crows begins to follow her and she starts to receive threatening text messages from someone claiming to be her dead sister, Mackenzie escapes to her hometown in Alberta. There, she is confronted by her family's grief and violent legacy and has to reconcile with the land and her community.
Jessica Johns is a Vancouver-based writer, visual artist and member of Sucker Creek First Nation in Treaty 8 Territory in northern Alberta. Johns won the 2020 Writers' Trust Journey Prize for the short story Bad Cree, which evolved into the novel of the same name.
Scar Tissue by Sara Danièle Michaud, translated by Katia Grubisic
Scar Tissue explores motherhood from a personal and universal point of view. Both organic and constructed, mothers are created by the existence of their children and then simultaneously expanded and abbreviated by maternity as a social category.
Sara Danièle Michaud is a writer and philosopher. Her research and publications focus on the intersection of philosophy and literature. She teaches at the Cégep de Saint-Laurent. Scar Tissue is her first book to be translated into English.
Katia Grubisic is a writer, editor and translator. Her translation of Brothers by David Clerson was a finalist for the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award for French-to-English translation.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Sea of Tranquility is about a time traveller's determination not to alter the course of history and the many characters they encounter along the way. From a British exile on the West coast of Canada in the early 1900s, to the author of a bestselling author on a book tour during a pandemic outbreak, to a resident of a moon colony almost 300 years in the future; this novel presents a curious mystery which spans generations.
Emily St. John Mandel is a Canadian author currently based in New York and Los Angeles. Her other novels include The Glass Hotel, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and selected by President Barack Obama as a favourite book of 2020, and Station Eleven, which was championed by actor Michael Greyeyes on Canada Reads 2023.
tawâw by Shane M. Chartrand, with Jennifer Cockrall-King
tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine is both a cookbook and personal reflections on the life and lineage of Chef Shane M. Chartrand. Exploring his childhood spent in Central Alberta, he combines his own familial journey having been born to Cree parents and raised by a Métis father and Mi'kmaw-Irish mother. Further drawing on the knowledge of other community members as well, tawâw provides cultural insights and culinary inspiration.
Chartrand is an executive chef and has appeared on Iron Chef Canada and Chopped Canada. tawâw is his first cookbook. He lives in Edmonton.
Jennifer Cockrall-King is a food writer based in Edmonton. She is also the author of Food and the City.
Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner
Bloomsbury Girls tells the story of Vivien Lowry, Grace Perkins and Evie Stone — three women with a complex web of relationships, goals and dreams — as they interact with famous literary figures. The novel is set in the 1950s world of publishing and the women work in an old-fashioned bookstore, run by men, called Bloomsbury Books. As they juggle their lives, the women work toward a future that is richer and more rewarding than anything society will allow.
Natalie Jenner is the author of The Jane Austen Society, which was the 2020 Goodreads Choice Award runner-up for historical fiction. Jenner is a former lawyer and independent bookshop owner. She was born in England and now lives in Oakville, Ont.
Junie by Chelene Knight
Junie is a historical fiction novel is about a young girl named Junie who lives in 1930s Hogan's Alley, a Black immigrant community located in Vancouver's East End. She is a creative, observant child who moves to the alley with her mother, Maddie: a jazz singer with a growing alcohol dependency. As Junie reaches adulthood, exploring her artistic talents and burgeoning sexuality, her mother sinks further into the bottle while the thriving neighbourhood begins to change. The story explores the complexity of mother-daughter relationships and the vitality of Hogan's Alley.
Junie is currently at the pre-development stage to be adapted into a TV series.
Chelene Knight is the author of the poetry collection Braided Skin the memoir Dear Current Occupant. She is the founder of Breathing Space Creative literary studio and currently lives in Vancouver.
Garden Physic by Sylvia Legris
Garden Physic is a collection of poetry that is a guide to a multitude of plants, their medicinal properties and their cultural associations through the ages. It also includes a playful look at the challenges of tending a backyard plot in a climate of cool summers and cold winters.
Sylvia Legris is a Saskatoon poet and author originally from Winnipeg. She has published several volumes of poetry, including The Hideous Hidden and Nerve Squall, which won the 2006 Griffin Poetry Prize and Pat Lowther Award.
LISTEN | Sylvia Legris about her poetry collection Garden Physic:
Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune
Meet Me at the Lake is about a woman named Fern Brookbanks who is reunited with a former lover, Will Baxter, who she had a chance encounter with in her early twenties. Now in her thirties, Will suddenly comes back, and he seems nothing like the young man that she had met before — Fern must uncover what he is hiding.
Carley Fortune is a journalist who's worked as an editor for Refinery29, The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine and Toronto Life. She lives in Toronto, and is also the author of Every Summer After.
Hold My Girl by Charlene Carr
Hold My Girl is a dual narrative novel about two women, Katherine and Tess, whose eggs are switched during IVF. It explores the complexities of love, motherhood and racial identity.
Charlene Carr is a Toronto-raised writer and author based in Nova Scotia whose work explores truth in fiction. She is the author of several independently published novels and novellas.
In the Belly of the Congo by Blaise Ndala
In the Belly of the Congo is a novel about Nyota Kwete, a young woman set to attend university in Brussels when her father asks her to uncover the mystery behind her grandmother's disappearance. Kwete's grandmother is Princess Tshala Nyota, the daughter of King Kena Kwete III of the Kuba people in Congo. She disappeared decades ago after being forced to perform at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels as a display of the Belgium royal palace's power. In the Belly of the Congo tells the Congolese princess's story leading up to her disappearance. Decades later, her granddaughter traverses the same streets she did, crossing paths with a Belgian scholar who helps her uncover her family's secret history.
Blaise Ndala is the Ottawa-based Congolese Canadian author of the novels J'irai danser sur la tombe de Senghor, which won the Ottawa Book Prize in the French Fiction category and Sans capote ni kalachnikov, which won the 2019 edition of the Combat national des livres.
The Comeback by Lily Chu
The Comeback is the newest romance novel from Toronto-based author Lily Chu. The story follows Ariadne Hui, a driven and organized professional striving to make partner in Toronto's most prestigious law firm. Thrown off-guard, Ariadne's roommate decides to let her recently heartbroken cousin from Seoul, Jihoon stay with them and it does not take long for Ariadne to start falling for him. Stuck between the desires of her heart and the career she's been striving for, Ariadne must figure out who she wants to be.
Lily Chu is a romantic comedy writer from Toronto with a focus on writing strong Asian characters. Her previous novel, The Stand-In, was named one of the Best of 2021 by Audible.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
