it was never going to be okay by jaye simpson Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2020 $18.95 / 9780889713826 Reviewed by Harper Campbell * it was never going to be okay is the first book of poetry by jaye simpson, “an Oji-Cree Saulteaux Indigiqueer writer and activist from the Sapotaweyak Cree Nation, with Scottish and French settler…
Read more 1100 Trauma, neglect, and erasure
Improbable Journeys: From Crossing the Himalayas on Horseback to a Career in Obstetrics and Gynaecology by Dr. Bernard A.O. Binns and Ron Smith Oakville, ON: Rock’s Mills Press, 2020 $29.95 / 9781772441932 Reviewed by May Q. Wong * Editor’s note: for a subsequent review of Improbable Journeys by John Kenwright, see The Ormsby Review, June…
Read more 1089 A lifetime of care and medicine
Stardust: memoir and essays by an astronomer who became a psychiatrist by Jaime Smith Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2021 $19.95 / 9781989467305 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * Editor’s note: Jaime Smith’s new book Stardust, reviewed here by Sheldon Goldfarb, contains Smith’s essays and his previously-published memoir Foxtrot: Notes from the Bear Cave, reviewed here by Peter Ward in…
Read more 1088 Music, extinction, and stardust
Itineraries: An Intellectual Odyssey by Philip Resnick Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2020 $21.95 / 9781553806028 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * Philip Resnick is an old-fashioned Canadian nationalist. I don’t mean harking back to the National Policy of Sir John A. Not that old-fashioned. More the nationalism of the 1970s, the Waffle Movement in the NDP, the…
Read more #832 Marx, Malthus, and Meech Lake
Turtle Island: The Story of North America’s First People by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger Toronto: Annick Press, 2017 $16.95 / 9781554519439 * What the Eagle Sees: Indigenous Stories of Rebellion and Renewal by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger Toronto: Annick Press, 2019 $16.95 / 9781773213286 Both books reviewed by Kristina Hannis * Congratulations to…
Read more #824 From Bonavista to Turtle Island
Epistle to the Pope: Memoir and Survivor-Impact Statement from a Shipwrecked Orphan by Dharel Verville Victoria: FriesenPress Publishing, 2020 [price unknown] / 9781525554292 Reviewed by Constance Brissenden * Epistle to the Pope is the memoir of a seeker, a classical pianist, and a sometimes drug dealer and addict. Author Daryl Verville, known by his pen…
Read more #798 Shipwrecks, orphans, pianos
Indigenous Relations: Insights, Tips & Suggestions to Make Reconciliation a Reality by Bob Joseph with Cynthia F. Joseph Vancouver: Page Two Books, 2019, distributed by Raincoast Books $19.95 / 9781989025642 Reviewed by David Milward * What does Indigenous reconciliation in Canada mean? Almost five years have elapsed since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada…
Read more #792 Fine words butter no parsnips
The Kissing Fence by B.A. Thomas-Peter Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2020 $24.95 / 9781773860237 Reviewed by William New * This novel tells the connected stories of two boys. One grows up in the 1950s, but his entire life is damaged when he is forced away from his Doukhobor home and placed in a Kootenay residential…
Read more 770 Fractured fidelities
A Literary Biography of Robin Blaser: Mechanic of Splendor by Miriam Nichols New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019 $39.99 (U.S.) / 9783030183264 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * The most astonishing section of this book comes when author Miriam Nichols describes Robin Blaser’s time as a teacher at Simon Fraser University. Perhaps it is because…
Read more #749 Robin Blaser in retrospect
The Fourth World: An Indian Reality by George Manuel and Michael Posluns (foreword by Vine Deloria Jr., afterword by Doreen Manuel, introduction by Glen Coulthard) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2019 (first published by Collier Macmillan Canada, 1974) $24.95 (U.S.) / 9781517906061 Reviewed by Chris Arnett * When I taught in the First Nations studies…
Read more #746 An Indigenous advocate
UBC: The Next Century by Tyee Bridge, with a foreword by Santa J. Ono Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2019 $40.00 / 9781773270883 Reviewed by Herbert Rosengarten * From the beginning the University of British Columbia (UBC) has nurtured ambitions of greatness. Its potential was recognized by BC’s premier, Sir Richard McBride, who sent his congratulations…
Read more #700 The university of Point Grey
Memory by Philippe Tortell, Mark Turin, and Margot Young (editors) Vancouver: UBC Press (Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies), 2018 $24.95 / 9781775276609 Reviewed by Forrest Pass * Historians think we know memory. “Social memory” — how communities, governments, and private interests understand and give the past meaning — is a well-established focus in my…
Read more #676 A trip down memory lane
The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Genocide, Indian Residential Schools, and the Challenge of Conciliation by David B. MacDonald Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019 $24.95 / 9781487522698 Reviewed by David Milward * When one hears the word “genocide,” it is easy to instantly think of the Holocaust and then not take it any further than that. As…
Read more #644 The Canadian genocide
Picking up the Pieces: Residential School Memories and the Making of the Witness Blanket by Carey Newman and Kirstie Hudson Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 2019 $39.95 / 9781459819955 Reviewed by Sharon Fortney * Picking up the Pieces is a beautiful catalogue documenting the process behind the making of the Witness Blanket, an art installation created…
Read more #634 Fragments of sorrow
Honouring the Strength of Indian Women: Plays, Stories, Poetry by Vera Manuel (author) and Michelle Coupal, Deanna Reder, Joanne Arnott, Emalene A. Manuel (editors) Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2019 $24.95 / 9780887558368 Reviewed by Diana French * Vera Manuel (1949-2010), actor, playwright, poet, drama therapist, and healer has been honoured with an anthology of…
Read more #610 Secwépemc playwright honoured
Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws: Yerí7 Stsq̓ey̓s-kucw by Marianne Ignace and Ronald Ignace, with a foreword by Bonnie Leonard Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2017 $39.95 / 9780773551305 Reviewed by Cole Harris * Reviewed last year by Sarah Nickel in the Ormsby Review, Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws, by Marianne Ignace and Ronald Ignace, was shortlisted…
Read more #574 Secwépemc Shuswap reflections
The Whole-Body Microbiome: How to Harness Microbes — Inside and Out — for Lifelong Health by B. Brett Finlay and Jessica M. Finlay Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre 2019 $26.95 / 9781771622202 Reviewed by Sandi Ratch * Most of us go through our daily lives not realizing that we have an army of microbe helpers…
Read more #545 Microbes good and bad
21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality by Bob Joseph Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 2018 $19.95 / 9780995266520 * Talking Back to the Indian Act: Critical Readings in Settler Colonial Histories by Mary-Ellen Kelm and Keith D. Smith (editors) Toronto: University of Toronto Press,…
Read more #514 Consider the Indian Act
The Hundred-Year Trek: A History of Student Life at UBC by Sheldon Goldfarb, with a preface by the Right Honourable Kim Campbell Victoria: Heritage House, 2017 $32.95 / 9781772032239 Reviewed by Herbert Rosengarten * When UBC, then situated in a few buildings at Vancouver General Hospital, opened its doors in 1915, fewer than 400 students…
Read more #507 What rhymes with alma mater
Marjorie: Too Afraid To Cry. A Home Child Experience by Patricia Skidmore Toronto: Dundurn, 2012 $30.00 / 9781459703391 * Marjorie: Her War Years. A British Home Child in Canada by Patricia Skidmore Toronto: Dundurn, 2018 $30.00 / 9781459741669 * Both books reviewed by Sylvia Crooks First published December 26, 2018 * …
Read more #454 The home children of Cowichan