“Here, as later in the case of Steven Galloway at UBC, she speaks her mind, for, whatever else, Atwood is unwaveringly her own woman. Nevertheless, and in this case specifically, anyone interested less in her well-documented public life than in her social and political views, would do better to read the more specific, elaborate, and focused essays and articles assembled in Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004-2021.” Christopher Levenson reviews Margaret Atwood’s Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2025): $45 / 9780771096433
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.
“It’s rare to find a holiday book that resists the expectation of comfort. Better Next Year is one such example. These stories sit with estrangement, failed reconciliations, uneasy rituals, and trauma.” Selena Mercuri reviews Better Next Year: An Anthology of Christmas Epiphanies, by JJ Lee (ed.) (New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2023) $24.95 / 9781990160271
“I find myself in somewhat similar circumstances to Honda, even though our life stories and backgrounds are quite different. I am also a person in her mid-fifties with a daughter who has recently left home, and I too am faced with a time of transformation. Thus, I was riveted by the book, connected in a way that was meaningful and relevant.” Trish Bowering reviews Hidden Flowers
by Keiko Honda (Vancouver: Heritage House, 2025) $29.95 / 9781772035605
“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
“The strongest part of this book is her detailed and unflinching description of life with an intimate partner who has bipolar disorder. The description of Lembi’s hospitalization for cancer treatment coupled to Jim’s hospitalization in the psych ward is harrowing, and a classic example of how those who commit to caring for someone with such a mental disorder are often the first to feel the physical, emotional, and mental consequences.” Wendy Burton reviews An Accidental Advocate, by Lembi Buchanan (Victoria: Beresford Press, 2023) $24.95 / 9781738947621
“In some respects, the school already had a number of carefully nurtured traditions tending in that direction. We played rugger rather than the more plebeian soccer. We competed with several minor public schools at cricket and rugger and, although twelve miles from the River Thames, entered one or two rowing eights in the Head of the River races.” Christopher Levenson recalls his schoolboy days in England in the next instalment of his memoir “Not One of the Boys.”
Pondering a world that “has taken an undue turn” and reflecting on his life of experiences as a Brown man, an author composes heartfelt and searing essays that challenge Canadian myths of inclusion. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Hide and Sikh: Letters from a Life in Brown Skin, by Sunny Dhillon (Hamilton: Wolsak & Wynn, 2025) $20.00 / 9781998408320
“Trevor Marc Hughes’ The Final Spire, is a history of the ascent of Mount Waddington, whereas Susanna Oreskovic’s Expedition to Mystery Mountain is a personal account of a 2018 reenactment of one of Don and Phyl Munday’s early expeditions to the area. Reenactments of famous climbs have been done in many places. In B.C., such re-creations include Mount Garibaldi near Vancouver and Bugaboo Spire northwest of Invermere. The reenactment of the Munday’s 1926 attempt on Mount Waddington (called ‘Mystery Mountain’ by them) would be a much more serious undertaking.” Glenn Woodsworth reviews Expedition to Mystery Mountain: Adventures of a Bushwhacking Knickerbocker-Wearing Woman, by Susanna Oreskovic (Montreal: Walnut Tree Press, 2021) $24.95 / 9780993918711 & The Final Spire: ‘Mystery Mountain’ Mania in the 1930s, by Trevor Marc Hughes (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781553807223
“A musician, or any artist, can have an infinite variety of origin stories, yet I cannot help but feel that it largely comes down to this line from Case: ‘The ways to be unwanted were inexhaustible, it seemed, and as a child I still had no clue how to claim a spot for myself in the world.’ I’m sure there are exceptions, but feeling bereft of security and belonging often becomes a natural prerequisite to longing for artistic autonomy—to be and embody the thing you admire.” Jessica Poon reviews The Harder I Fight the More I Love You, by Neko Case (Toronto: Hachette Book Group, 2025) $30 / 9781538710500
“The book is engaging, frank and occasionally a little salty. It’s a nicely turned-out book in hardcover with a dust jacket with a colour image of John Horgan in the prime of life. Undoubtedly, it’s not a coincidence the hardcover itself is NDP orange.” Steven Brown reviews John Horgan In His Own Words: A Memoir, by John Horgan with Rod Mickleburgh (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $38.95 / 9781998526260
“Judith and her husband were fortunate that so many friends had room for them to stay. They traveled back and forth across southern BC to stay in the free homes of a variety of friends, making their displacement more comfortable than those who stayed in emergency centres or sheltered wherever they could. Everywhere they went, they found people who cared deeply about their situation and offered food, shelter, or comfort. It’s one of the amazing, beautiful things about the place we live.” Myshara McMyn reviews Finding the Phoenix: An Evacuee’s Memoir of the McDougall Creek Wildfire, by Judith Lepore (Kelowna: Orion Press, 2025) $19.99 / 9781738277810
Please take a moment to contribute to our annual fundraiser at The British Columbia Review. In our 2024 campaign we raised $14,000 from 158 donors, which represents about a quarter of our income, the rest coming from grants, advertising, and partnerships. I hope we can equal that amount again this year. A big thank you to those who have already donated.
“Settling in Edmonton in 1951 was not so easy for immigrants and, although her father was able to locate work when he had arrived two years earlier, many Italian families experienced difficulties in finding employment. While the family isn’t poor, there is no money for luxuries as Adriana is growing up, and she keenly feels the divide between the ‘English’ children and the immigrant children.” Carol Matthews reviews My Theatre of Memory: A Life in Words, by Adriana A. Davies (Gananoque: Guernica Editions, 2023) $25 / 9781771837705
“In summarizing the research component of the project Lacombe comments: ‘The complex performance of Mac’s different and at times paradoxical personae is not as unusual as it might initially seem, since all of us adopt very distinct social roles or subject positions depending on the interactions we have with others and the contexts we find ourselves in.'” Richard Fyfe reviews Talking Reform: Making and Unmaking a Life in Canada’s Prisons, by Dany Lacombe with Mac McKinney (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025) $29.95 / 9780228026365
Delightful while sobering and illuminating, a memoir-in-verse celebrates pop music as it revisits cultural history and queer coming-of-age in the ’80s and ’90s. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Soundtrack: A Lyric Memoir, by Michael V. Smith (Toronto: Book*hug, 2025) $24.95 / 9781771669498
A fiction writer’s first book of nonfiction—a memoir “that is at once intimate, wryly humorous, and informative as it takes the reader from that tumble on the mountain trail to the present”—addresses the difficult details of living with Parkinson’s Disease “unflinchingly, with candour and occasionally an exasperated wit.” —Trish Bowering reviews In This Faulty Machine: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation, by Kathy Page (Toronto: Viking Canada, 2025) $34.95 / 9781037800887
“In Medicine Wheel for the Planet, Dr. Grenz has created a provocative, moving, and timely book which every scientist and student, whether Western or Indigenous, should read.” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews Medicine Wheel for the Planet: A Journey Toward Personal and Ecological Healing, by Dr. Jennifer Grenz (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2024) $23 / 9781039006034
“If you have dreams of going offshore for an extended voyage, this is the book for you. It’s a well-written, at times poetic, true account of what it takes to traverse the mighty oceans.” Marianne Scott reviews Cape Horn Birthday: Record-Breaking Solo Non-Stop Circumnavigation, by Peter Freeman (Melbourne, FL: Seaworthy Publications, 2018) $26.95 / 9781948494045
