“Roy documents Hart’s careful negotiations with Ottawa at federal-provincial conferences often to the province’s advantage. For example, during the Depression when unemployment was a major concern, Hart made arrangements with the federal government to take steps to address the problem.” John Hart: A Businessman in British Columbia Politics, by Patricia E. Roy (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2025) $34.95 / 9780774872515
“Our interviewees have been many and varied: from seasoned poet George Bowering to newcomer, Giller Prize-shortlisted author, Eddy Boudel Tan, from bestselling history author Nancy Marguerite Anderson, to acclaimed memoirist Marion McKinnon Crook. It has been a privilege for me to shake the hands of all of the interviewees of 2025, sometimes in their own homes and workspaces, and ask them about their creative process.” Interview segment producer Trevor Marc Hughes looks back on a year of The British Columbia Review Interview Series.
“Personal interjections of Martin and her friends and family bring lightness and humour to the book, giving the reader a real sense of what it was like to live ‘on the edge’—the excitement of boat days when the steamships would pull into town (the road didn’t go through until 1959); learning to drive on Long Beach; exploits, and broken bones, of kids riding their bikes off the government wharf; swimming lessons in the ocean or at Kennedy Lake.” Adrienne Mason reviews Calm Harbour, Turbulent Seas: A History of Ucluelet, by Shirley Martin (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $39.95 / 9781998526161
“However, this book is not an art history book; it is aimed at immersing oneself in beading right now. It’s an excellent and easy-to-follow guide with clear instructions and illustrations. First published in 1996, its importance is ongoing. Don’t be limited by the word ‘beginners’ in the title. Though it is perfect for beginners, this book also offers much, much more.” Christina Johnson-Dean reviews Complete Beading for Beginners, by Karen Rempel (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $26.95 / 9781998526222
“Tlingit women’s resilience and resistance shaped their communities historically and up to the present and hold promise for the future. In writing this book, Smetzer represents both the beauty and the pain inherent in beading practices in Tlingit territory.” Katy Dycus reviews Painful Beauty: Tlingit Women, Beadwork, and the Art of Resilience, by Megan A. Smetzer (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2025) $34.95 / 9780295754086
“Fox is a writer whose sense of humour translates well to the page, and who draws the reader in with his authenticity, a genuine approach that is satisfying to note given how much Hollywood glamour and publicity that has surrounded him in his adult life. His humour can also have a sardonic and even self-deprecating twist to it, and it’s clear that some of his rebellious nature came from his upbringing in British Columbia…” Trevor Marc Hughes reviews Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum, by Michael J. Fox and Nelle Fortenberry (New York: Flatiron Books, 2025) $26.99 / 9781250866783
“Don’t Be Canada contests such a generous comparison between Canada and the rest of the democratic world. Its very basis is that Canada is unique in doing a number of things wrong, voluntarily engaging in self-destructive activities in an attempt to appeal to a progressive American mindset.” Eugene Lacey reviews Don’t Be Canada: How One Country Did Everything Wrong All At Once, by Tristin Hopper (Toronto: Sutherland House, 2025) $23.95 / 9781998365364
“The book is engaging, frank and occasionally a little salty. It’s a nicely turned-out book in hardcover with a dust jacket with a colour image of John Horgan in the prime of life. Undoubtedly, it’s not a coincidence the hardcover itself is NDP orange.” Steven Brown reviews John Horgan In His Own Words: A Memoir, by John Horgan with Rod Mickleburgh (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $38.95 / 9781998526260
“When I think of comfort food, there are some basics: a sense of the deliciously familiar as I eat a meal that reminds me of good times past, or perhaps dishes that provide nourishment in times of difficulty.” Trish Bowering reviews Comfort Food, by Spencer Watts (Toronto: Whitecap Books Ltd., 2025) $34.95 / 9781770503809
“Its politicized association with the federal Liberals caused the policy’s death in British Columbia, the jurisdiction which had initially been a global pioneer in action against climate change. What had initially been a philosophically conservative motion spurred on by the visible dangers of climate change was cynically adopted to offset the distrustful image of an unpopular prime minister.” Matthew Downey reviews The Carbon Tax Question: Clarifying Canada’s Most Consequential Policy Debate, by Thomas F. Pedersen (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2024) $26.95 / 9781990776977
“In Humans, Finkel leads us through a breathtaking sweep of 300,000 years of human history. He starts with early hunter and gatherer societies that, being egalitarian, co-operative, and peaceful, reflected intrinsic human nature. Those societies, he continues, have much to teach us.” Robin Fisher reviews Humans: The 300,000-Year Struggle for Equality, by Alvin Finkel (Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, 2025) $25.95 / 9781459419544
“Kean’s Canada Films was becoming a familiar brand to Vancouver moviegoers. A. D. responded to a limited market by diversifying his subject matter: local industries, the war effort, civic celebrations, and soft news items.” Dennis J. Duffy contributes the essay “The Famous Cowboy Artist”: A. D. Kean in Vancouver, 1913–1916
“As an educator and researcher, I see Indigenomics as a necessary text for anyone working in reconciliation, governance, business, or education. Hilton challenges us to move beyond tokenism and toward meaningful economic inclusion. ‘Indigenomics is an invitation to align economic practice with understanding how the universe and humanity interact.'” Doctoral candidate Amy Tucker reviews Indigenomics: Taking a Seat at the Economic Table, by Carol Anne Hilton (Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers, 2021) $21.99 / 9780865719408
“Surviving Vancouver…is a reckoning with that lost history. The word in the title divides the book into two parts. Surviving as an adjective refers to the buildings and cityscapes that somehow managed to survive the past century of booms and depressions, immigrations, and globalization; whereas surviving as a verb deals with the social divides in a city – and province – where sheer survival is a daily challenge for far too many people.” Peter Hay reviews Surviving Vancouver by Michael Kluckner (Vancouver: Midtown Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781988242545
“In his debut memoir, A Precarious Enterprise: Making a Life in Canadian Publishing, Scott McIntyre invites readers into the various corners of Canadian publishing. He revisits his early days at McClelland & Stewart … before outlining the tumultuous beginnings, storied ups and downs of growth, and eventually the ending of his own publishing house—Douglas & McIntyre.” Natalie Virginia Lang reviews A Precarious Enterprise: Making a Life in Canadian Publishing (Toronto: ECW Press, 2025) $39.95 / 9781770418196
“In fact, gratitude is something I believe was on display in this enclave in the Coastal Room at the Gibson Public Market, an appreciation for the array of literary talent on the Sunshine Coast and across the province. That was certainly the message relayed by several literary award judges at this fifth annual event.” Trevor Marc Hughes reports on the recent Art & Words Festival events held in Gibsons this past weekend.
“In the late 1990s and 20-naughts, Stan and I lived six blocks apart in Victoria’s James Bay neighbourhood. Stan and Janet’s house on South Turner Street became a modern annex to Dorothy Burritt’s Suite Two. There was a guarantee of good company, good talk, and cups of tea—and films to watch in the big back bedroom, the Fox screening room. (I like to think of it as “The Stanley Theatre.”)” Dennis J. Duffy contributes an essay about trailblazing filmmaker, the late Stanley Fox.
“Her garments are not mere adornments; they are declarations of cultural pride, visual manifestations of a living tradition.” Amy Tucker reviews Dorothy Grant: An Endless Thread, by Dorothy Grant (in collaboration with the Haida Gwaii Museum) (Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2024) $50 / 9781773272412
“In great detail, and having undertaken a mountain of research, Peter Smith has written a definitive work. At more than 350 pages with bibliography and notes it may be the biggest book in terms of length venerable Heritage House Publishing has ever brought out.” Steven Brown reviews Mining Camp Tales of the Silvery Slocan: A History of British Columbia’s Silver Rush, by Peter Smith (Victoria: Heritage House Publishing, 2025) $34.95 / 9781772035391
“[They] have compiled a remarkable collection of archived photographs, denoting and describing the settler culture of an earlier immigration boom, centering around a growing population of Vancouver Island: the Comox Valley.” Trevor Marc Hughes reviews Step Into Wilderness: A Pictorial History of Outdoor Exploration in and around the Comox Valley, by Deborah Griffiths, Christine Dickinson, Judy Hagen, Catherine Siba, and photography editor Ernst Vegt (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2020) $39.95 / 978550178937