Sun, Stories, and the Lit Crew: Summer Diaries
- Devangana Sharma
- Jul 6
- 6 min read
Devangana Sharma| The Atlantic Muse| Summer Diaries| 2025-07-06
Sun’s out, books out. While some of us are busy choosing between a beach day or a boardwalk adventure, the Youth Ambassadors of Digitally Lit Our Stories Matter have already delved into this summer's most captivating Nova Scotia reads. With fantasy worlds that beat the July heat to detective stories, they have their bookmarks in the right places.
“Digitally Lit is a not-for-profit society that empowers Atlantic Canadian youth through digital literacy and storytelling. Our programs bolster community engagement with local books, stories, and art while celebrating diversity, advancing equity, and improving accessibility in the region's creative industries.”
Now you are probably asking: what are the coolest young readers of Atlantic Canada curling up with this summer? Look no further; your answer is right here (you may need to scroll). I have the titles and the tea ready to slip into your carry-on or display on your nightstand. It's time to get a pen and take some notes.
Julia Crocker
Instagram: @thebookishworm2
Name: Love, Life
Author: Berni Stapleton
Publisher: Breakwater Books
Julia’s Rating: 4/5
Excerpt: “Love, Life by Bernadine Stapleton was absolute poetry, it was so whimsical, magical, and full of imagination! I felt fully transported to the wonderful world of Italy while reading it!”
"A hilarious romp through love, food, and Italy. Do you love life? In this hilarious frolic through the hills of Italy, our heroine discovers the past is never really gone: it runs beside us our entire lives, just waiting to bite us in the arse. love, life is a made-up true fable about coming ou... t, going back in, getting fat, Italian food, and stalking the Piazzo Bernardini. It’s a haunting love story, transcending decades, countries, and heartbreak. A Newfoundlander in Italy offers the humour, optimism, and romantic yearning the world needs now. "
—Breakwater Books
Read full review at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DLd1uuluUMv/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Jorja Walker
Instagram: @chezzibooks
Name: Kira’s crossing
Author: Orysia Dawydiak
Publisher: Acorn Press Canada
Jorja’s Rating: 4/5
Excerpt: “What a great FIN-ale, haha get it? Kira’s Crossing…I enjoyed this book. It was a great story line to finish the series. I liked the twists and how Kira’s emotions were portrayed throughout the story.”
Five years had passed since Kira discovered that she was a mermaid adopted by a fisherman and his wife. Her birth parents were merrow royalty who had been imprisoned by their enemies, the shape shifting Finfolk. The Finfolk had also taken over Merhaven, the hereditary undersea home of the West Atlantic merrows. Encouraged by merrow clans and supported by the local fishing community, Kira decided to join a Merhaven recovery mission. Also volunteering for the operation was Janus, a mysterious, handsome young merrow from the North Sea, as well as several Spegars, large merrows from across the Atlantic, who hunted with spears. In the chaos that followed the mission, Kira found herself on an unexpected journey that would take her across the continent and a fight for her own survival.
— Acorn Press Canada
Read full review at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DLi2qYVJKqr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Rain
Instagram: @rainsbookreviews
Name: The Book of Letters I Didn’t Know Where to Send
Author: Steve Patterson
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
Rain’s Rating: 3.5/5
Excerpt: “The Book of Letters I Didn’t Know Where to Send delivers well-crafted humour and smart observations with a distinct voice. While its more dated political references may not land for every reader, Patterson’s wit, honesty, and originality make this collection an enjoyable and memorable read.”
Steve Patterson's The Book of Letters I Didn't Know Where to Send is a collection of — wait for it — letters, written by award-winning stand-up comedian — you guessed it — Steve Patterson.
The host of CBC Radio's The Debaters since 2007, Steve Patterson has become a household name, with more than 700,000 listeners tuning in each week. He has performed at several of the Just for Laughs prestigious televised galas, including one hosted by Steve Martin. Considered to be the highlight of the show by the audience and critics alike, Patterson's performance prompted the legendary Martin to quip, "If I'd known he was going to be THAT good, I would have cancelled him."
Patterson's letters, long a staple of his stand-up comedy routine, address a number of recipients, from real people, to groups, to inanimate objects and concepts. He airs grievances, offers support or creates just plain confusion in unplainly humorous prose.
From the political to the personal, from the philosophical to the mundane, no subject — or target — is off limits. Patterson's letters may not change the world, but frankly, it's too early to tell. In these letters, he pleads, begs, cajoles, grovels, and always makes a compelling argument. He would like men to stop wearing Spandex bike shorts. He would like airlines to stop selling seats they don't have. He would like gluten to explain itself. He would like his nine-year-old self to know everything will be all right...
— Goose Lane Editions
Read full review at: https://www.digitallylit.ca/product-page/the-book-of-letters-i-didn-t-know-where-to-send
Fifi Chen
Instagram: @fifisbookworld09
Name: Nosy Parker
Author: Lesley Crewe
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing
Fifi’s Rating: 4/5
Excerpt: “I enjoyed this novel so much! This book had me hooked from the start, and it was super hard to put it down!”
It’s 1967 in Montreal, the Expo is in full swing, and Audrey Parker has just moved with her dad to Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a whole new neighbourhood full of different kinds of people to spy on. Audrey is a lot of things: articulate, disarming, forthright. And, as her father reminds her often, indecently nosy.
Audrey scribbles every observation down in her notebooks — from which foods her new teacher eats for lunch, to how blue the water is in Greece, to what time the one-legged man across the street gets home. She is certain she will soon root out a murderer or uncover a mystery. But there’s only one mystery that really matters to her: her mother. Who was she? How did she die? Why won’t her father ever talk about her?
Over a year of Audrey’s life, we bike with her through the streets of NDG, encountering stray animals, free-range kids, and adults both viciously cruel and wonderful. And we walk with Audrey across the threshold from childhood to adolescence, where she will discover the truth about her mother.
Balancing humour and sadness as expertly as ever, author Lesley Crewe — who has so often captured Cape Breton perfectly on the page — turns her incisive observations for the first time to the NDG of the 1960s, where she grew up.
— Nimbus Publishing
Read full review at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DLM5o1Ysd06/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Violet Nam
Instagram: @bookshelfaesthetics
Name: Lost & Found in Lunenburg
Author: Jane Doucet
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing
Violet’s Rating: 4.5/5
Excerpt: “Doucet writes with warmth, infusing humor into moments of vulnerability and grief. Her descriptions of Lunenburg are so vivid, you can almost smell the salt air and hear the buzz of conversation at the local cafe.”
A quirky, tender work of contemporary fiction about grief, love, and starting again at middle-age set in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, from the author of The Pregnant Pause and Fishnets & Fantasies.
“That’s the problem with loving someone, isn’t it?” said Margot with a ghost of a smile. “If you have a heartbeat, you’re bound to get your heart broken. Not just once, but over and over again… But the joy that happens in between the meetings and the partings makes it all worthwhile.”
Rose Ainsworth, the affable protagonist in Jane Doucet’s debut novel, The Pregnant Pause, is back in this candid, compelling look at midlife love, loss, and new beginnings. Rose and Jim, her husband of almost twenty years, have been living happily in Halifax, Nova Scotia, since moving from Toronto more than a decade earlier. With a satisfying career, two sweet rescue mutts, and her family nearby, Rose’s life is golden — until one day, her world unexpectedly implodes.
Widowed suddenly soon after her fiftieth birthday, Rose is addled by grief. Could that be why three months later, she decides to buy her friend Wendy Hebb’s sex shop in the tiny coastal community of Lunenburg? As she rushes to rent her house and store her belongings, her older sister, Daisy, worries that Rose is running away — from the home that she and Jim lived in together, and its constant reminders of what she’s lost.
When Rose lands in Lunenburg in a furnished condo with a year’s lease, a colourful cast of local characters keeps her from drowning in grief: a long-lost quirky cousin with a mysterious health condition; a busybody septuagenarian widow who pushes Rose to join a bereavement group; and a handsome restaurant owner who stirs feelings in Rose she isn’t ready to face.
As the condo’s lease creeps closer to its expiration date, Rose must make a choice — continue carving out her new life in Lunenburg, or move back to her Halifax home? Jane Doucet’s trademark heart and humour, along with the return of beloved characters from The Pregnant Pause and Fishnets & Fantasies, make Lost & Found in Lunenburg feel like a long-overdue catch-up with old friends.
— Nimbus Publishing
Read full review at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DK5paCNsw3O/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Summer doesn’t last forever—but the books you read definitely do. Every title in this list was chosen with care and maybe a little chaos (in true summer spirit), but trust me, if it made the cut, it’s worth the hype. These stories aren’t just recommendations; they are time capsules that represent what it means to be young, curious, and completely lit (pun intended).
Until next time,
Stay booked.
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