“The text is an accessible reference resource that will be useful to students and budding archaeologists, field technicians working with/for First Nations communities, and any interested visitors traveling through coastal First Nations’ territories.” Bryn Letham reviews Indigenous Heritage Features Handbook by A. Mackie, R. Inglis, Qixitasu (E. White), and K. Neary (The Province of British Columbia and Coastal First Nations Great Bear Initiative, 2024)
“Understanding this science, is a major step to encourage all of humanity to ‘think carefully about our options, and find a new course.'” Natalie Virginia Lang reviews Runaway Climate: What the Geological Past Can Tell Us About the Coming Climate Change Catastrophe, by Steven Earle, PhD (Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers, 2024) $24.99 / 9780865719897
“…Willes has filled in a lot of the blanks to produce a fascinating team history that gives credence to the ‘curse’ mythology.” Daniel Gawthrop reviews Never Boring: The up and down history of the Vancouver Canucks by Ed Willes (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2024) $28.95 / 9781990776892
“…this bounty of a missive both reflects on our contemporary crises and what, practically, can be done to bring health and healing to local communities again.” Ron Dart reviews Save Your City: How toxic culture kills community & what to do about it by Diane Kalen-Sukra (Toronto: Municipal World, 2024) $22.80 / 9780228810872
“On a recent summer hike along Vancouver Island’s Cowichan River, we enjoyed referring to Collin Varner’s flora pocket guide to keystone species, “keystone” being organisms that define and support an entire ecosystem thus filling a vital ecological niche.” Isabel Nanton reviews 50 Keystone Flora Species of Coastal British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest: A Pocket Guide & 50 Keystone Fauna Species of Coastal British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest: A Pocket Guide by Collin Varner (Victoria: Heritage House, 2024) $19.95 / 9781772034776 / 9781772034943
“…by the end of Mohawk elder Taiaiake Alfred’s book of talks, speeches, interviews, and podcasts, as a non-native person I understood the meaning of decolonization and what he calls the transformative potential of the ‘Resurgence of Indigenous power’ to revitalize cultures, traditions, laws, and value systems.” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews It’s All About the Land: Collected Talks and Interviews on Indigenous Resurgence by Taiaiake Alfred (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2023) $29.95 / 9781487552831
Former government lawyer and author Richard Butler writes that there must be a better way than trying to implement the principles of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) through law reform. He sees it an exercise in futility and potentially risky for reconciliation. Richard Butler presents his essay The Futility of Aboriginal Law Reform.
“Arnett integrates cultural and technical aspects of rock art and rock art sites from start to finish. He insists the paintings in many settings are an interaction between the rock formation, the setting, the paint, and the artist, including the artist’s songs and stories about the site.” Wendy Burton reviews Signs of the Time: Nłeʔkepmx Resistance through Rock Art by Chris Arnett (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2024) $39.95 / 9780774867962
“…understanding how everything in a way has life. Inanimate objects, human made things, people of course, and everything else as well. This is how Marks extends her ideas. It’s an incremental change of many philosophical ideas.” Thomas Girard reviews The Fold: From Your Body to the Cosmos, by Laura U. Marks (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2024) $29.95 USD / 9781478030119
“Mahtani is truly aiming to accomplish a lot with May it Have a Happy Ending and the threads of family, illness, work, and other elements take their turns in the spotlight, then drift through the background, reminding us that we are always composed of a range of tales, that nothing is exclusive or simple or from which we are easily healed.” Catherine Owen reviews May it Have a Happy Ending: A Memoir of Finding My Voice as My Mother Lost Hers, by Minelle Mahtani (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2024) $34.95 / 9780385675208
“Into his own remarkable life story, he manages to also weave world events in history over the past century, including many human conflicts, criminal justice reform and his own personal reflections as he travels the world from Canada to the United Kingdom, Germany, Uganda, and the Middle East.” Valerie Green reviews Boxing The Compass: A Life of Seafaring, Music, and Pilgrimage by Michael L. Hadley (Victoria: Heritage House, 2024) $29.95 / 9781772034738
“In clearly laid out chapters from Prospect to Policy to Partnership, Schouls describes the steps taken in many negotiations to articulate the positions of numerous peoples, all with different land claims, cultures, languages, and histories.” Linda Rogers reviews The Spaces In Between: Indigenous Sovereignty within the Canadian State by Tim Schouls (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2024) $74.95 / 9781487587406
“The cover image situates the viewer in a state of uncertainty, nay anxiety, holding our breath and straining to right ourselves vis-à-vis the disorienting photograph. This sets the tone for this aptly named book of photographs.” Ryan Gauvin reviews Delirium by John O’Brian (Vancouver: Delirium Editions, 2024) Limited Edition of 500 / 9781738144808
‘Bill Arnott is different: he’s looking around. And what does he see? Not what I would see. In the middle of reading this book, I thought, Let’s look around on a walk like he does.’ Sheldon Goldfarb reviews A Perfect Day for a Walk: The History, Cultures, and Communities of Vancouver, on Foot
by Bill Arnott (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781551529639
“Willard Freer’s diaries document a dynamic period in the North, and Jay Sherwood’s Kechika Chronicler takes the reader on many of Freer’s wilderness trails.” Ross Peck reviews Kechika Chronicler: Willard Freer’s Northern BC and Yukon Diaries, 1942-1975, by Jay Sherwood (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2023) $26 / 9781773860909
“They seem to be talking about a kind of respectful and meaningful community belonging. That is really where the power lies.” Richard Butler reviews Where the Power Is: Indigenous Perspectives on Northwest Coast Art by Karen Duffek, Bill McLennan, Jordan Wilson (eds.) (Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, in collaboration with the Museum of Anthropology, UBC, 2021) $65 / 9781773270517
“What an odyssey her life has been! When you think of her beginnings in mid-century Romania and Israel, her narrow escape from perilous situations, and her good fortune, which she has fully utilized, it is one of those stories that can be told again and again.” Christina Johnson-Dean looks back on the life and art of Vancouver-based Pnina Granirer.
“Condon’s book is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of our cities, and is a call to action; challenging us to rethink urban development and advocate for policies that put people first.” Ryan Mitchell reviews Broken City: Land Speculation, Inequality, and Urban Crisis, by Patrick M. Condon (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2024) $32.95 / 9780774869553
“Reynolds calls for more education about the history of colonialism in schools and universities, which is fair enough, although Canadian historians have been writing on the subject for, oh, about fifty years.” Robin Fisher reviews Canada and Colonialism: An Unfinished History by Jim Reynolds (Vancouver: Purich Books, 2024) $32.95 / 9780774880947
“These two authors have produced a charming, colourful book that is easy to read and understand for kids of all ages. Children will ‘soon advance from quick after-school snacks and summer picnics to breakfasts in bed and full-course family dinners.'” Valerie Green reviews Let’s Eat: Recipes for Kids Who Cook by DL Acken and Aurelia Louvet (Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2023) $40 / 97817711514132
