“Pontefract fills his argument with far too much jargon, but he stresses an important point: by making older workers redundant we lose what he calls the ‘rubies’ on the job. That is the old-timers who have the collective know-how that needs to be combined with the ‘rivers’ and ‘rocks’ i.e., the new hires and the mid-career workers.” Ron Verzuh reviews The Future of Work Is Grey: The Untapped Value of Age in the Workplace, by Dan Pontefract (Vancouver: Page Two Books, 2026) $36.95 / 9781774586440
“A quick online search of Vancouver-based detective fiction turns up several other Vancouver-based private eye mysteries. Sam Wiebe, J.T. Seimens, A.J Devlin, Elizabeth Bowers, and others are prominent. Regrettably, the online lists I saw were missing the creative pen of Roy Innes. A correction is in order.” —Ron Verzuh reviews The False Creek Murder: An Inspector Coswell Mystery, by Roy Innes (Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2026) $23.95 / 9781774391389
“Many of the 19 stories, packed with Fraser’s fact-filled remembrances, deal with disasters and tragedies. He was the reporter the editors on the assignment desk in Edmonton or Toronto would call if they needed a reliable and ‘objective’ journalist to fly to the trouble zone on short notice.” Ron Verzuh reviews From Ragged Ass Road to Rideau Hall: Stories of Canada, by Whit Fraser (Madeira Park: Douglas and McIntyre, 2026) $26.95 / 9781771624695
“By the time I got to Simon Fraser University in the early 1970s, Jim Harding had already left campus but his legacy lingered as SFU continued to fester with student unrest after the historic strike in 1967. That event labelled SFU a ‘radical’ campus and Harding was part of the cohort of students and faculty that openly challenged and defied the actions of the university administration. It was a bold, exciting, and educational moment. Harding was among the leaders.” Ron Verzuh reviews The Long Sixties: Stories from the New Left, by Jim Harding [ed.] (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2026) $29 / 9781773638034
“Scanlan doesn’t talk about union-negotiated pension plans or union-sponsored retirement planning workshops. I was fortunate to have both. Our retirees’ handbook provided many of the same pointers and it was free. In addition, an employer-paid retirement expert was always available to assist if the going got complicated. I was lucky. For retirees who didn’t have a union, How to Retire is an excellent guide.” Ron Verzuh reviews How to Retire: Retire Knowing You Can Enjoy Every Day, by Steven Scanlan (Chemainus: self-published, 2025) $17.99 / 9781989681336
“In this intimate account, Comox Valley writer Joline Martin uniquely focuses on the draft resisters who came to Vancouver Island and became Canadians.” Ron Verzuh reviews War Resisters: Standing Against the Vietnam War, by Joline Martin (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2025) $26 / 9781773861685
An author “enamoured with the engine’s colourful history and ongoing survival,” melds historical narratives and storytelling to create appealing glimpses of the engine in action, whether in 1886, 1947, or 1964. —Ron Verzuh reviews Engine 374 and Me: True (and Partly True) Stories of a Celebrated CPR Locomotive, by Lisa Anne Smith (Vancouver: Time Talk Press, 2024) $20.00 / 9780968786512
“What will also appeal to British Columbians is the passionate defense of his Vancouver home from all those who criticize it from ‘Back East.’ He credits the ‘Terminal City’ with inventing the California Roll, calls Canadian Tire ‘Crappy Tire’ (‘Canadian Tire has more actual real money than God’) and celebrates Tim Horton’s ‘Double-double’ (‘the salt-of-the-earth-and-the-winter-driveway coffee’). Ron Verzuh reviews The Eh Team: A Celebration of Canadianisms from Elbows Up to Poutine, by Charles Demers (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2025) $26.95 / 9781778403743
“Canadians rightly balked at American President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Canada become the 51st state. Fortunately, Victoria historian Graeme Menzies has sidelined that suggestion with his latest history of Captains James Cook, George Vancouver, and others who sailed to our shores in the late 18th century. Thanks to them, he explains, we remain thoroughly Canadian.” Ron Verzuh reviews Trading Fate: How a Little-Known Company Stopped British Columbia from Becoming an American State, by Graeme Menzies (Victoria: Heritage House, 2025) $29.95 / 9781772035483
With her late-Victorian setting on Vancouver Island, a debut novelist “clearly takes much care in constructing her story, using metaphor effectively to enhance the reader’s appreciation of the wilderness setting and the lengthy cast of characters.” Despite the successes, the novel proved confounding on occasion for our reviewer. —Ron Verzuh reviews A Snake and a Feathered Bird, by Angie Ellis (Saskatoon: Thistledown Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781771872812
“Poetry infused Tom’s life and shaped it as he ‘recarved’ words in a never-ending attempt to squeeze more meaning from them. His passing was swift and silent, leaving us with his poetry to ponder and consider as we navigate the troubled world he left behind.” —Ron Verzuh reflects on the restless decades of his lifelong friend.
Simultaneously black- and warmhearted, a Victoria author’s sophomore novel satirizes corporate culture. In it, a nebbish hero simmers with fantasies of power and revenge… and then strikes a fateful bargain with dire consequences. —Ron Verzuh reviews Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World, by Mark Waddell (Toronto: Viking Canada, 2025) $26.95 / 9780735250321
“’This book is an apology of sorts to the number of people I have stopped mid-sentence . . . to offer the aside that a word or term they have employed had its genesis in an old sea term.’ Apologies offered here to the author and a big thanks for many hours of amusing and educational exploration of word worthy and seaworthy turns of phrase.” Ron Verzuh reviews Sound Like a Sailor: The Book of Nautical Expressions, by R. Bruce Macdonald (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $24.95 / 9781998526239
“Author George Abbott meticulously researched this disturbing political past to shed light on that legacy as governments and First Nations continue the quest for truth and reconciliation partly through land claims negotiations.” Ron Verzuh reviews Unceded: Understanding British Columbia’s Colonial Past and Why It Matters Now, by George M. Abbott (Vancouver: UBC Press [Purich Books], 2025) $29.95 / 9780774881159
Clashing politics and unexpected romantic feelings animate a socially conscious novel set in Winnipeg during an era of social disruption and economic disparity. Plot twists “keep readers interested in this study of home-front class differences.” —Ron Verzuh reviews The Bittersweet Year, by Barry Potyondi (N.p.: Holand Press, 2025) $16.49 / 9798297500709
“Harper’s words tell this story but Marriott adds the historian’s tools of archival documents, war histories, and news reports. He provides a section on sources that explains how he knit together the word-images that take readers to the killing fields. Those vivid pictures of warfare on the Western front are often unimaginable.” Ron Verzuh reviews Till We Meet Again: A Canadian in the First World War, by Brandon Marriott (Toronto: Simon & Schuster, 2025) $39.95 / 9781668208236
The promise of comfort and security in a new home continues to elude the proverbially overworked and underpaid characters in a searing novel that highlights exploitation, corruption, and bad faith in Canada’s immigration system. —Ron Verzuh reviews Frosty Lanes, by Harpreet Sekha (translated by Akal Amrit Kaur and Inderpal Kaur) (Chhanna, India: Rethink Books, 2025) $x.xx / 9789348092922
“When I arrived at Burnaby’s Simon Fraser University in the spring of 1970, the dust had barely settled on the previous five years of growing pains. A Magical Time took me back to the many exciting moments that would leave a lasting impression on members of my student cohort for better or worse.” Ron Verzuh reviews A Magical Time: The Early Days of the Arts at Simon Fraser University by the Simon Fraser University Retirees Association (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $38.95 / 9781998526062
“Arnott’s storytelling has some of the qualities of Mark Twain floating down the Mississippi or Walt Whitman strolling the Great White Way. Lord Byron, too, comes to mind with his peripatetic Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. But perhaps this travel memoir is more akin to John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley. More like Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods.” Ron Verzuh reviews A Season in the Okanagan, by Bill Arnott (Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2025) $20 / 9781771607247
In a warm, captivating tale, campaigning politicians, lovestruck Cranbrookers, and the Sells-Floto Circus turn 1920s small town BC into the proverbial three-ringer. —Ron Verzuh reviews Frank and the Elephants: A Romance of the Rockies, by R.D. Rowberry (Nelson: Nelson History Theatre Society, 2024) $18.95 / 9781738218004
