Rolf Knight (1936-2019) An obituary by Alan Twigg * Born on March 4, 1936, the son of an itinerant cook, Rolf Knight grew up in remote B.C. logging camps, without other children to play with. He gained his M.A. in anthropology at UBC in 1962, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1968. For decades…
Read more #570 Rolf Knight (1936-2019)
The Co-op Revolution: Vancouver’s Search For Food Alternatives by Jan DeGrass, with a foreword by Rick Scott Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2019 $24.95 / 9781987915952 * Grocery Story: The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants by Jon Steinman Gabriola: New Society Publishers, 2019 $19.99 / 9780865719071 * Both books reviewed by…
Read more #563 BC’s community food co-ops
Vancouverism by Larry Beasley, with a prologue by Frances Bula Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019 $39.95 / 9780774890311 Reviewed by Michael Kluckner * Anyone looking for evidence of Vancouver’s essential weirdness could consider these two events: in 2005, a mayor named Sam Sullivan personally trademarked the term “EcoDensity” for a style of highrise development; and, five years later,…
Read more #550 From sawmills to EcoDensity
First published April 30, 2019. The Co-op Revolution: Vancouver’s Search For Food Alternatives by Jan DeGrass, with a foreword by Rick Scott Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2019 $24.95 / 9781987915952 Grocery Story: The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants by Jon Steinman Gabriola: New Society Publishers, 2019 $19.99 / 9780865719071…
Read more #541 Co-opting the food chain
Ryga Award acceptance speech by Rod Mickleburgh * The notion that workers should collectivize to support one another and prevent exploitation is increasingly viewed as arcane in the Age of Tweets. The Winnipeg General Strike happened 100 years—and few Canadians can tell you what it was, and what happened. Society barely bats an eye as…
Read more #539 Ryga Award acceptance
1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike by the Graphic History Collective and David Lester, with an introduction by James Naylor Toronto: Between the Lines Books, 2019 $19.95 / 9781771134200 Reviewed by Janet Mary Nicol First published March 29, 2019 * Editor’s note: In September 2020, 1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg…
Read more #519 Back to Bloody Saturday
Ocean Falls: After the Whistle. Recollections and Reflections of Life in a Coastal Company Town by R. Brian McDaniel Victoria: Printorium Print Works, 2018 $40.00 / 9781999420703 Reviewed by Howard Macdonald Stewart * The story of a town that no longer exists is destined to be poignant, at least in places. The fact that it’s…
Read more #517 Sunshine for the Rain People
MEMOIR: My Private Chinatown by Grahame Ware * The literature of remembrance turns the lost world of objects into emblems of a bygone culture. What is lost can be repossessed through memory and writing, for it is in the vagaries of consciousness in retracing lost dreams that possession can best be established. Writing about memories…
Read more #501 My Private Chinatown
North of Familiar: A Woman’s Story of Homesteading and Adventure in the Canadian Wilderness by Terry Milos Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2017 $24.95 / 9781987915457 Reviewed by Heather Graham * In the summer of 1974, a newlywed couple from California, completed paperwork in hand, crossed the border into Canada as immigrants to begin a new…
Read more #495 Of moose and rhubarb wine
Property Values by Charles Demers Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018 $17.95 / 9781551527277 Reviewed by John Douglas Belshaw First published Feb. 4, 2019 * We need to talk about … Burquitlam. It’s liminal. Which is a scholarly word meaning it occupies “a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.” (Thank you,…
Read more #478 Land deals in Burquitlam
Out of the Woods: Woodworkers along the Salish Sea by Pirjo Raits (text) and Dale Roth and Michele Ramberg (photos) Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $34.95 / 9781772032604 Reviewed by Grahame Ware First published Feb. 3, 2019 * There are trees … which in their single lives have spanned the entire history of civilized man. We…
Read more #477 Art of the forest & turbulent sea
Trail North: The Okanagan Trail of 1856-68 and its Origins in British Columbia and Washington by Ken Mather Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $22.95 / 9781772032307 Reviewed by Harold Rhenisch First published January 24th, 2019 * The British Columbia grasslands became cattle country, between 1858 and 1868, largely through the effects of a cattle route called…
Read more #472 Okanagan trade & cattle trail
Costly Fix: Power, Politics and Nature in the Tar Sands by Ian Urquhart Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018 $39.95 / 9781487594619 Oil’s Deep State: How the Petroleum Industry Undermines Democracy and Stops Action on Global Warming by Kevin Taft Toronto: Lorimer, 2017 $29.95 / 9781459409972 The Big Stall: How Big Oil and Think Tanks…
Read more #468 Power, petroleum, and pipelines
ESSAY: Old Friend in a New Land: English Songbirds in British Columbia by Richard Somerset Mackie * Because the road is rough and long Shall we despise the skylark’s song? — Charlotte Bronte[1] * Introduced from England in 1903 and 1913, Eurasian skylarks took hold in Vancouver Island’s older agricultural districts, to which they were…
Read more #459 Skylark: old friend in a new land
Quenching the Dragon: The Canada-China Water Crisis by Robert William Sandford Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2018 $16.00 / 9781771602938 Reviewed by Rosie Simms First published Dec. 23, 2018 * What can Canada learn from the water crisis emerging in China? Why should we care about far-flung water issues on the other side of the globe?…
Read more #453 The river sings the blues
Revolving W and Flying Pigs: A Neon Journal of Vancouver Vintage Cafes and Theatres by Keith McKellar/ Laughing Hand Victoria: BoneYard Ink Books, 2018 $50 / 9781775357704 Orders: direct from author at www.laughinghand.com Reviewed by Grahame Ware First published Dec. 16, 2018 * This publication is an exciting and colourful recasting of Keith McKellar out-of-print,…
Read more #449 Keith McKellar’s Vancouver
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
Ron Verzuh reviews two books: A Carpenter’s Tale: Ian Ridgway, A Life by Ian Ridgway with Jim Brown and Pat Ridgway Elphinstone: Gypsy Deluxe Books, 2017 $30.00 / 9781775008309 Orders: patridg201@gmail.com * Mudflat Dreaming: Waterfront Battles in 1970s Vancouver and the Squatters who Fought Them by Jean Walton Vancouver: New Star Books, 2018 $24.00 /…
Read more #444 Carpenters and vagabonds
Claiming the Land: British Columbia and the Making of a New Eldorado by Daniel Marshall Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2018 $24.95 / 9781553805021 Reviewed by Mark Forsythe First published Dec. 3, 2018 * We are pleased to reprint Mark Forsythe’s review of Daniel Marshall’s Claiming the Land: British Columbia and the Making of a New Eldorado, a…
Read more #438 The Americans are coming