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
You Are Eating An Orange. You Are Naked by Sheung-King (Aaron Tang) Toronto: Book*hug Press, 2020 $20.00 / 9781771666411 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * It’s not everyday that a novel inspires me to drink a certain brand of beer, but I’ve been drinking Tsingtao regularly since I first read this debut novel from Sheung-King. Despite…
Read more #996 Straight white guys and Tsingtao
The Swan Suit by Katherine Fawcett Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2020 $22.95 / 9781771622608 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * Katherine Fawcett’s second collection of stories is a must read for anyone who likes deliriously imaginative, hilarious, and twisted fairy/fantasy stories that skewer contemporary culture. This was a book I often had to put down…
Read more #995 Fairy tales for modern minds
The End of Me: Stories by John Gould Calgary: Freehand Books, 2020 $22.95 / 9781988298566 Reviewed by Heidi Greco * Every once in a while a book comes along that’s so different, it’s hard to find a tack to take in reviewing it. John Gould’s most recent collection of short fictions presents just such a…
Read more #992 Plums, psilocybin, faceplant
How a Woman Becomes a Lake by Marjorie Celona Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada, 2020 (Hamish Hamilton) $19.95 / 9780735235847 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * Marjorie Celona’s second novel, How a Woman Becomes a Lake, is similar in style to her first, Y, and that alone makes it worth reading. Celona is skilled at psychological…
Read more #984 Paper boats and rising secrets
One Madder Woman by Dede Crane Calgary: Freehand Books, 2020 $23.95 / 9781988298689 Reviewed by Carole Gerson * France’s Impressionist artists are now so canonical that we often forget that their first exhibition of 1874, organized in protest against the conservatism of the Académie de Beaux Arts that vetted the annual displays of the Paris…
Read more #983 A studio of one’s own
The Brideship Wife by Leslie Howard Toronto: Simon & Schuster, 2020 $24.99 / 9781508259350 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Leslie Howard’s fictional interpretation of an 1860s journey to the new world on board of one of the famous bride ships is one of the best of many I have read on this subject. The Brideship…
Read more #981 Voyage to Vancouver Island
Christmas in Mariposa: Sketches of Canada’s Legendary Little Town by Jamie Lamb Victoria: Heritage House, 2019 $19.95 / 9781772032871 Reviewed by Peter Babiak * It wasn’t until I was in grad school that I realised that fiction and myth, far from being cultural fripperies divorced from the practical matters of life, can be just as…
Read more #980 Ode to small town Ontario
Through the Garden: A Love Story (with Cats) by Lorna Crozier Toronto: Penguin Random House (McClelland and Stewart), 2020 $29.95 / 9780771021183 Reviewed by Kathy Mezei * We know of famous, sometimes notorious, writing couples — Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, Simone Beauvoir and Jean-Paul…
Read more #979 A fiery & persevering love affair