The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland and Stewart), 2021 $24.95 / 9780771094965 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * Shashi Bhat, editor-in-chief of EVENT magazine and winner of the Writers’ Trust / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, presents a standout piece of fiction in her novel The Most…
Read more 1337 Oboes and animal crackers
The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Berkley), 2021 $22.00 / 9780593334195 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * Set on Salt Spring Island, “a small yet eccentric haven between Vancouver Island and the mainland [of British Columbia]” (p. 5), Karina Halle’s The Royals Next Door begins with the unpleasant image of…
Read more 1336 Salt Spring shack and mansion
Harking by George Mercer North Saanich: George Mercer, 2021; printed by Friesens, Altona, Manitoba $19.99 / 9780987975485 Reviewed by Valerie Green * George Mercer’s book Harking is described as a book for young adults. I am sure, however, it will appeal to people of all ages who enjoy and respect the wilderness. Set in Jasper…
Read more 1332 Harking: growing up in Jasper
All Is Well by Katherine Walker Saskatoon: Thistledown Press, 2021 $24.95 / 9781771872157 Reviewed by Heather Graham * Christine Wright, the protagonist of Katherine Walker’s novel All Is Well, is a recently ordained priest in the Anglican Church of Canada with fifteen years of military service to her credit, some of it in Special Forces….
Read more 1331 Reverend Wright & the wrongdoers
This Eden by Ed O’Loughlin Toronto: House of Anansi, 2021 $24.95 / 9781487005696 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * As Ed O’Loughlin’s fourth novel, This Eden, closes, the still-unnamed narrator declares, “I like not knowing what’s going to happen next.” As becomes apparent within the first pages of the novel, an affection for the unknown and…
Read more 1324 A pencil & sticky note thriller
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Del Ray Books), 2021 $37.00 / 9780593356821 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * One of the reasons humans are drawn to fiction is because we want desperately to know what it’s like to live a life that isn’t our own. We live vicariously through the…
Read more 1321 The fantasies of El Elvis & Maite
Monster Child by Rahela Nayebzadah Hamilton, ON: Wolsak & Wynn, 2021 $20.00 / 9781989496305 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Not many would expect that a novel called Monster Child would be a comfortable read. In fact, “comfortable” is just about the last word any reader would use of this debut novel by Rahela Nayebzadah. Towards the…
Read more 1320 This maelstrom of emotions
A writers’ tribute to Ron Hatch by Richard Mackie and Ronsdale authors * Editor’s note: a courteous elderly gentleman used to stop by my office at UBC when I was book reviews editor at BC Studies between 2011 and 2016. This was Ron Hatch, a retired professor of English at UBC and publisher of Ronsdale…
Read more 1312 A writers’ tribute to Ron Hatch
emerge 21: The Writer’s Studio Anthology by Emma Cleary, Raoul Fernandes, Dayna Mahannah, Christina Myers, and KT Wagner (editors), with a foreword by Renée Sarojini Saklikar Burnaby: Simon Fraser University, 2021 [price unknown] / 9781772870831 Reviewed by Michael Turner * For travellers who find reading and writing an essential service, I’m sure there is at…
Read more 1311 The land of reading and writing
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good Toronto: HarperCollins Canada (Harper Perennial), 2020 $22.99 / 9781443459181 Reviewed by Harper Campbell * Teaching and healing have always been important aspects to Indigenous writing in Canada. Look at any famous Indigenous author, whether that be Pauline Johnson or Richard Wagamese, and you’ll find that teaching and healing are central…
Read more 1309 The object of Indigenous writing
Ginny Ratsoy reviews two books: Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro Toronto: Penguin Modern Classics, 2021 (first published by McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1971) $19.95 / 9780735234659 * Who Do You Think You Are? Alice Munro Toronto: Penguin Modern Classics, 2021 (first published by Macmillan of Canada, 1978) $13.99 / 9780143181170 * …
Read more 1307 Alice Munro & the short story
Richard Wagamese Selected: What Comes from Spirit by Richard Wagamese, with an introduction by Drew Hayden Taylor Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2021 $24.95 / 9781771622752 Reviewed by Paul Falardeau * When he died at 61, Richard Wagamese still had a lot to say, though he had already said so much. The Ojibwe author was…
Read more 1298 A tribute to Richard Wagamese
The Rebellious Tide by Eddy Boudel Tan Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2021 $21.99 / 9781459746879 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * In his sophomore novel, The Rebellious Tide, Eddy Boudel Tan immerses the reader into the complexities of the human condition evidenced through the characters’ interpersonal relationships as well as their struggles with identity, discrimination, and social…
Read more 1296 The father he had never met
Erase and Rewind by Meghan Bell Toronto: Book*hug Press, 2021 $20.00 / 9781771666787 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * The debut short story collection from Vancouver-based writer Meghan Bell, Erase and Rewind, asks its women characters, and readers alike: what is “a narrative you can live with?” While Erase and Rewind is Bell’s first published collection,…
Read more 1294 Stories of purposeful ambiguity
Stung by William Deverell Toronto: ECW Press, 2021 $32.95 / 9781770415959 Reviewed by Alma Lee * A new book by William Deverell is always something to look forward to. One only needs to read the back cover blurbs of Stung to know it’s going to be a page-turner. The list of people who have given…
Read more 1293 The good cop of Garibaldi Island
The Day She Died by S.M Freedman Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2021 $18.99 / 9781459747401 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * The Day She Died tells Eve’s story through the broken pieces of her life as she attempts to rebuild after a terrible head injury. The story weaves through amnesia, a strange marriage, and a terrible shift…
Read more 1290 It pays to pay attention
Satellite Love by Genki Ferguson Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland and Stewart), 2021 $24.95 / 9780771049873 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Lou Reed’s well-known rock song of 1972, “Satellite of love,” a deliciously oddball piece, contains as one of its very few lines, “Things like that drive me out of my mind.” Those familiar…
Read more 1289 Margins, outskirts, outliers
Last Tide by Andy Zuliani Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2021 $21.95 / 97817744390344 Reviewed by Laurie Ricou * In July 2015, the New Yorker published a lengthy documentary piece, meticulously envisioning “The Really Big One,” describing the certain obliteration of the Northwest Coast by an enormous earthquake, and the resulting tsunami. Soon after, Johanna Wagstaffe’s podcast…
Read more 1277 Pre-traumatic stress syndrome
The French Baker’s War by Michael Whatling Vancouver: Mortal Coil Books, 2021 $21.99 / 9781777569921 Please order from your local independent bookstore. Also available in Canada through Amazon, Chapters-Indigo, KOBO, Smashwords, Ingram, LSC, Apple, Google, etc. Reviewed by Valerie Green * Michael Whatling has written a deeply moving Second World War story in The French…
Read more 1272 Pâtisserie to page-turner
Light on a Part of the Field by Kevin Holowack Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2021 $21.95 / 9781774390146 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * “We’re free,” Gayle announces midway through the first of eight sections in Edmontonian Kevin Holowack’s likeable debut novel. While Gayle’s speaking in earnest, her insight turns out to be naive and premature….
Read more 1268 Back in Salmon Arm