Loan Stars is the readers’ advisory tool that allows libraries across Canada to indicate popular upcoming titles. Using LibraryData, the library data aggregation service, the forthcoming titles with the most orders become Loan Stars top picks!

The November Loan Stars Adult Canadian top 10 list features ten books that have at least one author, illustrator, translator, or editor (in the case of an edited collection of material) who is a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada.

You can see each book and find out a bit more about them in the list below, or you can download our poster if you want to display it, say in your library or on social media (tag us: @LoanStars!). You can also view these titles on CataList in this catalogue.

November 2024 Adult Canadian List

Loan Stars top pick:

We Who Wrestle with God

by Jordan B. Peterson 🍁

9780593542538 | Religion

Description:

In We Who Wrestle with God, Dr. Peterson guides us through the ancient, foundational stories of the Western world. In riveting detail, he analyzes the Biblical accounts of rebellion, sacrifice, suffering, and triumph that stabilize, inspire, and unite us culturally and psychologically. Adam and Eve and the eternal fall of mankind; the resentful and ultimately murderous war of Cain and Abel; the cataclysmic flood of Noah; the spectacular collapse of the Tower of Babel; Abraham’s terrible adventure; and the epic of Moses and the Israelites. What could such stories possibly mean? What force wrote and assembled them over the long centuries? How did they bring our spirits and the world together, and point us in the same direction?

It is time for us to understand such things, scientifically and spiritually; to become conscious of the structure of our souls and our societies; and to see ourselves and others as if for the first time.

Out in the Cold

by Steve Urszenyi 🍁

9781250879141 | Thrillers

Description:

While sailing across the Mediterranean, the megayacht Aurora is rocked with explosions, taken under siege by unknown assailants. On board are some of Europe’s wealthiest and most powerful political players, including the secretary general of Interpol, a high-ranking Finnish diplomat, and Special Agent Alex Martel—whose lethal sniper skills kick in to bring them safely to shore.

Someone is waging a ruthless campaign of attacks against Finland, one of NATO’s newest members, in an attempt to throw the Alliance into turmoil. Teaming back up with CIA agent Caleb, Alex is thrust into the middle of the fray, pursuing the villains from the waters off of Monaco to the Baltic Sea and home to American soil.

The Road of Bones

by Demi Winters 🍁

9780593975619 | Fantasy

Description:

Silla Nordvig is running for her life. The Queen of Íseldur has sent warriors to bring Silla to Sunnavík, where death awaits her. When her father is killed, his last words set Silla on a perilous quest: travel the treacherous Road of Bones—a thousand-mile stretch haunted by warbands, creatures of darkness, and a mysterious murderer—and go to Kopa, where a shield-house awaits her.

After barely surviving the first stretch of road, a desperate Silla sneaks into a supply wagon belonging to the notorious Bloodaxe Crew. To make it to Kopa, she must win over Axe Eyes, the brooding leader of the Crew, while avoiding the Wolf, his distractingly handsome right-hand man. All the while, the queen’s ruthless assassin hunts Silla obsessively. Will Silla make it safely to Kopa? Or will she fall prey to the perils of the Road of Bones?

Everyday Hockey Heroes, Volume III

by Jim Lang 🍁

9781982196547 | Sports & Recreation

Description:

In this heartfelt collection of personal hockey stories, sports broadcaster and author Jim Lang brings together the remarkable voices of hockey players, coaches, families, and fans who have overcome adversity and are championing the game they love—on and off the ice.

Read about former Humboldt Broncos defenceman Logan Boulet, whose selfless organ donation helped six Canadians and motivated almost 150,000 people to register as donors in the following weeks. Meet players like Kelly Serbu, who didn’t let his visual impairment stop him from playing hockey and is now raising awareness and funds for blind hockey programs, or Kim McCullough, who founded Total Female Hockey to empower other aspiring female players. Follow players and coaches of colour such as Jim Paek and Jason Payne who are helping to break down barriers, and the hockey parents who are working to make the game more accessible. These are the everyday heroes who are defying the odds and inspiring change.

How to Think Like Socrates

by Donald J. Robertson 🍁

9781250280503 | Philosophy

Description:

Socrates is the quintessential Athenian philosopher, the source of the entire Western philosophical tradition, and Godfather to the Stoics. He spent his life teaching practical philosophy to ordinary people in the streets of Athens, yet few people today are familiar with the wisdom he has to offer us.

How to Think Like Socrates is an accessible and informative guide to the life of one of the greatest thinkers in history, and the first book to focus on applying his ideas to our daily lives. Author Donald J. Robertson transports readers back to ancient Athens, expertly weaving together a page-turning account of a philosopher who eschewed material pleasures and stood by his beliefs, even in the face of controversy, with a steadfastness that ultimately resulted in his execution.

Hòt’a! Enough!

by Wayne K. Spear 🍁 & Georges Erasmus 🍁

9781459752900 | Biography & Autobiography

Description:

For decades, Georges Erasmus led the fight for Indigenous rights. From the Berger Inquiry to the Canadian constitutional talks to the Oka Crisis, Georges was a significant figure in Canada’s political landscape. In the 1990s, he led the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and afterward was chair and president of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, around the time that Canada’s residential school system became an ongoing frontpage story.

Georges’s five-decade battle for Indigenous rights took him around the world and saw him sitting across the table from prime ministers and premiers. In the 1980s, when Georges was the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, he was referred to as the “Thirteenth Premier.” This book tells the personal story of his life as a leading Indigenous figure, taking the reader inside some of Canada’s biggest crises and challenges.

As We Forgive Others

by Shane Peacock 🍁

9781770867628 | Mystery & Detective

Description:

On a cold December day in a northern countryside, a strange woman appears on the doorstep of the farmhouse Hugh Mercer is renting, warning him that a local named Elizabeth Goode is about to vanish under mysterious circumstances. Despite her ominous pleas for help, the former NYPD detective remains too preoccupied with the past he’s trying to escape back home in America and his affair with local police officer Alice Morrow. So, he simply dismisses the woman’s dire prediction.

But soon this strange woman’s desperate concerns become reality – and Mercer begins to realize that there is more to the seemingly ordinary Alice and the easy-going northern town she’s from. As Mercer and Alice work together to unravel this crime, they discover the dark history of all those involved and the desperation of those seeking revenge when forgiveness is not possible.

The World’s Wildest Cons

by Duncan McKenzie 🍁

9781443471954 | Humor

Description:

Con artists all have one thing in common: the audacity. This compelling collection brings you true stories of con men and women who charm their way into all kinds of hijinks. We’re all familiar with Frank Abagnale (of Catch Me If You Can fame), Charles Ponzi (of . . . well, the Ponzi scheme), Anna Delvey (of Netflix’s Inventing Anna) and Bernie Madoff (who made off with the money). But they’re just the ones you've heard of. This collection offers not only tons of stories of actual cons, it also digs into the way cons have evolved to incorporate technology or adapt to cultural differences over time and around the world. Some cons just keep on giving, changing their stripes to work time and time again. From impostor doctors to gambling swindles to selling the Eiffel Tower for parts, McKenzie takes you on a wild ride through cons of all shapes and sizes.

The Front Runner

by Elsie Silver 🍁

9781464220791 | Romance

Description:

Stefan Dalca is public enemy number one in this small town, a prickly outsider with a murky past that's hard to overlook. All he wants is to race his horses and be left alone—but when veterinarian Mira Thorne needs his help to save a sick foal, he's too drawn to her to refuse. In exchange…he wants her.

Their time together starts as a simple transaction, but the more Mira gets to know Stefan, the more she wonders if he isn't quite the villain everyone's made him out to be. With every intimate conversation and lingering look, the tension between them builds. She's been drawn to Stefan since the day she laid eyes on him…but now he's downright irresistible.

Mira knows sleeping with the enemy is playing with fire. But like a moth to a flame, she's attracted to the mysterious man in a way those closest to her wouldn't approve of or understand. And the more Stefan softens for her, the harder she falls.

But as his mysteries unravel, so do hidden truths. Truths that are bound to get someone burned. Mira just didn't expect that someone to be her.

No Jews Live Here

by John Lorinc 🍁

9781552454923 | Biography & Autobiography

Description:

From pre-war Budapest to post-war Toronto, journalist John Lorinc unspools four generations of his Hungarian Jewish family's journey through the Holocaust, the 1956 Revolution, and finally exodus from a country that can't rid itself of its antisemitic demons.

This braided saga centers on the writer's eccentric and defiant grandmother, a consummate survivor who, with her love of flashy jewelry and her vicious tongue, was best appreciated from afar. Lorinc also traces the stories of both his grandfathers and his father, all of whom fell victim, in different ways, to the Nazis’ genocidal campaign to rid Europe of Jews.

This is a deeply reported but profoundly human telling of a vile part of history, told through Lorinc’s distinctively astute and compassionate consideration of how cities and cultures work. Set against the complicated and poorly understood background of Hungary's Jewish community, No Jews Live Here is about family stories, and how the narratives of our lives are shaped by our times and historical forces over which we have no control.

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