The York Factory Express: Fort Vancouver to Hudson Bay, 1826-1849 by Nancy Marguerite Anderson Vancouver: Ronsdale Books, 2021 $24.95 / 9781553805786 Reviewed by Walter Volovsek * The York Factory Express was an enterprise for transporting Hudson’s Bay Company records, correspondence, and external mail along a water-based route that spanned the continent. This aquatic highway linked… Read more 1278 Across the continent before GPS
Landings: Poems from Iceland by Harold Rhenisch Regina: Burton House, 2021 $20.00 / 9780994866967 Reviewed by Luanne Armstrong * I love Harold Rhenisch’s writing. I think it deserves far more attention than it gets. Harold and I have a connection, in a sense, because we both write from and about our beloved places in the… Read more 1276 In any other country
Mining Country: A History of Canada’s Mines and Miners by John Sandlos and Arn Keeling Toronto: James Lorimer and Company, 2021 $29.95 / 9781459413535 Reviewed by Robert G. McCandless * The introduction to this attractive book says Canada’s mining history is “curiously neglected,” then steps into that gap to present two hundred years of history…. Read more 1273 Ancient craft, long history
Lost Kootenays: A History in Pictures by Greg Nesteroff and Eric Brighton Lunenburg, NS: MacIntyre Purcell Publishing, 2021 $29.95 / 9781772761641 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh Editor’s note: the full photo captions below are taken directly from Lost Kootenays. * Kootenay Home: A prize collection of historic images shares the Kootenays’ rugged past Growing up in… Read more 1269 A choice Kootenay collection
Destination Hikes In and Around Southwestern British Columbia: swimming holes, mountain peaks, waterfalls and more by Stephen Hui, with a foreword by Cecilia Point Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2021 $24.95 / 9781771645300 Reviewed by Ron Dart * I have before me a few first edition books (collectors’ items I assume) that were pioneering guide books in… Read more 1264 Affirming the trekking tradition
ORMSBY REVIEW PRESS: Frederick Paget Norbury, Chapter Three: Letters, 1887 by Brenda Callaghan * Editor’s note: we are pleased to present Chapter 3 of Brenda Callaghan’s hitherto unpublished biography, Frederick Paget Norbury, Remittance Man or Gentleman Immigrant? The Story of an Englishman in Canada. Earlier in 2021 we published the Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2…. Read more 1244 Golden City to Tobacco Plains
David Brownstein reviews two books: Highballer: True Tales from a Treeplanting Life by Greg Nolan Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $26.95 / 9781550178685 * Slashburner: Hot Times in the British Columbia Woods by Nicholas Raeside Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2020 $24.95 / 9781550178982 * After a brief eclipse by pipelines, British Columbia’s forests are again… Read more 1239 Fire and seedlings
Goth Girls of Banff by John O’Neill Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2020 $19.95 / 9781988732954 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * The author of a novel and four poetry collections, John O’Neill is a former high-school Dramatic Arts and English teacher who now lives and writes in Toronto. His Goth Girls of Banff presents short stories about… Read more 1220 Gothic mountain fiction
Balancing Bountiful: What I Learned about Feminism from my Polygamist Grandmothers by Mary Jane Blackmore Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2020 $24.95 / 978177386-0046 Reviewed by Lynne Bowen * People who live in British Columbia have become familiar with the names Blackmore and Bountiful over the past three decades. And so my motivation for choosing to… Read more 1185 Mountain colony of polygamy
Lucky Jack Road: A Stella Mosconi Mystery by J.G. Toews Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 2020 $19.99 / 9781771615082 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * This, the second in the Stella Mosconi Mystery series, invites delving into mystery subgenres. Lucky Jack Road has the hallmarks of a cozy mystery: the amateur detective, typically female, practises her sleuthing… Read more 1182 Death on Elephant Mountain
Diary of a Pandemic Year by Art (Sean Arthur) Joyce New Denver: Chameleon Fire Editions, 2021 $20.00 / 9780995240162 Reviewed by Roger C. Lewis * The day after Covid, surgical masks lay dead in the gutters, so many leaves riffled into history by the collective sighs of billions – breathe O breathe free at last!… Read more 1173 Dandelions through asphalt
Prologue to Love by Martha Ostenso, with an introduction by Hannah McGregor Picton, ON: Invisible Publishing, 2020 (first published in New York by Dodd, Mead & Co., 1932) $23.95 / 9781988784595 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * The thing about novels being situated in an actual, geographic place is how those depictions then resonate with readers… Read more 1151 A Kamloops classic
The Bushman’s Lair: On the Trail of the Fugitive of the Shuswap by Paul McKendrick Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2021 $22.95 / 9781550179224 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater * In the early 2000s the Bushman of the Shuswap was on the national news. More of a nuisance than a menace perhaps. He lived off the avails… Read more 1140 Bushman Bjornstrom of Shuswap
Mountain Man: The Life of a Guide Outfitter by Hiram Cody Tegart with Andrew Bruce Richards Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2019 $24.95 / 9781773860060 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater * Mountain Man: The Life of a Guide Outfitter by Hiram Cody Tegart with Andrew Bruce Richards takes us to another place and time. The East Kootenays… Read more 1120 East Kootenay guide outfitter
This One Wild Life: A Mother-Daughter Wilderness Memoir by Angie Abdou Toronto: ECW Press, 2021 $21.95 / 9781770416000 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Having recently experienced a large number of contemporary memoirs, I have found myself researching and mulling over the characteristics of the genre. How does a memoir differ from an autobiography? The memoir… Read more 1112 Mulling on memoir & motherhood
Improbable Journeys: From Crossing the Himalayas on Horseback to a Career in Obstetrics and Gynaecology by Dr. Bernard A.O. Binns and Ron Smith Oakville, ON: Rock’s Mills Press, 2020 $29.95 / 9781772441932 Reviewed by May Q. Wong * Editor’s note: for a subsequent review of Improbable Journeys by John Kenwright, see The Ormsby Review, June… Read more 1089 A lifetime of care and medicine
Watermelon Snow: Science, Art, and a Lone Polar Bear by Lynne Quarmby Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2020 $24.95 / 9780228003595 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Books about climate change are prolific—and for all the alarming reasons that most of us accept. Watermelon Snow, by Lynne Quarmby, is essentially a book about climate change,… Read more 1076 Reflections on an Arctic voyage
ESSAY: Remnants of Sumas Mountain by Natalie Lang For those who came before and those not yet arrived. * And forever before me gleams, The shining city of song, In the beautiful land of dreams. But when I would enter the gate Of that golden atmosphere, It is gone, and I wonder and wait For… Read more 1071 Remnants of Sumas Mountain
ORMSBY REVIEW PRESS: Frederick Paget Norbury, Chapter One: The Historical Background: The East Kootenay in the late Nineteenth Century by Brenda Callaghan * Editor’s note: we are pleased to present Chapter 1 of Brenda Callaghan’s hitherto unpublished biography, Frederick Paget Norbury, Remittance Man or Gentleman Immigrant? The Story of an Englishman in Canada, the introduction… Read more 1040 East Kootenay off-grid, old-style
The Fraser: River of Life and Legend by Carol Blacklaws and Rick Blacklaws White Rock: Image West Productions, 2020 $39.95 / 9780994817518 Reviewed by Peter Grant * Of those who raft (and swim) the Mighty Fraser In this album, appealingly balanced between text and pictures, Rick Blacklaws’ photos capture the Fraser River’s fabulous landscapes, especially… Read more 1027 Tribute to the Fraser River