Harrowings By Cecily Nicholson Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2022 $19.95 / 9781772014051 Reviewed by Marguerite Pigeon * A bright red tractor churning Southern Ontario soil, BC orchards, waving prairie wheat fields. Christian uplift, and hardscrabble Euro-immigrant toil. All idealized scenes that participate in a specific farming imaginary that lets some Canadians eat our veggies without much bile—mostly… Read more 1856 Connecting to ‘a vital abolitionist tradition’
Gold, Grit, Guns: Miners on BC’s Fraser River in 1858 by Alexander Globe Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2022 $26.95 / 9781553805847 Reviewed by Matthew Downey * The ironic fact at the heart of British Columbia’s genesis is that its colonial foundation was not rooted in an influx of British settlers, but rather the uneasy invasion of… Read more 1839 Gold Rush ‘surgical social analysis’
Emily Carr: Life & Work by Lisa Baldissera, with an introduction by Sara Angel Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2021 $40.00 / 9781487102326 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Most people in Victoria, throughout British Columbia and across Canada are of course familiar with the works of artist/writer Emily Carr. Her artwork is acclaimed both nationally and… Read more 1838 ‘The woman behind the art’
Baybrook: Life’s Best Adventure by Hamilton Mack Laing, edited by Barbara Elaine Price Comox: Comox Archives and Museum Society, 2005, 2022 $20.00 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater * Hamilton Mack Laing’s memoir, Baybrook: Life’s Best Adventure, is perhaps best viewed through the lens of a love story. Laing had a deep love affair for the place… Read more 1833 Mack Laing at home
Room at the Inn: Historic Hotels of British Columbia’s Southern Interior by Glen A. Mofford Victoria: Heritage House Publishing, 2023 $26.95 / 9781772034233 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Remember staying at that cozy little hotel on your honeymoon, that summer vacation spot by the lake or that mountain resort? Well, now you can vicariously enjoy… Read more 1831 Bordellos and a dog named Dinty
Frances Barkley: Eighteenth-century Seafarer by Cathy Converse Victoria: Heritage House, 2023 $12.95 / 9781772034417 Reviewed by Dave Flawse * Frances and Captain Charles Barkley navigated the Imperial Eagle into Nootka Sound in June 1787. The wife, husband, and crew sailed across the globe through storms and pirate-infested waters to procure a seemingly humble item—sea otter… Read more 1826 An adventurous couple
This Place Is Who We Are: Stories of Indigenous Leadership, Resilience, and Connection to Homelands by Katherine Palmer Gordon with a foreword by Dallas Smith Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2023 $39.95 / 9781990776137 Reviewed by Mary Ann Moore * “The central north coast of what settlers refer to as British Columbia in Canada, [is] a… Read more 1825 A ‘cornerstone of cultural strength’
British Columbiana: A Millennial in a Gold Rush Town by Josie Teed Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2023 $22.99 / 9781459750210 Reviewed by Forrest Pass * The summer that I was eight, my parents bought me a red Walkman in hopes that it would keep me entertained during the long drive up to Barkerville, the reconstructed Cariboo… Read more 1824 Hello, Wells
Printer’s Devils: How a Feisty Pioneer Newspaper Shaped the History of British Columbia, 1895-1925 by Ron Verzuh Qualicum Beach, BC: Caitlin Press, 2023 $28.00 / 9781773861036 Reviewed by Patricia E. Roy * Small town newspapers can reveal much about the communities they serve. Indeed, Ron Verzuh suggests that Printer’s Devils “plays a double role, first… Read more 1819 The personalities behind the paper
Welcome Trevor and Brett by Richard Mackie * On behalf of the Board of the Ormsby Literary Society and our Advisory Board I’d like to welcome Trevor Marc Hughes and Brett Josef Grubisic as interim editors of The British Columbia Review for the year May 1, 2023 to May 1, 2024. The position was made possible… Read more 1813 Welcome Trevor and Brett
Ruby Red Skies by Taslim Burkowicz Halifax and Winnipeg: Roseway Publishing an imprint of Fernwood Publishing, 2022 $24.00 / 9781773635606 Reviewed by Steven Brown * Ruby is not happy. She feels taken for granted by both husband and daughter. Her opinions don’t matter. Her husband talks down to her, openly mocks her, is oblivious to… Read more 1810 Intrigue, then and now
Workboats for the World: The Robert Allan Story by Robert G. Allan, with Peter A. Robson, and with a foreword by Peter G. Noble Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2022 $99.95 / 9781550179873 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * The ferry George Black has plied the waters of the Yukon River between Dawson City and Alaska since… Read more 1806 All the world’s a harbour
Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story by Kim Senklip Harvey with the Fire Company Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2020 $16.95 / 9781772012422 Reviewed by Amanda Wandler * This story, this ceremony is for our Indigenous Peoples, it is to give voice and illuminate the power of Indigenous womxn. It is about our unwielded power and unsuppressed Settler supremacy… Read more 1802 Return of the matriarchs
Forgotten Things: The Story of the Seymour Valley Archaeology Project by Robert J. Muckle Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022 $24.95 / 9781487588526 Reviewed by Daniel Francis * During the decades between the two world wars a small number of Nikkei (i.e. Japanese-Canadian) loggers lived with their families deep in the woods on the North… Read more 1799 Secret of the North Shore woods
Canadian Pacific Railway on the Revelstoke Division. Volume Six. The Connaught Tunnel — 106 Years of Service by Douglas R. Mayer Revelstoke: Revelstoke Heritage Railway Society, 2022 $40.00 / 9781999416850 Reviewed by Robert D. Turner Available from the Revelstoke Railway Museum, P.O. Box 3018, 719 Track Street West, Revelstoke, BC, V0E 2S0 (railwaymuseum.com) for $40.00… Read more 1798 Under Mount Macdonald
Dig Deep: Connecting Archaeology, Oceans and Us by Nicole F. Smith, with photographs by Alexander Mackie and others Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 2023 $21.95 / 9781459826083 Reviewed by Grant Keddie * Over my 50 years as a curator in Archaeology at the British Columbia Provincial Museum-Royal British Columbia Museum I received numerous requests from teachers… Read more 1792 The 164,000-year classroom
Looking Back, Moving Forward: 160 Years of Jewish Life in BC by Michael Schwartz (editor) Vancouver: Jewish Museum and Archives of BC, [2020] $50.00 / 9780969126881 Reviewed by Richard Kool To place an order, contact the museum at (604) 257-5199 or email at info@jewishmuseum.ca * The urge to establish formal organizations, clubs, societies, buildings, cemeteries… Read more 1791 Honey, you forgot the Island
Ron Thom, Architect: The Life of a Creative Modernist by Adele Weder Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2022 $37.95 / 9781771643221 Reviewed by Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe * Ron Thom, reflecting in the early 1980s on his work as a creator of living and lived-in spaces averred, “any form of design or expression is locked in time. Whether it… Read more 1790 Thom’s modernist masterpieces
Galena Bay Odyssey: Reflections of a Hippie Homesteader by Ellen Schwartz Victoria: Heritage House Publishing, 2023 $26.95 / 9781772034455 Reviewed by Catherine Owen * In the mid to later 70s, I was raised by hippie-ish parents. Which seems odd seeing as how they were religious and lived in the suburbs of Burnaby. But my father… Read more 1789 Tiny community living
