By Zack Gross
4 minute read
Monday, Jun. 15, 2026
Addiction is a serious issue here at home and around the world. In my case, thankfully, my addictions are to chocolate, coffee, ice cream and reading. I will admit that my doctor suggests that I go easier on the first three! Over the years, in this column, I’ve taken one early summer column to suggest some summer reading. People do read less, we are told, these days, although the publishing industry is booming. And for some people, summer is the time to get away from school and work and do some reading, while for others, summer is gardening, hiking and swimming time, and winter is when the reading gets done.
I’m going to suggest some more serious reading this time, although I’m happy to admit that I also read spy novels, murder mysteries and general fiction. In our household, we’ve read all the Louise Penny “Three Pines” mysteries and political dramas, all the quirky Anthony Horowitz murder stories, all the Tony & Ann Hillerman Navajo mysteries set in the American Southwest, and all the No. Ladies Detective Agency novels set in Botwsana by Alexander McCall Smith.
Here are three books that I’ve read in the past year that are historical, or historical fiction and connect in many ways to today’s headlines. For the person who is dedicated to “Canada First” and therefore reading about our country’s history and place in the world, I’d recommend “The Great Halifax Explosion” by John U. Bacon, which came out in 2017, a hundred years after that tragic event. En route to support allied troops fighting in the First World War, highly dangerous materials heading to Europe entered Halifax harbour on the Mont-Blanc.
This book is a page-turning account of the accidental and irresponsible factors that led up to a ship carrying six million pounds of explosives unleashing their fury and, as a fellow south of us likes to say, obliterating that city and its people. It is also a story of how the remaining population and those who came to aid them dealt with the situation in heroic ways. As a bonus, it tells us a lot about the experiences of Maritime Canadians fighting in Europe and about the history of Canadian-American relations up to that time.
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