If you’re not one of the few who gets a thrill from gift shopping, you’re likely feeling the dread that comes with the annual hunt for that perfect thing. Thankfully, books always rise to the occasion. They’re personal yet practical, heartfelt yet easy to wrap, and, best of all, they show you really know the person you’re gifting to.

These eight titles from independent Canadian publishers are ready to charm everyone on your list, from the fantasy-loving friend to the cousin who longs to recite poetry by the fire. When you shop independent, you’re not just giving a book — you’re supporting local presses and the writers who help define Canada’s literary landscape.

(And if you missed yesterday’s eight recommendations, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.)

Now, on to today’s picks...

For the lover of Canadian forests who fights to preserve them

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

“I am a protector, not a criminal,” said Christine Lowther when speaking to the judge following her arrest for taking part in the 1992 blockades against clearcut logging in Clayoquot Sound. In Blockade, Lowther recounts the vibrant and tense atmosphere of confronting police and loggers with non-violent civil disobedience.

For the person in your life who has dedicated their life to climate activism, Blockade is a celebration of resilience and a powerful account of successful environmental activism. And for others on the sidelines, this book “will make you want to quit your job and join the nearest blockade,” as noted by Dana Lyons, a comedian and activist.

For anyone who enjoys wit, humour and trenchant social commentary

A Sign of the Times: The Best of the Penthouse Marquee By Benjamin Jackson and Aaron Chapman (Anvil Press)

For nearly 80 years, the Penthouse Nightclub has been home to some of Vancouver’s naughtiest behaviour. But lately, it’s the nightclub’s neon marquee that hangs over its sidewalk that has become the talk of the town, its comic and witty messages going viral on social media and being mentioned on talk shows and news reports around the world.

From teasing Taylor Swift to chiding the Vancouver Canucks. Presidents and politicians, brands and businesses, celebrities and sports figures, they’ve all been fair game for the marquee to poke some gentle fun at, turning heads and stopping traffic on downtown Vancouver’s Seymour Street. With colour photos throughout, this is a great gift for any of the jokers or neon-light lovers on your list.

For and about those who resist and speak up

Razing Palestine: Punishing Solidarity and Dissent in Canada Edited by Leila Marshy (Baraka Books)

“This anthology is subversive in the most positive sense of the word,” says physician and writer Gabor Maté.

More bombs are dropped on Gaza than in the Second World War; more children killed, wounded and orphaned than in any other conflict of this century; more journalists and health-care workers killed than in any other conflict ever; and an entire region is reduced to dust.

Those who speak about the carnage are punished by censure, sanction, smearing and worse. Across Canada — and internationally — journalists are muzzled, academics are stifled, doctors are fired, activists are arrested, and artists are banned. Words such as “genocide” and “ceasefire” (even “Palestine”) have been excised from the vocabulary, and criticism of the conflict invites accusations of antisemitism.

And yet we are to accept and say nothing. This book is by, about and for those who resist and speak up.

For those who recognize the power of music to spark change

The World So Wide By Zilla Jones (Cormorant Books)

The world is a wide and wonderful stage of potential for the soprano Felicity Alexander, but it’s also the place where she struggles to become the great performer her talent promises. Felicity grows up in Winnipeg, showing great promise at an early age. Accepted into a prestigious music program in London, she meets law students from Grenada who are preparing to return home to overthrow the corrupt colonial system. The bonds she forms with one of these men, Claude, will remain with her for the rest of their lives, up to October 1983, when they are under house arrest and Grenada is in the throes of a counter-revolution and subsequent invasion from American sources.

Catherine Hernandez, critically acclaimed author of Scarborough, praises The World So Wide with a “standing ovation and flowers thrown at Jones’ feet for this brilliant first novel.”

For the nature-loving reader who knows stories are the roots of resistance

The Other Shore By Rebecca Campbell (Stelliform Press)

Rebecca Campbell, winner of the Ursula K. LeGuin Prize for Fiction for Arboreality, returns with The Other Shore, a luminous collection of west coast stories that invite readers to imagine transformation before it’s too late. Rooted in British Columbia’s forests and shorelines, these tales reveal what we stand to lose if we fail to act — and what we might still become if we do. Strangely visionary and deeply wise, The Other Shore speaks to those who know that stories are the foundation of the fight ahead.

For readers interested in poetry, translation and feminist decolonial practices in the arts

Tamil Terrains: poems. translations. reflections Edited by Nedra Rodrigo and Geetha Sukumaran (trace press)

What happens when a 2,000-year-old language, rooted in a classical poetics of land, is moved, along with its peoples, through colonial and post-colonial upheavals, war and forced or voluntary migrations?

Questioning traditional concepts of time, place, labour, love, purity and gender, this prismatic collection of poems, translations and transcreations moves fluidly between Tamil and English, drawing vital connections between ancient Sangam landscapes and North America’s Indigenous lands, and between classical love poems and Southeast Asian migrant labour songs — tending, with care, the wounded memories of fisher-people, plantation workers and undocumented refugees.

For those surmounting the tiny tragedies and domestic outrages of everyday life

The Colour of Dried Bones By Lesley Belleau (Kegedonce Press)

Lesley Belleau’s debut The Colour of Dried Bones is a gem from the Kegedonce Press backlist that never got the attention it deserved when it appeared in 2008. So, for the person on your shopping list intent on reading all of the Indigenous lit independent publishers have to offer, get them this stellar collection of interlinked short stories that trace the journey of a young Anishinaabekwe (Anishinaabe woman) through the perilous shoals of family, relationships, intimacy and culture. The world is at once full of promise and the threat of promises broken, full of wounds in various states of healing, and full of people that fly together and apart seemingly at random. This book is for anyone who revels in the upward, downward and sideways trajectories of contemporary Indigeneity.

For the travellers who want to experience the world

Following Shimun By Laure Morali, translated by Howard Scott (Mawenzi House Publishers)

In this immersive memoir, Laure Morali recounts her time living with the Innu people in the heart of the Quebec-Labrador Peninsula. Arriving in Quebec from France, she travels to the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. Beyond Tadoussac, well into Innu territory, she stops at Ekuanitshit. She meets sisters Penassin and Nuenau, and their father, Shimun, who make her one of their family. She immerses herself in the Innu way of life and learns of their folklore, their joys and their attachment to the north.

Morali paints a stirring picture of the Innu people. “In a language that derives its poetry from the landscapes that its author crosses,” says Dominic Tardif at Le Devoir, “this story provides us with a double lesson in generosity, highlighting the sense of hospitality of the Innu, but at the same time reflecting Laure Morali’s infinite gratitude to those who revealed it to her.”

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Close out your shopping list and purchase any of these titles via the supplied links! Or, support local this holiday season by visiting your favourite independent bookstore.

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