Economy & industry

‘Ethically fraught relationship with travel’

“Vancouver’s Steve Burgess offers his version of what it means to travel in an increasingly crowded, climate-change affected, and economically divided world.” Trish Bowering reviews Reservations: The Pleasures and Perils of Travel by Steve Burgess (Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, April 2024) $26.95 / 9781771624015

Hello Oscar, eh!

“Since the Oscars began in 1927, Canadians have been getting nominated and sometimes winning in most of the categories. Some have even been from British Columbia.” Ron Verzuh writes the essay Hello Oscar, Eh! The Canadian and BC Legacy at the Academy Awards.

When Hollywood calls – an essay

“…plenty of other BC writers are available to adapt novels and short stories, the latter being a great source of filmable material.” Ron Verzuh writes When Hollywood Calls: An Essay on How Books Get Made Into Movies in BC.

Love letters to locally sourced

“Those of us lucky enough to live on the west coast have access to ingredients, both wild and prepared, that are expressions of weather, geography, ancient and modern farming techniques, and something else: genius loci, or spirit of place.” Theresa Kishkan reviews The Coastal Forager’s Cookbook (Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2023) $40 ISBN 9781771514088 & The Coastal Forager’s Pocket Guide by Chef Robin Kort (Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2023) $10 ISBN 9781771514170

A Chinese age of steam

“Bob’s perseverance and skill are reflected in dramatic scenes of hard-working locomotives trailing plumes of steam as they charged across stark landscapes.” Bob Whetham reviews The Last Steam Railways
Volume 1: The People’s Republic of China by Robert D. Turner (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2022) $79.95 ISBN 9781550179910

Notes on megamalls

Debut author blends memoir, mall history, and critique with a “self-effacing love letter to her hometown’s most famous institution.” —Logan Macnair reviews Big Mall: Shopping for Meaning, by Kate Black (Toronto: Coach House Books, 2024) $23.95 / 9781552454725

Working with the environment

“Wuest firmly roots her book’s subject as a Western Canadian cultural institution.” Matthew Downey reviews Douglas Lake Ranch: Empire of Grass by Donna (Yoshitake) Wuest with Joe W. Gardner (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2023) $50.00 / 9781990776427

On the ragged edge

“If British Columbia is the edge of Canada, then Tofino and its surrounding waters and islands are the outer limits.” Robin Fisher reviews Tofino and Clayoquot Sound: A History by Margaret Horsfield and Ian Kennedy (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2023) $34.95 / 9781990776601

Matters of conscience

“Regime of Obstruction documents the corruption of Canadian democracy that has become characteristic of our governmental systems, corporate regimes, and even the environmental organizations that have collaborated in the greening of the business ethos.” Dr. Loys Maingon reviews three titles he considers “guides for unscrupulous psychopathic capitalism.” Regime of Obstruction by William K. Carroll (ed.) Athabasca University Press, 2021 $39.99 / 9781771992893 & A Strategic Nature: Public Relations and The Politics of American Environmentalism by Melissa Aronczyk and Maria I. Espinoza, Don Mills: Oxford University Press – Canada, 2022
$108.95 / 9780190055349 & The New Corporation: How “Good” Corporations Are Bad for Democracy by Joel Bakan (Toronto: Allen Lane, 2020) $19.95 / 9780735238848

Where is type going?

“Talking about specifics of typeface choices in a world where even typographic choices like serifs, italics, and double spacing can seem daunting enough, is a challenge.” Where is type going?
An Essay by Thomas Girard.
The second in a series of essays on the subject of typography.

Labour disputes and love stories

Two plays give “readers a welcome new perspective on BC community life.” —Ron Verzuh reviews The Ballad of Ginger Goodwin & Kitimat, by Elaine Ávila (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2023) $19.95 / 9781772014471

Stepping aboard the Maquinna

“It is this step back in time, and illustrating of differences in how things were carried out, that makes for such fascinating reading.” Trevor Marc Hughes reviews The Best Loved Boat: The Princess Maquinna by Ian Kennedy (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2023) $34.95 / 9781990776403

We needed a bigger ballroom

“…if you didn’t catch it the first time around, there’s no reason not to own this sweet slice of BC music history now.” Catherine Owen reviews Live at the Commodore: The Story of Vancouver’s Historic Commodore Ballroom (New Updated Edition) by Aaron Chapman (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023) $32.95 / 9781551529370

‘Reciprocal relationship with our lands’

“George belongs to the Tsleil-Waututh people, the People of the Inlet, who for thousands of years have lived along Burrard Inlet, the site of present Vancouver.” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews It Stops Here: Standing Up for Our Lands, Our Waters, and Our People by Rueben George with Michael Simpson (Toronto: Penguin Random House/Allen Lane, 2023)
$34.00 / 9780735242807

Pioneer of ‘West Coast Modern’

“Even among the group of young architects who were transforming Victoria’s post-war urban landscape in the 1950s and ’60s with their ambitious Modernist designs, John Di Castri was an outlier.” Architectural historian Martin Segger reviews Wentworth Villa Architectural Heritage Museum’s recent retrospective ‘John Di Castri, Architect.’

Dispossessed and exploited

“[Henaway] cites many cases where workers have been exploited and then deported using the laws of the land, including Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.” Ron Verzuh reviews Essential Work, Disposable Workers: Migration, Capitalism and Class by Mostafa Henaway (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2023) $27 / 9781773632254

Travel, history on the rails

“In Train Beyond the Mountains: Journeys on the Rocky Mountaineer, Rick Antonson takes us on a trip through time as he recounts a multi-day excursion on historic train, the Rocky Mountaineer.” Natalie Virginia Lang reviews Train Beyond the Mountains: Journeys on the Rocky Mountaineer (Vancouver: Greystone Books, April 2023) $34.95 / 9781771644860

Soul nourishing, anyone?

“Lisa would deliver fresh food to Ella and her brother Barkley at Wickaninnish Community School. Among the lunch time treats were fish tacos and warm polenta fries.” Mary Ann Moore reviews Together at SoBo: More Recipes and Stories from Tofino’s Beloved Restaurant by Lisa Ahier with Susan Musgrave (Toronto: Appetite by Random House, 2023)
$37.50 / 9780525610632

Revisiting the ‘Last Spike’

“The building of the CPR has been one of the core myths of the country, one of the stories that explain how Canada came about.” Daniel Francis reviews Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada by Stephen R. Bown (Toronto: Penguin Random House, 2023) $39.95 / 9780385698726

Remembering the working west coast

He presents his book as “a story of events I witnessed in a lifetime of living and working in the logging camps and workboats on the BC Coast.” Phyllis Reeve reviews From Camp to Camp, from Dock to Dock: The Work of Doug Harrison, The BC Coast in My Eyes by Doug Harrison (Gabriola Island: Doug Harrison, 2023) $39.95

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