20 Canadian books we can't wait to read in September
This month is packed with exciting new books. Here are 20 titles to check out in September.
I Hope We Choose Love by Kai Cheng Thom
I Hope We Choose Love is a collection of essays and prose poems from writer, performer and social worker Kai Cheng Thom. Thom explores several social movements and the issues that complicate them, such as violence, complicity and forgiveness. She calls for respect, nuance, understanding and love as we work toward making the world a better place.
When you can read it: Sept. 1, 2019
NDN Coping Mechanisms by Billy-Ray Belcourt
Billy-Ray Belcourt is a writer and academic from Driftpile Cree Nation. In his second poetry collection, NDN Coping Mechanisms, he uses poetry, prose and textual art to explore how Indigenous and queer communities and identities are left out of mainstream media. The work has two parts — the first explores everyday life and the second explores influential texts such as Treaty 8.
Belcourt won the Griffin Poetry Prize for his first collection, This Wound is a World.
When you can read it: Sept. 3, 2019
Akin by Emma Donoghue
Noah, an elderly man, is planning a trip to Nice when a social worker calls out of the blue to ask if he'll take in an 11-year-old great nephew he's never met. He agrees to bring the boy, Michael, to France and the two immediately clash. But in working together, Noah and Michael discover an old family secret hiding in France.
Emma Donoghue is an Irish-born writer who lives in London, Ont. Her novel Room was an international bestseller and was adapted into a critically acclaimed film starring Brie Larson.
When you can read it: Sept. 3, 2019
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
The Testaments is set 15 years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale and includes the "explosive testaments" of three women. Little else is known about the hotly-anticipated novel, but Margaret Atwood has teased that the book will answer readers' questions on the inner-workings of Gilead, the oppressive dystopia where Offred, the novel's original narrator, was stripped of her freedoms and forced to be a handmaid for powerful men.
The Testaments is on the shortlist for the 2019 Booker Prize and longlist for the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
When you can read it: Sept. 10, 2019
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
Talking to Strangers explores how we interact with people we don't know and the impact of the assumptions we bring to these conversations. As with his previous books, Malcolm Gladwell uses anecdotes and a narrative voice to examine how societal structures shape human behaviour, including decision-making and the spread of ideas.
Gladwell is the author of several books, including Blink, Outliers and The Tipping Point.
When you can read it: Sept. 10, 2019
The Ghost Collector by Allison Mills
The Ghost Collector by Allison Mills is about a young girl named Shelly with an important job. She catches ghosts in her hair and helps them transition to the afterlife. But when Shelly's mom dies, she stops helping the ghosts and starts hoarding them, as she waits for her mother's ghost to arrive. The Ghost Collector is a middle-grade novel inspired by Mills's great-grandmother's life and influenced by her Cree heritage.
Mills is a writer based in Vancouver. The Ghost Collector is her first book.
The Ghost Collector is for readers aged 10 and up.
When you can read it: Sept. 10, 2019
A Delhi Obsession by M.G. Vassanji
In the novel A Delhi Obsession, a older man visits his family's home in India for the first time. Munir Khan lives in Toronto and was born in Kenya, but his family was originally from Delhi. After becoming a widower, Munir decides to travel to India for the first time and ends up meeting a charismatic, married newspaper columnist. Their differences fuel a passionate affair, but the couple is being watched by a fanatical nationalist group.
M.G. Vassanji is a two-time Giller Prize winner and a member of the Order of Canada. He's written several novels and two works of nonfiction.
When you can read it: Sept. 10, 2019
Chasing Painted Horses by Drew Hayden Taylor
Chasing Painted Horses is a novel that follows four young friends from a reserve called Otter Lake, located north of Toronto. One day, Ralph and Shelley's mother installs a large chalkboard at home and challenges the four friends to a weekly art contest. The quietest of them, Danielle, draws a stunning horse and wins, an inconspicuous event that will reverberate throughout their lives.
Drew Hayden Taylor is an Ojibway playwright, author and journalist from Curve Lake First Nation in Ontario.
When you can read it: Sept. 14, 2019
There Has to Be a Knife by Adnan Khan
There Has to Be a Knife is a novel about the aftermath of losing a loved one. When Omar Ali is informed his ex-girlfriend Anna has died, he resolves to retrieve her suicide note from her parents. Filled with grief and unable to cope, the 27-year-old line cook spirals out of control, participating in break-ins and online terrorism.
Adnan Khan was the recipient of the 2016 RBC Taylor Prize for Emerging Writers. There Has to Be a Knife is Khan's first book.
When you can read it: Sept. 15, 2019
Power Shift by Sally Armstrong
Award-winning author, journalist and human rights activist Sally Armstrong is this year's CBC Massey Lecturer. In her lectures, titled Power Shift, Armstrong argues that improving the status of women is crucial to our collective surviving and thriving. The facts are beyond dispute, she argues: when women get an education, all of society benefits and when they get better healthcare, everyone lives longer.
When you can read it: Sept. 17, 2019
Summerwood/Winterwood by E.L. Chen
Summerwood/Winterwood contains two linked fantasy stories about a young girl named Rosalind Hero Cheung. The first, Summerwood, begins as 12-year-old Rosalind travels to Toronto to spend the summer with her teenage sister Julie and their grandfather, the author of a famous children's fantasy series. Their stay takes a turn when Julie disappears and Rosalind discovers the dark truth behind the mythical land their grandfather wrote about in his books. Rosalind undertakes a dangerous and costly journey into Summerwood in order to save her sister.
Winterwood picks up three years later. Rosalind has not recovered from her trip to Summerwood and is getting into trouble at school. Grounded by her exasperated mother, Rosalind runs away to Toronto and is confronted by an old enemy from Summerwood.
E.L. Chen is an author and illustrator based in Ontario. Her previous novel, The Good Brother, was published in 2015.
Summerwood/Winterwood is for readers aged 14 and up.
When you can read it: Sept. 17, 2019
Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline
Though Victor has been missing for nearly a year, Joan hasn't given up on finding her husband, who disappeared after their first serious fight. One morning, hungover Joan finds herself in a packed preacher's tent on a Walmart parking lot. The charismatic Reverend Wolff is none other than Victor, who claims to have no memory of Joan or their life together.
Cherie Dimaline is a Métis author whose novel The Marrow Thieves won the Governor General's Literary Award for Young people's literature — text and was defended by Jully Black on Canada Reads 2018.
When you can read it: Sept. 17, 2019
Break in Case of Emergency by Brian Francis
Break in Case of Emergency follows Toby Goodman, a teen whose father left their small town before she was born and whose mother dies by suicide when she's a young girl. When she finds out that her estranged father is coming back to town and wants to meet her, Toby must try to make sense of her life amid surprising revelations about her family history.
Brian Francis is a writer and columnist for The Next Chapter on CBC Radio. His first novel, Fruit, was a finalist for Canada Reads 2009. He is also the author of the novel Natural Order.
Break in Case of Emergency is for readers aged 14 and up.
When you can read it: Sept. 17, 2019
High School by Tegan and Sara
Indie band Tegan and Sara have written a memoir. The book, titled High School, will share the life story of the famous identical twins and LGBTQ icons. Tegan and Sara Quin grew up in Calgary at the height of grunge and rave culture in the 1990s. High School is written in chapters alternating between Tegan's point of view and Sara's and will explore how they coped with their parents' divorce and how they navigated issues around love, drugs, sexuality, queer identity and academic pressures during their high school years.
When you can read it: Sept. 24, 2019
Greenwood by Michael Christie
In Greenwood, it's the year 2038 and most of the world has suffered from an environmental collapse. But there is a remote island with 1,000 year-old trees and Jake Greenwood works as a tour guide there. From there, the novel takes you back in time as you learn more about Jake, her family and how secrets and lies can have an impact for generations.
Greenwood is on the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist. Christie has been longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize twice in the past — in 2015 for If I Fall, If I Die and in 2011 for The Beggar's Garden.
When you can read it: Sept. 24, 2019
Had It Coming by Robyn Doolittle
Based on the years Globe and Mail reporter Robyn Doolittle spent examining how police mishandle sexual assault cases, Had It Coming is an in-depth look at how attitudes around sexual harassment and assault are changing in the #MeToo era. Doolittle's investigative series Unfounded looked into sexual assault allegations using data gathered from over 870 police forces across the country and found that many cases were deemed "baseless" and not properly investigated.
Doolittle's previous book, Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story, was published in 2014.
When you can read it: Sept. 24, 2019
77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin by Thomas King
In 2020, celebrated Indigenous writer Thomas King will turn 77 years old. His first poetry collection, 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin, collects 77 poems that lament what we have lost, lecture us for what we have allowed and looks at what we might still be able to save if we want to keep society prosperous and healthy.
King's books include Truth & Bright Water, The Inconvenient Indian and The Back of the Turtle. He also writes the DreadfulWater mystery series.
When you can read it: Sept. 24, 2019
Frogcatchers by Jeff Lemire
When a man wakes up without his memory, he finds himself in a strange hotel room with an old-fashioned keychain. He thinks the building is empty until he comes across a young boy, who begs him not to use the key for fear of releasing whatever else is locked away.
Jeff Lemire is an acclaimed Toronto comics creator who recently won an Eisner Award for the comic book series Gideon Falls. Some of his previous graphic novels include Roughneck and Essex County.
When you can read it: Sept. 24, 2019
Daughter of Family G by Ami McKay
Ami McKay's family has a history of dying early, thanks to a a genetic disorder called Lynch syndrome. This discovery began with McKay's great-aunt Pauline Gross, who, in 1895, went to a doctor with the expectation she would die at a young age. What followed was a decades and generations-long study of one family and their relationship to cancer. It would become the longest and most detailed cancer genealogy study ever.
In Daughter of Family G, McKay explores this family history while grappling with the fact she tested positive for the gene while raising a family of her own.
When you can read it: Sept. 24, 2019
The Wagers by Sean Michaels
The Wagers, Sean Michaels's second novel, follows a grocer named Theo Potiris who works at his family's shabby supermarket by day and bikes to open mic nights at night, never telling the same joke twice. He's been waiting 15 years for his big break, but with his girlfriend overseas with a wealthy benefactor, Theo decides to trade in his dream for the promise of something more. The gamble takes Theo to a fantastic alternate reality filled with peacocks, luck thieves and sports-mad mathematicians.
Michaels's first novel, Us Conductors, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
When you can read it: Sept. 24, 2019