10 Most Anticipated Canadian Releases in Early 2022

Happy Tuesday y’all! Jana has us listing our most anticipated books of the first half of 2022 for the first Top Ten Tuesday. In a twist of irony, the ten books I’m sharing are all by female authors. And they also just so happen to be Canadian. Some are Canadian by birth, though they may have moved to another country, and others came to Canada later in their lives and are now sharing their stories. There’s a mix of non-fiction, historical fiction, and contemporary. But I have a feeling they will all leave me thinking! Want to see my 10 Most Anticipated Canadian Releases for January-June 2022?

I have presented these books in order of their Canadian release date. The synopsis is from Goodreads, and the cover image is from Amazon. Now let’s check out this list!

People Change by Vivek Shraya

Vivek Shraya knows this to be true: people change. We change our haircuts and our outfits, and our minds. We change names, titles, labels. We attempt to blend in or to stand out. We outgrow relationships; we abandon dreams for new ones; we start fresh. We seize control of our stories. We make resolutions.

In fact, nobody knows this better than Vivek, who’s made a career of wearing many hats: artist, performer, musician, writer, model, teacher. In People Change, she reflects on the origins of this impulse, tracing it to childhood influences from Hinduism to Madonna. What emerges is a meditation on change itself: why we fear it, why we’re drawn to it, what motivates us to change, and what traps us in place.

At a time when we’re especially contemplating who we want to be, this slim and stylish handbook is an essential companion–a guide to embracing our many selves and the inspiration to discover who we’ll become next.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank by Rosemary Sullivan

Over thirty million people have read The Diary of a Young Girl, the journal teen-aged Anne Frank kept while living in an attic with her family in Amsterdam during World War II, until the Nazis arrested them and sent Anne to her death in a concentration camp. But despite the many works—journalism, books, plays, and novels—devoted to Anne’s story, none has ever conclusively explained how the Franks and four other people managed to live in hiding undetected for over two years—and who or what finally brought the Nazis to their door.

With painstaking care, former FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and a team of indefatigable investigators pored over tens of thousands of pages of documents—some never-before-seen—and interviewed scores of descendants of people involved, both Nazi sympathizers and resisters, familiar with the Franks. Utilizing methods developed by the FBI, the Cold Case Team painstakingly pieced together the months leading to the Franks’ arrest—and came to a shocking conclusion. 

The Betrayal of Anne Frank is their riveting story. Rosemary Sullivan introduces us to the investigators, explains the behavior of both the captives and their captors, and profiles a group of suspects. All the while, she vividly brings to life wartime Amsterdam: a place where no matter how wealthy, educated, or careful you were, you never knew whom you could trust. 

Good Girl Complex by Elle Kennedy

Mackenzie “Mac” Cabot is a people pleaser. Her demanding parents and prep school friends. Her long-time boyfriend. It’s exhausting, really, always following the rules. Unlike most twenty-year-olds, all she really wants to do is focus on growing her internet business, but first, she must get a college degree at her parents’ insistence. That means moving to the beachside town of Avalon Bay, a community made up of locals and the wealthy students of Garnet College.

Mac’s had plenty of practice suppressing her wilder impulses, but when she meets local bad boy Cooper Hartley, that ability is suddenly tested. Cooper is rough around the edges. Raw. Candid. A threat to her ordered existence. Their friendship soon becomes the realest thing in her life.

Despite his disdain for the trust-fund kids he sees coming and going from his town, Cooper soon realizes Mac isn’t just another rich clone and falls for her. Hard. But as Mac finally starts feeling accepted by Cooper and his friends, the secret he’s been keeping from her threatens the only place she’s ever felt at home.

Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland’s Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World by Eliza Reid

The Canadian First Lady of Iceland pens a book about why this tiny nation is leading the charge in gender equality in the vein of The Moment of Lift.

Iceland is the best place on earth to be a woman—but why?

For the past twelve years, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report has ranked Iceland number one on its list of countries closing the gap in equality between men and women. What is it about Iceland that enables its society to make such meaningful progress in this ongoing battle, from electing the world’s first female president to passing legislation specifically designed to help even the playing field at work and at home?

The answer is found in the country’s sprakkar, an ancient Icelandic word meaning extraordinary or outstanding women.

Eliza Reid—Canadian born and raised, and now first lady of Iceland—examines her adopted homeland’s attitude toward women. From the deep-seated cultural sense of fairness, the influence of current and historical role models, and, crucially, the areas where Iceland still has room for improvement. Throughout, she interviews dozens of sprakkar to tell their inspirational stories and expertly weaves in her own experiences as an immigrant from small-town Canada. The result is an illuminating discussion of what it means to move through the world as a woman and how the rules of society play more of a role in who we view as equal than we may understand.

What makes many women’s experiences there so positive? And what can we learn about fairness to benefit our society?

Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement by Toufah Jallow

In 2015, Toufah Jallow was the nineteen-year-old daughter of the second wife in her Muslim father’s polygamous household. Her mother, outwardly conforming, had made sure that her daughter was educated and had ambitions of her own. Dreaming of a scholarship and the support to produce and tour a play about how to eradicate poverty in The Gambia, Toufah entered a presidential competition, sometimes called a beauty pageant in the media, designed to identify the country’s smart young women and support their educational and career goals. Toufah won.

Yahya Jammeh, the dictator who had ruled The Gambia all of Toufah’s life, styled himself as a pious yet progressive protector of women. At first, he behaved in a fatherly fashion toward Toufah, but then he proposed marriage. When she turned him down, his cousin lured her to the palace on a pretext, where Jammeh drugged and raped her. Toufah could not tell anyone what had happened. Not only was there no word for rape in her native language, but if she confided in her parents, she knew they would take action, exposing them all to Jammeh’s wrath, and worse–his critics were routinely imprisoned, tortured, and murdered. To silence and control her, Jammeh had her followed. When his cousin sent for her again, she knew she couldn’t stay in The Gambia. Wearing a niqab to hide her identity, she fled to Senegal, telling no one so she could keep them safe. Despite mounting pressure from the Gambian government, which claimed she was a “runaway teen,” Senegalese authorities put her in contact with international humanitarian organizations, and she found refuge in Canada.

Eighteen months after Jammeh was deposed, in July 2019, Toufah Jallow became the first woman in The Gambia to make a public accusation of rape against him. Her testimony sparked marches of support and launched a social media outpouring of shared stories among West African women under #IAmToufah, setting Toufah Jallow on the path to reclaiming the future that Yahya Jammeh had tried to steal from her, a future of advocacy and leadership for survivors of sexual violence in The Gambia and beyond.

The School of Mirrors by Eva Stachniak

A scintillating, gorgeously written historical novel about a mother and a daughter in eighteenth-century France, beginning with decadence and palace intrigue at Versailles and ending in an explosive new era of revolution.

During the reign of Louis XV, impoverished but lovely teenage girls from all over France were sent to a discreet villa in the town of Versailles. Overseen by the King’s favorite mistress, Madame de Pompadour, they will be trained as potential courtesans for the King. When the time is right, each girl is smuggled into the palace of Versailles, with its legendary Hall of Mirrors. There they meet a mysterious but splendidly dressed man who they’re told is merely a Polish count, a cousin of the Queen. Living an indulgent life of silk gowns, delicious meals, and soft beds, the students at this “school of mirrors” rarely ask questions. When Louis tires of them, they are married to minor aristocrats or allowed to retire one of the more luxurious nunneries.

Beautiful and canny, Veronique arrives at the school of mirrors and quickly becomes a favorite of the King. But when she discovers her lover’s true identity, she is whisked away, sent to give birth to a daughter in secret, and then to marry a wealthy Breton merchant. There is no return to the School of Mirrors.

This is also the story of the King’s daughter by Veronique—Marie-Louise. Well-provided for in a comfortable home, Marie-Louise has never known her mother, let alone her father. Capable and intelligent, she discovers a passion for healing and science and becomes an accredited midwife, one of the few reputable careers for women like her. But eventually, Veronique comes back into her daughter’s life, bringing the secret of Marie-Louise’s birth. But the new King—Louis XVI—is teetering on his throne, and it’s a volatile time in France…and those with royal relatives must mind their step very carefully.

Love in a Time of War (The Three Fry Sisters #1) by Adrienne Chinn

In 1913, in a quiet corner of London, the three Fry sisters are coming of age, dreaming of all the possibilities the bright future offers. But when war erupts, their innocence is shattered, and a new era of uncertainty begins.

Cecelia loves Max, but his soldier’s uniform is German, not British, and suddenly the one man she loves is the one man she can’t have.

Jessie enlists in the army as a nurse and finally finds the adventure she’s craved when she’s sent to Gallipoli and Egypt, but it comes with an unimaginable cost.

Etta elopes to Capri with her Italian love, Carlo, but though her growing bump is real, her marriage certificate is a lie.

As the three sisters embark on journeys they never could have imagined, their mother, Christina, worries about the harsh new realities they face and what their exposure to the wider world means for the secrets she’s been keeping.

Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall

2017

When Angela Creighton discovers a mysterious letter containing a life-shattering confession in a stack of forgotten mail, she is determined to find the intended recipient. Her search takes her back to the 1970s when a group of daring women operated an illegal underground abortion network in Toronto known only by its whispered code name: Jane…

1971

As a teenager, Dr. Evelyn Taylor was sent to a home for “fallen” women where she was forced to give up her baby for adoption—a trauma she has never recovered from. Despite harrowing police raids and the constant threat of arrest, she joins the Jane Network as an abortion provider, determined to give other women the choice she never had.

1980

After discovering a shocking secret about her family history, twenty-year-old Nancy Mitchell begins to question everything she has ever known. When she unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she feels like she has no one to turn to for help. Grappling with her decision, she locates “Jane” and finds a place of her own alongside Dr. Taylor within the network’s ranks, but she can never escape the lies that haunt her.

Weaving together the lives of three women, Looking for Jane is an unforgettable debut about the devastating consequences that come from a lack of choice—and the enduring power of a mother’s love.

Jameela Green Ruins Everything by Zarqa Nawaz

Jameela Green only has one wish.

To see her memoir on the New York Times bestseller list. When her dream doesn’t come true, she seeks spiritual guidance at her local mosque. New imam and recent immigrant Ibrahim Sultan is appalled by Jameela’s shallowness but agrees to assist her on one condition: that she perform a good deed. 

Jameela reluctantly accepts his terms, kicking off a chain of absurd and unfortunate events. When the person the two do-gooders try to help is recruited by a terrorist group called DICK—Dominion of the Islamic Caliphate and Kingdoms—the federal authorities become suspicious of Ibrahim, and soon after, the imam mysteriously disappears.  

Certain that the CIA has captured Ibrahim for interrogation via torture, Jameela decides to set off on a one-woman operation to rescue him. Her quixotic quest soon finds her entangled in an international plan targeting the egomaniacal leader of the terrorist organization—a scheme that puts Jameela, and countless others, including her hapless husband and clever but disapproving daughter, at risk.  

Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner

Bloomsbury Books is an old-fashioned new and rare book store that has persisted and resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the general manager’s unbreakable fifty-one rules. But in 1950, the world is changing, especially the world of books and publishing, and at Bloomsbury Books, the girls in the shop have plans:

Vivien Lowry: Single since her aristocratic fiance was killed in action during World War II, the brilliant and stylish Vivien has a long list of grievances – most of them well justified and the biggest of which is Alec McDonough, the Head of Fiction.

Grace Perkins: Married with two sons, she’s been working to support the family following her husband’s breakdown in the aftermath of the war. Torn between duty to her family and dreams of her own.

Evie Stone: In the first class of female students from Cambridge permitted to earn a degree, Evie was denied an academic position in favor of her less accomplished male rival. Now she’s working at Bloomsbury Books while she plans to remake her own future.

As they interact with various literary figures of the time – Daphne Du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday, Sonia Blair (widow of George Orwell), Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim, and others – these three women with their complex web of relationships, goals, and dreams are all working to plot out a future that is richer and more rewarding than anything society will allow.

What do you think of my 10 Most Anticipated Canadian Releases January -June 2022? From my list, Bloomsbury Girls and Good Girl Complex have been on my radar the longest. Are there any that you’re adding to your list? What are some of your most anticipated releases?

Looking for some more ideas to read? Check out my monthly reading wrap-ups and bookish lists.