No Dog Barked: Who Killed the MacLauchlans? by Rod Drown and Ken McIntosh New Westminster: Archives New West, 2018 $30.00 / 9781775095217 Reviewed by Don Hauka * In the early hours of March 21, 1966, Dr. Henry MacLauchlan and his wife Margaret Ann were murdered in their tiny bungalow at 912 Fifth Street in New…
Read more #509 Let sleeping dogs stir
The Hundred-Year Trek: A History of Student Life at UBC by Sheldon Goldfarb, with a preface by the Right Honourable Kim Campbell Victoria: Heritage House, 2017 $32.95 / 9781772032239 Reviewed by Herbert Rosengarten * When UBC, then situated in a few buildings at Vancouver General Hospital, opened its doors in 1915, fewer than 400 students…
Read more #507 What rhymes with alma mater
Towards a New Ethnohistory: Community-Engaged Scholarship among the People of the River by Keith Thor Carlson, John Sutton Lutz, David Schaepe, and Albert “Sonny” McHalsie (Naxaxalhts’i) (editors) Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2018 $27.95 / 9780887558177 Reviewed by Tyler McCreary * Towards a New Ethnohistory, a new collection edited by Keith Carlson, John Lutz, David…
Read more #506 Scribes of the Stó:lō Nation
Sea Trial: Sailing After My Father by Brian Harvey Toronto: ECW Press, 2019 $21.95 / 9781770414778 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * On October 2, 2019, Brian Harvey’s Sea Trial was announced as one of five finalists for the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Awards for nonfiction. The winner will be announced in Ottawa on October 19th…
Read more #503 Brain surgery at Zero Rock
MEMOIR: My Private Chinatown by Grahame Ware * The literature of remembrance turns the lost world of objects into emblems of a bygone culture. What is lost can be repossessed through memory and writing, for it is in the vagaries of consciousness in retracing lost dreams that possession can best be established. Writing about memories…
Read more #501 My Private Chinatown
Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees by Harley Rustad Toronto: House of Anansi Press (Walrus Books), 2018 $22.95 / 9781487003111 Reviewed by Mark Forsythe * An immense, solitary Douglas fir stands inside a vast clear-cut. Sun-bleached slash stretches in all directions; the tree’s shadow reaches for a nearby second…
Read more #500 A tall tale from Port Renfrew
George Garrett: Intrepid Reporter by George Garrett Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $26.95 / 9781550178661 Reviewed by Michael Sasges * George Garrett: Intrepid Reporter is important reading for anyone interested in Vancouver politics and journalism in the last fifty years of the previous century. As a reporter for radio station CKNW from 1956 to 1999,…
Read more #497 Vancouver’s master broadcaster
Across Oceans of Law: The Komagata Maru and Jurisdiction in the Time of Empire by Renisa Mawani Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2018 $27.95 (U.S.) / 9780822370352 Reviewed by Hugh Johnston * Renisa Mawani writes a thoroughly academic prose, not intended for a casual audience. Even so, her book will have fans, especially among…
Read more #496 Too much sail, not enough ballast
North of Familiar: A Woman’s Story of Homesteading and Adventure in the Canadian Wilderness by Terry Milos Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2017 $24.95 / 9781987915457 Reviewed by Heather Graham * In the summer of 1974, a newlywed couple from California, completed paperwork in hand, crossed the border into Canada as immigrants to begin a new…
Read more #495 Of moose and rhubarb wine
85 Grams: Art Williams, Drug Czar by Daryl Ashby Victoria: Tellwell Talent, 2018 $19.95 / 9781773703503 Reviewed by Kathryn Neilson * During the 1970s, Arthur James Williams ran the largest MDA lab in North America near the small town of Ladysmith on Vancouver Island. With assistance from trusted confidants, he produced and distributed millions of…
Read more #494 Mycology, MDA & Hells Angels
A History of Canada in Ten Maps: Epic Stories of Charting a Mysterious Land by Adam Shoalts Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2018 $22.00 / 9780143193982 Reviewed by Graeme Wynn * The universe is made of stories, not atoms. American physicist Sean Carroll once used this line by American poet Muriel Rukeyser as a springboard for his…
Read more #493 Canadian maps that mattered
Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii: Life Beyond Settler Colonialism by Joseph Weiss Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018 $32.95 / 9780774837590 Reviewed by Molly Clarkson * I’ll admit that I approached Dr. Joseph Weiss’s Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii: Life Beyond Settler Colonialism with a not-insignificant amount of trepidation. Another ethnographic examination of the Haida…
Read more #492 Future-making in Haida Gwaii
The Death and Life of Strother Purcell by Ian Weir Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane Editions, 2018 $22.95 / 9781773100296 Reviewed by Valerie Green First published Feb. 18, 2019 * Whether or not early British Columbia can, in reality, be lumped into a western American formula is for the professional historian to decide. Meanwhile, if you…
Read more #489 Trouble at Hell’s Gate
Guide to Victoria’s Historic Jewish Cemetery by Amber Woods Victoria: Old Cemeteries Society, 2018 $15.00 / 9780968289945 Available at: jewishvictoria.wordpress.com/ordering/ * Raincoast Jews: Integration in British Columbia by Lillooet Nördlinger McDonnell Vancouver: Midtown Press, 2014 $22.95 / 9780988110120 Both books reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb First published Feb. 9, 2019 * * Here’s a curious pair…
Read more #482 Two views of Raincoast Jews
On The Rocks with Jack Knox: Islanders I will Never Forget by Jack Knox Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772032666 Reviewed by Keith Norbury First published Feb. 8, 2019 * It’s often said that journalism represents the first rough draft of history. As a reporter, editor, and columnist with the Victoria Times Colonist daily…
Read more #481 Island characters
Property Values by Charles Demers Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018 $17.95 / 9781551527277 Reviewed by John Douglas Belshaw First published Feb. 4, 2019 * We need to talk about … Burquitlam. It’s liminal. Which is a scholarly word meaning it occupies “a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.” (Thank you,…
Read more #478 Land deals in Burquitlam
Out of the Woods: Woodworkers along the Salish Sea by Pirjo Raits (text) and Dale Roth and Michele Ramberg (photos) Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $34.95 / 9781772032604 Reviewed by Grahame Ware First published Feb. 3, 2019 * There are trees … which in their single lives have spanned the entire history of civilized man. We…
Read more #477 Art of the forest & turbulent sea
Take the Torch: A Political Memoir by Ian Waddell Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2018 $22.95 / 9780889713475 Reviewed by Rod Drown First published Jan. 30, 2019 * In Take the Torch, long-time British Columbian New Democratic Party politician Ian Waddell tells, in detail and with humour, the story of how a Scottish boy made good in…
Read more #475 Ian Waddell’s front row seat
Michael Lait reviews two books: Small Cities, Big Issues: Reconceiving Community in a Neoliberal Era by Christopher Walmsley and Terry Kading (editors) Edmonton: Athabasca University Press, 2018 $37.95 / 9781771991636 Free pdf available here. * No Straight Lines: Local Leadership and the Path From Government to Governance in Small Cities by Terry Kading (editor) Calgary:…
Read more #473 Small cities take centre stage
Trail North: The Okanagan Trail of 1856-68 and its Origins in British Columbia and Washington by Ken Mather Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $22.95 / 9781772032307 Reviewed by Harold Rhenisch First published January 24th, 2019 * The British Columbia grasslands became cattle country, between 1858 and 1868, largely through the effects of a cattle route called…
Read more #472 Okanagan trade & cattle trail