Vancouver, Howe Sound & the Sunshine Coast, Including Princess Louisa Inlet & Jedediah Island. New, Revised Fourth Edition. A Dreamspeaker Cruising Guide No. 3 by Anne Yeadon-Jones and Laurence Yeadon-Jones Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2022 $49.95 / 9781550179859 Reviewed by Kenneth Campbell * To explore British Columbia’s intricate coastal waterways safely and enjoyably by boat…
Read more 1576 South coast cruising
Reading the Water: Fly Fishing, Fatherhood, and Finding Strength in Nature by Mark Hume Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2022 $34.95 / 9781771645690 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Fishing for “home water.” About a dedicated fisher-father and his metaphor for life Ever hear of a Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear? How about a Mickey Finn? A Pumpkin Head…
Read more 1564 Fishing for home water
The Day the Pirates Went Mad by Trevor Atkins, illustrated by Jon Merchant Coquitlam: Silverpath Publishing, 2021 $14.95 / 9781989459027 Reviewed by Cassidy Lea All royalties are donated in support of BC Children’s Hospital * It’s the early 1700s and eleven-year-old Emma Sharpe is in a difficult situation. Her parents have been sent to prison…
Read more 1551 Emma and the pirate treasure
Up the Coast: One family’s wild life in the forests of British Columbia by Kathryn Willcock Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2022 $24.95 / 9781774390511 Reviewed by Dave Flawse * Kathryn Willcock’s rustic childhood summers spent in a remote British Columbia logging camp “with endless forests, a rugged coastline, and not much else,” provide the staple ingredients…
Read more 1548 Loggers, rhozzums, & grizzlies
Hastings Mill: The Historic Times of a Vancouver Community by Lisa Anne Smith Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2021 $24.95 / 9781553806417 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * The history of Vancouver differs from that of Canada’s other major cities. It’s as though she jumped a couple of centuries to land at last on this side of the…
Read more 1529 Enter the Native Daughters
Cordage from the Ozette Village Archaeological Site: A Technological, Functional and Comparative Study by Dale R. Croes with Darby C. Stapp (editor) and Victoria Boozer (publications assistant) Richland, WA: Journal of Northwest Anthropology (JONA) Memoir Number 21, May 2021 $24.99 (U.S.) / 9798504397573 Reviewed by Andrea Laforet * Ozette, a village on Cape Alava on…
Read more 1528 The cords that bind
Emily Carr, Unvarnished: Autobiographical Sketches by Emily Carr by Kathryn Bridge (editor) Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum Press, 2021 $24.95 / 9780772679642 Reviewed by Colin Browne * Turbulence and Eruption: Emily Carr, Unvarnished There’s a scene in Kathryn Bridge’s wonderful collection, Unvarnished: Autobiographical Sketches by Emily Carr, that sticks in my mind. It’s June 1936….
Read more 1527 Turbulence and eruption
Off the Hook: The Essential West Coast Seafood Recipes by D.L. Acken and Aurelia Louvet Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2018 $22.00 / 9781771512763 Reviewed by Gillian Crowther * Off The Hook: The Essential West Coast Seafood Recipes is the perfect description of this little gem of a book. It does, however, put you on the hook…
Read more 1525 A seafood lover’s pantry
MEMOIR: Along the empty corridor of British Columbia by Richard Mackie * In January 1989, while researching in Winnipeg as part of my doctoral dissertation in Canadian history and historical geography, I had a vivid and unusual dream. My hosts, John and Katherine Selwood, had turned the sunroom at the back of their house in…
Read more 1523 Along the empty corridor of British Columbia
Perilous Passage by Arthur Mayse, with an introduction by Susan Mayse Montreal: Véhicule Press, 2021 (first published by William Morrow and Company, 1949) $14.99 / 9781550655841 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * Despite being a Canadian author and despite his vast contributions to the Canadian literary canon, Arthur Mayse remains a lesser-known author among Canadian literature…
Read more 1522 A vintage west coast thriller
Intertidal: Poems from the Littoral Zone by Zoe Dickinson Salt Spring Island: Raven Chapbooks, 2022 $20.00 / 9780973440898 Reviewed by Brian Day * Zoe Dickinson’s Intertidal, the winner of this year’s Raven Chapbooks Poetry Contest, speaks from the verges of the Juan de Fuca Strait. The voice of these poems patiently and reverently attends to…
Read more 1520 To move as the kelp moves
Connecting the Kootenays: The Kootenay Lake Ferries. A Hundred Years of Service, 1921-2020 by Michael A. Cone Nelson: Maa Press, 2022 $45.00 / 9781778350511 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Sternwheeler Majesty: A century of sailing the Kootenays on the “boats” that plied the region’s waterways My childhood memory of the bygone era of sternwheelers on…
Read more 1514 Sternwheeler majesty
Possessing Meares Island: A Historian’s Journey into the Past of Clayoquot Sound by Barry Gough Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2021 $26.95 / 9781550179576 Reviewed by Jason M. Colby * Barry Gough opens his newest book with a phone call that he received in early 1986. On the other end of the line was Jack Woodward,…
Read more 1513 History matters: Meares Island
Learning to Carve Argillite by Sara Florence Davidson & Robert Davidson, illustrated by Janine Gibbons Winnipeg: HighWater Press, 2021 (Sk’ada Stories Series, ages 6-8) $21.95 / 9781553799849 * Jigging for Halibut with Tsinii by Sara Florence Davidson & Robert Davidson, illustrated by Janine Gibbons Winnipeg: HighWater Press, 2021 (Sk’ada Stories Series, ages 6-8) $21.95 /…
Read more 1511 Halibut & argillite
Plants of Haida Gwaii: Third Edition by Nancy J. Turner Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2021 $29.95 / 9781550179149 Reviewed by Jasḵwaan Bedard * Plants of Haida Gwaii: Third Edition by Nancy Turner is a celebrated study of the Haida people’s relationship with the plants of Haida Gwaii. Dr. Turner, a renowned ethnobotanist, chronicles her extensive…
Read more 1500 Plant journey in Haida Gwaii
A Killing at Easter Hill: A Season of Fragments by Alex Rose Vancouver: Walhachin Press, 2021 $16.00 / 9781777582319 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski A Killing at Easter Hill is available for sale at People’s Co-Op Bookstore on Commercial Drive, Vancouver * One of the advantages of a novel over a book of poems and other…
Read more 1478 Coastal flux and depth
Return to Solitude: More Desolation Sound Adventures with the Cougar Lady, Russell the Hermit, the Spaghetti Bandit and Others by Grant Lawrence Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2022 $26.95 / 9781550179712 Reviewed by Heather Harbord * Grant Lawrence has produced another rollicking good read which is a worthy successor to his earlier Adventures in Solitude (Harbour, 2010)….
Read more 1468 Cabins and characters
The Final Voyage of the Valencia by Michael C. Neitzel Victoria: Heritage House, 2020 (first published 1995) $9.95 / 9781772033151 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * SS Valencia Remembered: More than 100 women and children died needlessly in this tragic event off Vancouver Island in 1906 It wasn’t as world stopping as the sinking of the…
Read more 1440 SS Valencia remembered
Dutchy’s Diaries: Life as a Canadian Naval Officer in His Own Words, 1916-1929 by John Crispo Inglis “Dutchy” Edwards, edited by Helen Edwards [Victoria]: Helen Edwards, 2020 $29.50 / 9780969728252 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Helen Edwards, a well-known heritage professional researcher in Victoria, has achieved a work of immense importance to naval history in…
Read more 1431 A naval labour of love
Sea Otters: A Survival Story by Isabelle Groc with forewords by Dame Judi Dench & David F. Mills Victoria: Orca Books, 2020 $24.95 / 9781459817371 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Sea Otters: A Survival story by Isabelle Groc is a delightful wildlife book for all ages. Author Isabelle Groc has written an exemplary survival story…
Read more 1395 Return of the sea otter