LOLA 2026 Reading Recommendations from our Patrons

As part of Love Our Local Authors Month, we asked our patrons for some NL book recommendations and WOW did you answer the call! Check out these amazing local books to add to your TBR. This list includes print, eBook, and audiobook copies of the titles where available.

These titles were also recommended and are available in the catalogue but aren't displaying in this list due to technical issues (search for them by title in the catalogue):

Blinders: A Crime Thriller
Chirp's Large Day
Bizzie Tizzie is gonna be Everything from A to Z
Newfoundland and Labrador Lullaby
The Best Christmas Ever
Joshua the G.O.A.T.

Updated April 30, 2026
Newfoundland & Labrador Public Libraries NLPL Local Reads
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A splendid boy
Martin, Melanie M.
A Royal Newfoundland Regiment Love StoryIn the summer of 1914, Daniel Beresford's innocent love affair with the merchant's daughter is discovered, forcing him to make an impossible decision to save his family from financial ruin. When news of the First World War reaches Middle Tickle, Daniel, who is...
The saltbox olive
Antle, Angela
Paper Book
Through the as-yet-untold story of Newfoundland soldiers in Italy during the Second World War, The Saltbox Olive is an evocative tale of the complex interactions between past and present, told through one woman's search for the truth of her family's mysterious past. Caroline Fisher sets...
By the rivers of Brooklyn : a novel
Morgan-Cole, Trudy J.
Paper Book
In the 1920s, Jim, Bert and Rose Evans all move from Newfoundland to Brooklyn, New York, in search of work and a better life, leaving their sister Annie back home in St. John's. By the Rivers of Brooklyn traces the story of the Evans family across two countries and three generations, exploring the...
Message in a bottle : ocean dispatches from a seabird biologist
Hogan, Holly (Biologist)
Ebook
WINNER OF THE 2023 BMO WINTERSET AWARD * FINALIST FOR THE 2023 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR NONFICTION * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 SCIENCE WRITERS AND COMMUNICATORS BOOK AWARD * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 LANE ANDERSON AWARD From the heart of the Labrador...
Message in a bottle : ocean dispatches from a seabird biologist
Hogan, Holly (Biologist)
Ebook
WINNER OF THE 2023 BMO WINTERSET AWARD * FINALIST FOR THE 2023 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR NONFICTION * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 SCIENCE WRITERS AND COMMUNICATORS BOOK AWARD * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 LANE ANDERSON AWARD From the heart of the Labrador...
Message in a bottle : ocean dispatches from a seabird biologist
Hogan, Holly (Biologist)
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2023 BMO WINTERSET AWARD * FINALIST FOR THE 2023 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR NONFICTION * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 SCIENCE WRITERS AND COMMUNICATORS BOOK AWARD * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 LANE ANDERSON AWARD From the heart of the Labrador...
A splendid boy
Martin, Melanie M.
Other
A Royal Newfoundland Regiment Love Story In the summer of 1914, Daniel Beresford's innocent love affair with the merchant's daughter is discovered, forcing him to make an...
Random passage
Morgan, Bernice
Paper Book
Forced to flee England, the Andrews family books passage to a fresh start in a distant country, only to discover a barren, inhospitable land at the end of their crossing. To seventeen-year-old Lavinia, uprooted from everything familiar, it seems a fate worse than the one they left behind. Driven by...
Random passage
Morgan, Bernice
Ebook
Forced to flee England, the Andrews family books passage to a fresh start in a distant country, only to discover a barren, inhospitable land at the end of their crossing. To seventeen-year-old Lavinia, uprooted from everything familiar, it seems a fate worse than the one they left behind. Driven by...
Barry Squires, full tilt
Smith, Heather
Paper Book
It's 1995. Twelve-year-old Finbar (Barry) Squires wants desperately to join the Full Tilt dance troupe. Led by Father O'Flaherty, the Irish Step Dancers are the most sought-after act in St. John's, Newfoundland. Having watched Riverdance twice, Barry figures he'll nail the audition. With...
Barry Squires, full tilt
Smith, Heather
Ebook
Barry Squires, Full Tilt takes readers on a romp through the streets of St. John's and into the Squires household, a place where tragedy strikes but love prevails. Derry Girls meets Billy Elliot with an East coast twist. It's 1995. When the Full Tilt Dancers...
Barry Squires, full tilt
Smith, Heather
Audiobook
Barry Squires, Full Tilt takes readers on a romp through the streets of St. John's and into the Squires household, a place where tragedy strikes but love prevails. Derry Girls meets Billy Elliot with an East coast twist. It's 1995. When the Full Tilt Dancers...
The woman in the attic
Hepditch, Emily
Ebook
On the coast of rural Newfoundland, Hannah Fitzgerald's mother has lived her life in near total isolation. When Hannah returns to the lonely saltbox house to prepare her mother for the transition into assisted living, her childhood home is anything but welcoming. Dilapidated from years of hoarding...
The woman in the attic
Hepditch, Emily
Paper Book
On the coast...
As near to heaven by sea : a history of Newfoundland and Labrador
Major, Kevin
Paper Book
For three centuries after Europeans rediscovered it, Newfoundland was thought of as little more than "a great English Ship moored near the Banks during the Fishing Season."Labrador, dismissed as the "land God gave to Cain,"commanded no more respect. But for the people who made its coastline their...
As near to heaven by sea : a history of Newfoundland and Labrador
Major, Kevin
Paper Book
Away from my island : the true story of Eliza Gill
Collins, Gary
Paper Book
A true story of family, heroism, and ultimate sacrifice.   Born on Silver Fox Island in 1914, Eliza Gill was working "in service" before she was eight years...
Away from my island : the true story of Eliza Gill
Collins, Gary
A true story of family, heroism, and ultimate sacrifice. Born on Silver Fox Island in 1914, Eliza Gill was working "in service" before she was eight years old. By the age of eleven, she was informed by her father she would be sailing on a fishing schooner to the Labrador, where she would cook for a...
Hollow bamboo : a novel
Ping, William
Paper Book
AMAZON FIRST NOVEL AWARD SHORTLIST THOMAS RADDALL ATLANTIC FICTION AWARD SHORTLIST BMO WINTERSET AWARD SHORTLIST DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD LONGLIST NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE TELEGRAM AND WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The hilarious and heartbreaking story of two...
Hollow bamboo
Ping, William
Ebook
AMAZON FIRST NOVEL AWARD SHORTLIST THOMAS RADDALL ATLANTIC FICTION AWARD SHORTLIST BMO WINTERSET AWARD SHORTLIST DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD LONGLIST NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE TELEGRAM AND WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The hilarious and heartbreaking story of two...
Terror Nova : the thirteenth exhibit
Hunger. It's something that can stretch beyond the want for mere food, the need for nutrition. Hunger can be a craving only satiated by consumption. When two tour guides managing Newfoundland's most haunted museum on the most haunted day of the year must contend with a group of tourists...
Terror Nova : writers retreat, an anthology of Newfoundland inspired horror
Paper Book
There are stories in the fog, too deep to penetrate without stepping in... and becoming a part of them. In the year since the release of the bestselling TERROR NOVA, the author of the cult-classic has been roaming the countryside to promote the book, all while struggling with writer's block...
Terror Nova : an anthology of Newfoundland inspired horror
Paper Book
There are stories in the fog, too deep to penetrate without stepping in... and becoming a part of them. #1 Bestseller! When four tourists set out on the Terror Nova bus from St. John's to hear spooky tales and visit strange locales, they had no idea who their mysterious tour...
Terror Nova : an anthology of Newfoundland inspired horror
The colony of unrequited dreams
Johnston, Wayne
Paper Book
A mystery and a love story spanning five decades, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is an epic portrait of passion and ambition, set against the beautiful, brutal landscape of Newfoundland. In this widely acclaimed novel, Johnston has created two of the most memorable...
The colony of unrequited dreams
Johnston, Wayne
Paper Book
Wayne Johnson's epic portrait of passion and ambition, set against the beautiful, brutal landscape of Newfoundland. A mystery and a love story spanning five decades. In this widely acclaimed novel--hailed as a modern classic--Johnston (award-winning author of Jenny's Boy...
The colony of unrequited dreams
Johnston, Wayne
Ebook
Wayne Johnson's epic portrait of passion and ambition, set against the beautiful, brutal landscape of Newfoundland. A mystery and a love story spanning five decades. In this widely acclaimed novel--hailed as a modern classic--Johnston (award-winning author of Jenny's Boy...
The ewe who knew who knit you
Kansala, Cara
Paper Book
This magically illustrated story celebrates the power of friendship and kindness and teaches us to be proud of the things that make us unique. When the warm winds summon the woollies of the world to the land of ice and fire, Lämmin the lamb sets out on an adventure to find out who she is...
Mrs. Brown's kitchen : measure with your heart
Brown, Heather (TikTok creator)
PLEASE NOTE: Digital version of book may not display properly on older devices, please preview before purchasing.Mrs. Brown's Kitchen began on TikTok in October 2021 without any intention and no concept of how big it would become. What started as sharing food images, with trending music, turned into...
Mrs. Brown's kitchen : measure with your heart
Brown, Heather (TikTok creator)
Paper Book
Mrs. Brown's Kitchen began on TikTok in October 2021 without any intention and no concept of how big it would become. What started as sharing food images, with...
The good women of Safe Harbour
French, Bobbi
Ebook
Winner 2023 Newfoundland Reads  Longlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award Longlisted for the 2023 Leacock Medal Award Finalist for the 2023 Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction Finalist for the 2023 Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award  An...
The good women of Safe Harbour
French, Bobbi
Paper Book
Winner 2023 Newfoundland Reads  Longlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award Longlisted for the 2023 Leacock Medal Award Finalist for the 2023 Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction Finalist for the 2023 Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award  An...
The good women of Safe Harbour
French, Bobbi
Audiobook
Ship moms : true tales of love and lust at sea
Winsor, Jen.
Lust, love, and pregnancy--hidden from the luxury and leisure of cruise ships, the lives of crew members play out below deck. Ship Moms is a collection of these beautiful, complicated, behind-the-scenes true stories of crew members and the babies they brought into the world. The...
The weather diviner : a novel
Murphy, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Set in a tragic, transformative year in an extraordinary place with larger-than-life characters, The Weather Diviner is a story of self-discovery--not just for one young woman, but for Newfoundland itself. It's 1942. With polished boots and bulging wallets, the Americans have come to...
The weather diviner
Murphy, Elizabeth
Sweetland
Crummey, Michael
Audiobook
The epic tale of an endangered Newfoundland community and the struggles of one man determined to resist its extinction. The scarcely populated town on Sweetland rests on the shore of a remote Canadian island. Its slow decline finally reaches a...
Sweetland
Crummey, Michael
Ebook
From the award-winning, bestselling author of Galore comes another unforgettable novel. By turns darkly comic and heartbreakingly sad, Sweetland is a deeply suspenseful story about one man's struggles against the forces of nature and the ruins of memory. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp...
Sweetland
Crummey, Michael
Paper Book
For twelve generations the inhabitants of a remote island in Newfoundland have lived and died together. Now, in the second decade of the 21st century, they are facing resettlement, and each has been offered a generous compensation package to leave. But the money is offered with a proviso: everyone...
Sweetland
Crummey, Michael
Audiobook
From the award-winning, bestselling author of Galore comes another unforgettable novel. By turns darkly comic and heartbreakingly sad, Sweetland is a deeply suspenseful story about one man's struggles against the forces of nature and the ruins of memory. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp...
My indian
Joe, Mi'sel
Ebook
My indian
Joe, Mi'sel
Paper Book
***2022 ATLANTIC BOOK AWARDS: APMA BEST ATLANTIC-PUBLISHED BOOK AWARD - SHORTLIST*** ***2022 BMO WINTERSET AWARD - LONGLIST*** ***2022-2023 HACKMATACK AWARD: ENGLISH FICTION - SHORTLIST*** ***2022 IPPY AWARDS: MULTICULTURAL FICTION: JUV/YA - SILVER***
My indian
Joe, Mi'sel
Audiobook
Otherwise grossly unremarkable : a memoir of cancer
Matthews, Ashleigh
Otherwise grossly unremarkable is the record of the near total destruction of one woman's physical and emotional self from misdiagnosis to stage three diagnosis, through treatment after treatment, and onward to recovery and survivorship.   At only 35 years of age, Ashleigh Matthews...
The luminous sea
Barbeau, Melissa
Paper Book
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD *FINALIST - THE 2019 BMO WINTERSET AWARD *WINNER - 2019 IPPY AWARD FOR FICTION (CANADA EAST) *FINALIST - 2019 NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARDS (BEST COVER DESIGN) ...
The luminous sea
Barbeau, Melissa
Paper Book
The wreckage
Crummey, Michael
Ebook
Having achieved considerable success with his first novel, River Thieves, Michael Crummey has written a book that is equally stunning and compelling. The Wreckage is a truly epic, yet twisted, romance that unfolds over decades and continents. It engages readers on the austere shores...
The wreckage
Crummey, Michael
Paper Book
From the award-winning author of River Thieves comes a sweeping novel of love crossed by the blindness of faith and fate.   In a remote Newfoundland outpost at the onset of the Second World War, the young Catholic Wish Furey meets the passionate, independent...
The wreckage : a novel
Crummey, Michael
Paper Book
Having achieved considerable success with his first novel,River Thieves, Michael Crummey has written a book that is equally stunning and compelling.The Wreckageis a truly epic, yet twisted, romance that unfolds over decades and continents. It engages readers on the austere shores of Newfoundland...
The agony of Bun O'Keefe
Smith, Heather
Ebook
Little Miss Sunshine meets Room in this quirky, heartwarming story of friendship, loyalty and discovery. It's Newfoundland, 1986. Fourteen-year-old Bun O'Keefe has lived a solitary life in an unsafe, unsanitary house. Her mother is a compulsive hoarder, and Bun has...
The agony of Bun O'Keefe
Smith, Heather
Paper Book
Little Miss Sunshine meets Room in this quirky, heartwarming story of friendship, loyalty and discovery. It's Newfoundland, 1986. Fourteen-year-old Bun O'Keefe has lived a solitary life in an unsafe, unsanitary house. Her mother is a compulsive hoarder, and Bun has...
The agony of Bun O'Keefe
Smith, Heather
Audiobook
Little Miss Sunshine meets Room in this quirky, heartwarming story of friendship, loyalty and discovery. It's Newfoundland, 1986. Fourteen-year-old Bun O'Keefe has lived a solitary life in an unsafe, unsanitary house. Her mother is a compulsive...
Land of many shores : perspectives from a diverse Newfoundland and Labrador
Paper Book
Seeing through the eyes of others brings new perspective on the place we call home. In Land of Many Shores, writers share their perspectives about life in Newfoundland and Labrador from often- neglected viewpoints. In this collection, Indigenous people, cultural...
The greatest hits of Wanda Jaynes
Canning, Bridget
Paper Book
Wanda Jaynes is about to lose her job amidst a mountain of bills, and she suspects her musician boyfriend might be romantically interested in his friend, Trish. But Wanda's life changes radically on a routine trip to the grocery store when a gunman enters the supermarket and opens fire.The Greatest...
The greatest hits of Wanda Jaynes
Canning, Bridget
Ebook
Being Mary Ro
Young, Ida Linehan
Ebook
In the late nineteenth century, after disease and circumstance have left her alone in the world, Mary Rourke believes she is predestined to spinsterhood in her small community in Newfoundland. When a series of dramatic events brings a strange man to her door, Mary emerges from the comfortable...
Being Mary Ro
Young, Ida Linehan
Paper Book
In the late nineteenth century, after disease and circumstance have left her alone in the world, Mary...
Creatures of the rock : a veterinarian's adventures in Newfoundland
Peacock, Andrew (Veterinarian)
Paper Book
 When you're the only veterinarian in an area that's 130 miles long and has a coast on either side, you never know what each new day might bring. A cow giving birth, a colicky horse, an aggressive lynx, caribou in need of pastures new, a polar bear in a bingo hall, a six-hundred-pound boar who...
Creatures of the rock : a veterinarian's adventures in Newfoundland
Peacock, Andrew (Veterinarian)
Ebook
A James Herriot for the 21st century recounts his adventures as a newcomer to Newfoundland. When Andrew Peacock made the move from Ontario to Newfoundland, he thought he was kicking off his career as a newly qualified vetenarian with an adventure in a temporary location. It was...
Kit's Law
Morrissey, Donna
Ebook
It is the Fifties in an isolated outport in Newfoundland. Nothing penetrates this antiquated existence, as television, telephones, cars, even roads, elude the villagers and the only visitors are fog-bound fishermen. Here, outside of Haire's Hollow, lives 14-year old Kit Pitman with her mentally...
Kit's law : a novel
Morrissey, Donna
Paper Book
It is the Fifties in an isolated outport in Newfoundland. Nothing penetrates this antiquated existence, as television, telephones, cars, even roads, elude the villagers and the only visitors are fog-bound fishermen. Here, outside of Haire's Hollow, lives 14-year old Kit Pitman with her mentally...
Down by Jim Long's stage : rhymes for children and young fish
Pittman, Alphonsus
Paper Book
A long-cherished children's classic is now back in print! This 25th Anniversary Collectors Edition of the classic children's book is a new illustrated edition. It's time for a new generation of children to enjoy this lighthearted collection of rhymes by the acclaimed poet Al Pittman. All new...
Down by Jim Long's stage : rhymes for children and young fish
Pittman, Alphonsus
Paper Book
February
Moore, Lisa
Other
Winner of Canada Reads 2013 and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize In 1982, the oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a Valentine's Day storm. All eighty-four men aboard died. February is the story of Helen O'Mara, one of those left behind when her husband, Cal,...
February
Moore, Lisa
Ebook
Winner of Canada Reads 2013 and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize In 1982, the oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a Valentine's Day storm. All eighty-four men aboard died. February is the story of Helen O'Mara, one of those left behind when her husband, Cal,...
February
Moore, Lisa
Paper Book
Winner of Canada Reads 2013 and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize In 1982, the oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a Valentine's Day storm. All eighty-four men aboard died. February is the story of Helen O'Mara, one of those left behind when her husband, Cal,...
Mr. Big : the investigation into the deaths of Karen and Krista Hart
Lewis, Colleen
Paper Book
Mr. Big is the shocking true story of a murder investigation in Newfoundland and Labrador that forever changed the face of the Canadian justice system. On August 4, 2002,...

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