Whether you’re travelling abroad, heading to the cottage or staying in town this summer, you can enjoy a bit of Kingston and Frontenac County wherever you go with a book from one of our many talented local authors. From essays and poetry to memoirs, mysteries and recipe books, our writers offer something for everyone!
Cleaning Up by Leanne Lieberman
Set in Kingston and Westport, this story’s complicated teen characters and its themes of family dysfunction, addiction and the healing power of gardening, will resonate with many young adults. Ages 13+.
A Spy In The House: The Agency Series Book 1 by Y.S. Lee
In this fast-paced first book of The Agency trilogy from Kingstonian Ying S. Lee, feisty orphan and thief-turned-spy Mary Quinn investigates stolen artifacts from India and soon finds herself immersed in Victorian London’s gritty underworld of lies, secret alliances and danger. Mystery readers who love Enola Holmes will also love Mary Quinn! Ages 13+
Alfabet/Alphabet by Sadiqa de Meijer
Dutch-born author and Kingston’s current Poet Laureate, Sadiqa de Meijer, reflect on her experiences learning English as a second language and the broader influence of language and culture on memory, connection and identity. Winner of the 2021 Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction, this short but powerful book is for those who wish to ponder all that may be lost in translation.
Clouds Without Heaven by Mary Cameron
In this book of poetry, Kingston resident and former editor of Quarry Magazine and PRISM International, Mary Cameron, takes the reader on a sweeping exploration of the life and art of renowned 19th-century French artist Paul Cezanne. Evocative and sensuous, Cameron’s poems provoke a more intimate understanding of the artist and his subjects.
The Good Father by Wayne Grady
Told in alternating perspectives, this story recounts the painful, complex relationship between Daphne and her father, Harry. Estrangement and reconciliation, addiction and recovery, perception and reality are prominent themes in this poignant, well-written family drama from Kingston’s Wayne Grady.
Out of Old Ontario Kitchens by Lindy Mechefske
Part cookbook, part historical text and part artful scrapbook, Mechefske’s book about Ontario’s early culinary history is as informative as it is beautiful. Using recipes, old photographs, botanical illustrations, newspaper clippings and advertisements to enhance her meticulous research, Mechefske celebrates the resilience of early settlers, especially the women.
Rabbit Foot Bill by Helen Humphreys
There is plenty of menace and foreboding in this haunting novel from former Kingston Poet Laureate and award-winning author, Helen Humphreys. Based on a real murder that took place in Saskatchewan in the 1940s, this gripping fictitious account delves into the impact of trauma on the human mind.
Reaching Mithymna: Among The Volunteers And Refugees On Lesvos by Steven Heighton
Perhaps best known for his poetry for which he won the 2016 Governor General’s Award, local writer Steven Heighton also wrote this unflinching memoir of his time at a Syrian refugee camp in Greece during the height of the refugee crisis in 2015. Both gut-wrenching and compelling, Reaching Mithymna memorializes Heighton as both a brilliant storyteller and a compassionate citizen of the world.
Screen Captures: Film In The Age of Emergency by Stephen Lee Naish
With incisiveness and an inveterate amount of pop culture knowledge, Kingston writer and culture critic, Stephen Lee Naish, explores the intersectionality of cinema, politics and society in his latest collection of essays, Screen Captures. Tackling everything from capitalism, North Korea and Star Wars to robots and the rise of social media, Naish enlightens and entertains, all the while revealing movies to be the mirrors of our own humanity and hubris.
Sometime Daughter by Melanie Dugan
Living in a nursing home after a series of strokes, Ruth Tyler wants to reconcile with her estranged daughter, Annie, but must first come to terms with her past. Proud, stubborn and reminiscent of Margaret Laurence’s renowned protagonist, Hagar Shipley, Ruth will endear herself to readers as she strives to break the family cycle of anger and pain.
The Truth About Luck: What I Learned On My Road Trip With Grandma by Iain Reid
Before writing his critically acclaimed psychological thrillers, I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, Foe and We Spread, well-known Kingston author Iain Reid published this delightful and funny memoir about his 92 year-old grandmother. Full of wisdom about aging and what it truly means to be lucky, not to mention Kingston landmarks, readers of all genres will appreciate this heartfelt book from one of Kingston’s literary icons.
Woman, Watching by Merilyn Simonds
Simonds’ latest book is an engrossing biography of a remarkable woman, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence, whose eventful life included serving as a nurse during WWI, being captured during the Russian civil war, rising to fame as the Dionne quintuplets’ nurse and then becoming a pioneering ornithologist and an award-winning nature writer. A must-read for history buffs and bird lovers alike.
