Many Canadian publishers, including Coach House, ECW and Biblioasis, have series where authors are invited to write a short book/long essay on a topic related to culture and ideas. These might be considered experiments—some more successful than others—allowing authors free rein to write on any non-fiction topic without pressure to be an expert. In the case of On Community (Biblioasis), Casey Plett brings her background as a trans person, writer and small press publisher to think deeply about the concept of community, asking what it means and how it nourishes and supports us, but also how it can bring harm through insularity (as in some aspects of her family’s Mennonite community). Such a ubiquitous word rarely receives scrutiny, but this project wants to know who decides what defines a community and who polices their boundaries. A spiral of thoughts and anecdotes organized around questions concerning what it means to be part of the queer and trans communities, On Community invites readers to reflect on where we see and feel community and how we know it is there. Repetition and callbacks (a story in which she is welcomed as an insider despite moving away, a story in which her uncle feels like an outsider despite a long residency) strengthen the arguments, and the focus on personal anecdotes balances the big philosophical issues. This is a heartfelt, funny, wistful read—just conceptually rigorous enough to provoke thought, but without difficult theory or jargon. —Kristina Rothstein