2025’s top books by Manitoba authors

From new volumes by seasoned writers to new faces on the local literary scene, 2025 proved to be a banner year for books by Manitoba authors, many of which were bestsellers in the province and beyond.

Whether you’re looking for a last-minute holiday gift or the next pick for your book club, here are 10 notable books by locals from the past 12 months, listed in the order they came out this year.

For the Love of a Son: A Memoir of Addiction, Loss, and HopeBy Scott Oake with Michael Hingston

The legendary local sportscaster’s memoir chronicles son Bruce’s struggles with drugs and addiction until his death at age 25 in 2011, as well as the work Scott and his late wife Anne put in to creating the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre. The book was a national bestseller, and topped sales of all non-fiction titles at McNally Robinson Booksellers for 2025.

Some soundtracks have become synonymous with the season

Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker score isn’t the only one that has become popular outside of its original context.

Cast of RMTC’s Elf: The Musical weigh in with top picks for Yuletide flicks

The ho-ho-hottest ticket in town this holiday season is Elf: The Musical, on until Dec. 28 at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s John Hirsch Mainstage.

Earlier this week, there were fewer than 10 seats available for four of the remaining 11 performances, including a matinée on Christmas Eve and two shows on Boxing Day.

The show’s popularity with ticket-buyers shouldn’t come as a big surprise.

After all, Elf, the 2003 comedic film the stage adaptation is based upon, routinely ranks alongside 1946’s It’s A Wonderful Life (“Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings”) and 1983’s A Christmas Story (“You’ll shoot your eye out, kid”), when the topic of best Yuletide movie, all-time, is raised.

Thoughtful gift-giving focuses on quality, avoids mindless spending

It’s the time of year when the countdown to gift-giving hits full speed and the pressure to buy, buy, buy ramps up.

It seems almost inevitable that we will simply spend more as the holidays nudge so many of us to snap up things we don’t strictly need, often with money we don’t quite have.

In an already consumer-centric society, December puts us into buying overdrive as we splash the cash — or rather, tap our cards — spending in haste only to regret at leisure when the bills start trickling in come January.

Conditioned over time by the ease of online shopping (plus free shipping), it’s all too easy to “add to cart” on autopilot.

Gift guide: 15 Manitoba-made stocking stuffers

If you’re looking for a unique stocking filler this holiday season, we’ve got you covered — and there’s not an Amazon link in sight.

Locally shot Silent Night, Deadly Night remake shatters serenity of beloved Christmas carol

Back in December 1984, a little movie called Silent Night, Deadly Night caused a firestorm of controversy by juxtaposing the benign figure of Santa Claus with an axe-wielding maniac.

If the maniac was triggered to kill by proximity to the jolly old elf’s red suit and snow-white whiskers, the Reagan-era audiences of the day were double triggered. The unseasonable heat caused by protesters in front of cinemas ultimately drove the studio, TriStar, to pull the movie from theatres.

Of course, there’s nothing like a movie ban to spark interest in moviegoers, and Silent Night, Deadly Night would spawn three sequels and two remakes. (Both remakes, coincidentally, were shot in Manitoba.)

Lest anyone picture Mike P. Nelson, the writer-director of the newest iteration, as some kind of grinchy humbug, he appears on his Zoom call in front of an angel-topped Christmas tree, with winter light streaming through the windows of his home in Minneapolis, where he was born and raised.

Actor Jon Hamm joins buddies on road trip to see The Running Man

Popcorn, candy and… Hamm?

Griffin Levenec, who owns The Flicks Cinema in Stonewall with other members of his family, thought he might be seeing things a few minutes before the lights went down for Sunday evening’s 7:30 screening of The Running Man.

“Jon Hamm came in first, and I thought, ‘He kind of looks like Jon Hamm,’ and then Johnny Pemberton walked in and I thought, ‘There’s no way two guys can come in who look like Jon Hamm and Johnny Pemberton and not be them,’” Levenec said Monday.

After loading up at the concession stand — “they bought all sorts of stuff to support us,” Levenec said — Hamm and Pemberton (Fallout), joined by actor Paul Walter Hauser (Black Bird), went into the 200-seat theatre, found three seats to their liking and settled in to watch the two-hour action thriller with about a dozen others.

Mythical quest takes audiences on wild ride in The Lightning Thief

Manitoba Theatre for Young People plunges a full house of mortals into the shadowy underworld as it presents the Greek myth-infused The Lightning Thief.

The musical holiday production (90 minutes including intermission) is based on American author’s Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson fantasy novel series, featuring a heavenly, all-local cast that would make any god or goddess proud.

After being expelled from school for his “fifth time in six years,” 12-year-old Percy Jackson, a “half-blood” son born of a human mother, Sally Jackson, and Poseidon, god of the sea, embarks on a hero’s quest to rescue a powerful lightning bolt stolen from Zeus.

We follow Percy into Camp Half-Blood, where he learns he’s a demigod, before setting out with his half-blood chums Annabeth and Grover to various locales, including Las Vegas and Los Angeles, with all roads ultimately leading to Hades.

Manitoba’s cultural sector is struggling… and thriving

A recent report found Manitoba’s cultural sector produces $1,010 worth of cultural goods and services per person, one of the highest per-capita levels in Canada.

Local choirs spread joy this holiday season

When the singers of the North End Jewish Folk Choir take their places Thursday at the Ukrainian Labour Temple for their Hope for Peace winter concert, it will be the 90th time Lionel Steiman, 84, will add his voice to the chorus.

Pop culture helps astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson make complicated topics, ideas understandable

Renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is set to land in Winnipeg Friday equipped with pop-culture references and insights into humanity’s biggest scientific question: are we alone in the universe?

Festive dessert series begins with a good old-fashioned cookie swap

The next dozen issues of the Free Press are going to be high in sugar content and sentimentality.

Our annual Homemade Holidays series kicks off Tuesday and features 12 festive dessert recipes published over 12 days. The goal is to highlight family traditions, while providing readers with inspiration for their own holiday baking adventures.

Past editions have included vintage treats from the Free Press’s archives, reader-submitted recipes and staff favourites.

This year’s batch showcases the connective power of cookies.

Winnipeg works at being a welcoming but low-key location for actors shooting projects in the city

Jon Hamm has spent the last month acting like a real Winnipegger.

While the Mad Men star hasn’t missed a Winnipeg Transit bus (as far as we know) or experienced a bone-chilling winter day (yet), he has become something of a regular at local restaurants and sporting events this fall.

Hamm, 54, is in town filming American Hostage, an eight-part series based on a true crime podcast of the same name. In both, the Golden Globe-winning actor plays Fred Heckman, a real-life Indianapolis radio reporter who in 1977 helped defuse an active hostage situation after interviewing kidnapper Tony Kiritsis on air.

The crime drama also stars Giovanni Ribisi (Sneaky Pete), Mireille Enos (The Killing) and William Jackson Harper (The Good Place) — all of whom have been spotted doing their own civic exploring.

Santa’s tallest helper moves from big-screen to stage in RMTC's Elf the Musical

On a citywide publicity tour this summer to promote Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s tentpole Christmas production, Buddy the Elf had a private audience at city hall