Valentine’s Day Book List

Valentine’s Day is not just for celebrating romantic relationships anymore! We are here for Palentine’s Day, Galentine’s Day, and all of the other variations that allow us to celebrate all the cherished relationships in our lives.

And what better way to celebrate than with a list of books with meaningful relationships— platonic and romantic— at the core of their stories? We hope you enjoy!

GONE FISHIN’
by Kat Simmers and Ryan Danny Owen

Pass Me By: Gone Fishin is a touching and tender graphic novel following Ed, a reserved man dealing with dementia in a small, northern-Canadian town. As Ed’s memory declines he loses touch with the present and revisits a past he chose to forget. Make sure to have the next title in the series, Pass Me By: Electric Vice, on standby for when you finish Gone Fishin.

Pass Me By: Gone Fishin’

Kat Simmers, Ryan Danny Owen

Published: Nov 06, 2019 by Renegade Arts Entertainment
ISBN: 9781988903590

ORDINARY DEATHS
by Samuel LeBaron

Samuel LeBaron reminds us of our need for human connection when experiencing death and loss. Based on more than thirty years of working with children and adults dying from cancer, LeBaron’s memoir reveals a life of vital, intimate connection with others.

Ordinary Deaths: Stories from Memory

Samuel LeBaron

Published: Jul 26, 2022 by University of Alberta Press
ISBN: 9781772126563

MUSTER POINTS
by Lucas Crawford

A journey through a breakup, depression, love, kink, three major cities, and the power, pleasure and pain of queer love, Muster Points is a work of searing confessional poetry from award-winning author Lucas Crawford. This June 2023 new release from University of Calgary Press is a must add to your TBR shelf.

Muster Points

Lucas Crawford

Published: Jun 15, 2023 by University of Calgary Press
ISBN: 9781773854533

ASHOONA, DAUGHTER OF THE WINDS
by Yvonne Harris

Based on the inspiring, true story of a young Inuit woman who is abandoned and left to fend for herself in the unforgiving Arctic North, this coming-of-age tale celebrates the indomitable will to survive at any cost. Set against the backdrop of the frigid North, Ashoona must fight for her life and liberty against her arranged marriage to a much older man she hates. Reaching maturity, finding independence, and fighting for the relationship she wants, Ashoona overcomes incredible odds to make a change.

Ashoona, Daughter of the Winds: An Inuit Woman's Journey

Yvonne Harris

Published: Dec 22, 2011 by Eschia Books
ISBN: 9781926696195

THE CINE STAR SALON
by Leah Ranada

Philippine-born Vancouverite Sophia is most grateful for two things: her modest hair salon and Adrian, her mild-mannered fiancé. She is eager to get married and move away from her highly educated but career-frustrated parents. But when Sophia has to come to the aid of her auntie, she worries helping might reopen old wounds and threaten the bright future she has planned.

Cine Star Salon, The

Leah Ranada

Published: Oct 01, 2021 by NeWest Press
ISBN: 9781774390320

LOVE & RULES
by Lee McLean

Love & Rules is an “inspiring and courageous account of life and love” — told through one woman’s lifelong relationship with horses. From Canada’s beloved horsewoman, Lee McLean, this collection of essays covers the spectrum of love, fear, winning, loss, aging, growth, illness and recovery.

Love & Rules: Life Lessons Learned with Horses

Lee McLean

Published: Nov 18, 2022 by Red Barn Books Inc.
ISBN: 9781989915080

SISTERS OF THE NORTH
by Emily Kirkham

Sisters of the North is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility told through the lens of two impoverished sisters facing life in a Northern BC oil town similar to Fort MacMurray. After their con man of a father dies, sisters Ellie and Valerie are left with his debts. Struggling to make ends meet, Ellie takes out her frustrations playing beer league hockey at the local rink, while Valerie trades her job as a bar waitress for a more lucrative one as a stripper. Throughout everything, they have each other.

Sisters of the North: A Modern Retelling of Sense and Sensibility

Emily Kirkham

Published: May 30, 2022 by Dragon Hill Publishing
ISBN: 9781896124803

THE LOVER, THE LAKE
by Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau, translated by Susan Ouriou

A spellbinding novel celebrating Indigenous sensuality, The Lover, The Lake is an English translation of the first erotic novel written by an Indigenous woman in French.

At a time when Indigenous peoples were being dispossessed of their land and history as well as their relationship to the body, the love explored by Wabougouni and Gabriel in this novel is an act of defiance. Their intimate connection plays out on the shores of Lake Abitibi in an affair as turbulent and unfathomable as the lake itself.

The Lover, the Lake

Valentine’s Day Book List