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Do we know the man?

“Díaz literally projects herself into the biography, frequently adding her own experiences to information about Fortes she presents. If the reader is aware of the facts known about Fortes, they do not come to know him any better or more than before she produced this biography. It is a memoir of her search, her overlay of her daily lived experiences onto the life of a man dead now more than one hundred years.” Searching for Serafim: The Life and Legacy of Serafim “Joe” Fortes, by Ruby Smith Díaz (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025) $21.95 / 9781551529752

Recognition and epiphany

“Between the Bell Struck and the Silence contains poems of immense beauty while the speaker seeks redemption for psychological injuries of the past and finds it in nature. Porter’s deft handling of ‘a music of imagery’ (to borrow T.S. Eliot’s term), and her pitch-perfect tone makes this collection a poignant and rewarding read.” —gillian harding-russell reviews Between the Bell Struck and the Silence, by Pamela Porter (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2024) $20.00 /9781773861418

The marriage trap

“In a thriller populated with criminals and, possibly, a ghost, the scariest thing in this book is their marriage.” —Jessica Poon reviews Every Fall, by Angela Douglas (Toronto: Rising Action, 2025) $25.99/9781998076819

‘Weeding, planting, cultivating, and pruning’

“Along Came a Gardener serves as a reminder that personal growth is not linear. Like nature itself, there are seasons of progress and setbacks, of flourishing and dormancy. Stevan reassures readers that moments of stagnation are not failures but necessary pauses in the journey of self-improvement.” Selena Mercuri reviews Along Came a Gardener, by Diana Stevan (Campbell River: Island House Publishing, 2025) $21.95 / 9781988180229

‘Speak up and acknowledge’        

“Transforming Trauma through Social Change is a nutrient-dense book of 330 pages. It deserves slow careful reading if you wish to secure a very rich education in becoming trauma-informed, through the cultural medium of storytelling. The book’s literary scaffolding is academic and therapeutic, inviting a growth mindset that encourages social and personal change in readers.” Lee Reid reviews Transforming Trauma Through Social Change: A Guide for Educators, by Theresa Southam, PhD (Santa Barbara, CA: Fielding University Press, 2024) $36.24 / 9798991258012

Coming of age, grimly

Set on Haida Gwaii during WW1, a novel’s teenage narrator, “a curious mixture of innocence and experience,” stands out among other characters that are “ciphers for the social problems the author illuminates.” —Candace Fertile reviews Sisters of the Spruce, by Leslie Shimotakahara (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2024) $26.00 / 9781773861371

The hidden eccentric

“Is Amor de Cosmos deserving of eroding public awareness? Just how significant was he in the grand story of our province?” Matthew Downey writes the essay The hidden eccentric: fading memories of Amor de Cosmos, B.C’s father of confederation.

Homesteaders: Alberta, 1905

As it vividly sketches “the dailiness of farm work, country fairs, community meetings, and chores,” this historical novel “celebrates women’s independence and also their achievements in the face of hardship and opposition.” —W.H. New reviews Finding Flora, by Elinor Florence (Toronto: Simon & Schuster, 2025) $24.99 / 9781668058916

Becoming the biographer of E. J. Hughes

How did Victoria-based writer, artist, and art historian Robert Amos become the person responsible for chronicling one of Western Canada’s greatest artists? In this candid interview, Robert Amos tells The British Columbia Review the story of his meeting Hughes before his death in 2007 and getting to know the man behind the extraordinary paintings. Interview segment producer Trevor Marc Hughes presents “Becoming the biographer of E. J. Hughes.”

Accepting who your dog is

“Todd discusses the most common dog fears: other people, other dogs, loud noises, vet visits, being left alone, their things being taken away (resource guarding), and dysfunctional repetitive behaviours. She goes over mistakes that are easily made in training…” Jessica Todd reviews Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog by Zazie Todd (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2024) $36.95 / 9781778401367

Talking hyenas and beanstalks

“Amanda Leduc’s Wild Life may be appreciated for its intrinsic craft and beauty; it may be read also as meeting our historical moment, amplifying Mary Oliver’s newly resonant question: ‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do/with your one wild and precious life?’”—Dana McFarland reviews Wild Life, by Amanda Leduc (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2025) $26.00 / 9780735272873

Poking fun at coastal locals

“The book challenges locals to take a look at themselves through funhouse mirrors that the author holds up to their image. I should know, as he mentions my Friday morning writers’ group that meets at the same coffee shop that Reece haunts in the book, but I take no offence.” Cathalynn Labonté-Smith reviews Coast Confidential: Trouble in Paradise, Vol. 1 by PJ Reece (Gibsons: Rolling West Productions, 2024) $19.95 / 9780995323544

Ecstatic vessels

Referencing “graphic novels, pop-up books, make-your-own-adventures, fairy tales, Christian bedtime prayers, kids’ illustrated books, television, movies, werewolf stories, and the Internet,” an audacious, eclectic volume of poems explores and responds to binarisms. —Harold Rhenisch reviews In Your Nature, by Estlin McPhee (Kingston: Brick Books, 2025) $23.95 / 9781771316439

More fungi on the table

“My long-conflicted relationship with mushrooms has gradually crystallized into a happy discovery of the delights of this versatile and tasty class of food.” Trish Bowering reviews the revised and updated edition of The Deerholme Mushroom Cookbook: From Foraging to Feasting (Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2024) $40 / 9781771514392

Of ten-planet bowling and pterodactyls

Although marketed as a YA science book, our reviewer finds something for all ages: “a sophisticated study of the universe that beats out all the experts by setting us straight in common language and with infectious humour.” —Ron Verzuh reviews The Language of the Stars: The Scientific Story of a Few Billion Years in a Few Hundred Pages, by Nathan Hellner-Mestelman (Montreal: Linda Leith Publishing, 2025) $24.95 / 9781773901718

‘Soft rains and the smell of the ground’

In a pair of picture books for kids, nature is celebrated for its wondrous complexity and vital significance. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews I Am Connected, by Kung Jaadee (illustrated by Carla Joseph) (Victoria: Medicine Wheel Publishing, 2025) $22.99 / 9781778540639 and When a Tree Falls: Nurse Logs and Their Incredible Forest Power, by Kristen Pendreigh (illustrated by Elke Boschinger) (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2025) $28.99 / 9781797218670

‘It is the 1970s. It is forever.’

Admirable for the “profound hymn it presents of childhood,” a book of prose poems celebrates “the trickster energy of boyhood, it’s inimitable curiosity and acceptance,” even as it acknowledges “the poverty of a hard farming life.” —Harold Rhenisch reviews Sprocket, by Al Rempel (Qualicum Beach, Caitlin Press, 2025) $20.00 / 9781773861654

‘The prospect of manhood’

“But it’s how we get there, and the questions that go unanswered as we sit right there in the passenger seat with Teddy, that give the book its force.” —Ryan Frawley reviews The Passenger Seat, by Vijay Khurana (Windsor: Biblioasis, 2025) $22.95 / 9781771966306

Gothic, dark, atmospheric

“A true standalone gothic fantasy, What Wakes the Bells is full of blood and guts, action, and of course, romance”: for YA readers, a striking debut. —Myshara McMyn reviews What Wakes the Bells, by Elle Tesch (New York: Feiwel & Friends, 2025) $26.99 / 9781250322807

‘Offering, loss, self-examination, and affirmation’

In a “brilliant work,” poems “attest in every moment to the strength that new ancestors, new techniques, and new understandings brought to British Columbia by migration.” —Harold Rhenisch reviews Tabako on the Windowsill, by Hari Alluri (Kingston: Brick Books, 2025) $23.95 / 9781771316491

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