We’ve gathered 30 books to put in your stockings this year. Photo by Jackie Wong for The Tyee.

There’s something very special that happens in the week between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve. The world has a way of slowing down — a rare, collective, once-a-year occurrence.

It’s the perfect time to curl up with a good book, and invite your loved ones to do the same.

Here are 30 Tyee staff book recommendations to kick off the festive season. It’s a true spread, with everything from the meat and potatoes of protest memoir to the gravy of a pensive novel to the confection of an escapist mystery. Find a book for every person on your gift list, from your back-to-the-lander relatives to the very online young people in your life.

We’d love to know what you’ve read and enjoyed this season. Let us know in the comments!

For everyone who wants to know what it has been like to live in Gaza:

Voices of Resistance: Diaries of Genocide By Batool Abu Akleen, Sondos Sabra, Nahil Mohana and Ala’a Obaid (Biblioasis)

Batool Abu Akleen is not afraid of death. Death “has only restricted me, casting black, petrified sadness on my heart,” she writes. Instead, she says, she is afraid of life. And the fear is sometimes overwhelming. Sondos Sabra writes of her family’s strong relationship with the olive tree, and of the harvest being interrupted by conflict. She writes about neighbourhoods losing power, water — and most of all, people, her relatives among them. Nahila Mohana writes about war, evacuation, invasion and the burning of her home in Gaza City, which took with it 100 copies of her latest novel, No Men Allowed. She writes about shawarma returning to Gaza City and sharing it with her daughter. Ala’a Obaid writes of telling her children, in December 2023, that the war will last “two more days.” “This lie was all I had,” she writes. Voices of Resistance bears necessary witness and is a must-read.

For your very-online friend who is rethinking their relationship to social media:

Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley By Jacob Silverman (Bloomsbury Publishing)

American journalist Jacob Silverman started work on what would become his latest book by following a hunch in early 2023. It seemed to him that the leading tech executives and venture capitalists in America were moving to the political right, and he was curious about the shift. In Gilded Rage, Silverman traces how those tech elites’ vision of the future turned dark, and he exposes the curdled futurism promoted by the likes of Elon Musk, which Vancouver writer Cole Nowicki described in The Tyee as “one of isolationism, accumulation and consolidation, where modern society’s failures under the weight of capitalism can only be fixed by more extreme expressions of it.”

For your friend who suspects the megaproject down the block might not be in the national interest:

Contesting Megaprojects: Complex Impacts, Urban Disruption and the Quest for Sustainability By Gerardo del Cerro Santamaría (Springer)

Without so much as a spoiler alert, New York professor and pianist Gerardo del Cerro Santamaría gets to the point in his first paragraph: Megaprojects are “incompatible with any approach to urban sustainability that prioritizes the well-being of urbanites and the boundaries of the Earth system” and they “undermine efforts to tackle the global impacts associated with both the destructive creation of capitalism and the new climate regime.”

Doubtful? Over the course of 371 pages the author offers a “typology of megaproject impacts,” a laundry list of all the ways big industrial projects are damaging, drawing on examples from cities around the world. Other than a section on Alphabet Inc.’s cancelled plans for a “smart city” at Toronto’s Quayside site, the book contains little Canadian content.

Nonetheless, at a time when the federal and provincial governments are turning to megaprojects in the face of American instability and aggression, the warning about unsustainable growth that ignores planetary limits is timely.

For your cousin who loves learning about history through graphic novels:

The Antifa Comic Book: Revised and Expanded By Gord Hill (Arsenal Pulp Press)

Why have the Democrats been so hesitant to deem Donald Trump a fascist? Because, Mark Bray writes in the introduction to the expanded and republished version of Gord Hill’s The Antifa Comic Book, “we have been taught that fascism is dead and gone, that Nazism was an aberration from European ‘civilization,’ that rational discourse will always stop fascist ideas, that the police will never hesitate in thwarting fascist violence.” But, in short: none of that is terribly correct, and that’s why it was a great year to revisit Hill’s book, first published in 2018. In The Antifa Comic Book, Hill covers fascist and far-right movements, as well as those formed to counter them. Recent additions to the book include chapters on the Capitol riot, the “freedom” convoy and the far-right in Israel.

For the poets and swimmers:

The Garbage Poems By Anna Swanson (Brick Books)

We have our altars to the disappearing sun. Our SAD lamps, our vitamin D, our SSRIs and morning walks and tinctures as we tip away from our nearest, most irreplaceable star.

Anna Swanson is a poet and a wild swimmer. Her newest book, The Garbage Poems, collects and refigures snippets of language from refuse she picked up at swimming holes. The premise feels like an act of care for well-loved spaces; this feeling extends to the ways in which Swanson reimagines and juxtaposes the language of commerce and marketing into something more genuine, more queer, closer to the bone of emotion. Out of erasure, creation.

For the person trying to maintain a relationship with their anti-vax family member:

So Far Gone By Jess Walter (HarperCollins)

This taut, funny, adventure-filled novel will speak to anyone who’s tried to maintain a relationship with a loved one who’s fallen down the rabbit hole of internet conspiracy theories. Our unlikely hero is Rhys Kinnick, a crusty 60-something journalist whose devotion to facts has led to a devastating split with family members. Set in Spokane, Washington — and with the West Kootenay’s raucous Shambhala music festival making a cameo — So Far Gone will satisfy B.C. residents who have been trying to keep their grip on reality in the face of a changing world.

For those who understand the short story as a top-10 Canadian cultural output:

Welcome to the Neighbourhood By Clea Young (House of Anansi)

When the discourse rolls back around to whether or not main characters should be likeable, do you find yourself furrowing your brow, firmly in the camp that literature is meant to be descriptive, not prescriptive — to offer a window into all the ways humans can be mean and petty and evil and flawed? If so, this book, written in a way that creeps into its characters’ darkest little corners, is for you. Welcome to the Neighbourhood’s protagonists yearn for connection with a new friend, or a tricky neighbour; caught in difficult spots, they fumble. They think unkind thoughts; they want to be one version of themselves and discover they cannot live up to it. The book is incisive, and a near-masterclass in how to build tension in literary fiction.

For your lover of historical fiction:

A Place of Greater Safety By Hilary Mantel (Picador)

Hilary Mantel is best known for her acclaimed Wolf Hall series about Henry VIII, but her 1992 epic A Place of Greater Safety deserves just as much attention. A rollicking, and mostly historically accurate novel about the intertwined lives of three key figures in the French Revolution, Mantel explores what it must have been to be at the centre of one of history’s landmark events.

By humanizing Georges Danton, Maximilien Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins — and also the women in their lives — Mantel explores how normal, flawed people end up changing the course of history. It’s also a damn fun read.

For anyone coming to terms with their mortality (or helping someone else do the same):

The Collected Regrets of Clover By Mikki Brammer (St. Martin’s Griffin)

The Collected Regrets of Clover, Mikki Brammer’s debut novel, navigates the most taboo of all taboo topics — death — with familiarity and ease. After encountering death at a young age, Clover pursues a career as a death doula. She hones the art of being with someone in their last moments, and chronicles the wisdom (and regrets) that are divulged in the process. Whether it’s acknowledging an enduring grief, navigating the challenge of a loved one’s mortality, or missing an opportunity for love, this novel has something relatable for everyone. Clover’s encounters inspire confidence for facing life’s toughest moments and humanizes how we fumble through them.

For everyone craving even more whip-smart examples of why Canada rules the short story:

As the Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories Edited by Terese Mason Pierre (House of Anansi)

Featuring the work of Zalika Reid-Benta, francesca ekwuyasi and more, As the Earth Dreams collects 10 Black Canadian speculative short stories. In the opener, by Chimedum Ohaegbu, a woman makes sense of her relationship with her half-siblings and her sometimes-distant, resurrecting mother. In “A Fair Assessment,” by editor Terese Mason Pierre, an appraiser learns the stories underpinning each antique and vintage item, which must also be gauged for latent magic. In “Deh Ah Market,” by Whitney French, Cousin gets stuck in a loop walking home from the convenience store with a heavy coal stove. Supernatural elements illustrate and underscore the tensions in these stories, making them rich and deep. New details and elements emerge with each subsequent read.

For your friend who struggles with the holiday season because family is complicated:

Soft as Bones: A Memoir By Chyana Marie Sage (House of Anansi Press)

In 2021, Chyana Marie Sage was an English and creative writing student at the University of Alberta. For one class she wrote an essay about an Indigenous family moving through intergenerational trauma that changed the shape of her career; it won awards and sparked a journey of healing and re-connection with her family. Sage developed the essay into Soft as Bones, her first book and a memoir that begins in Sage’s childhood in Edmonton in the early 2000s. “The opening sections offer glimpses of how a young child can see (and, notably, not see) horrific events,” wrote Odette Auger in a Tyee essay about the book. “The story continues as Sage’s eyes gradually open with age.” Some stories, Auger notes, take time to write. Others, like Soft as Bones, “take healing, growth and family.”

For the person whose friendship reminds you that life is beautiful after all:

The Idea of an Entire Life By Billy-Ray Belcourt (McClelland & Stewart)

Sometimes an 80-page poetry collection is precisely what we need, and Billy-Ray Belcourt’s latest effort is a masterwork of precision, tenderness and holding a mirror to the miracle and heartbreak of human life. Named one of Time magazine’s top 100 books of 2025, the collection takes readers into Belcourt’s family history while inviting them to consider their place in the present moment. Belcourt is a member of the Driftpile Cree Nation in northeastern Alberta, a Vancouver-based creative writing professor at the University of British Columbia and among the most compelling regional voices in contemporary literature. His writing is a balm and a gift. “I love the small gestures that permit us, I love being intent to be lost, I love how much queer sense we make even when we’re sad and defeated,” he writes. “I have an inarticulate message for all of you: to exist is a pain we have to keep bearing.”

For everyone curious about the heyday of back-to-the-landing in BC:

Wilderness Mother: A Memoir of 13 Years off the Grid By Deanna Barnhardt Kawatski (Ronsdale Press)

Wilderness Mother: A Memoir of 13 Years off the Grid, originally published in 1995, has recently been republished by Ronsdale Press to celebrate the book’s 30th anniversary. In the book, Deanna Barnhardt Kawatski recounts how she met her hermit husband, Jay, in the late 1970s while working at a fire tower in northern British Columbia. For the next 13 years, Kawatski led an alternately peaceful and tumultuous off-grid life with Jay — raising two kids, growing and hunting their own food, building their own shelter. Curious for more? Read an excerpt we published earlier this fall, in which a very pregnant Barnhardt Kawatski goes into labour with her first child.

For the young parent wrestling with how to talk to their child about race:

Hide and Sikh: Letters from a Life in Brown Skin By Sunny Dhillon (Wolsak and Wynn)

Affecting, warm and often funny, former Vancouver journalist Sunny Dhillon’s first book is an exploration of what it means to live as a racialized person in Canada. Structured as a series of essay-length letters to Jaya, his oldest child, Dhillon offers incisive analysis of his own experiences in B.C. and Ontario as a Sikh man against the backdrop of major events that shaped Jaya’s early years, like the COVID-19 pandemic. “There will, Jaya, be people in your life who tell you that you are not enough,” he writes. His book is a moving and expansive effort to prove them wrong. The memoir-in-essays responds sharply to the contemporary moment, “a period of extremes,” as he describes it. Dhillon’s writing is as clear-eyed as it is healing.

For the idealist considering how to engage with the world as it is:

Leading From the Heart: The Battles of a Feminist, Union Leader and Politician By Judy Darcy (Douglas & McIntyre)

It is not until chapter 23 in Judy Darcy’s memoir that she begins describing her time as a British Columbia MLA and the Sisyphean task then-Premier John Horgan handed her as the first cabinet minister ever dedicated to mental health and addictions. It was an assignment, while welcome, that came without the budget or resources that would have given a hope of success. She calls it the hardest part of her story, “the hardest to live through and the hardest to tell.” As she describes it, the assignment put her on “a path to face the anguish of my own past and my mother’s suicide.” Ahead of that, the book traces Darcy’s route from student activism in an age of peasant blouses and bell-bottom jeans, through 12 years as national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and a move to B.C. where she served as head of the Hospital Employees’ Union before winning election as an MLA in 2013. Throughout, it’s a story told with clarity and heart, much as Darcy has lived her life.

For your relative who has been raging against the American machine:

Elbows Up! Canadian Voices of Resilience and Resistance Edited by Elamin Abdelmahmoud (McClelland & Stewart)

Toronto writer and media personality Elamin Abdelmahmoud has edited a standout essay collection. It offers sorely needed humanity, humour and nuance that is often missing from contemporary commentary on how Canadians have been grappling with the turbulent forces at play in Canada-U.S. relations. Elbows Up! Canadian Voices of Resilience and Resistance features star turns by Carol Off, Omar Al-Akkad, Ivan E. Coyote, Jen Sookfong Lee and more, plus posthumously published writing by Mordecai Richler and Farley Mowat. The collection helps evolve our understanding of nationhood, national identity and what it means to live the complicated life of a Canadian. In her tender essay-in-comics “The Things that Need to Be Said,” screenwriter Catherine Hernandez puts it this way: “I struggle, wondering how can I draw myself out of this country’s flattering self-portrait, made generations ago?” She asks, “Is this what my parents would have wanted? To deliver us from martial law only to be silent in the face of fascism?” The book seeks to answer these and many related questions.

For Newfoundland lovers far and wide:

The Smiling Land: All Around the Circle In My Newfoundland and Labrador By Alan Doyle (Penguin Random House)

Musician/writer/raconteur extraordinaire Alan Doyle’s fourth book is a meandering ramble around Newfoundland and Labrador. The premise of a family road trip is really just the leaping-off place for a full-on adventure. Packed with Doyle’s characteristic charm, it’s loaded with epic tales drawn from Newfoundland history, as well as stories from Doyle’s own life and family.

In addition to sights and sounds of the place, there’s also humour, food, history and culture. Doyle proves an ideal guide — funny, insightful and brimming with all manner of arcane facts about this most fascinating province, whether it’s phallic-shaped iceberg, the appropriately titled “Dickie-Berg,” or an investigation into some of the more unique traditions of the place. Look up “Regatta Roulette.”

“Charm” is perhaps too narrow a word for such a generous helping of Canadiana (Newfoundlandia?). The Smiling Land is a true tonic for the spirit.

For those who love learning about the world through memoir:

One Arrow Left By Cecilia Dick DeRose, with Sage Birchwater (Caitlin Press)

Indigenous knowledge keeper Cecilia DeRose was born in 1935, the fourth of 10 children. She spent her early years ranching with her family in a remote meadow about 25 miles outside of the village of Esk’et in British Columbia’s interior. Her father ran a guide outfitting business and had hay leases. Eventually DeRose, like her parents, was sent to St. Joseph’s Mission residential school. Looking forward to learning, DeRose was instead met with abuse and maltreatment. One Arrow Left, DeRose’s memoir, tells the story of her life, her survival and her commitment to her Secwepemcstín roots. DeRose eventually became a Secwepemcstín language teacher in the public school system.

For your loved one whose ideal winter break is spent cozily at home, reading for inspiration:

What Comes from Spirit By Richard Wagamese (Douglas & McIntyre)

Richard Wagamese died at age 61 in Kamloops, B.C. in 2017. This year, Douglas & McIntyre published a posthumous collection of his writing to share his voice with a new generation of readers. A major literary presence in Canada, Wagamese was the first Indigenous writer to receive a National Newspaper Award in 1991, and he authored more than 20 books of fiction and non-fiction. The grounded honesty in his voice was rooted in a constant striving to become a stronger, more authentic person. What Comes from Spirit carries this forward in work that is infused with quiet, lyrical beauty as Wagamese explores the process of reconnecting with his Ojibway ancestry, his journey to become a professional writer and more. “There is always so much more to learn and incorporate into the process of living each day,” he writes. “Staying open to that and being willing to find the big lessons in the smallest of things is what gets you home, really. I’ve always tried to remember that too.”

For the icebound river-lover on your list:

River Magic: Tales From a Life on 1000 Rivers By Mark Angelo (Hancock House Publishers)

Ever wanted to paddle a river with renowned conservationist Mark Angelo? The founder of World Rivers Day has a new book that offers vicarious adventures on some of the world’s wildest and most remote waterways. River Magic’s short stories are meant to engage both experienced paddlers and curious beginners, bringing readers face-to-face with belugas in northern Manitoba, a brown bear on Russia’s Ozyornaya River and an angry hippo on the Zambezi. The book also chronicles river trips closer to home. The Burnaby-based conservationist has spoken about his transformative relationship with the Fraser River. Released this summer to coincide with the 20th anniversary of World Rivers Day, Angelo says the book is meant to spark a new generation of river lovers and advocates.

For your young friend who is home for a rest and finding their place in the world:

Black Cherokee By Antonio Michael Downing (Simon & Schuster)

Spirited, memorable and full of life, Black Cherokee is a novel that will be relatable to readers who find themselves living with a foot in a few worlds. Author Antonio Michael Downing embodies this hybridity in his life as a musician, broadcaster and writer. Black Cherokee, his debut novel, explores the struggle for belonging and liberation in a coming-of-age story that follows a Black and Indigenous girl named Ophelia through her childhood and teenage years in 1990s South Carolina. Readers can hear the sounds of the R&B groups of those years, like 112 and SWV, as Ophelia makes her way down the hallways of her high school. Immersive and relatable, the book is an illuminating exploration of family, circumstance and the process by which we come to know the person we’re becoming.

A trifecta for your cousin who wants to spend their winter holiday preparing for civil disobedience in 2026:

Blockade: Diaries of a Forest Defender By Christine Lowther (Caitlin Press)

The cover of Blockade shows two burly RCMP officers dragging the author, who offers no resistance, her face passive with a Pietà-like expression. The picture previews the story — a rich and compelling read of the life of a person determined to do whatever is possible to protect old-growth forests during B.C.’s epic “war in the woods,” which peaked in Clayoquot Sound in 1993. The blockade was at that time the largest in Canadian history, consisting of approximately 3,000 people on the road, many holding bright banners and placards. This was later followed by the “Great Clayoquot Sound Writers Reading and Literary Auction” at the Commodore on Granville Street in Vancouver. It’s described as the most prominent gathering of writers ever to assemble in the service of an environmental cause. The list of speakers, attendees and contributors included the who’s who of CanLit: Joy Kogawa, Al Purdy, Stan Persky, Lee Maracle, Patrick Lane, Lorna Crozier, Marilyn Bowering and many others.

Standing on High Ground: Civil Disobedience on Burnaby Mountain Edited by Rosemary Cornell, Adrienne Drobnies and Tim Bray (Between the Lines)

This book consists of 25 first-hand stories of individuals who have been convicted of contempt of court — many sentenced to jail — for protesting the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline on Burnaby Mountain, a project that continues to be the subject of vigorous protests despite having been completed for some time. Those arrested include people with a long, admirable history of protest, and some who are new to it. They include Indigenous leaders, academics, religious leaders, political leaders, engineers, artists, writers, scientists, physicians and people from all walks of life.

We All Want to Change the World: My Journey Through Social Justice Movements from the 1960s to Today By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld (Crown Publishing)

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was widely viewed as one of the best professional basketball players until his retirement in 1989. He has also been a lifelong social justice activist. The book is a rich, fascinating history of protests in the United States from the post-Second World War civil rights movement to the present. It covers the anti-war movement in the United States during its war on Vietnam, the women’s liberation movement and the gay rights movement, and closes with an assessment of the value of protests, along with some very valuable practical advice.

For the curler in your life:

Curling Rocks! Chronicles of the Roaring Game By John Cullen (Douglas & MacIntyre)

The very Canadian sport of curling can be mystifying to newbies and is often (unfairly) the butt of jokes. Teacher, comedian and curling analyst John Cullen has been doing a lot of heavy lifting to showcase the game and its lore, first in his popular Broomgate podcast on CBC and now in a book filled with lively stories about the sport. In a time when loneliness and isolation is a persistent concern, the roaring game — with its emphasis on sportsmanship, social gathering and community connections — might just be what we need.

For your nature loving niblings:

The Land Knows Me: A Nature Walk Exploring Indigenous Wisdom By Leigh Joseph, illustrated by Natalie Schnitter (Epic Ink)

There are plenty of British Columbia field guides to plants out there from the settler scientist point of view. Leigh Joseph’s The Land Knows Me: A Nature Walk Exploring Indigenous Wisdom is not that kind of book. Written with children aged six to 11 in mind, The Land Knows Me is part field guide, part picture book and part Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Sníchim–English dictionary, with some family-friendly activities and recipes added for good measure. Lush, colour-drenched illustrations by Natalie Schnitter help capture the beauty of these plants that words alone can’t convey.

Featuring 15 plants local to the unceded Sḵwx̱wú7mesh territories also known as the Lower Mainland of B.C., readers from the small to the tall will learn about the different human uses for these plants, their history with the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh nation and harvesting tips and techniques.

**For folks who love Montreal and their best friend (in equal measure): **

Cannon By Lee Lai (Drawn & Quarterly)

Australian author and Montreal resident Lee Lai’s graphic novel takes its title from the story’s central protagonist. Cannon works in an upscale Montreal eatery, overseen by a creepy boss. In addition to the oppressive heat both inside and outside the kitchen, she is also contending with a variety of issues, including aging relatives and a complicated relationship with Trish, her best friend.

Trish has her own problems: her casual sexual hookups have become overlaid with sticky emotion and she’s suffering from serious writers’ block, as well the dawning realization that she, too, might have complex feelings for her longtime friend.

All the drama unfolds against the meticulously observed background of summertime Montreal. After Lai’s award-winning graphic novel Stone Fruit, Cannon cements her as an astute chronicler of contemporary queer life.

With razor-sharp drawing and a gentle approach to the most intricate nuances of love and family, it is wise, funny and heartbreaking, all at the same time.

For the friend who says, ‘I’d rather read the book before the movie comes out:’

Project Hail Mary By Andy Weir (Ballantine Books)

Featuring aliens, a high school science teacher and a final chance to save the world, Project Hail Mary is a thrilling (and oftentimes hilarious) read about an unlikely pair of protagonists. The book follows Ryland Grace, a reluctant teacher thrust into the role of astronaut. His task is to find out why an alien-like microbe is eating parts of the sun, blocking its rays and slowly destroying life on Earth. Written by the author of The Martian, the book will similarly invite readers into the thoughts of a man on an isolated mission — until unexpected help arrives. Read Project Hail Mary before it’s turned into a movie starring Ryan Gosling early next year.

For the yuletide reader who delights in a little horror with their eggnog:

The Hunger We Pass Down By Jen Sookfong Lee (McClelland & Stewart)

The dark artistry of Vancouver author Jen Sookfong Lee is in full effect in her latest novel, a gothic horror story that explores intergenerational trauma, motherhood and femininity through the experiences of racialized immigrant women. “You unsettled me,” Tyee associate editor Harrison Mooney told Lee, as a compliment, in an interview about the book this fall. “You gave me that sick, dreadful feeling that good horror makes you sit in and stew, thinking, why do I like this stuff? And it’s a feeling that has really stayed with me.” Macabre and memorable, this book was an instant national bestseller for good reason. It showcases Lee at the height of her powers. She speaks truth to the real-life horrors that are most effectively explored in fiction because it allows us to see them with fresh eyes.

For the mystery obsessive looking for comfort food:

The Black Wolf By Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)

With a devoted, nay obsessive following, author Louise Penny can certainly draw a crowd. In this, the 20th outing for her world-weary hero Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec, the stakes are vertiginously high.

Before launching into this most recent iteration of the long-running series, it is helpful to read Penny’s previous novel The Grey Wolf, which sets the stage for its even darker successor. In amongst the more perilous stuff, there are moments of supreme comfort afforded by the village of Three Pines, Quebec. Home to Gamache and his wife, the town boasts quirky residents, an outsized portion of intrigue and an excellent café, where the residents meet up to dish with the detective.

Cue up the international intrigue, including a dicey bit of a U.S. and Canada conflagration and it’s off we go! Penny’s novel is perfect a holiday read, when you want something that balances light and dark, cozy comfort and hair-raising danger.

With contributions from andrea bennett, Amanda Follett Hosgood, Katie Hyslop, Josh Kozelj, Andrew MacLeod, Leo McGrady, Tyler Olsen, Carla Pellegrini, Jen St. Denis, Jackie Wong and Dorothy Woodend.