A ‘soap opera in the best way possible’
WWII-set debut novel, a love triangle where the “tension is deliciously gravid.” —Jessica Poon reviews The Cure for Drowning, by Loghan Paylor (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2024) $24.95 / 9781039006454
History (world)
Cossacks, clairvoyance, and revenge
Historical fiction where the “compelling characters and exciting plot never falter.” —Valerie Green reviews The Jazz Club Spy, by Roberta Rich (Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, 2023) $24.99 / 9781982187729
Matters of conscience
“Regime of Obstruction documents the corruption of Canadian democracy that has become characteristic of our governmental systems, corporate regimes, and even the environmental organizations that have collaborated in the greening of the business ethos.” Dr. Loys Maingon reviews three titles he considers “guides for unscrupulous psychopathic capitalism.” Regime of Obstruction by William K. Carroll (ed.) Athabasca University Press, 2021 $39.99 / 9781771992893 & A Strategic Nature: Public Relations and The Politics of American Environmentalism by Melissa Aronczyk and Maria I. Espinoza, Don Mills: Oxford University Press – Canada, 2022
$108.95 / 9780190055349 & The New Corporation: How “Good” Corporations Are Bad for Democracy by Joel Bakan (Toronto: Allen Lane, 2020) $19.95 / 9780735238848
Labour disputes and love stories
Two plays give “readers a welcome new perspective on BC community life.” —Ron Verzuh reviews The Ballad of Ginger Goodwin & Kitimat, by Elaine Ávila (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2023) $19.95 / 9781772014471
A ‘timely and essential’ kids’ book
Enchanting book ‘demonstrates a constructive way to go through the world.’
Alison Acheson reviews Emi and Mini, by Hanako Masutani (with illustrations by Stéphane Jorisch) (Vancouver: Tradewind Books, 2023) $21.95 / 9781926890203
Only the polar bear knows
“Writer Pierre Berton called him a ‘quite ordinary naval officer.’ Novelist Margaret Atwood called him ‘a dope.’ McGoogan argues that he was ‘a well-meaning plodder.'” Ron Verzuh reviews Searching for Franklin: New Answers to the Great Arctic Mystery by Ken McGoogan (Madeira Park, BC, Douglas and McIntyre, 2023) $38.95 / 9781771623681
Travel, history on the rails
“In Train Beyond the Mountains: Journeys on the Rocky Mountaineer, Rick Antonson takes us on a trip through time as he recounts a multi-day excursion on historic train, the Rocky Mountaineer.” Natalie Virginia Lang reviews Train Beyond the Mountains: Journeys on the Rocky Mountaineer (Vancouver: Greystone Books, April 2023) $34.95 / 9781771644860
Travels of ‘an imperfect messenger’
“…Wosk removes his clothes, sits naked in silence, meditating on the Big Void.” Trevor Carolan reviews Naked In A Pyramid: Travels & Observations by Yosef Wosk (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2023) $22 / 9781772142204
Roots, ‘praise portals,’ koans, and the Resurrection
Fraser Valley poet ‘searches for a common spirituality among biblical and sacred writings’…
gillian harding-russell reviews Consider, by Susan McCaslin (Thornhill: Aeolus House, 2023) $20.00 / 9781987872545
Globetrotting historical novels a ‘dynastic tapestry’
Family revelations, social upheaval, and war’s brutality captured in historical fiction…
Vanessa Winn reviews ‘Destiny’ and ‘Legacy,’ by Valerie Green (Surrey: Hancock House, 2023) $24.95
No. 2000 for the BC Review!
When we launched The British Columbia Review — then The Ormsby Review — in September 2016, little did we expect that seven years later we’d post our 2000th review. I’m grateful to everyone — reviewers, publishers, authors, booksellers, and readers — for making it such a success and promoting BC writers, writing, and culture. It…
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The way we were
Essay: The Way We Were: Two Friends, Two Historians by Robin Fisher * Earlier this year I flew down to New Zealand to spend a few days with my lifelong friend and gifted historian Kerry (K.R.) Howe. It was springtime in British Columbia but winter was coming in New Zealand. We both knew that it…
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A Canadian’s life on the road
Chasing Africa: Fear Won’t Find Me Here – A Memoirby Lisa Duncan Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2022$25.00 / 9781771605816 Reviewed by Isabel Nanton * In her memoir of time spent as a 24-year-old in South Africa, Namibia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Zanzibar for three-and-a-half-months in 1996, Squamish-based author Lisa Duncan reveals much that is interesting…
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‘Strands of a life’
Landbridge [life in fragments] by Y-Dang Troeung Toronto: Alchemy by Knopf Canada, 2023 $35.00 / 9781039008762 Reviewed by Theresa Kishkan * When I opened this beautifully-designed book, with its cover drawings of delicate buds of kapok (in Khmer, Y-Dang Troeung tells us, planting a kapok tree, which makes no sound in the wind, is an…
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Meditative, impressionistic, awe-inspiring
“Readers of Kogawa’s poetry are privy to a singular pleasure…” Marguerite Pigeon reviews From the Lost and Found Department: New and Selected Poems, by Joy Kogawa (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2023) $18.00 / 9780771005138
Story collection features whimsy and wit
Ten Stories that Worried My Mother by Winona Kent New Westminster: Blue Devil Books, 2023 $14.99 / 9781777329495 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Best known as a writer of cozy mystery novels, New Westminster’s Winona Kent has organized this eclectic collection of mostly previously published works (dating from the early 1980s to the 2020s) chronologically….
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Book for kids educates, entertains, and energizes
Elf’s Family Tree by Ron Smith, with illustrations by Ruth Campbell Oakville: Rock’s Mills Press, 2023 $14.95 / 9781772442755 Reviewed by Troy Wilson * In the highly acclaimed 2007 picture book Elf the Eagle, a young eaglet named Elf marvelled at the vastness of the tree where he lived. And in this long-awaited sequel, Elf’s…
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1975 Ghoulish K-pop teen horror!!
Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng New York: MacMillan/Roaring Brook Press, 2023 $26.99 / 9781250864994 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * All that glitters is likelier ghoul than gold in Linda Cheng’s K-pop-inspired debut novel, Gorgeous Gruesome Faces. Cheng was born in Taiwan, though much of her adolescence was spent moving between different cultures and continents….
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1967 ‘A long artistic tradition’
Pacific Voyages: The Story of Sail in the Great Ocean by Gordon Miller Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2023 $59.95 / 9781771623476 Reviewed by Robin Fisher * This is a great book about a great ocean and the tiny ships that made it manifest. The literature on the exploration of the Pacific, it sometimes seems,…
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1966 The brutal stuff of life (with a side of contentment)
Alternator by Chris Banks Madeira Park, Harbour Publishing, 2023 $19.95 / 9780889714588 Reviewed by Marguerite Pigeon * Chris Banks has called his new book of poetry Alternator. An apt title, to this reader, as the word speaks not only to this current work, but to Banks’s overall way of writing. A car’s alternator turns mechanical…
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