The Library of Legends by Janie Chang Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2020 $22.99 / 9781443456050 Reviewed by Valerie Green * The year is 1937. The place is eastern China. The story of The Library of Legends by Janie Chang is a true account of the evacuation of university students from the city of Nanking across thousands…
Read more 1094 Escape from Nanking, 1937
Lost Immunity by Daniel Kalla Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, 2021 $22.00 / 9781982150150 Reviewed by Tom Koppel * “I’m only requesting a few thousand doses,” says Lisa Dyer, an epidemiologist who is Seattle’s chief public health officer. “To vaccinate the people at the highest risk. Direct contacts, health-care workers, and people living nearest to…
Read more 1092 Big pharma & the anti-vaxxers
Hearing More Voices: English-Canadian Women in Print and on the Air, 1914-1960 by Peggy Lynn Kelly and Carole Gerson Ottawa: Borealis Press, 2020 $24.95 / 9781896133713 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * As a library school student in the mid 1970s I was told that Anne of Green Gables could not be considered a Canadian classic;…
Read more 1085 A balanced cultural herstory
SHORT STORY: Friendiversary by Jennifer Moss * Introduction. This story reimagines a thousand-year-old love affair. Peter Abelard, a philosopher and tutor, fell in love with his student, Heloise. They wrote reams of letters and poetry, and made love in all kinds of scandalous places from convent kitchens to Heloise’s uncle’s house. When they were inevitably…
Read more 1083 Friendiversary
Dominoes at the Crossroads by Kaie Kellough Montreal: Véhicule Press (Esplanade Books), 2020 $19.95 / 9781550655315 Reviewed by Natalie Lang * The time has long past when only one community’s work would be required to cure what ails us. — Zadie Smith, from Intimations: Six Essays (2020) In a time when uncertainty stands at the forefront…
Read more 1082 Black Canadian ancestry & identity
The Beguiling by Zsuzsi Gartner Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Hamish Hamilton), 2020 $29.95 / 9780735239357 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * Motherhood is difficult and often unrewarding. Before I am besieged with outrage at how motherhood offers a profound experience unlike any other, please reread that sentence: I said often, not always. A statement need…
Read more 1079 Motherhood and talking plants
Unravelling by Josephine Boxwell Montreal: Guernica Editions, 2020 $20.00 / 9781771835442 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * As Vivian, the elder of two protagonists in Unravelling, says, “Small towns shrink to the size of fishbowls when it comes to gossip” (p. 53). Perhaps the fishbowl metaphor partly explains why, although the past several decades have seen…
Read more 1073 Gossip, sagebrush, & injustice
INTERVIEW: Luke Inglis with Nathaniel G. Moore * Born in Malawi, Luke Inglis spent his childhood skipping between British Columbia and Africa. When not lost in the deep woods, he can be found at his day job as a professional book slinger. He lives on the Sunshine Coast in BC with his dog Floyd. Something Drastic…
Read more 1064 Sunshine Coast exchange
Lost Time by Winona Kent St Ives, UK: Blue Devil Books, 2020 $19.99 / 9781777329419 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * Mistaken identity, car chases, and thunderstorms run rampant in this thrilling continuation in the Jason Davey mysteries. As the third instalment in this collection, Winona Kent’s Lost Time follows Jason Davey, an amateur investigator by…
Read more 1061 Mystery & folk music nostalgia
In Search of a Happy Ending by Rosa Jordan Martinsville, VA: Propertius Press, 2020 $18.95 (U.S.) / 9781716707919 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Cheesecake and Castro’s Confidant: Rossland novelist offers musings on relationships, the environment, and social justice issues “People love happy endings,” says a character in Rosa Jordan’s third novel. But “they will gladly…
Read more 1058 Cheesecake and Castro’s confidant
The Swap by Robyn Harding Toronto: Simon & Schuster, 2020 $24.99 / 9781982144760 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * The Swap by Robyn Harding is that cocktail you’re embarrassed to order, decide to order after going around and saying “Fuck it, I deserve to have some fun; there’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure in…
Read more 1057 A salacious romp
Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction by Joshua Whitehead (editor) Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020 $21.95 / 9781551528113 Reviewed by Harper Campbell * Joshua Whitehead’s new edited anthology, Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction, comes on the heels of anthologies like Walking the…
Read more 1045 An Indigenous sci-fi moment
My Summer of Love and Misfortune by Lindsay Wong Toronto: Simon and Schuster, 2020 $17.99 / 9781534480704 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * My Summer of Love and Misfortune is an aptly titled comic YA novel with a propensity for food-centric similes, “super” as the omnipresent intensifier of choice, no shortage of hyphens, and featuring Iris…
Read more 1029 Redemption in Beijing
The Ride Home by Gail Anderson-Dargatz Victoria: Orca Books, 2020 $9.95 / 9781459821422 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Editor’s note: The West Coast Book Prize Society announced on April 8, 2021, that The Ride Home, by Gail Anderson-Dargatz, has been shortlisted for the Sheila A. Egoff Prize in the 2021 BC and Yukon Book Prizes. Winners will…
Read more 1024 A city kid goes rural
Two books reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb: The Girl Who Stole Everything: A Novel by Norman Ravvin Montreal: Linda Leith Éditions, 2019 $21.95 / 9781773900278 * Prisoners of Hope: Rising from the Ashes of the Holocaust: An Eyewitness Account of Life in the Auschwitz Extermination Camp and Two Slave Labour Camps (1944-1945) by George L. Pal…
Read more 1019 Prisoners of hope and memory
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel Toronto: HarperCollins, 2020 $34.99 / 9781443455725 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * Emily St. John Mandel’s The Glass Hotel was one of five books shortlisted for the 2020 Giller Prize. See here for an interview with her by Trevor Corkum on 49thShelf.com, and for an interview on the…
Read more 1018 Sweep us up, Emily
Finding the Daydreamer by Estella Kuchta Laramie, Wyoming: Elm Books, 2020 $14.95 (U.S.) / 9781941614327 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Vancouverite Estella Kuchta’s debut novel incorporates her academic interests in ecocriticism and the Canadian literary love story. Her American publishers call it “A tale of survival, set in the Canadian wilderness” (back cover) thereby placing…
Read more 1014 Cariboo teacher & the cowboy
Blood Sport by Tash McAdam Victoria: Orca Books, 2020 $10.95 / 9781459824362 Reviewed by Carol Anne Shaw * Vancouver author Tash McAdam has written a little gem in Blood Sport. Part of the Orca Soundings series — short, high-interest novels targeted at teen readers — this novel is a fast-paced and exciting read. It is…
Read more 1010 A trans tale of triumph
Fontainebleau by Madeline Sonik Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2020 $20.00 / 9781772141481 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * University of Victoria professor Madeline Sonik’s second collection of stories springs from the gritty suburban projects and amorphous rural settings in and around Windsor, Ontario in, roughly, the third quarter of the 20th Century. Linked short stories (think James…
Read more 1003 Windsor’s grit and magic
Big Ledge: The Triumphs and Tribulations of Robert E. Sproule by Brian D’Eon Nelson: Home Star Press, 2018 $20.00 / 9781775387206 Reviewed by Art (Sean Arthur) Joyce To obtain copies of Big Ledge, contact Brian D’Eon here. * Big Ledge by Brian D’Eon is that rarity in historical fiction — a story that combines historical…
Read more #999 Kootenay hardrock intrigue