I picked up Pearly Everlasting by Tammy Armstrong at @bookmarkhfx when we visited last summer, but it was my first Canadian read of 2025. Set in the woods of New Brunswick during the 1920s/30s, Pearly is a novel full of folklore, history, magic, family, and love. It’s the tale of a bygone era, a coming-of-age story, and an ode to the natural world. (I will also admit that at one point I was internally singing the log drivers waltz tune – IYKYK) I was truly immersed in the story and didn’t want it to end. When it did, in the acknowledgments section, Armstrong mentioned she was inspired by a real life Bruno, written about in a book called Wild Brother by an American photographer named Underwood. In the book, there is a photo of a scene described in the opening pages of Armstrong’s novel. It felt like a piece of real magic to see it. Since coming back from the Maritimes last year, I’ve seen copies of Pearly Everlasting (the cover is changed from red to blue) at the library and some bookstores, so it’s available to American readers as well. Highly recommended!