“The sisters, oppressed by the patriarchy, whatever their orders and callings, have been the Stepford wives of Jesus, and the authors of Resisting Orders wonder if whispered dissent will succeed in protecting idealistic notions of equality and social justice through the possible dismantling of paternalistic authoritarianism during the decline of neo-capitalism.” Linda Rogers reviews Resisting Orders: Catholic Sisters Contest Their Church, by Christine Gervais, Amanda Watson, and Shanisse Kleuskens (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025) $39.95 / 9780228023708
“I did however ask myself: Why have things degenerated so markedly from the zenith of lounge singing? We’ve learned to disdain crooners, haven’t we? Is it because Bill Murray’s Nick Winters (or ‘fill in the blank’) and others have tapped into crooning as a vein of satire, a motherlode of spoof? This comedic riffing can’t have been solely responsible for their demise, could it? Surely not. No, there had to be better reasons than that to explain this phenomena especially when viewed against the almost unimaginable backdrop of Bublé’s commercial success.” Graham Ware contributes the essay When the crooner was King: The rise & fall of an old musical aristocracy.
“George is one of those raconteurs. The first half of Barefoot Gringo jumps from one zinger to another, all of them the kind of crowd pleaser recognizable around the social leveller of a table crowded with glasses and almost invisible through smoke.” Harold Rhenisch reviews Barefoot Gringo, by George Bowering (Vancouver: On Point Press, an imprint of UBC Press, 2026) $26.95 / 9780774890786
“Richard Stursberg’s Lament for a Literature suggests there is a causal link between the parlous financial state of Canadian publishing, a less robust Canadian literature, and a consequent decline in Canadian national culture. All of that, he says, can only be slowed by immediate government protective action.” Richard Butler reviews Lament for a Literature: The Collapse of Canada’s Book Publishing, by Richard Stursberg (Toronto: Sutherland House, 2026) $19.95 / 9781998365753
“Robin Ward, a graduate of the celebrated Glasgow School of Art and respected architectural critic and author, does justice to that inheritance. He has added to the comprehensive yet accessible guidebooks he has written singly or collaboratively, including on Victoria and Vancouver, in this province. The photography is excellent and selection of buildings and civic statuary or artwork both astute and appropriate to exploring the built environment of Canada’s one-time leading metropolis.” Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe reviews Exploring Montréal: 151 Best Buildings, by Robin Ward (Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2026) $29.95 / 9781771624619
“Many of the 19 stories, packed with Fraser’s fact-filled remembrances, deal with disasters and tragedies. He was the reporter the editors on the assignment desk in Edmonton or Toronto would call if they needed a reliable and ‘objective’ journalist to fly to the trouble zone on short notice.” Ron Verzuh reviews From Ragged Ass Road to Rideau Hall: Stories of Canada, by Whit Fraser (Madeira Park: Douglas and McIntyre, 2026) $26.95 / 9781771624695
“Boom Times in Chilliwack without question represents Merlin Bunt’s great love for his hometown, as he states in his introduction. As a chronicler of that hometown Chilliwack could not ask for a more devoted one.” Steven Brown reviews Boom Times in Chilliwack: Memories from the Post-War Years, by Merlin Bunt (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $38.95 / 9781998526369
“Although the convention attracted its fair share of critics at the time, situating it in the context of what came before and after suggests it was not a write-off but an effective strategy (at least in theory) for mobilizing confederation supporters and keeping the colonial government on alert.” Sam Kiiskila, recent UVic graduate, contributes the historical essay “A ‘Lover of Beauty’ on his way to Yale”: Revisiting the 1868 Yale Convention
“By the time I got to Simon Fraser University in the early 1970s, Jim Harding had already left campus but his legacy lingered as SFU continued to fester with student unrest after the historic strike in 1967. That event labelled SFU a ‘radical’ campus and Harding was part of the cohort of students and faculty that openly challenged and defied the actions of the university administration. It was a bold, exciting, and educational moment. Harding was among the leaders.” Ron Verzuh reviews The Long Sixties: Stories from the New Left, by Jim Harding [ed.] (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2026) $29 / 9781773638034
“Alisha Gauvreau, then a UVic Ph.D. candidate, served as field crew lead and investigator of the EkTb-9 site from 2015 to 2019 and subsequently published the results in the Journal of Archaeological Science. She and colleagues and members of the Heiltsuk Nation, including Housty, used a two-eyed seeing approach throughout the research process ‘to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing, and to see from the other eye with the strengths of Western ways of knowing, and to use both these eyes together for the benefit of all.'” Katy Dycus writes of impressive archaeological activity on Triquet Island, by Waterlogged co-author Alisha Gauvreau, archaeologist Elroy White, and community leader William Housty, on traditional Heiltsuk territory.
A “thoughtful and provocative account of masculine aesthetics in gay male culture” focusses on a seminal Toronto-based community newspaper. In doing so, its author “has created a valuable resource on the evolution of masculinity and libido in queer sexuality.” —Daniel Gawthrop reviews Liberation and Libido: Masculinity, Sexuality, and the Aesthetics of Gay Liberation in Canada, 1971–1987, by Nicholas A. Hrynyk (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2026) $32.95 / 9781487507077
“The fact, indeed, that Bovey writes with a refreshingly personal sense of appreciation, points towards one of the salient features of this curated exhibition—namely, the fact that just as artists may have “visual voices,” Bovey herself has a distinctive voice. Part of that, of course, is implicit in the selections she makes, but part, too, is explicit in her personal comments.” Theo Dombrowski reviews Western Voices in Canadian Art, by Patricia Bovey (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2023) $49.95 / 9780887550478
“Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa begins with a conversation about her discovery and research into the one empirical example of an ancient practice, the raising of almost but not quite domestic animals who lived in isolation to protect them from inbreeding and physical damage, animals bred to provide the weft in essential weavings.” Linda Rogers reviews The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog, by Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa et al (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $36.95 / 9781998526024
“In this intimate account, Comox Valley writer Joline Martin uniquely focuses on the draft resisters who came to Vancouver Island and became Canadians.” Ron Verzuh reviews War Resisters: Standing Against the Vietnam War, by Joline Martin (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2025) $26 / 9781773861685
“Each of the artists portrayed in the book–like a unique piece of wood, bone, or argillite they carve–teaches us something significant about their communities, their clans, and their personal histories.” Christine Añonuevo reviews Curve! Women Carvers on the Northwest Coast, curated by Dana Claxton and Curtis Collins (Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2024) $45 / 9781773272542
“Haig-Brown has said for many years that his 13 years in the fishing fleet educated him every bit as much as his going to university to prepare for being a writer in his life…” DC Reid reviews Raincoast Chronicles 25 – m̓am̓aɫa Goes Fishing, by Alan Haig-Brown (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $24.95 / 9781998526185
“In sum, in my respectful view, too much of this book is little more than a handy compendium of familiar sources strung together to prove a point. It is reminiscent of the approach taken in Grave Error, whereby those authors seek to advance a counter-narrative.” Richard Butler reviews Reconciling History: A Story of Canada, by Jody Wilson-Raybould and Roshan Danesh (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2024) $39.95 / 9780771017230
“Our interviewees have been many and varied: from seasoned poet George Bowering to newcomer, Giller Prize-shortlisted author, Eddy Boudel Tan, from bestselling history author Nancy Marguerite Anderson, to acclaimed memoirist Marion McKinnon Crook. It has been a privilege for me to shake the hands of all of the interviewees of 2025, sometimes in their own homes and workspaces, and ask them about their creative process.” Interview segment producer Trevor Marc Hughes looks back on a year of The British Columbia Review Interview Series.
“Personal interjections of Martin and her friends and family bring lightness and humour to the book, giving the reader a real sense of what it was like to live ‘on the edge’—the excitement of boat days when the steamships would pull into town (the road didn’t go through until 1959); learning to drive on Long Beach; exploits, and broken bones, of kids riding their bikes off the government wharf; swimming lessons in the ocean or at Kennedy Lake.” Adrienne Mason reviews Calm Harbour, Turbulent Seas: A History of Ucluelet, by Shirley Martin (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $39.95 / 9781998526161
“Don’t Be Canada contests such a generous comparison between Canada and the rest of the democratic world. Its very basis is that Canada is unique in doing a number of things wrong, voluntarily engaging in self-destructive activities in an attempt to appeal to a progressive American mindset.” Eugene Lacey reviews Don’t Be Canada: How One Country Did Everything Wrong All At Once, by Tristin Hopper (Toronto: Sutherland House, 2025) $23.95 / 9781998365364
