Open up a time capsule to discover the captivating histories of the people, places, and stunning natural world in BC. The following books are accompanied by archival photos, maps, illustrations, and rich prose to enrich your reading experience—no matter which decade or century you travel back to. Whether you’re obsessed with unsolved mysteries, local histories, or learning more about local Indigenous traditions, these titles will take you on a thrilling reading adventure through history that will absolutely be “one for the books.”
Nonfiction
The Glittering Mountains of Canada: A Record of Exploration and Pioneer Ascents in the Canadian Rockies, 1914-1924 by J. Monroe Thorington, foreword by Robert William Sandford (Rocky Mountain Press)
You’ve never read about some of Canada’s oldest landscapes like this before.The Glittering Mountains of Canada, featuring redesigned and updated archival photos and maps, is a deep dive into the history of the Canadian Rockies by well-known mountaineer and alpine scholar J. Monroe Thorington. Thorington bridges unique history with the present, urging the contemporary reader to embrace his belief in the importance of landscape and the poetry of place.
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Unorganized Territory: A Boy’s Own Memoir by David Gurr (Stonehewer Books)
Author David Gurr recounts his bold early life in vivid prose and with a wry sense of humour. Starting with his unusual World War II boyhood in rural England, under the care of two aristocratic Victorian aunts, to his relocation to the bush on Vancouver Island with his mother and father in 1948. In Unorganized Territory, Gurr paints a picture of his adolescence of adventure, but underneath is a dark family secret guarded closely by the author’s parents.
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Boom Times in Chilliwack by Merlin Bunt (Harbour Publishing)
What began as a steamboat landing on the Fraser River, in the traditional territory of the Stó:lō Nation, developed into a pioneer settlement in the 1860s, called Chilliwack. Today, the city is a thriving agricultural hub with a celebrated heritage sustained through a booming population, infrastructure, and fast-growing culinary, retail and sporting scenes. Boom Times in Chilliwack captures the various cultural and physical shifts with a local flavour. Fans of local histories will be fascinated by the developments and the economic optimism of the 1950s and 1960s that influenced the Chilliwack of today.
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Celebrating Potlatches by Samantha Beynon, illustrated by Carla Joseph (Strong Nations Publishing)
Get to know Indigenous traditions and intergenerational storytelling in this beautifully illustrated book for young readers. Inspired by Ts’msyen Chief William Beynon’s historic notebooks on Potlatches in the Gitxsan village of Gitsegukla, Celebrating Potlatches recounts the 1885 Potlatch ban and the resilience of the communities who fought to keep their traditions alive.
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Fiction
The Way of Transgressors: A Novel in Stories by Edward Brown (Tidewater Press)
What started as a childhood fascination with miscreants and the law later inspired the origins of a detective’s career who is haunted by his subjects’ crimes. In this clever mystery novel, follow Detective George Porter as he digs through fifteen fascinating cases from 1872 to 1930. Each case involves murderers buried in what had been the exercise yard of the old Toronto Don Jail.
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Sailors Can’t Swim by Dominique Scali, translated by Jessica Moore (Talonbooks)
Part maritime fairy tale and part history of an alternate eighteenth century, Sailors Can’t Swim is a new speculative fiction novel set on the island of Ys. Behind the city’s high walls, citizens live in opulent security while the shore-dwellers below rebuild their ruined homes after each great tide. Danaé Poussin is an orphan with the rare gift of being a swimmer on the island of Ys who seeks to redefine the sexist and classist indignities for women in this interesting reimagination of a maritime adventure.
September 1, 2026
A Great Consolation by Michel Tremblay, translated by Linda Gaboriau (Talonbooks)
A Great Consolation is the most recent addition to the Desrosiers Diaspora series, a 1,400-page family saga spanning the North American continent in the early years of the twentieth century. Set in Montréal in 1935 through to 1941, this book follows the Desrosiers family as they navigate poverty, secrets, scandal, and of course, each other. Outside their unbearably crowded household, war rages and rationing rules over daily life, until a year later, in May 1942, the series’ most beloved character Nana opens the fabulous Chronicles of the Plateau-Mont-Royal.
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