First published Sept. 4, 2018. Narrow Bridge by Barbara Pelman Vancouver: Ronsdale Press 2017 $15.95 / 9781553805083 Reviewed by Christopher Levenson * New from Victoria poet is Narrow Bridge, a collection that Christopher Levenson finds “humane, honest, well-crafted, and keenly aware of the outside world.” Pelman takes the reader on a walkabout to Italy, Portugal, Sweden, and…
Read more #365 The texture of daily living
First published Sept. 3, 2018. Trans-Pacific Mobilities: The Chinese and Canada by Lloyd L. Wong (editor) Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017 $34.95 / 9780774833806 Reviewed by Jennifer Lau * Jennifer Lau considers Lloyd Wong’s Trans-Pacific Mobilities: The Chinese and Canada, a collection of scholarly essays tracing the migration of people, ideas, and goods across the Pacific. Lau…
Read more #364 Chinese migration and mobility
Smith House II by Michael Prokopow, with photography by Michael Perlmutter and a foreword by Douglas Coupland Novato, California: ORO Editions, 2018 $24.95 (U.S.) / 9781940743387 Reviewed by Harold Kalman First published Sept. 2, 2018 * Historian of architecture Hal Kalman appreciates Michael Prokopow’s Smith House II, the biography of a house in West Vancouver designed…
Read more #363 An Erickson-Massey masterpiece
First published Sept. 1, 2018. The Night the Forest Came to Town by Charles Ghigna, illustrated by Annie Wilkinson Victoria: Orca Books, 2018 $19.95 / 9781459816503 Reviewed by Carol Anne Shaw * Nature reclaims and transforms a city in Charles Gigna’s The Night the Forest Came to Town, illustrated by Annie Wilkinson. Carol Anne Shaw notes…
Read more #362 City night magic
First published Sept. 1, 2018. Don’t Tell Me What to Do by Dina Del Bucchia Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017 $17.95 / 9781551527017 Reviewed by Claire Mulligan * Claire Mulligan praises the complex, compelling, and masterful short stories in Dina Del Bucchia’s Don’t Tell Me What to Do. Mulligan also commends Del Bucchia’s use of irony….
Read more #361 Irony, beauty, and neon
First published Aug. 30, 2018. Claiming the Land: British Columbia and the Making of a New El Dorado by Daniel Marshall Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2018. $24.95 / 9781553805021 Reviewed by Harold Rhenisch * “The history of British Columbia is brief,” wrote W.A. Bailie-Grohman. “Gold made it and gold unmade it.” In Claiming the Land, Daniel Marshall…
Read more #360 Gold made British Columbia
An Uncommon Road: How Canadian Sikhs Struggled out of the Fringes and into the Mainstream by Gian Singh Sandhu Vancouver: Echo Storytelling, 2018. Available though Heritage Group Distribution $29.95 / 9781987900163 Reviewed by Gurpreet Singh First published August 29, 2018 * Gian Singh Sandhu came to Canada in 1970 and settled in Williams Lake, where…
Read more #359 From Punjab to Williams Lake
Our Familiar Hunger by Laisha Rosnau Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2018 $18.95 / 9780889713444 First published August 29, 2018 Reviewed by Elee Kraljii Gardiner * In Our Familiar Hunger, Laisha Rosnau of Vernon honours her Ukrainian grandmothers on their traumatic journey between Russia and the Canadian West. “Rosnau’s narrative is sewn tightly into these verses with…
Read more #358 Ukrainian soil and blood
First published Aug. 28, 2018. Up In Arms by Amanda Spottiswoode, illustrations by Molly March Victoria: Heritage House, 2017. $12.95 / 9781772032024 Reviewed by Steve Pocock * In 1939 and 1940, some 6,000 British children, known as child evacuees and British guest children, were sent to Canada to escape the threat of German invasion. The…
Read more #357 Refugee kids meet Cougar Annie
First published August 28, 2018. Fifteen Point Nine DCB Book, 2018 $14.95 978-1-77086-523-5 A debut YA novelist wants society to not turn a blind eye in the hallways. “I’ve seen more money spent on new basketball uniforms than on workshops and classes that could address the increasingly harsh reality of bullying,” says Holly Dobbie, “that…
Read more #356 Bullying must be stopped
Give Out Creek by J.G Toews Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 2018 $24.95 / 9781771613057 Reviewed by Bill Engleson First published August 27, 2018 * Judy Toews’ first novel concerns Stella Mosconi of the Nelson Times as she struggles with two murders, a failing marriage, a budding romance, ethical dilemmas, and a suspect writers’ group. *…
Read more #355 Murder in Nelson
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)
Damming the Peace: The Hidden Costs of the Site C Dam by Wendy Holm (editor) Toronto: James Lorimer and Company, 2018 $22.95 / 9781459413160 Reviewed by John Gellard First published Aug. 26, 2018 * The 16 contributors to Wendy Holm’s Damming the Peace: The Hidden Costs of the Site C Dam try to make sense…
Read more #353 Another Peace offering
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
Where it Hurts: Essays by Sarah de Leeuw Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2017 $19.95 / 9781926455846 Reviewed by Heidi Greco First published Aug. 24, 2018 * Heidi Greco reviews Sarah de Leeuw’s Where it Hurts: Essays, a collection that has been much-praised and shortlisted for national and regional non-fiction prizes. “These aren’t the essays your high…
Read more #351 Essays from the north
Churchill and Fisher: The Titans at the Admiralty who fought the First World War by Barry Gough Toronto: James Lorimer, 2017 $39.95 / 9781459411364 Reviewed by James Wood First published Aug. 23, 2018 * Barry Gough of Victoria continues his torrid pace and high-quality output with the publication of his character study, Churchill and Fisher:…
Read more #350 Naval giants of the Great War
Elemental by Kate Braid Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2018 $18.00 / 9781987915631 Reviewed by Christopher Levenson First published Aug. 23, 2018 * Despite the book’s title and its division into five elements — water, fire, wood, sky, and earth — the dominant feature of Elemental, Kate Braid’s seventh book of poetry, is less unity of…
Read more #349 A carpenter poet adept at forms
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
Another Mountain to Climb by Danny Peart Vancouver: Milagro Press, 2017 $25.00 / 9780994932914 Reviewed by Isabella Wang First published Aug. 20, 2018 * Danny Peart’s third book of poetry, Another Mountain To Climb, is an open window into Peart’s exhilarating excursions up the peaks of Grouse Mountain and Kilimanjaro. One simply has to open…
Read more #346 Called to the poethood