The Acid Room: The Psychedelic Trials and Tribulations of Hollywood Hospital by Jesse Donaldson and Erika Dyck Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2022 $18.00 / 9781772141863 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Acid Test in New West: LSD entered the world through the doors of a BC Hospital Before LSD guru Timothy Leary (“tune in, turn on and…
Read more 1524 LSD & Hollywood North
Words from the Dead: Relevant Readings in the Covid Age by Sean Arthur (Art) Joyce Victoria: Ekstasis Editions, 2022 $25.95 / 9781771714587 Reviewed by Christopher A. Shaw * Capturing the “Landscape of the Imagination” in the Age of Covid No matter where one stands on the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccines, and who’s responsible, the events of…
Read more 1519 Reading the Covid landscape
A Funny Kind of Paradise by Jo Owens Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Random House Canada), 2021 $22.95 / 9780735278820 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * An extended care facility in Victoria might seem a claustrophobic setting for a novel, particularly when a stroke has rendered speechless its narrator, Francesca, who inhabits a room with four…
Read more 1516 Memories and caregivers
Going to Ground: Essays on Aging, Chronic Pain and the Healing Power of Nature by Luanne Armstrong Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2022 $24.95 / 9781773860756 Reviewed by Claire Sicherman * I was really looking forward to reading Luanne Armstrong’s new book, Going to Ground: Essays on Aging, Chronic Pain and the Healing Power of Nature,…
Read more 1499 Not done yet
Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age by Darrel J. McLeod Madeira Park: Douglas and McIntyre, 2018 $29.95 / 9781771622004 Reviewed by Heather Simeney MacLeod * Editor’s note: From time to time we get our wires crossed at The BC Review, or — very rarely — a publisher sends the reviewer the wrong book or kindly…
Read more 1494 A Cree hero’s journey
The Caregiver’s Companion by Patricia Jean Smith Oakville, ON: Rock’s Mills Press, 2022 $25.00 / 9781772442441 Reviewed by Betty Jane Hegerat * The cover of The Caregiver’s Companion by Patricia Smith is graced with an image by Chinese print maker, Hao Boyi, of two Manchurian red-crowned cranes. These birds are rare and endangered. To imagine…
Read more 1491 Be brave in giving
Mother, the Verb, Swan Sister Treasure Book by Linda Rogers and Friends Victoria: FriesenPress, 2022 $25.00 / 9781039124530 Reviewed Cathy Ford * Upon a time (note dear reader, not “once”), there arrived a beautifully dense green book on my desk. For me, it arrived just in time. As said more often than anyone ever wanted…
Read more 1470 Piecework and peace work
Sounds from Silence: Reflections of a Child Holocaust Survivor, Psychiatrist and Teacher by Robert Krell Amsterdam: Amsterdam Publishers, 2021 $21.95 (U.S.) / 9493231488 Reviewed by Peter Hay * From the outside, Robert Krell’s memoirs present us with a man of great humanity who, after a long and distinguished career in medicine and psychiatry, has been…
Read more 1466 A dozen kinds of hiding
An Irish Country Yuletide by Patrick Taylor New York: Macmillan (Forge Books), 2021 $17.99 (US) / 9781250780904 Reviewed by Ian J.M. Kennedy * With the recent release of Kenneth Branagh’s film Belfast, set during the Troubles in 1969, it’s timely that The British Columbia Review should ask for a review of Salt Spring Island resident…
Read more 1394 A great wee book, so it is
Dreamers, Skeptics, and Healers: the Story of BC’s Medical School. The UBC Faculty of Medicine at 70 years by Wendy Cairns, John Cairns, David Ostrow, and Gavin Stuart Vancouver: Page Two Books, 2021 $50.00 / 9781989603895 Reviewed by Jaime Smith * As a graduate of the UBC medical school in 1976 and after training there…
Read more 1363 Beds and infrastructure at UBC
Not of Reason: A Recipe for Outrunning Sadness by Rita Moir Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2021 $22.95 / 9781773860633 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Author Rita Moir’s Memoir Not of Reason connected with me on many levels. It is an impeccable combination of sorrow and humour when life is at its lowest. The author relates…
Read more 1358 Dying in the natural order
ESSAY: Mourning and Burial Rites in Ancient China: A Grief Process by Dorothy Dittrich * Death is part of life, as are the feelings of grief, sorrow and anxiety that follow the loss of a loved one. While coming to terms with death and coping with loss may be part of living, the feelings that…
Read more Mourning rites in Ancient China
Among Silent Echoes: A Memoir of Trauma and Resilience by Phyllis Dyson Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2021 $24.95 / 9781773860640 Reviewed by Lee Reid * “My mother had needed help, not bullets” (p. 21). With Phyllis Dyson’s book, Among Silent Echoes, it is not immediately evident why Phyllis, at age 45, decides to explore the…
Read more 1339 When belonging goes bad
Happy is the New Healthy by Joan Neehall Toronto: Simon and Schuster Canada, 2021 $36.00 / 9781948677707 Reviewed by Lee Reid * “Keep your heart open in hell,” is a piercing term from the 1980s that has stayed with me for the past forty years. Nowadays, hell seems poignantly applicable to the losses and limitations…
Read more 1317 Survival of the kindest
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 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 to…
Read more 1309 The object of Indigenous writing