First published May 5, 2019 Greg Younging (1961-2019) An obituary by Alan Twigg * Formerly an Assistant Director of Research for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Dr. Gregory George Younging, a publisher of Theytus Books and a professor of Indigenous Studies at the UBC Okanagan campus, died at the Penticton Hospital on May…
Read more #544 Greg Younging (1961-2019)
First published April 29, 2019 Wayson Choy (1939-2019) An obituary by Alan Twigg * At age 80, Wayson Choy died at home on April 28, 2019. Wayson Choy was born on April 20, 1939 in Vancouver as the only son of two working parents. His mother was a meat-cutter and sausage stuffer; he was told…
Read more #540 Wayson Choy (1939-2019)
Blamed and Broken: The Mounties and the Death of Robert Dziekanski by Curt Petrovich Toronto: Dundurn, 2019 $20.99 / 9781459742932 Reviewed by Bonnie Reilly Schmidt First published April 19, 2019 * On October 14, 2007, Robert Dziekanski arrived in Vancouver on a flight from Poland to begin a new life in Canada. In Blamed and…
Read more #532 The death of Robert Dziekanski
What Forever Feels Like: A Memoir of Johnsons Landing by Ellen Burt New Denver: Maa Press, 2018 $23.00 / 9781999554804 Reviewed by Lee Reid First published March 28, 2019 * The old magic of “once upon a time” can ambush us, especially when we see the loves and challenges of our own lives mirrored in…
Read more #518 Matriarchs of Johnsons Landing
Almost Islands: Phyllis Webb and the Pursuit of the Unwritten by Stephen Collis Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $24.95 / 9781772012071 Reviewed by Sharon Thesen * Literary friendships are the source of more compositional energy than we usually give them credit for. As Stephen Collis reminds us in this deeply engaging book-length essay set within his friendship…
Read more #515 Fulford Harbour’s silent poet
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
Edith Iglauer (1917-2019). An obituary by Alan Twigg First published Feb. 14, 2019 * LITERARY LOCATION: 5192 Claydon Road, Garden Bay, Sunshine Coast Having lived for many decades in a waterfront cottage that was built by her second husband, John Daly, about whom she wrote her memoir Fishing With John, the former New Yorker contributor…
Read more #486 Edith Iglauer (1917-2019)
He Speaks Volumes: A Biography of George Bowering by Rebecca Wigod Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $24.95 / 9781772012064 Reviewed by Kathy Mezei First published Feb. 12, 2019 * What a great title. For George Bowering does speak volumes; he is out-spoken, loud, witty, loquacious, a “talk producer” as Virginia Woolf once described a character. And, as…
Read more #484 A life in books: George Bowering
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
How Churchill Waged War: The Most Challenging Decisions of the Second World War by Allen Packwood Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books, 2018 $34.95 (U.S.) / 9781473893894 Reviewed by Peter Clarke First published Jan. 29, 2019 * Each new book about Winston Churchill inevitably faces the question of whether it is really necessary, since there…
Read more #474 Decisions, decisions
Marjorie: Too Afraid To Cry. A Home Child Experience by Patricia Skidmore Toronto: Dundurn, 2012 $30.00 / 9781459703391 * Marjorie: Her War Years. A British Home Child in Canada by Patricia Skidmore Toronto: Dundurn, 2018 $30.00 / 9781459741669 * Both books reviewed by Sylvia Crooks First published December 26, 2018 * …
Read more #454 The home children of Cowichan
Just Let Me Look at You: On Fatherhood by Bill Gaston Toronto: Penguin Random House (Hamish Hamilton), 2018 $19.95 / 9780735234062 Reviewed by Howard Macdonald Stewart First published Dec. 19, 2018 * The subtitle of Bill Gaston’s new book declares it is “on fatherhood.” The publisher had to narrow it down, I suppose, to keep…
Read more #451 Fathers & sons on the Salish Sea
A Mill Behind Every Stump by Marianne Van Osch Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772031164 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater * Sage Birchwater reviews Marianne Van Osch’s A Mill Behind Every Stump, the story of the life and family of 94-year old Louis Judson, son of versatile American homesteaders and longtime operator of portable and…
Read more #447 The Judsons of South Cariboo
Dancing in Gumboots: Adventure, Love and Resilience. Women of the Comox Valley Lou Allison with Jane Wilde (editors) Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2018 $24.05 / 9781987915761 Reviewed by Susan Mayse First published Dec. 13, 2018 * Mountains and glaciers glittered under a deep blue sky, fields and forests rolled all the way down to tidewater…
Read more #446 Comox Valley counterculture
MEMOIR: The Spider Hunters by Lee Reid First published Nov. 23, 2018 * We are pleased to present The Spider Hunters, a coming-of-age memoir by Lee Reid (née Batchelor) of her early life in England (1946-1952), and then on densely-forested and thinly-populated Curteis Point near Sidney, Vancouver Island, between 1952 and 1964. The Spider Hunters…
Read more #431 The Spider Hunters
The Last Suffragist Standing: The Life and Times of Laura Marshall Jamieson by Veronica Strong-Boag Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018 $32.95 / 9780774838696 Reviewed by Patricia Roy First published Nov. 15, 2018. * The Life and Times is an old-fashioned title, but nothing is old-fashioned about this book. The sub-title is especially appropriate for a biography…
Read more #424 In search of Laura Jamieson
One Hundred Years of Struggle: The History of Women and the Vote in Canada by Joan Sangster Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018 $27.95 / 9780774835336 Reviewed by Barbara Messamore First published Nov. 12, 2018 * Joan Sangster’s clear, concise, and lively treatment of the women’s suffrage movement in Canada provides a broad historical survey while presenting…
Read more #421 Suffragist city
A Bright and Steady Flame: The Story of an Enduring Friendship by Luanne Armstrong Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Books, 2018 $22.95 / 9781987915822 Reviewed by Lee Reid First published Nov. 9, 2018 * I first came across the Buddhist term Kalyana-mitra in the 1980s when, as a struggling single parent, I was desperate for creative stimulation….
Read more #418 Boswell’s woman of words