From Oral to Written: A Celebration of Indigenous Literature in Canada, 1980-2010 by Tomson Highway Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2017 $29.95 / 9781772011166 Reviewed by Deanna Reder First published March 30, 2018 * Eminent Cree author Tomson Highway’s From Oral to Written, released by Talonbooks in 2017, is beautifully flawed, inspiring the reader with tremendous lists of…
Read more #277 The new turf of Indigenous Lit
Alan Fry (1931-2018) An obituary by Alan Twigg First published March 30, 2018 * Whistleblowers are seldom cited as heroes—especially those who can be dismissed as crackpot racists. The importance of Federal Indian Agent Alan Fry’s first novel and second book, How a People Die (Doubleday 1970; Harbour 1994), has therefore gradually been glossed over,…
Read more #276 Alan Fry (1931-2018)
First published March 29, 2018. No Dog Barked: Who Killed the MacLauchlans? (Archives New West $30) by Rob Drown and Ken McIntosh 978-1-7750952-1-7 reviewed by Beverly Cramp * Last year John Gray gained wide approval for his novel about Vancouver’s most infamous unsolved murder with The White Angel, a retelling of the perplexing 1924 murder…
Read more #275 Unsolved murders revisited
First published March 28, 2018. The Haunting of Vancouver Island: Supernatural Encounters with the Other Side by Shanon Sinn Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2017. $20 / 9781771512435 Reviewed by Carol Anne Shaw * No matter our age, or whether or not we believe in the supernatural, there is something compelling about a good ghost story. Shanon…
Read more #274 Spooks, not kooks
Settler Anxiety at the Outposts of Empire: Colonial Relations, Humanitarian Discourses, and the Imperial Press by Kenton Storey Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016 $34.95 / 9780774829489 Reviewed by Cole Harris * Kenton Storey’s book is a bold, dense analysis of the interplay in New Zealand and Vancouver Island in the 1850s and early 1860s of settler…
Read more #273 A tale of two colonies
Mapping My Way Home: A Gitxsan History by Neil J. Sterritt Smithers: Creekstone Press, 2016 $29.95 / 9781928195023 Reviewed by Dorothy Kennedy First published March 24, 2018 * Mapping My Way Home tells the story of Gitxsan elder, geologist, and politician Neil Sterritt, who served as president of the Gitxsan-Wet’suwet’en Tribal Council in the 1980s….
Read more #272 Beyond McEachern’s folly
First published March 22, 2018. Canada: Modern Architectures in History by Rhodri Windsor Liscombe and Michelangelo Sabatino London: Reaktion Books, 2016. £20.00 / 9781780236339 Reviewed by Martin Segger * This survey of Modernism in Canada is the thirteenth volume in a series of country-by-country studies of twentieth century architecture. This one has long been anticipated…
Read more #270 Starchitects, 1886 onwards
Busted: An Illustrated History of Drug Prohibition in Canada by Susan C. Boyd Black Point, Nova Scotia, and Winnipeg, MB: Fernwood Publishing, 2017 $21.00 / 9781552669761 Reviewed by Erika Dyck First published March 18th, 2018 * As we enter into a new era of marijuana regulation in Canada, Susan Boyd’s Busted: An Illustrated History of Drug…
Read more #267 Reefers and opium
Northern Star: J.S. Plaskett by R. Peter Broughton, with a foreword by James E. Hesser Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018. $67.50 / 9781442630178 Reviewed by John Hutchings First published Mar. 17, 2018 * John Stanley Plaskett (1865-1941) was the founder and first director of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria. This biography is well-timed, published…
Read more #266 Pioneering stargazer J.S. Plaskett
Surrey: A City of Stories by K. Jane Watt Surrey: City of Surrey Heritage Services (Fenton Street Publishing), 2017 $25.00 / 9780973910919 Reviewed by Janet Mary Nicol First published March 16, 2018 * This visually rich book provides a satisfying history of the City of Surrey, the fastest growing in Metro Vancouver, with B.C.’s second…
Read more #265 Surrey gets proper billing
Morrison: The Long-lost Memoir of Canada’s Artillery Commander in the Great War. Major-General Sir Edward Morrison by Susan Raby-Dunne (editor) Victoria: Heritage House Publishing, 2017 $22.95 / 9781772032147 Reviewed by Michael Sasges First published March 15, 2019 * Edward Morrison was one of no more than fifty general officers who directed Canadian Corps battlefield activities…
Read more #264 From John McCrae to Morrison
Georgia Straight: A 50th Anniversary Celebration by Doug Sarti and Dan McLeod, with an introduction by Bob Geldof and essays by Mike Harcourt, Paul Watson, and Bif Naked Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2017 $40.00 / 9781771602525 Reviewed by Ron Dart First published Mar. 10, 2018 * In February 1967, the name Georgia Straight was hatched…
Read more #263 Georgia Straight honoured
Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi: Teachings from Long Ago Person Found by Richard J. Hebda, Sheila Greer, and Alexander Mackie (editors) Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum, 2017 $49.95 / 9780772666994 Reviewed by Tom Koppel First published March 7, 2018 * It was back in August of 1999, in the northwest corner of British Columbia, in the traditional territory of…
Read more #261 Tatshenshini Man
Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws: Yerí7 Stsq̓ey̓s-kucw by Marianne Ignace and Ronald Ignace Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2017 $39.95 / 9780773551305 Reviewed by Sarah A. Nickel First published March 5, 2018 * Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws: Yerí7 Stsq̓ey̓s-kucw (McGill-Queen’s University Press), by Marianne Ignace and Ronald Ignace, is a long-awaited study of…
Read more #259 Celebrate Secwépemc Shuswap
The Reconciliation Manifesto: Recovering the Land, Rebuilding the Economy by Arthur Manuel and Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson, with a preface by Naomi Klein Toronto: James Lorimer and Company, 2017 $22.95 / 9781459409613 Reviewed by J.R. (Jim) Miller First published March 4, 2018 * In the conversation about reconciliation that Canadians are having at the…
Read more #258 We stole it fair and square
Prime Ministerial Power in Canada: Its Origins under Macdonald, Laurier, and Borden by Patrice Dutil Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017 $34.95 / 9780774834742 Reviewed by Barbara J. Messamore First published March 2, 2018 * Patrice Dutil seeks to lay to rest the pervasive notion that the prime minister’s office has become increasingly “presidential” in recent decades,…
Read more #257 Macdonald, Laurier, Borden
Euclid’s Orchard and Other Essays by Theresa Kishkan Salt Spring Island: Mother Tongue Publishing, 2017 $22.95 / 9781896949635 Reviewed by Catriona Sandilands First published Feb. 27, 2018 * My kitchen, on this wet, early January afternoon, is saturated with the smell of apples slowly reducing to become apple butter. In the almost-forgotten autumn, my daughter…
Read more #254 Theresa Kishkan’s orchard
Surveying the Great Divide: The Alberta/BC Boundary Survey, 1913-1917 by Jay Sherwood Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2017 $29.95 / 9781987915525 Reviewed by Robert Allen First published Feb. 25, 2018 * Retired teacher-librarian at Vanderhoof and past president of the Nechako Valley Historical Society, Jay Sherwood has provided nine indispensable – and overdue — histories and…
Read more #253 The divide of mountains and wine
First published Feb. 22, 2018. The Campbell Revolution? Power, Politics, and Policy in British Columbia J.R. (Jason) Lacharite and Tracy Summerville (editors) Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2017. $34.95 / 9780773551039 Reviewed by Hamish Telford Duplicitous in terms of his First Nations policies, Gordon Campbell was likewise self-serving when it came to the arts;…
Read more #250 Gordon Campbell, a reckoning
Binning House by Matthew Soules (text) and Michael Perlmutter (photography) Novato, California: ORO Editions, 2017 UBC SALA/West Coast Modern House Series $24.95 (U.S.) / 9871939621665 Reviewed by Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe First published Feb. 19, 2018 * Architecture critic Adele Weder is now trying to preserve the much-admired house that was built and designed by Bert Binning…
Read more #249 West Vancouver modern