First published Aug. 27, 2018. Dave Perrin has died on August 6th, 2018, in Calgary, Alberta at the Foothills Medical Center at age 70. A memorial service was held at the Creston and District Community Complex in Creston on August 11th. He had a manuscript soon to be published entitled Better Late than Never. According…
Read more #354 Dave Perrin (1948-2018)
Against the Current: The Remarkable Life of Agnes Deans Cameron by Cathy Converse Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2018 $30.00 / 9781771512701 Reviewed by Charlene Porsild First published Aug. 26, 2018 * Agnes Deans Cameron (1863-1912) was an educator, writer, reformer, and traveller who made her own way in a rapidly changing world. For more than a…
Read more #352 Teacher, traveller, troublemaker
On the Line: A History of the British Columbia Labour Movement by Rod Mickleburgh Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2018 $44.95 / 97871550178265 Reviewed by Bryan D. Palmer First published Aug. 22, 2018 * For four tumultuous months in 1983, the grassroots labour initiative in B.C. called the Solidarity Coalition–which took its name as an offshoot…
Read more #348 The ghost of Jack Munro
Going the Distance: The Life and Works of W.P. Kinsella by William Steele Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre $34.95 / 9781771621946 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb First published August 22, 2018 * There’s something puzzling early on in this biography of W.P. Kinsella. Kinsella, famous for the iconic “If you build it, he will come” line…
Read more #347 Kinsella – a life like no other
First published Aug. 14, 2018. My West Coast Surveying Adventure by Richard G. Lipsey, OC, FRSC * We are delighted to present a memoir by Richard (Dick) Lipsey, arguably one of Canada’s foremost economists—and it’s not about economics. Here Lipsey recalls his work as a surveyor’s assistant and axeman on the west coast of Vancouver…
Read more #342 The woodsman & the economist
Art of Freedom: The Life and Climbs of Voytek Kurtyka by Bernadette McDonald Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2017 $32.00 / 9781771602129 Reviewed by Ron Dart First published August 1, 2018 * Born in Biggar, Saskatchewan, in 1951, Bernadette McDonald now divides her time between Naramata, B.C., and Banff, Alberta. She is author of three award-winning…
Read more #340 Kurtyka, the Polish alpinist
Julia by Michael Kluckner Vancouver: Midtown Press, 2018 $19.95 / 9781988242200 Reviewed by Yvonne Van Ruskenveld * Born into a wealthy manufacturing family in Durham, England, in 1868, and educated there, Julia Henderson came to Canada in 1884 with her sister and brother-in-law. They settled in Montreal, where Julia married broker and merchant Charles Henshaw…
Read more #338 Julia, graphically yours
First published Jul. 8, 2018. Culture Gap: Towards a New World in the Yalakom Valley by Judith Plant Vancouver: New Star Books, 2017. $19 / 9781554201334 Reviewed by Nancy Janovicek * What had happened to us? Where did it go wrong? What could we have done? What should we have done? What we built together…
Read more #337 True tales of Camelsfoot
First published Jul. 3, 2018. Apples, etc.: An Artist’s Memoir by Gathie Falk with Robin Laurence Vancouver: Figure 1, 2018. $22.95 / 9781773270128 Reviewed by Sheryl Salloum * The opportunity to sit down with an eminent artist and have that person share their reminiscences is rare. In Apples, etc. An Artist’s Memoir by Gathie Falk…
Read more #336 Gathering Gathie
The Big Note: A Guide to the Recordings of Frank Zappa by Charles Ulrich Vancouver: New Star Books, 2018 $45.00 / 9781554201464 Reviewed by Derek von Essen First published July 3, 2018 * I don’t consider myself a Zappa collector. On a scale of one to ten, my level of fandom is around 7.5, though…
Read more #334 Zappa from A to Z
First published June 30, 2018. Robin Brunet Let’s Get Frank: Canada’s Mad Man of Advertising Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2018. $29.95 / 9781771621816 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Anyone who watched the award-winning TV series Mad Men will be equally discomfited with the advertising industry as depicted in Let’s Get Frank, a biography of…
Read more #332 Frank has still got game at 78
Searching for Tao Canyon by Pat Morrow, Jeremy Schmidt, Art Twomey Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2018 $30.00 / 9781771602587 Reviewed by Ron Dart First published June 29, 2018 * The Canadian-American duo of Pat Morrow and Jeremy Schmidt, authors of the acclaimed Himalayan Passage: Seven Months in the High Country of Tibet, Nepal, China, India,…
Read more #331 Slot canyons for Twomey
Sculpture in Canada: A History by Maria Tippett Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2017 $39.95 / 9781771620932 Reviewed by Catherine Nutting First published June 26, 2018 * Maria Tippett’s Sculpture in Canada is, she writes, not an encyclopedia, but an introduction; an eye-opener to some of the greatest Canadian sculpture. The book is an ambitious project….
Read more #329 From inuksuit to cyberspace
E.J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island by Robert Amos, with the participation of the estate of E.J. Hughes Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2018 $35 / 9781771512558 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * It’s not easy to paint an arbutus tree, although many artists try. Know in Washington State as Pacific madrone, the arbutus (Arbutus menzeisii) above the 49th…
Read more #326 Up-Island with E.J. Hughes
First published June 20, 2018. In Valhalla’s Shadow by W.D. Valgardson (Douglas & McIntyre, $32) In Norse mythology, Asgard was the dwelling place of the gods, located in another dimension, possibly the sky or a different planet. It was divided into at least twelve realms; Valhalla being one. Valhalla was the home of Odin and…
Read more #325 Valgardson’s Gothic Valhalla
First published June 14, 2018. Stephen Reid has died at age 68 of pulmonary edema and third-degree heart block in the hospital at Masset, B.C., on June 12, 2018. Following Reid’s death, Masset Mayor Andrew Merilees commented, “He was always friendly and pleasant. He was enjoyed by most of the community despite his past failings.”…
Read more #322 Stephen Reid (1950-2018)
First published June 13, 2019. Children of the Kootenays: Memories of Mining Towns by Shirley D. Stainton Victoria: Heritage House, 2018. $19.95 / 9781772031850 Reviewed by Sylvia Crooks * Several books have been written about the Kootenay mines and mining settlements, many of them now ghost towns, abandoned largely during the Great Depression. Now Shirley…
Read more #321 West Kootenay memories
First published June 6, 2018. The Unceasing Storm: Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution by Katherine Luo, foreword by Madeleine Thien Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2018. $22.95 / 9781771621861 Reviewed by Vivienne Poy * Many personal accounts have been written about tumultuous modern China, but there is a difference in Katherine Luo’s book. We…
Read more #318 A witness to persecution in China
Remembering Chief Kw’eh compiled by Lillian Sam and Frieda Klippenstein Fort St. James: Nak’azdli Whut’en Press, 2016 $10 / 9780995286900 Reviewed by Daniel Sims First published June 3, 2018 * The Nak’azdli Chief ‘Ulh’gweh–aka Chief Kw’eh or Chief Kwah–is mostly widely known as the man who spared the life of (future Sir) James Douglas. Nak’azdli…
Read more #316 Nak’adli Nation honours Kw’eh
E.J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island by Robert Amos, with the participation of the estate of E.J. Hughes Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2018 $35.00 / 9781771512558 Reviewed by Alan Twigg First published June 1, 2018 * “B.C. is the best place in the world for landscape subject matter.” — E.J. Hughes “One of the main reasons I…
Read more #314 E.J. Hughes renewed