December Reads for Recharging
It’s been quite the month, hasn’t it? Or maybe it’s been quite the year, it’s hard to tell. But we’re seeing a lot of discussion about people needing to take a break from it all, which is completely understandable. So we’ve gathered up a list of small press books that will help you rest and recharge in the dark nights of December. These books are reflective, heart-warming, funny, playful or some combination of these traits, and we hope they will brighten the end of the year.
Gay Girl Prayers
by Emily Austin (Brick Books)
Austin invites readers into a giddy celebration of difference and a tender appreciation for the lives and perspectives of “strange women,” with poetry filled with zingy one liners, U-Hauling and painfully earnest declarations of love.
Field Notes on Listening
by Kit Dobson (Wolsak & Wynn)
A thoughtful book of short meditations on what it means to be alive today, in our complex and conflicted world, and how listening carefully might be how to find a way through it all.
Prairie Chicken Dance Tour
by Dawn Dumont (Freehand Books)
Loosely, very loosely, based on the true story of a group of Indigenous dancers who left Saskatchewan and toured through Europe in the 70s this hilarious book is also moving and empowering. Inexperienced dancers are called to fill in for the professional troupe when they fall ill, and an epic journey begins.
Love Language
by Nasser Hussain (Coach House Books)
Hussain skillfully and joyfully toys with everyday texts to talk about love, to think about poems, to call out racism, to remind us that words can be fun. Allow these playful poems to woo you, to let you fall in love with language again.
Molly of the Mall: Literary Lass and Purveyor of Fine Footwear,
by Heidi L.M. Jacobs (NeWest Press)
Named for one of literature’s least romantic protagonists, Moll Flanders, Molly lives in Edmonton, where she sells shoes in the world’s largest mall, while trying to write novels and pursue a romantic life. Delightfully whimsical, this book won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 2020.
Off the Tracks: A Meditation on Train Journeys in a Time of No Travel
by Pamela Mulloy (ECW Press)
This book is the perfect blend of research and personal experience where you accompany the author, and famous historical figures, on fabulous journeys by train.
Baby Cerberus
by Natasha Ramoutar (Buckrider Books)
A joyous and multilayered book of poetry, Ramoutar’s poems trace kinship across a multitude of lives and lived experiences, touching on Greek mythology, internet lore and the importance of connection.
The Capacity for Infinite Happiness
by Alexis von Konigslow (Buckrider Books)
Family secrets and an unfinished thesis bring Emily back to her family’s vacation lodge where she resumes her acquaintance with Jonah, an old childhood friend. Throw in the Marx Brothers and lamp as a main character and you have a tender, zany story about family and love.
Richard Wagamese Selected: What Comes from Spirit by Richard Wagamese with an Introduction
by Drew Hayden Taylor (Douglas & McIntyre)
I think that this quote from the Introduction sums up the beauty of Richard Wagamese’s writing:
Don’t read it too fast. Soak it in. Enjoy every morsel. Linger on each page because every paragraph has nuggets of understanding. Lines of wisdom. Stories to appreciate.
