Ah fall! We love this season of harvest and slanted light and cozy fires. What better time to curl up with a good book. As Stephen King so wisely reminds us “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

So here is an autumn tribute to Canadian authors. You’ll find fiction, non-fiction, memoir, short stories, YA, poetry and children’s books, all united by this wonderful season. Happy reading!

Season of Fury and Wonder by Sharon Butala (2019)

This collection of short stories presents the lives today’s old women, who understand that they have been created by their pasts, and that some things cannot be learned when you are young.

All Things Consoled: A daughter’s memoir by Elizabeth Hay (2018)

Winner 2018 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-fiction. A memoir about Lizzie the so-called difficult child. By looking after her parents in their final decline, she hopes to prove that she can be a good daughter after all.

Days by Moonlight by Andre Alexis (2015)

2017 Windham-Campbell Prize; Winner 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize A dark comic novel that explores what is real. Alfred Homer takes a journey during the “hour of the wolf,” that time of day when the sun is setting and the traveller can’t tell the difference between dog and wolf.  It is a land of house burnings, werewolves, witches, and plants with unusual properties.

 Homegrown: Celebrating the Canadian Foods We Grow, Raise and Produce edited by Mairlyn Smith (2015)

More than a cookbook, Homegrown celebrates what makes Canadian products unique and why “Made in Canada” stands as a mark of excellence. Recipes alongside humorous stories and sidebars showcase the best of Canada.

 21 Days in October by Magali Favre (2014)

In this YA novel set during the troubled period of Quebec’s and Canada’s history in October 1970, young people deal with gruelling factory work, unemployment, harsh police and military action, and imprisonment, but also, hope, political commitment and first love.

 My October by Claire Holden Rothman (2014)

2014 Shortlisted for Governor General’s and Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller. Set in Montreal and told in three voices, My October is the story of a family torn apart by the power of language and of history. Hannah is the daughter of a man who served as a special prosecutor during the October Crisis, and her husband Luc is a novelist. Their troubled son, Hugo, commits an act that sets them on a collision course with the past.

Autumn Leaves by Manolis Aligizakis (2014)

This lyric poetry collection from a Greek-Canadian poet who emigrated to Vancouver in 1973, is about longing and desire through the passing seasons. The poems have a Mediterraean flavour and were originally written in Greek.

Grateful by Marion Mutala, illustrated by E. R.(2014)

Be grateful for all your blessings. A poignant conversation between parent and child across the years.

October by Richard B. Wright. (2008)

Globe and Mail Book of the Year list.  A man accompanies an old acquaintance on a final, improbable journey searching for answers in the autumn of his life.

Autumn Rounds by Jacques Poulin, translated by Sheila Fischman (2002)

On a whim, a man joins a touring marching band he sees from his Quebec city apartment window. Among the troupe is a woman he recognizes and so begins a tale of love that arrives in the autumn of life.