“Amos has been clear about his purpose. ‘Because my work is first and foremost, of local interest, I did not pursue gallery representation. As it is unabashedly old-fashioned, I never bothered to try for government grants. My goal has been to create paintings, which people will like, and which will become part of the life of the community.'” Christina Johnson-Dean reviews Painting Victoria: Fifty Years of Memories From a City by The Sea, by Robert Amos (Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2025) $30 / 9781771514873
“Apart from inveterate crossword puzzlers or Scrabblers, most of us get by with a tiny fraction of the words that could be available. In conversation people often say ‘you know what I mean?’ and for the most part we do, more or less, but for people such as teachers, lawyers, journalists, and writers, who use language professionally, ‘more or less’ isn’t good enough.” In the essay The world’s favourite second language, regular contributor Christopher Levenson asks the question: What is the language?
“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
“His wonderful contemporary wordsmithing took me right through to the back cover. I now have layers upon layers of his days, the burden of those days, and the saving graces of those days.” Rosa Reid reviews Always Breathe, by Victor Enns (Kelowna: self-published, 2025) $20
“This book offers expression and relief from the wounded land of immobilisation, where people must shrink their lives and selves to fit into hell. Redemption appears in unusual ways. The stories are not completely mired in torture or isolation. Overall, the atmosphere emanates a compassionate moonscape, revealing people trapped in numbing routines or chaos, getting through each day with no hope, yet most keep going.” Lee Reid reviews Off the Map: Vancouver writers with lived experiences of mental health issues by Betsy Warland, Seema Shah, and Kate Bird (eds.) (Vancouver: Bell Press, 2025) $22 / 9781738716784
“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.
“In this, the third (Giblin says last) of his books on the fishing-guide life and the odd, quirky characters of this profession and region, The Trophy Hunter: The Final Chronicles of a West Coast Fishing Guide, we renew acquaintance with the Lodge’s residents and their favourite fishing holes.” Marianne Scott reviews The Trophy Hunter: The Final Chronicles of a West Coast Fishing Guide, by David Giblin (Victoria: Heritage House, 2025) $24.95 / 9781772035551
“The wry humour and the cheerful self-deprecation that frame the self-inflicted misadventure are absolutely fundamental to the DNA of this entire, wickedly unconventional memoir.” Theo Dombrowski reviews Unorganized Territory: A Boy’s Own Memoir, by David Gurr (Victoria: Stonehewer Books, 2025) $25.95 / 9781738993383
“Fox is a writer whose sense of humour translates well to the page, and who draws the reader in with his authenticity, a genuine approach that is satisfying to note given how much Hollywood glamour and publicity that has surrounded him in his adult life. His humour can also have a sardonic and even self-deprecating twist to it, and it’s clear that some of his rebellious nature came from his upbringing in British Columbia…” Trevor Marc Hughes reviews Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum, by Michael J. Fox and Nelle Fortenberry (New York: Flatiron Books, 2025) $26.99 / 9781250866783
“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
