What do you look for in a book?
We asked three bestselling BC authors and this is what we got: a children’s book author interested in overcoming adversity and the power of the human spirit; a Vancouver historian who needs magic and momentum; and a historical fiction and mystery writer who seeks complex, flawed characters and new knowledge. Find some of their top reads and what they love about them below, because who else would give the best book recs other than 3 of BC’s most popular authors?
If you enjoy books on overcoming strife you’ll like these picks from…
Kim Spencer
Kim is a proud member of the Gitxaala Nation and lives in Northwest BC.
Kim Spencer is an award-winning, bestselling author. Her debut novel, Weird Rules to Follow, won multiple awards, including a 2024 Pacific Northwest Book Award, a 2023 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, and a 2023 Jean Little First-Novel Award. The book was named to both the USBBY Outstanding International Books list and the IBBY Honour List, received a Kirkus starred review, and was a finalist for the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award.
Kim’s recent books include the award-nominated sequel, I Won’t Feel This Way Forever (2025), Here For A Good Time (2026) and her picture book, Springtime in Kitkatla (2026).
21 Things You May Not Know About The Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality by Bob Joseph
Since it’s Indigenous Peoples’ History Month, I will start off with 21 Things You May Not Know About The Indian Act by Bob Joseph. My personal copy of this book is highlighted throughout, dog-eared, and has sticky tabs. This book was released in 2018 and was widely read and celebrated; yet it still feels timely for Canadians to read and re-read. It isn’t a lengthy novel, yet it manages to share so much history in such a powerful, accessible way.
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
I just finished reading My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante for the second time. I loved how this book took me to the streets of Naples in the early 50s. It’s so gorgeously written, even though it covers a troubling time of poverty and violence. It’s an intimate look inside an Italian neighbourhood and the brilliant characters who live in it. The television series was also very well done.
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Again, this book takes me to the streets of Harlem in the 1930s. It’s such an incredibly powerful, emotional read. I can watch video clips of James Baldwin all day long. A classic, must-read.
I tend to gravitate to weightier novels. Books with suffering, tragedy and overcoming. Not because I necessarily enjoy those things, but because I want to learn. And have a better understanding of why we’re here and why there’s suffering. I read books that take me to other worlds, put me in someone else’s shoes. And I’m often left in awe at the incredible strength and might of the human spirit.
If you enjoy books with momentum you’ll like these picks from…
Aaron Chapman
Aaron Chapman is a writer, historian, and musician, podcaster and occasional actor. He is the author of Vancouver after Dark: The Wild History of a City’s Nightlife, winner of the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award (BC Book Prizes) in 2020; The Last Gang in Town, the story of Vancouver’s Clark Park Gang; Liquor, Lust, and the Law, the story of Vancouver’s Penthouse Nightclub, now available in a second edition; Vancouver Vice: Crime and Spectacle in the City’s West End; and Live at the Commodore, a history of the Commodore Ballroom that won the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award (BC Book Prizes) in 2015 (a new edition appears in 2023). He is the co-author of A Sign of the Times: The Best of the Penthouse Marquee with Benjamin Jackson, and Real Enough: The Unlikely Story of Doug & The Slugs, both released in 2026. He has sat on the board of the Friends of the Vancouver Archives, is a member of Heritage Vancouver, and recently ran to be a Vancouver City Council candidate. He was however elected to the Royal Historical Society in 2020. He lives in Vancouver.
Vancouver Noir by Diane Purvey & John Belshaw (Anvil Press)
There’s an old story that when the Ramones first toured North America, everybody who saw them on that tour went and formed their own band. I have the same belief and respect with this book. It came out in 2011, and a year later I had written my own first book Liquor, Lust, and The Law. I think history will record that it spurred a renaissance in new writing and a new look on Vancouver. A wave of books followed from new voices who brought fresh stories, viewpoints and interpretations of the city. It spurred my imagination and confirmed that Vancouver was more than sunny beaches, Yoga studios filled with Kale eating health fanatics drinking designer coffees. It showed me a deep, dark and dangerous Vancouver, and that it was still out there. It was a real influence on my writing at that time. I think it still is.
Surviving Vancouver by Michael Kluckner (Orca Book Publishers)
Nearly any of his books on Vancouver make for a wonderful archive on the city. Not only in his writing, but in his paintings and illustrations that are in them. They are must have’s in any local historians libraries. Seeing one of his books on the coffee table of a home you’re visiting for the first time is a good sign. Let’s face it, nobody does it better.
Madness, Betryal, and The Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver by Stephen R. Bown (Douglas & McIntyre)
A fascinating and astonishingly well researched history of the life of Captain Vancouver and his charting of the BC Coast. You can smell the saltwater reading this one. If you find yourself alone walking on a beach and turn your view away from the city toward the sea, you can practically imagine his vessel sailing up to our shores. It brings some fascinating information on Vancouver’s relationship with local Indigenous people and how skilled his mapping of the coast was. As well as his crew–who the Captain noted in his diaries during the time at sea, that the crew complained each year as they got further into the rainy season here, when exactly they would get to leave to spend their winter in Hawaii, marking the first record of somebody complaining about the weather in the area. So the more things change, the more they stay the same.
I suppose I look for some writing that has some rhythm and music to it, which draws me in and gives you some momentum. In reading, and I suppose in my own writing–no matter what the subject is–I like to adhere to Billy Wilder’s old maxim, “Thou Shalt Not Bore”. That goes for everything from military histories, biographies, novels, and poetry anthologies. In this day and age I’m happy anybody has the time or intent to devote to reading a book. So whether it’s my own writing, or others I like to read, I like to hopefully see a little magic and some momentum.
If you enjoy books with flawed characters you’ll like these picks from…
Marion McKinnon Crook
Marion McKinnon Crook is a nurse, an educator and the author of more than thirty books, including the best selling Always Pack a Candle, which won the BC historical Federation’s Community History Award, and its follow-up Always on Call, a finalist for the BC Book Prizes Bill Duthie Award. Bloomsbury to Barkerville, recently released, is on its way to popularity as it immediately jumped to the BC Bestsellers’ list. In addition to her nursing degree, McKinnon Crook holds an MA in liberal studies and a PHD in education. Now a full-time writer, she also writes the British Book Tour mystery series under the name of Emma Dakin. She lives on the Sunshine Coast in BC.
Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast by John Vaillant
I was fascinated by the science of fire which Vaillant explains so thoroughly and by the personal experiences of the people of Fort MacMurray which he includes. He tells us his observations and retortions around the actions of those in the fire danger, which increases my understanding of how people react to such a fierce danger. And, of course, he exposes the fast-moving advance of climate change which makes me uncomfortable but more realistic than I was before I read the book.
The Glitter in the Green: In search of Hummingbirds by Jon Dunn
This is another book that combines scientific information with personal experiences. Dunn travels the world searching for hummingbirds and tells us all about them, information I had not known. At the same time, he describes the country he is in and the characters he meets with a competent and often magical use of words. I didn’t expect to be so entranced by this book when I picked it up at Black Bond Books in White Rock, BC, where I was doing a signing—but I was. I almost resented the wonderful people who came to meet me and buy Bloomsbury to Barkerville because I couldn’t continue reading. Luckily, the ferry was late on the way home and I could hunker down in my car immersing myself in the world of hummingbirds.
Earthly Delights by Kerry Greenwood
Incisive, inventive writing—and she makes me laugh. She writes the Phyrne Fisher Mystery series, but it is her Corinna Chapman, the baker, series that I find the most engaging. I had, at one time, four copies of this book as I kept loaning it out, then kept buying another copy. In an effort to be frugal, I did get a copy from my local library but dropped it in the bath so had to buy that one. The story is set in Melbourne, Australia, and Corinna enjoys the idiosyncratic flavour of Melbourne, allowing us to enjoy it with her—back alleys, excentric characters and all. There is a mystery; there is a romance. It’s a bit of a romp, and I loved it.
I look for interesting, flawed characters who reflect on their lives and on the lives of the people around them. As well, I look for new facts on whatever subject is the expertise of the character, particularly the main character. I want to be educated as well as entertained.