Foxtrot: Notes from the Bear Cave by Jaime Smith Victoria: FriesenPress, 2020 $13.99 / 9781525574726 Available from FriesenPress bookshop or Amazon Reviewed by Peter Ward * An autobiography may seek to explain, to persuade, to justify — or simply to recollect. Foxtrot does the latter and it’s richer for the choice. It’s a short book…
Read more #860 Astronomy, psychiatry, reflection
Vanishing Fish: Shifting Baselines and the Future of Global Fisheries by Daniel Pauly, with a foreword by Jennifer Jacquet Vancouver: Greystone, 2019 $34.95 / 9781771643986 Reviewed by Loys Maingon * …fish are in dire peril, and, if they are, then so are we. — Daniel Pauly (p. 24) In a remarkable collection of essays drawn…
Read more #857 Oceans as sustainable commons
Epidemics and the Modern World by Mitchell L. Hammond Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020 $54.95 / 9781487593735 Reviewed by Jody Decker * This textbook by a history professor at the University of Victoria, Mitchell Hammond, focuses on epidemics of infectious diseases which, he argues, have left the greatest impact on the modern world, even…
Read more #819 Pandemics past and present
Treed: Walking in Canada’s Urban Forests by Ariel Gordon Hamilton, ON: Wolsak & Wynn, 2019 $20.00 / 9781928088752 Reviewed by Jaime Yard * It took me an inordinately long time to read Ariel Gordon’s Treed. This does not mean that it isn’t a good book. In truth, I think the pace may have been set…
Read more #816 Walking through the pandemic
In Nature’s Realm: Early Naturalists Explore Vancouver Island by Michael Layland Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2019 $40.00 / 9781771513067 * On March 2, 2020, it was announced that Michael Layland’s book, In Nature’s Realm: Early Naturalists Explore Vancouver Island (Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2019) had won the 2020 Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for outstanding scholarly book on British…
Read more #790 Enter Douglas, Garry & Menzies
The Making of Hominology: A Science Whose Time has Come by Dmitri Bayanov in association with Christopher Murphy, with a foreword by David Hancock and Jeff Meldrum Surrey: Hancock House Publishing, 2019 $19.95 / 9780888390110 Reviewed by John Gellard * Have you ever seen a Sasquatch? Have you heard one, or smelled one? Have you ever seen…
Read more #757 Carry on, Sasquatch
Rise of the Necrofauna: The Science, Ethics and Risks of De-Extinction by Britt Wray, with a foreword by George Church Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2019 $32.95 / 9781771644723 Review by Tom Koppel * Welcome to the brave new world of 21st century genetics and the quest by a few clusters of audacious scientists to bring back…
Read more #747 The mammoth in the room
An Earthling’s Guide to Outer Space: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Black Holes, Dwarf Planets, Aliens, and More by Bob McDonald Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, 2019 $29.99 / 9781982106850 Reviewed by John Hutchings * Victoria-based Bob McDonald is a Canadian icon of science reporting and a catalyst of informed popular discussion. In…
Read more #744 Bob McDonald leaves the planet
The Flora and Fauna of Coastal British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest by Collin Varner Victoria: Heritage House Publishing, 2018 $39.95 / 9781772030914 Reviewed by Loys Maingon * As many professional biologists involved in communicating the urgency of our environmental crisis are in the habit of pointing out, possibly the best thing that one can…
Read more #728 West coast natural history tally
John Scouler (c. 1804-1871) Scottish Naturalist: A Life, with Two Voyages by E. Charles Nelson Glasgow: Glasgow Natural History Society, 2014 £11.00 (U.K.) / 9780956529510 Reviewed by Robert M. Galois * Naturalists’ Networks and the Northwest Coast in the Early Nineteenth Century On 25 July, 1824, John Scouler, a young Scottish naturalist, boarded the Hudson’s…
Read more #714 A naturalist on the North Pacific
The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Trees, Animals, and the Extraordinary Balance of All Living Things — Stories from Science and Observation by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jill Billinghurst Vancouver: Greystone Books/ David Suzuki Institute, 2019 $29.95 / 978177164388 Reviewed by Loys Maingon * Most people are on the world, not in it — have no…
Read more #709 The hidden network of nature
A Field Guide to Marine Life of the Protected Waters of the Salish Sea by Rick M. Harbo Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $7.95 / 9781550178531 * A Field Guide to Marine Life of the Outer Coasts of the Salish Sea and Beyond by Rick M. Harbo Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $7.95 / 9781550178555…
Read more #703 Inner and outer coast marine life
A Year on the Wild Side: A West Coast Naturalist’s Almanac by Briony Penn Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2019 (second edition; first published by TouchWood, 1997) $26.00 / 9781771512671 Reviewed by Luanne Armstrong * I love to walk and often when I do, I stop often and look under my feet, through the forest, into the…
Read more #696 Handbook of west coast nature
Rising Tides: Reflections for Climate Changing Times by Catriona Sandilands (editor) Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2019 $24.95 / 9781773860183 Reviewed by Theresa Kishkan * As I write this review, fires are raging in California and Australia, and Venice is experiencing the worst flooding in fifty years. (The Guardian newspaper reported that the Veneto’s regional council…
Read more #693 Turning the tide on Galiano
Fishes of the Salish Sea (3 volumes) by Theodore Wells Pietsch and James Wilder Orr, illustrated by Joseph R. Tomelleri Victoria: Heritage House, 2019; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019 $179.00 / 9781772032932 Reviewed by Colin Levings * This book is an extraordinary addition to the natural history of the Salish Sea. Authors Theodore…
Read more #692 Fishes of the Salish Sea
Advocates and activists by Graeme Wynn, with Jennifer Bonnell An extract from The Nature of Canada, edited by Colin M. Coates and Graeme Wynn (Vancouver: On Point Press, an imprint of UBC Press, 2019) * Jenny Clayton has reviewed The Nature of Canada for the Ormsby Review — see #603, Deep time to time slipping…
Read more #683 Nature’s advocates and activists
The Hidden Life of Trees: The Illustrated Edition by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jill Billinghurst, with a foreword by Tim Flannery Vancouver: Greystone Books/ David Suzuki Institute, 2018 $45.00 / 9781771643481 Reviewed by Loys Maingon * At the dawn of the twentieth century, the Scottish-American naturalist John Muir prophetically summarized modern man’s dysfunctional relation to…
Read more #682 Nature as superorganism
The New Beachcomber’s Guide to the Pacific Northwest by J. Duane Sept Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $32.95 / 9781550178371 (first published in 1999 by Harbour as The Beachcomber’s Guide to Seashore Life in the Pacific Northwest; reprinted 2002; second edition 2009; third edition 2019) * Seaside Treasures: A Guidebook for Little Beachcombers by Sarah…
Read more #660 For the love of the North Pacific
In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch by John Zada Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2019 $32.95 / 9781771645188 Reviewed by John Gellard * John Zada’s “Noble Beyond” is the Great Bear Rainforest, “the largest tract of intact coastal temperate rain forest in the world — one so rich and prolific that…
Read more #637 Coastal ranges & riddles
Trout School: Lessons from a Fly-Fishing Master by Mark Hume with Mo Bradley, illustrated by Nana Cook and with a foreword by Claire Hume Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2019 $22.95 / 9781771644167 Reviewed by Myles Armstead * Most fly-fishing books fall into two categories: those that speak of the natural beauty and the philosophical ponderings of…
Read more #624 Fishing the Kamloops trout