Mai Nguyen's debut Sunshine Nails is one of our August summer reading picks, and we've got copies up for giveaway until the end of the month.

Don't miss your chance to win!

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There’s something about the last month of summer that makes me feel very melancholic. Temperatures are dipping. September is nearing. Winter is coming. I might go so far as calling it a kind of grief, a stark reminder that time is passing us by and as hard as we try, we’ll never get those sunny days back. That might explain the reason why I play Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness” on repeat this time of year, or why I rejoice in a gloomy, rainy summer day. If you’re like me and prefer to indulge in the bittersweetness of life rather than force “good vibes only” upon yourself, these books will allow you to lean into the sadness.

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All My Puny Sorrows, by Miriam Toews

Miriam Toews doesn’t shy away from telling really sad stories. This is the story of two sisters, one who is determined to kill herself and one who must grapple with those intentions. As an author, I used to shy away from writing about sad things because I thought that was not what the world needed right now. But I no longer think that’s true. I think lots of people want to cry and talk about hard things. There’s a reason this book, which came out in 2014, became a huge success and eventually a 2021 movie starring Alison Pill and Sarah Gadon.

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Goodbye Again, by Jonny Sun

I devoured this book of essays at a park, while sitting under a tree, and more than one person came up to tell me how much they love this book. I now understand why. Jonny Sun writes with so much heart and honesty about all the things we can relate to: feeling lonely, depressed, burnt out, socially awkward, and debilitatingly anxious. In between these deep essays are delightful snippets on how to tend to your plants, how to make the perfect scrambled eggs, and ultimately how to take care of yourself. My pathos has been thriving ever since I read this book.

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Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, by Emily Austin

I truly believe that certain books should be read at certain times in your life, and this book came to me at the right time. Freshly grieving a loss, I found myself thinking about death a lot. How it can happen at any time. How little control we have over our demise. How gut-wrenchingly permanent it is. The protagonist in this book feels the exact same way. She is obsessed with the pain and suffering of those around her, and instead of being depicted as a morbid person, Emily Austin expertly makes this heroine a charming, kindhearted human who is just trying to survive in a sad world.

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Ghost Forest, by Pik-Shuen Fung

I have to admit, I bought this book because the cover is just deliciously gorgeous. Inside, you’ll find a slim story about a Chinese-Canadian daughter who is struggling with the loss of her father after a long illness, which is further complicated by the fact that their relationship was distant and fraught. The narrative is told in fragmented vignettes, which I thought was a brilliant stylistic choice because isn’t that what the grief journey is? Grief isn’t a linear path, the days do not seamlessly weave into the next, and life as you know it officially gets split into the before times and the after.

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The Push, by Ashley Audrain

This book is marketed as a gripping, psychological thriller, which it certainly is, but I would also argue that it’s a book about parental grief and intergenerational trauma. There’s a lot of sadness in this book, from the protagonist’s abusive childhood to her postpartum depression to an unexpected tragedy that shakes up her entire life. Becoming a mother has long been celebrated as a joyous milestone, but the reality is that it’s not true for everyone. As this book reveals, being a parent that regrets having children can be a very sad, scary, and lonely experience.

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The Fake, by Zoe Whittall

Zoe Whittall’s latest book is about the people you meet on your grief journey. Except with a twist. Shelby, newly widowed, and Gibson, newly broken up, are both at very vulnerable places in their lives when they meet Cammie, a seemingly friendly, generous friend with a big heart and open ears. But something is not right about Cammie, and Shelby and Gibson grapple with whether they can trust the one person who has played such a pivotal role in lifting them out of their despair.

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The Lonely Hearts Hotel, by Heather O’Neill

This book is heartbreaking, and Heather O’Neill does not take her time easing you into it. The book follows two orphans named Pierrot and Rose who are raised in an orphanage and are subjected to all kinds of abuse. Yet, they manage to overcome the odds and become accomplished performers that can dazzle high-society audiences. As they get older, they get torn apart by nuns, then the Great Depression, and we as readers are left pining for their ultimate reunion.

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Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality, by Lindsay Wong

Lindsay Wong writes a series of Chinese-Canadian immigrant supernatural stories that are at once weird and delightful. There’s one story called “The Ugliest Girls” that will make you very uncomfortable—and that’s the point. Death, tragedy, and inequality bring out very uncomfortable and unsettling feelings. And the more we shy away from feeling those feelings, the more we give it power. I love that Wong invites us to sit in that discomfort.

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Learn more about Sunshine Nails:

A tender and funny debut about a Vietnamese Canadian family who will do whatever it takes to keep their no-frills nail salon afloat after a multimillion-dollar chain opens across the street.

Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran have made a good life for themselves in Toronto, but their landlord has just jacked up the rent of their family-run nail salon, Sunshine Nails, and it’s way more than they can afford. When Take Ten, a glamorous chain offering a more luxurious salon experience, moves into the neighbourhood, the Tran family is terrified of losing their business—and the community they’ve built around them.

But daughter Jessica comes to their rescue. She’s just moved back home after a messy breakup and an even messier firing. Together with her workaholic brother, Dustin, and recently immigrated cousin, Thuy, they devise some good old-fashioned sabotage. But as the line between right and wrong gets blurred, relationships are put to the test, and Debbie and Phil must choose: Do they keep their family intact or fight for their salon?

Full of memorable manicures and even more memorable characters, Sunshine Nails is a humorous and heartfelt novel about family, resilience, and what it means to start over.