‘Posthumous gathering of paths’
“There is much to learn from this candid autobiography by a performer who rarely let the mask slip…” Linda Rogers reviews The Tao of Taro by Taro Zion Joy (Victoria: FriesenPress, 2022) $16.49 / 9781039148666
Memoir
Hazardous life in coastal communities
“Crossland indeed supplies an intriguing way of learning about the communities of which he has been a member for over two decades; not by discussing social, political, or cultural features, but rather through the ends of many of the community members.” Matthew Downey reviews Death Calls: A Coroner’s Memoir by Robert Crossland (Victoria: FriesenPress, 2023) $21.99 / 9781039168329
Emerging from vulnerability
“The book forms both a personal case study in the psychology of how vulnerable individuals are susceptible to cults, and how destructive to one’s worldview it can be trying to leave one.” Ryan Mitchell reviews Misguided: My Jesus Freak Life in a Doomsday Cult by Perry Bulwer (Vancouver: New Star Books, 2023) $26 / 9781554202058
The ‘colour of everyday miracles’
Bowen Island inspires a poet and painter to celebrate how “here, right here, is a blessing.” —Mary Ann Moore reviews Water Forgets Its Own Name, by Jude Neale & Nicholas Jennings (Victoria: Ekstasis Editions, 2023) $27.95 / 9781771715300
Fish, flesh, or good red herring?
“…there’s a spirited new voice at play here, with writing that flips from lyrical portraits of place to colloquial phrasing and pet names for everything from his kayak to his food.” Jeanette Taylor reviews A Complex Coast: A Kayak Journey from Vancouver Island to Alaska by David Norwell (Victoria: Heritage House, 2023) $29.95 ISBN 9781772034493
‘A young woman from Burnaby’
“There is much to admire about Christine Sinclair. Not only is she the top international scorer of all time, but she is well-liked and respected around the world.” Valerie Green reviews Playing The Long Game: A Memoir by Christine Sinclair with Stephen Brunt (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2023) $23.00 / 9781039004627
A whimsical respite
A joyous “compendium of delightfully quirky short pieces.” —Heidi Greco reviews Jigsaw: A Puzzle in Ninety-Three Pieces, by M.A.C. Farrant (Vancouver: Talon Books, 2023) $19.95 / 9781772015430
Responding to disaster, sexual identity
“Woven into this account is a backstory about the doctor’s evolving career as a brilliant pathologist, his not always successful private life, and his painfully slow coming out as a gay man.” Howard Macdonald Stewart reviews Fifteen Thousand Pieces – A Medical Examiner’s journey through disaster by Gina Leola Woolsey (Hamilton: Guernica Editions Inc., 2023) $25.00 ISBN 9781771838115
‘Healing power of stitch’
“Readers of this collection will be moved by the brilliance, passion, and honesty of the essays…” Penny Haggarty reviews Sharp Notions: Essays from the Stitching Life by Marita Dachsel and Nancy Lee, editors (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023) $32.95 ISBN 9781551529257
Long-distance run for justice
“…the book presents a moving account of athletic and life achievement despite constant struggle to be treated with basic dignity.” Daniel Gawthrop reviews Races: The Trials & Triumphs of Canada’s Fastest Family by Valerie Jerome (Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2023) $24.95 / 9781773102900
Memoir of writer and companion
“His tribute to a very special little dog is both poignant and insightful, showing us how much dogs can teach us about love.” Valerie Green reviews Freddie: The Rescue Dog Who Rescued Me by Grant Hayter-Menzies (Victoria: Heritage House, 2023) $24.95 ISBN 9781772034615
A studio by the lake
“Hughes’ love of nature and the communities of the island shine as a record of twentieth century settlers in this lushly illustrated book.” Christina Johnson-Dean reviews E.J. Hughes: Life at the Lake by Robert Amos (Victoria: Touchwood, 2023) $25.00 ISBN 9781771514194
‘Intending to heal wounds’
“Menzies, scion of the Scottish Highlands, also a restless colony not quite out of English Imperial influence, is a descendent of Ontario settlers on treaty land.” Linda Rogers reviews Meeting My Treaty Kin: A Journey towards Reconciliation by Heather Menzies Vancouver: UBC Press, 2023 $29.95 / 9780774890663
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
‘Navigating with needles’
“The fibre arts are like a ‘life preserver’ Lee says and as the knitting and stitching kept both editors going, they wondered if others had the same experience.” Mary Ann Moore reviews Sharp Notions: Essays from the Stitching Life edited by Marita Dachsel & Nancy Lee (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023)$32.95 / 9781551529257
Challenging ‘what the white man want’
Memoirist’s debut novel traces one man’s life-altering experiences in northern BC. —Theo Dombrowski reviews A Season in Chezgh’un, by Darrel J. McLeod
(Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2023) $24.95 / 9781771623629
Illness and ‘the hardness of love’
Poet explores an “illness of the mind” and its effects within a family.
Daniela Elza reviews In the Blood, by Alan Hill (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2022) $20.00 / 9781773860787
Broadening our thinking on grizzlies
“With the research aspects of this book the specialist in bear scholarship will feel right at home but there’s plenty of interest here for the general reader with a desire to know more about these great hairy creatures.” Steven Brown reviews Grizzly Bear Science and the Art of Wilderness Life: Forty Years of Research in the Flathead Valley by Bruce McLellan (Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2023) $32.00 / 9781771605656
‘Reciprocal relationship with our lands’
“George belongs to the Tsleil-Waututh people, the People of the Inlet, who for thousands of years have lived along Burrard Inlet, the site of present Vancouver.” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews It Stops Here: Standing Up for Our Lands, Our Waters, and Our People by Rueben George with Michael Simpson (Toronto: Penguin Random House/Allen Lane, 2023)
$34.00 / 9780735242807
Self-knowledge and lashings of eroticism
An ‘excellent gift for anyone kinky in your life.’
Carellin Brooks reviews Transland: Consent, Kink & Pleasure
by Mx. Sly (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023) $24.95 / 9781551529318