When June hit I was feeling quite proud of my myself. I'd purchased just eight books. I'd been picky, even at the charity shop, Between Friends/Entre Amis being my only purchase.
Of course, I paid no mind to that constraint, continuing apace until late August when contractors appeared at our door, bringing the year's book buying to an abrupt end
I ended up purchasing twenty-nine books in 2025, which is far from a disgrace when one takes into account the twelve Trollopes. This year's list of best buys is atypical in that it features two Canadian books I already owned, and another that is Canadian in title only:
Robert Barr
New York: Stokes, 1901
Hugh Clevely
London:
A novel set in a "provincial city" modeled on Brockville, Ontario, I'd been looking for a copy since buying a home in the area seven years ago. Cornell was born in nearby Athens Township and became a leading figure in cancer research. The jacket promises a "motif of woman-interest introduced in a rather unusual way." Intriguing!
Hugh Cresswell
London: Sampson Low,
Jan Hilliard [Hilda
I already owned a copy of Nelson, Foster & Scott first Canadian edition, but this was signed! The author's first true novel, it is one of only two set in Nova Scotia, the author's home province.
Morris should be remembered for having co-written 1965's The Squeaking Wheel, but that bigoted screed is as forgotten as his quirky debut novel A Voice is Calling (1947). I was going on about Morris to a friend when I remembered this second novel. The only copy listed online was signed. An easy sale.
Toronto: William Briggs, 1913
Early 20th-century Christian science fiction inspired in part by early 19th-century Washington Irving, in Looking Forward a pious man of science hibernates for decades, awakening to a Canada made utopian by the union of its Protestant denominations.
J.G. Sime
London: Grant Richards,
This book is in horrible condition, but is so very rare that I had to rescue it. The Quebec bookseller had no idea what he had.
Unrecognized in its day, the novel has since been returned to print by Tecumseh Press (sadly, also unrecognized).
Toronto: Longmans, 1961
Phyllis Brett Young
A thing of beauty, I first purchased a copy in Toronto six years ago. This memoir of sorts inspired by a summer spent as a girl in Muskoka is not only signed by the author but also inscribed by her mother as a gift to an English relative.
Twenty-twenty-five brought four generous donations to the Dusty Bookcase:
