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
Open this photo in gallery: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
Open this photo in gallery: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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Open this photo in gallery: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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Open this photo in gallery: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.
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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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Open this photo in gallery: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.
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Prophet Song, by Paul LynchSupplied
Prophet Song, Paul Lynch
Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song follows the story of Eilish, a Dublin mother of four who finds herself in the unfolding horror of a fascist government takeover in Ireland, which threatens to shred her life. The novel evokes the current reality of our time, where norms are being smashed, truths are being turned upside down and there is little steady going to be found. One cannot help but relate to Eilish as she tries to keep up with the mundane tasks of mothering and tending to her failing father while her world crumbles around her. This was a harrowing and beautiful book. I loved it.
-Globe reader Sandra Swail, West Vancouver, B.C.
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Open this photo in gallery:The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence, commonly known as ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ is a classic book that serves both as an in-depth telling of the Arab desert campaign against the Turks and as a history of the march to Damascus. I read the book before deploying to the Golan Heights in Israeli-occupied territory in 2000 for a year as the deputy commanding officer of the UN Logistics Battalion. The book gave me a good understanding of Arab tribal culture, and how to interact with them in a manner in which they were comfortable. With the current conflict in the Middle East, this book provides an interesting viewpoint on a volatile region.
-Globe reader Ross Fetterly, Victoria
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Open this photo in gallery:Out of the Woods: Voices from the Forest City, selected by Emma Donohue
A book of short stories is the perfect summer reading when you want to dip into a book in small bursts. Out of the Woods: Voices from the Forest City fits the bill for me. The short stories and poems in this small anthology, all written by members of the London Writers Society, were selected by Canadian author Emma Donoghue, who happens to live in that city. I grew up in a town south of London and attended Western University there, so I have a relationship with “the forest city.” I particularly liked that all the selections had to relate literally or metaphorically to the “out of the woods” theme. As Terry Fallis writes in the foreward: “London writers, like most other Canadian writers, live lives not unlike your own. Except, late at night, while others sleep, they are wrestling with words, polishing phrases, and crafting sentences, to create stories.”
-Globe reader Patricia Fry, Port Credit, Ont.
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Open this photo in gallery:The Curve of Time, M. Wylie Blanchet
I’ve long known about The Curve of Time and finally got around to reading it. It’s the beautifully written memoir of M. Wylie Blanchet, a widow who explored the wild coasts of Vancouver Island and the Inside Passage with her five children in the late 1920s and 1930s. Adventurous doesn’t begin to describe their travels. Frankly, it’s a wonder they survived. This book joins two others on my shelf – Totem Poles and Tea by Hughina Harold, which follows her years as a nurse and teacher to the Indigenous population on a remote island off the central coast in the 1930s, and Jedediah Days by Mary Palmer, chronicling her summers on a northern Gulf Island without any kind of amenities. All three books feature women whose bravery is almost madness.
-Globe reader Vicki Metcalfe, Victoria
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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?
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