2025 ALU Spring Preview

Lauren’s Pick

I Want to Die in My Boots by Natalie Appleton (TouchWood Editions)

My guilty reading pleasure is a literary western, so imagine my delight to learn of I Want to Die in My Boots, a novel about the real-life outlaw Belle Jane. This mostly-true fictionalization of Belle’s life promises to take readers through Montana, Saskatchewan, and Penticton, BC, through her many loves, exploits, and losses. I’d never heard of Belle Jane before hearing about Natalie Appleton’s debut, but she is the exact kind of historical foremother we should be talking about when we talk about Canadian women’s history: cattle rustler, tarot reader, five-times married…in short, my hero. Is it April, yet?

Find I Want to Die in My Boots here on All Lit Up.

Publishing April

Mandy’s Pick

The Road Between Us by Bindu Suresh (Assembly Press)

Bindu Suresh (26 Knots) is back with another binge-worthy read: The Road Between Us is an episodic novel about four people whose lives are entangled, each struggling with the perils of being human. One battles PTSD from an abusive romantic relationship, another deals with being bisexual in the context of his traditional Indian immigrant family. There’s unrequited love, grief after death, the complexities of divorce—this novel promises to be a thoughtful character study told in Suresh’s signature poetic prose. I can’t wait to read it!

Find The Road Between Us here on All Lit Up.

Publishing May

Tan’s Pick

Palace Trash by Roger Fodjo (Guernica Editions)

Roger Fodjo’s Palace Trash promises historical mystery and fast-paced adventure with colonial underpinnings, and I am here for it! In it, a young man uncovers a horrible crime once committed by Louis XIV and the Kingdom of France  which continues to be kept secret today by the French Republic. The victim was a prince kidnapped from the Kingdom of Dahomey, now known as Benin, the same African country the young man hails from. Can he right this terrible wrong, or will he become a victim of the French authorities? 

Find Palace Trash here on All Lit Up.

Publishing May

Laura’s Pick

A Story Can Be Told About Pain by Lisa Martin (NeWest Press)

I’m excited to read Lisa Martin’s debut novel, as a longtime fan of her poetry and essays. The displaced teenaged protagonist and her new neighbours, and the setting backing onto a ruined asylum promise a rich story.

Find A Story Can Be Told About Pain here on All Lit Up.

Publishing May

Barb’s Pick

Ransacking Troy by Erin Shields (Playwrights Canada Press)

Having just finished The Song of Achilles, I’m really looking forward to Ransacking Troy, a radical retelling of the Trojan War with women at the forefront! It’s about time, is it not?

After nearly a decade of the Trojan War, the women of Greece are growing restless. Led by the indomitable Penelope and the fierce Clytemnestra, a band of Grecian women defy the odds and bravely set sail for the shores of Troy, determined to end the conflict themselves. The journey is fraught with danger—bloodthirsty warriors, mythical beasts, and the capricious will of the gods. But these women are no mere bystanders in the tales of men. Get ready to embark on the greatest adventure that Homer and Virgil never told.

Find Ransacking Troy here on All Lit Up.

Publishing May

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What are you looking forward to reading this spring? Let us know in the comments or on social @alllitupcanada.