The Baddest Bitch in the Room: A Memoir by Sophia Chang New York: Catapult, 2021 $17.95 (U.S.) / 9781646220816 Reviewed by LiLynn Wan * The essence of autobiography is in creating identity, and Sophia Chang’s memoir, The Baddest Bitch in the Room, does just that. By writing her life story, she asserts: “I am defining… Read more 1432 Sophia Chang and the Big Apple
TELEVISION DOCUSERIES REVIEW: British Columbia: An Untold History by Kevin Eastwood, Writer and Director Burnaby: British Columbia’s Knowledge Network, 2022 Reviewed by Patrick A. Dunae * Knowledge Network, ‘British Columbia’s public educational broadcaster,’ has produced a compelling documentary series entitled British Columbia: An Untold History. The production qualities are superb. Each episode of the four-part… Read more 1405 Colonialism corrective
…And So…That’s How it Happened: Recollections of Stanley-Barkerville, 1900-1975 by W.M. (Bill) Hong. Originally edited by J.R.S. Hambly, updated by Gordon Lee, edited by Gary and Eileen Seale Quesnel: Spartan Printing, 1978; fifth Printing January 2018 by Blueline Graphics, Coquitlam [price to follow] / 9780987365004 Available at Frog on the Bog Gifts, Wells, BC Review… Read more 1379 Bill Hong & the Cariboo Mountains
The Cine Star Salon: a novel by Leah Ranada Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2021 $21.95 / 9781774390320 Reviewed by W.H. New * This first novel by Leah Ranada is a contemporary version of an old trope, the growing-up-and-away novel, where the protagonist has to find out how to be herself, stop depending on others, deal with… Read more 1367 Philippine style
Race, Culture, and Politics in Education: A Global Journey From South Africa by Kogila Moodley, with an afterword by Sonia Nieto Columbia University: Teachers College Press, 2020 $34.95 (U.S.) / 9780807764886 Reviewed by Isabel Nanton * A successful blend of personal memoir and insights culled from an extensive academic career, Kogila Moodley’s book, which forms… Read more 1365 A journey from South Africa
ESSAY: Mourning and Burial Rites in Ancient China: A Grief Process by Dorothy Dittrich * Death is part of life, as are the feelings of grief, sorrow and anxiety that follow the loss of a loved one. While coming to terms with death and coping with loss may be part of living, the feelings that… Read more Mourning rites in Ancient China
The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland and Stewart), 2021 $24.95 / 9780771094965 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * Shashi Bhat, editor-in-chief of EVENT magazine and winner of the Writers’ Trust / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, presents a standout piece of fiction in her novel The Most… Read more 1337 Oboes and animal crackers
Under the Bright Sky: A Memoir of Travels through Asia by Andrew Scott Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2021 $24.95 / 9781773860619 Reviewed by Howard Macdonald Stewart * Andrew Scott has assembled a highly readable, often fascinating collection of stories about three decades of travel around Asia, from Japan to Turkey. I particularly appreciated his observation… Read more 1330 Three decades ago in Asia
China Unbound: A New World Disorder by Joanna Chiu Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2021 $24.99 / 9781487007676 Reviewed by May Q Wong * What do we really know about China? For centuries, it was a kingdom unto itself, sealed off by choice to the outside world, shrouded in mystery. For over a century, invaders… Read more 1328 Money talks on the Belt and Road
The Rebellious Tide by Eddy Boudel Tan Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2021 $21.99 / 9781459746879 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * In his sophomore novel, The Rebellious Tide, Eddy Boudel Tan immerses the reader into the complexities of the human condition evidenced through the characters’ interpersonal relationships as well as their struggles with identity, discrimination, and social… Read more 1296 The father he had never met
Exporting Virtue? China’s International Human Rights Activism in the Age of Xi Zinping by Pitman B. Potter Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021 $32.95 / 9780774865562 Reviewed by Larry Hannant * With the resolution of the three-year saga of the 3 Ms (the two Michaels and Meng), British Columbians might be thinking they’ll get a break from… Read more 1257 China’s human rights orthodoxies
Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto, illustrated by Ann Xu New York: First Second Books (Macmillan), 2021. Distributed by Raincoast Books. Please order from your local independent bookstore $24.99 (U.S.) / 9781626723566 Reviewed by Carol Matthews * Vancouver poet and novelist Hiromi-Goto’s graphic novel Shadow Life, brilliantly illustrated by Ann Xu, is a vollendungsroman, a story… Read more 1253 Running away in old age
MEMOIR: Chennai, a place in between by Jane Frankish * It was the last week of October 2002 and we were homeless, jobless, and rootless. This is just the way it was when we entered Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu in Southern India. Our home for the previous eight years had been Kuching, the… Read more 1218 Chennai, a place in between
Deep and Sheltered Waters: The History of Tod Inlet by David R. Gray, with a foreword by Nancy J. Turner and Robert D. Turner Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum Press, 2020 $29.95 / 9780772672568 Reviewed by Matthew Downey * With Deep and Sheltered Waters: The History of Tod Inlet, David Gray provides an account, both… Read more 1192 The histories of Tod Inlet
Chinatown Stories, Volume 3 by Brooke Xiang and Tyler Mark (editors) Vancouver: Chinatown Today, 2020 $25.00 / 25611607 (ISSN) Note: a digital version of this book can be seen here; hard copies may be purchased at Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and at About Boutique Reviewed by LiLynn Wan * In this third volume of… Read more 1190 Resilient Vancouver Chinatown
The Ku Klux Klan in Canada by Allan Bartley Halifax, NS: Formac Publishing, 2020 $24.95 / 9781459506138 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * In the mid-1920s Canada was a hotbed for KKK recruiters . . . and they’re still here. For almost a century, the racist and often violent Ku Klux Klan has found a home… Read more 1167 Hate mongering in Canada
I will be more myself in the next world by Matsuki Masutani Salt Spring Island: Mother Tongue Publishing, 2021 $19.95 / 9781896949871 Reviewed by Ken Madsen * Full disclosure: I know Matsuki Matsutani. I met him almost a decade ago, after my wife Wendy and I moved south from the Yukon to the same small… Read more 1157 Poetry for the wider world
The Colour of God by Ayesha S. Chaudhry Toronto: Simon and Schuster Canada (Oneworld Publications), 2021 $30.00 / 9781786079251 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * Sibghatullah, “the colour of God” in Qur’anic Arabic, is the name of the author’s little nephew, whose sudden death at the age of 4 provides a frame for Ayesha Chaudhry’s narrative…. Read more 1135 An Islamic-Canadian journey
The Last Exiles by Ann Shin Toronto: HarperCollins (Park Row Books), 2021 $16.99 / 9780778312017 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Stepping into the first few pages of Ann Shin’s The Last Exiles, some readers may feel they’ve entered the recognizable world of dystopian fiction. After all, this is a world “where women in skirt suits… Read more 1130 A docudrama of defection
Chiru Sakura — Falling Cherry Blossoms: A Mother & Daughter’s Journey through Racism, Internment and Oppression by Grace Eiko Thomson Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2021 $24.95 / 9781773860411Reviewed by Patricia E. Roy * In 1997, for the benefit of her children and grandchildren, 84-year-old Sawae Nishikihama began writing memoirs of her experience as a Japanese… Read more 1114 Steveston, Powell Street, Minto