To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold.
Welcome to December! As exam season winds down and campus fills with soft lights, quiet study sessions, and frosty mornings, we’re excited to share this month’s new arrivals. Whether you’re heading home, staying in Toronto, or taking a well-earned break, these books make wonderful companions for cozy afternoons, winter reflections, and holiday relaxation.
Be sure to stop by the New Books cart near the library entrance to browse the full selection of books before they make their way upstairs to the Stacks or downstairs to the Popular Reading Room. All titles are available through our library catalogue.
Our December Spotlight Picks:
Reading the Bible on Turtle Island
Stacks: BS476 .H65 2025
A powerful and necessary contribution to biblical studies, this book brings Indigenous perspectives into dialogue with Christian Scripture. It offers a grounded, reflective approach to reading the Bible in the context of land, community, and lived experience on Turtle Island. A thoughtful, timely choice for readers interested in theology, decolonial scholarship, or spiritual reflection.
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts
Stacks: PS8501 .T86 Z46 2025
A reflective, layered memoir that reads like a collage of personal history, identity, and emotional archaeology from Margaret Atwood. Atwood pieces together memory, place, and inner life with honesty and tenderness, creating a portrait that feels both intimate and universal. A strong pick for winter – quiet evenings when you want a book that lingers.
Earth Capital: The Long History of Capitalism and its Aftermath
Stacks: HB501 .S73 2026
A sweeping historical study that traces how capitalism shaped our modern world – and what comes after its ecological and economic limits are reached. Thoughtful, clear, and deeply relevant to current global conversations, this book is ideal for readers who want a sharper lens on the relationship between money, land, and our planetary future.
Queen Esther: A Novel
Popular Reading: PS3559 .R8 Q44 2025
A vivid retelling of the Esther story through a modern literary voice. This novel brings emotional depth, cultural texture, and a captivating narrative to one of history’s most enduring heroines. Great for readers who enjoy character-driven fiction rooted in tradition, courage, and identity.
General Collection
Literature:
- Dispersals: On Plants, Borders, and Belonging, by Jessica J. Lee – (Stacks PS8623 .E4423 D57 2024)
- I’ll Get Right on It: Poems on Working Life in the Climate Crisis, edited by The Land and Labour Poetry Collective – (Stacks PS8287 .C58 I55 2025)
- Procession, by Katherena Vermette – (Popular Reading: PS8643 .E74 P76 2025)
- Learning to live in the dark : essays in a time of catastrophe, by Wen Stephenson – (Stacks: QC903 .S74 2025)
- Myth, by Terese Mason Pierre – (Popular Reading: PS8631 .I4752 M98 2025)
- As the Earth dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories, edited by Terese Mason Pierre – (Popular Reading: PS8323 .S59 A83 2025)
- Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives, by Lucy Mangan – (Popular Reading: Z1039 .W65 M36 2025)
- Palaver: A Novel, by Bryan Washington – (Stacks: PS3623 .A86737 P35 2025)
- Still, by Joanna Cockerline – (Popular Reading: PS8605 .O27 S75 2025)
- Sugaring Off, by Fanny Britt – (Popular Reading: PS8603 .R5877 F3513 2024)
- We, the Kindling: A Novel (Popular Reading: PS8579 .K68 W4 2025)
- Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times, by Tracy K. Smith – (Popular Reading: PA3021.9 .S65 2025)
- What a Time to be Alive: A Novel, by Jenny Mustard – (Popular Reading: PR6113 .U85 W43 2025)
- There is No Blue, by Martha Baillie – (Popular Reading: PS8553 .A432 Z46 2023)
- The Incident Report, by Martha Baillie – (Popular Reading: PS8553 .A3658 I53 2025)
History & International Relations:
- Behind the Bricks: The Life and Times of the Mohawk Institute, Canada’s Longest-Running Residential School, edited by Richard W. Hill Sr., Alison Norman, Thomas Peace, and Jennifer Pettit – (Stacks: E96.6 .M65 B44 2025)
- The Writings of David Thompson, by David Thompson – (Stacks: FC3212.1 .T46 A3 2024)
- Vigilance is not Enough: A History of United States Intelligence, by Mark M. Lowenthal – (Stacks: JK468 .I6 L69 2025)
- Peacemaker: U Thant and the forgotten quest for a just world, by Thant Myint-U – (Stacks: D839.7 .T36 T36 2025)
- Till We Meet Again: A Canadian in the First World War, by Brandon Marriott – (Stacks: D640 .H37 M37 2025)
- The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan, by Lyse Doucet – (Stacks: DS371.4 .D68 2025)
- He Did Not Conquer: Benjamin Franklin’s Failure to Annex Canada, by Madelaine Drohan –(Stacks: FC161 .D76 2025)
- 1942: When World War II Engulfed the Globe, by Peter Fritzsche – (Stacks: D743 .F74 2025)
- Biafra: A Military History, by Roy Doron – (Stacks: DT515.836 .D67 2025)
- The Lost Chance in China and the Rise of Cold War Populism, by Stephen J. Hartnett – (Stacks: E183.8 .C5 H3454 2025)
- The Disunited States: Threats of Secession in Red and Blue America and Why they Won’t Work, by Ryan D. Griffiths – (Stacks: JK1726 .G745 2025)
- The Age of Change: How Urban Youth are Transforming African Politics, by Michelle D. Gavin – (Stacks: JQ1875 .G385 2025)
- Eclipsing the West: China, India & the Forging of a New World, by Vincent Cable- (Stacks: JZ1734 .C33 2025)
- Fallout: The Inside Story of America’s Failure to Disarm North Korea, by Joel S. Wit – (Stacks: E183.8 .K7 W58 2025)
- Shadow Cell: An Insider Account of America’s New Spy War, by Andrew Bustamante – (Stacks: JK468 .I6 B892 2025)
Sustainability:
- Escaping Nature: How to Survive Global Climate Change, by Orrin H. Pilkey – (Stacks: QC903 .P557 2024)
- Sink or Swim: Adapting to a Changing Climate, by Susannah Fisher – (Stacks: QH546 .F57 2025)
- Intersectional Activism in Environmental Communication: Changemakers Respond to Ecological Crises, edited by Emma Frances Bloomfield and José Castro-Sotomayor – (Stacks: QC902.9 .I58 2025)
- Learning to Live in the Dark: Essays in a Time of Catastrophe, by Wen Stephenson – (Popular Reading: QC903 .S74 2025)
- What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis, by Malcolm Harris – (Stacks: QC903 .H3688 2025)
- Before it’s Gone: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change in Small-Town America, by Jonathan Vigliotti – (Stacks: QC903.2 .U6 V54 2024)
- On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America, by Abrahm Lustgarten – (Stacks: QC903.2 .U6 L87 2024)
- Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment, edited by J. Timmons Roberts, Carlos R.S. Milani, Jennifer Jacquet and Christian Downie – (Stacks: GE195 .C55 2025)
- The Heat and the Fury: on the Frontlines of Climate Violence, by Peter Schwartzstein – (Stack: HM1121 .S39 2024)
- Tree Day: A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Arboreal Lives, by Margaret Lowman – (Stacks: QK475.6 .L69 2025)
- Against the Crisis: Economy & Ecology in a Burning World, by Ståle Holgersen –(Stacks: HB3722 .H6613 2024)
- Common Ground: How the Crisis of the Earth is Saving Us from our Illusion of Separation: Lessons in Resistance and Solidarity from the Movement to Protect Earth, by Eileen Flanagan – (Stacks: GE195 .F59 2025)
- Climate Justice, Climate Hope: Building a Moral Economy, by Michael Malcom –(Stacks: GE220 .M35 2025)
- The Elsewhere is Black: Ecological Violence & Improvised Life, by Marisa Solomon – (Stacks: GE240 .U6 S656 2025)
- Blockade: Diaries of a Forest Defender, by Christine Lowther – (Stacks: GE199 .C2 L69 2025)
- Climates of Migration: Ecology, Literature, and Propaganda, by Dominic Richard David Thomas – (Stacks: JV6225 .T46 2026)
Ethics, Society, and Law:
- Water Confidential: Witnessing Justice Denied – The Fight for Safe Drinking Water in Indigenous and Rural Communities in Canada, by Susan Blacklin – (Stacks: HD1696 .C2 B53 2024)
- Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong – (Stacks: HV1552.3 .D57 2020)
- The Long Shadow of Extraction: The Origins of Indigenous Autonomy Demands, by Christopher L. Carter – (Stacks: F2230.1 .G68 C37 2025)
- Legal Geographies of Water: The Spaces, Places and Narratives of Human-Water Relations, by Cristy Clark – (Stack: K3496 .C53 2025)
Theology Collection
- All Things Beautiful: An Aesthetic Christology, by Chris E. W Green – (Stacks: BR115 .A8 G74 2021)
- Being the People of God: Missional Ecclesiology for a New Generation,
edited by Paul Bradbury, Isabelle Hamley, Andy Smith – (Stacks: BV2063 .B45 2025) - Language in the Liturgy: Past, Present, Future, (Stacks: BX5141 .S687 2025)
- Eco-Freud from A to Z, by Michael Marder – (Stacks: BF175 .M37 2025)
John W. Graham Library News 