“This book offers expression and relief from the wounded land of immobilisation, where people must shrink their lives and selves to fit into hell. Redemption appears in unusual ways. The stories are not completely mired in torture or isolation. Overall, the atmosphere emanates a compassionate moonscape, revealing people trapped in numbing routines or chaos, getting through each day with no hope, yet most keep going.” Lee Reid reviews Off the Map: Vancouver writers with lived experiences of mental health issues by Betsy Warland, Seema Shah, and Kate Bird (eds.) (Vancouver: Bell Press, 2025) $22 / 9781738716784
“With the School Board now onside, the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts began classes in September 1925, squeezed into two rooms on the top floor of the Board office, a three-storey stone building at the corner of Dunsmuir and Hamilton streets. It operated as part of the city’s school system, though unlike regular public schools it charged an annual tuition of $50.” Daniel Francis contributes an essay about the series of historical events that took place in order to create what we now know as Emily Carr University, which had its centenary last year.
“Hill presents a compelling case for Antifa relevance in its fight against racism, fascism, and authoritarianism, providing a detailed history of events in our past, so we can better understand our probable future.” Jeffrey Stychin reviews The Antifa Comic Book: Revised and Expanded, by Gord Hill (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781834050041
“Our interviewees have been many and varied: from seasoned poet George Bowering to newcomer, Giller Prize-shortlisted author, Eddy Boudel Tan, from bestselling history author Nancy Marguerite Anderson, to acclaimed memoirist Marion McKinnon Crook. It has been a privilege for me to shake the hands of all of the interviewees of 2025, sometimes in their own homes and workspaces, and ask them about their creative process.” Interview segment producer Trevor Marc Hughes looks back on a year of The British Columbia Review Interview Series.
“However, this book is not an art history book; it is aimed at immersing oneself in beading right now. It’s an excellent and easy-to-follow guide with clear instructions and illustrations. First published in 1996, its importance is ongoing. Don’t be limited by the word ‘beginners’ in the title. Though it is perfect for beginners, this book also offers much, much more.” Christina Johnson-Dean reviews Complete Beading for Beginners, by Karen Rempel (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $26.95 / 9781998526222
“Tlingit women’s resilience and resistance shaped their communities historically and up to the present and hold promise for the future. In writing this book, Smetzer represents both the beauty and the pain inherent in beading practices in Tlingit territory.” Katy Dycus reviews Painful Beauty: Tlingit Women, Beadwork, and the Art of Resilience, by Megan A. Smetzer (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2025) $34.95 / 9780295754086
“Fox is a writer whose sense of humour translates well to the page, and who draws the reader in with his authenticity, a genuine approach that is satisfying to note given how much Hollywood glamour and publicity that has surrounded him in his adult life. His humour can also have a sardonic and even self-deprecating twist to it, and it’s clear that some of his rebellious nature came from his upbringing in British Columbia…” Trevor Marc Hughes reviews Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum, by Michael J. Fox and Nelle Fortenberry (New York: Flatiron Books, 2025) $26.99 / 9781250866783
“This publication is timely because it invites us to take a step back from the headlines, narratives, and counter-narratives, and to learn who the Secwépemc people were and are; to appreciate their connection with their lands; and to understand the social relationships and responsibilities which foster mutual belonging in their communities.” Richard Butler reviews Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws: Yerí7 re Stsq’ey’s-kucw, by Marianne Ignace and Ronald E. Ignace (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025) $39.95 / 9780228026358 (paperback release)
“Salt Spring Island-based Acken has written a cookbook both inspiring and surprisingly practical. It’s an homage to the West Coast and the foods we can incorporate into our baking.” Trish Bowering reviews Thyme for Dessert: Sweets & Treats Inspired by the Flavours of the Pacific Northwest Coast, by DL Acken, with Aurelia Louvet (Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2025) $30 / 9781771514804
“I find myself in somewhat similar circumstances to Honda, even though our life stories and backgrounds are quite different. I am also a person in her mid-fifties with a daughter who has recently left home, and I too am faced with a time of transformation. Thus, I was riveted by the book, connected in a way that was meaningful and relevant.” Trish Bowering reviews Hidden Flowers
by Keiko Honda (Vancouver: Heritage House, 2025) $29.95 / 9781772035605
“One of the most compelling aspects of the collection is its counterculture energy. There is a clear rejection of the idea that Canada’s value lies in its utility to the United States, a challenge to a worldview that reduces national identity to geopolitical convenience. The essays ripple with a sense of defiance that is both invigorating and necessary, particularly in an era when political rhetoric often blurs the line between hyperbole and threat.” Jeffrey Stychin reviews Canada Is Not the 51st F**king State! Canadians Face Off Against Donald Trump’s Worst Idea Ever (New Westminster: Cosmic Cranium Press, 2025) $27.99 / 9781069072610
“The individuals profiled in this book use all kinds of narrative formats, telling stories through poetry and prose, pictographs, maps, ribbon skirts, and beadwork. There is a serious challenge of scope with such a short volume, but it is successful in its brevity at providing a glimpse of the multitude of Indigenous storytellers.” Kristina Hannis reviews Ours to Tell: Reclaiming Indigenous Stories, by Eldon Yellowhorn & Kathy Lowinger (Toronto: Annick Press, 2025) $24.99 / 9781773219530
“A musician, or any artist, can have an infinite variety of origin stories, yet I cannot help but feel that it largely comes down to this line from Case: ‘The ways to be unwanted were inexhaustible, it seemed, and as a child I still had no clue how to claim a spot for myself in the world.’ I’m sure there are exceptions, but feeling bereft of security and belonging often becomes a natural prerequisite to longing for artistic autonomy—to be and embody the thing you admire.” Jessica Poon reviews The Harder I Fight the More I Love You, by Neko Case (Toronto: Hachette Book Group, 2025) $30 / 9781538710500
“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
“In order to give an additional perspective on Castle’s role as photographer in the First World War, the author provides salient details of his role as a photographer in the earlier Balkans war. Here the whole culture of war photography, including camaraderie and competition amongst the journalists, she suggests were a seminal influence on Castle’s sense of his own role.” Theo Dombrowski reviews The Taking of Vimy Ridge: First World War Photographs of William Ivor Castle, by Carla-Jean Stokes (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2025) $64.99 / 9781771126984
“In terms of the development of the disciplines of history and science, as well as the development of the arts and culture in British Columbia, the Okanagan region contributed enormously. Three eminent women come to mind: Margaret Anchoreta Orsmby (1909-1996), Joan Heriot (1911-2012), and Sveva Caetani (1917-1994).” Adriana A. Davies contributes the essay Extraordinary Women of the Okanagan to The British Columbia Review
“Settling in Edmonton in 1951 was not so easy for immigrants and, although her father was able to locate work when he had arrived two years earlier, many Italian families experienced difficulties in finding employment. While the family isn’t poor, there is no money for luxuries as Adriana is growing up, and she keenly feels the divide between the ‘English’ children and the immigrant children.” Carol Matthews reviews My Theatre of Memory: A Life in Words, by Adriana A. Davies (Gananoque: Guernica Editions, 2023) $25 / 9781771837705
“This was, surprisingly, one of the most heartwarming and uplifting books I’ve read in a long time. Hearing the authentic voices of the men involved in WHoS directly allowed me to feel a great sense of connection with them and their struggles to find humanity in a setting where humanity is often lost.” Susan Sanford Blades reviews Staging Prison Theatre in Canada: Setting the Spotlight on William Head on Stage, by Thana Ridha and Sylvie Frigon (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2025) $39.95 / 9780776644905
“Kean’s Canada Films was becoming a familiar brand to Vancouver moviegoers. A. D. responded to a limited market by diversifying his subject matter: local industries, the war effort, civic celebrations, and soft news items.” Dennis J. Duffy contributes the essay “The Famous Cowboy Artist”: A. D. Kean in Vancouver, 1913–1916
“Surviving Vancouver…is a reckoning with that lost history. The word in the title divides the book into two parts. Surviving as an adjective refers to the buildings and cityscapes that somehow managed to survive the past century of booms and depressions, immigrations, and globalization; whereas surviving as a verb deals with the social divides in a city – and province – where sheer survival is a daily challenge for far too many people.” Peter Hay reviews Surviving Vancouver by Michael Kluckner (Vancouver: Midtown Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781988242545
