Close to the Bone: A Memoir by Lisa Ray Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Doubleday Canada), 2020 $24.95 / 9780385695725 Reviewed by Gurpreet Singh * A powerful memoir by a multifaceted personality, a supermodel, an actor, a cancer survivor, a traveller and a born writer restores faith in life and humanity in these difficult times….
Read more 1504 Lisa: a ray of hope
From Nazneen to Naina: 20 years of Kareena Kapoor Khan in Bollywood by Gurpreet Singh Ludhiana, India: Chetna Parkashan, 2021 $14.99 (US) / 9789391530433 Reviewed by Harpreet Singh Sekha * A unique book on Bollywood Diva that showcases what India is going through under a right wing regime BC-based author and journalist Gurpreet Singh has…
Read more 1477 A book was the least I could do
TELEVISION DOCUSERIES REVIEW: British Columbia: An Untold History by Kevin Eastwood, Writer and Director Burnaby: British Columbia’s Knowledge Network, 2022 Reviewed by Patrick A. Dunae * Knowledge Network, ‘British Columbia’s public educational broadcaster,’ has produced a compelling documentary series entitled British Columbia: An Untold History. The production qualities are superb. Each episode of the four-part…
Read more 1405 Colonialism corrective
Yearbook by Seth Rogen Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Viking), 2021 $35.00 / 9780735237995 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * So the editor asks me to review Seth Rogen’s book. Seth who? Do you mean Joe Rogan? No, Seth Rogen, the comedian, actor, voicer of Vancouver’s SkyTrain announcements. Oh, that Seth Rogen. And he’s the one…
Read more 1375 SkyTrain, sex shows, $50 jokes
Editor’s note: in January 2022, the University of British Columbia announced the acquisition of a rare copy of the first edition of the collected plays of William Shakespeare, known to scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623. One of 235 copies in existence, UBC’s copy is only the second in Canada, the other being…
Read more 1357 My kingdom for a … First Folio
All the Rage: A Partial Memoir in Two Acts and a Prologue by Brad Fraser Toronto: Penguin Random House (Doubleday Canada), 2021 $34.00 / 9780385696371 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * One of the recurring delights of All the Rage is a multi-faceted storytelling technique that reserves a little something for everybody. Whether Brad Fraser…
Read more 1304 Blunt portraits & candid memoir
Glorious Birds: A Celebratory Homage to Harold and Maude by Heidi Greco Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2021 $18.00 / 9781772141719 Reviewed by Linda Rogers * The shadowy figures on the cover of this slight but not inconsequential book by Heidi Greco could be sitting in a movie theatre or on the roof of the world with…
Read more 1142 Harold & Maude: curiosity & desire
Greek Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook, From Aphrodite to Zeus, a Profile of Who’s Who in Greek Mythology by Liv Albert, illustrated by Sara Richard Toronto: Simon & Schuster (Adams Media), 2021 $22.99 / 9781507215494 Reviewed Linda Rogers * “He said, she said.” Oral storytelling is like court evidence without benefit of cell…
Read more 1125 Greek myths for the age of anime
Falling into Flight: A Memoir of Life and Dance by Kaija Pepper Winnipeg: Signature Editions, 2020 $19.95 / 9781773240831 Reviewed by Maria Tippett * In the early 1930s two dancers from British Columbia were invited to join the corps de ballet of Basil’s famous Ballets Russes. The offer came with one condition: Patricia Meyers from…
Read more 1062 Pepper’s ballet and dance
Taken by the Muse: On the Path to Becoming a Filmmaker by Anne Wheeler Edmonton: Newest Press, 2020 $20.95 / 9781774390016 Reviewed by Lynne Bowen * A train has stopped on a prairie siding. A passenger watches through the window as several children play shinny on a frozen water-filled ditch beside the tracks. It is…
Read more 1046 Featuring Anne Wheeler
Letters from the Pandemic 11: Dear Sam by Cathy Joyce * Dear Sam, As a whole civilization muddles about individually bewildered, bumping into themselves while trying to stay safely apart, I wonder if a wry smile might have flickered on your etched features because you already knew, and have already precisely documented, just what happens…
Read more Letters from the Pandemic 11: Dear Sam
Tiff: A Life of Timothy Findley by Sherrill Grace Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2020 $39.99 / 9781771124539 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * In 1993, towards the end of his life, the noted author Timothy Findley gave a talk at Duthie’s bookstore in Vancouver on one of his favourite topics: censorship. Only this time…
Read more #921 The death and life of Tiff Findley
Nanaimo Girl: A Memoir by Prudence Emery Toronto: Cormorant Books, 2020 $24.95 / 9781770865273 Reviewed by Randolph Eustace-Walden Unless noted otherwise, all images reproduced here are from Nanaimo Girl: A Memoir, by Prudence Emery * Prudence Emery is the eponymous “Nanaimo Girl.” Now in her early 80s and living on her native Vancouver Island just…
Read more #809 From Nanaimo to the Royal Ascot
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan Toronto: HarperCollins, 2018 $33.99 / 9781443423380 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Since its publication in the summer of 2018, Esi Edugyan’s novel Washington Black has made a resounding impact. Reviews abound; awards and award short listings likewise. Stirring most comment and praise are not just the gripping story line, but…
Read more #785 A New World Oliver Twist
MEMOIR: On the road with Sir Kenneth by Grahame Ware * Recently we published Grahame Ware’s review of Horn Swoggled: A Play by Armstrong playwright Ken Smedley: see The Ormsby Review no. 762 (March 5, 2020). In a follow-up email, Grahame described his intense and productive artistic friendship with Smedley in the mid-1990s, when the…
Read more #778 On the road with Sir Kenneth