“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
“‘The authors of this book are the Kitwancool themselves…’ was the first line of the introduction when this book was first published in 1959. It was also, at that time, hugely significant. The line was written by Wilson Duff, the senior anthropologist at the British Columbia Provincial Museum, whose vision and patience had produced the book even though he made it clear that he was not the author. It was significant because, when First Nations voices told their own stories, usually they were not heard and they seldom appeared in print. In its time this book was, in the words of another Provincial Museum anthropologist, a ‘brilliant move.’ It was an example of reconciliation before its time.” Robin Fisher reviews Histories, Territories and Laws of the Kitwancool by Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs (edited and with an introduction by Wilson Duff)(Victoria: Royal BC Museum, second edition, 2022) $19.95 / 9780772680327
“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
“Hill presents a compelling case for Antifa relevance in its fight against racism, fascism, and authoritarianism, providing a detailed history of events in our past, so we can better understand our probable future.” Jeffrey Stychin reviews The Antifa Comic Book: Revised and Expanded, by Gord Hill (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781834050041
“The setting of Wildcraft Medicine is Clayoquot Sound where Wray gained most of her knowledge of healing plants from Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers. Her early years were spent in Powell River, then her family moved to West Vancouver where she met First Nations Medicine Woman Norma Myers, who played an important role in her education in plant medicine. As a mother, she turned to plants to for the medicinal needs of her family through childhood viruses and infections, as well as afflictions that affected the adults, as well as her pets.” Cathalynn Labonté-Smith reviews Wildcraft Medicine: In the Presence of Wonder, by Sheila Anne Wray (Victoria: FriesenPress, 2025) $43.99 / 9781039197220
“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.
“It’s also healthy to remember that the magazines, and this anthology, aren’t judgements but glimpses of which books of poetry might be coming soon within the editors’ favoured aesthetic styles. It’s part of the process that some poems aren’t chosen. The ones not in this volume, for instance. You could make other volumes for the year that would include them and leave these ones out.” —Harold Rhenisch reviews Best Canadian Poetry 2026, selected by Mary Dalton (Windsor: Biblioasis, 2025) $24.95 / 9781771966764
“Tlingit women’s resilience and resistance shaped their communities historically and up to the present and hold promise for the future. In writing this book, Smetzer represents both the beauty and the pain inherent in beading practices in Tlingit territory.” Katy Dycus reviews Painful Beauty: Tlingit Women, Beadwork, and the Art of Resilience, by Megan A. Smetzer (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2025) $34.95 / 9780295754086
Reissued 2014 novel recounts a father and son’s journey to a backcountry destination: “In Wagamese’s prose, the descriptions of these places are so skilfully rendered that the ugliness becomes beautiful. In the rhythmic, pulsing language, you can smell the empty bottles, the smoke and ashes, the unwashed bodies, the frying bologna.” —Ryan Frawley reviews Medicine Walk, by Richard Wagamese (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2025) $22.00 / 9780771023521
Further selections from BCR’s community of reviewers…
BCR asked some of our regular contributors about books they read in the past year that really stayed with them. Once again, “eclectic” is our word of the year.
BCR asked some of our regular contributors about books they read in the past year that really stayed with them. Once again, “eclectic” is our word of the year.
“This publication is timely because it invites us to take a step back from the headlines, narratives, and counter-narratives, and to learn who the Secwépemc people were and are; to appreciate their connection with their lands; and to understand the social relationships and responsibilities which foster mutual belonging in their communities.” Richard Butler reviews Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws: Yerí7 re Stsq’ey’s-kucw, by Marianne Ignace and Ronald E. Ignace (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025) $39.95 / 9780228026358 (paperback release)
“One of the book’s most important implications is that women’s rights are hard won, by women themselves, rather than awarded by a benevolent government or other entity. The stories in the book also show how although an individual woman might have failed in her quest for a legal remedy, she laid a path for others to build on.” Janet Pollock Millar reviews Women Who Woke Up the Law: Inside the Cases that Changed Women’s Rights in Canada
by Karin Wells (Toronto: Second Story Press, 2025) $24.95 / 978177264191
“This is Cecilia’s story and it is about a truly remarkable woman, her many accomplishments, and the lives of a quintessential Cariboo family of mixed Indigenous and European blood lines.” David Williams reviews One Arrow Left: A Memoir of Secwépemc Knowledge Keeper Cecilia DeRose, by Cecilia Dick DeRose w/ Sage Birchwater (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2025) $26 / 9781773861586
Family, friendship, prejudice, and loss are thoughtfully explored in a pair of chapter books for young readers. “There’s such valuing of connection in these pages, and an honesty to the whole,” writes our reviewer. —Alison Acheson reviews A Promise to Protect, by Nikki Bergstresser (Victoria: Heritage House, 2025) $14.95 / 9781772035438 and I Won’t Feel This Way Forever, by Kim Spencer (Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 2025) $14.95 / 9781459838208
“The individuals profiled in this book use all kinds of narrative formats, telling stories through poetry and prose, pictographs, maps, ribbon skirts, and beadwork. There is a serious challenge of scope with such a short volume, but it is successful in its brevity at providing a glimpse of the multitude of Indigenous storytellers.” Kristina Hannis reviews Ours to Tell: Reclaiming Indigenous Stories, by Eldon Yellowhorn & Kathy Lowinger (Toronto: Annick Press, 2025) $24.99 / 9781773219530
“This sense of purpose would fuel Mouchet for the rest of his days in his development of skiing programs for youth, and Firth not only chronicles those days but, impressively, and with great persuasiveness, illustrates and argues in favour of their benefits. Firth points out the programs’ success with Indigenous youth, brought by this ‘Man of God’ who brings out the best in kids, showing ‘that sport should be as much a connection with traditional values and history as it was an agent for social and cultural change.’” Trevor Marc Hughes reviews North Star: The Legacy of Jean-Marie Mouchet by John Firth (Victoria: Friesen Press, 2024) $19.99 / 9781039194328
Distressed after an eye-opening story time at school, young Miyasisiwn returns home with questions for her mom. Capably tackling big, difficult topics, an accomplished picture book exhibits deep caring, generosity, and wisdom on every page. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Miya Wears Orange, by Wanda John-Kehewin (illustrated by Erika Rodriguez Medina)(Winnipeg: HighWater Press, 2025) $21.95 / 9781774921258
