Those Born at Koona: The Totem Poles of the Haida Village Skedans, Haida Gwaii by Carolyn and John Smyly Surrey: Hancock House, 2018 (first published 1973) $29.95 / 9780888391018 Reviewed by Dan Savard First published Sept. 27, 2018 * In 1957, John Smyly (1924-2002) was hired as carpenter by the Provincial Museum of British Columbia…
Read more #385 The carpenter of Koona
Family Walks and Hikes of Vancouver Island — Volume 1: Victoria to Nanaimo by Theo Dombrowski Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2018 $20.00 / 9781771602792 * Family Walks and Hikes of Vancouver Island — Volume 2: Nanaimo North to Strathcona Park by Theo Dombrowski Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2018 $20.00 / 9781771602815 Reviewed by Christian Fink-Jensen…
Read more #384 Island hiking: all in the family
First published Sept. 24, 2018. Changemakers: Embracing Hope, Taking Action, and Transforming the World by Fay Weller and Mary Wilson Gabriola Island: New Society, 2018 $17.99 / 9780865718753 Reviewed by Sandi Ratch * Fay Weller and Mary Wilson of Gabriola Island have teamed up to present Changemakers: Embracing Hope, Taking Action, and Transforming the World, a…
Read more #383 Sea change on Gabriola
First published Sept. 23, 2018. Aboriginal Peoples and the Law: A Critical Introduction by Jim Reynolds Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018 (Purich Books) $29.95 / 9780774880213 Reviewed by Neil Vallance * “Much of Canadian Aboriginal law has evolved from cases originating in the Province of British Columbia,” notes reviewer Neil Vallance. Among the leading B.C. cases…
Read more #382 An Aboriginal body of law
Just Watch Us: RCMP Surveillance of the Women’s Liberation Movement in Cold War Canada by Christabelle Sethna and Steve Hewitt Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018 $34.95 / 9780773552821 Reviewed by Larry Hannant First published Sept. 22, 2018 * Christabelle Sethna of the University of Ottawa and Steve Hewitt of the University of Birmingham,…
Read more #381 Clandestine Mountie bounty
Provoked by Gilgamesh: The Search for a Way Around Death by Gilmour Walker Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2018 $18.95 / 9781553805205 Reviewed by Peter Babiak First published Sept. 21, 2018 * Inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh, Victoria’s Gilmour Walker (a pseudonym) tells how, in his forties, he left his seaside home in Nova Scotia on…
Read more #380 Road trip with Gilgamesh
The Bridge from Day to Night by David Zieroth Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2018 $18.95 / 9781550178357 Reviewed by Christopher Levenson First published Sept. 20, 2018 * Born in 1946, North Vancouver’s David Dale Zieroth grew up on his parents’ farm at Neepawa, Manitoba, an upbringing that has provided ample fodder for his career as…
Read more #379 Zieroth’s Prairie childhood
The Age of Walter Gage: How One Canadian Shaped the Lives of Thousands by Shelley Fralic [Vancouver]: The Friends of Walter Gage, 2018 $24.99 / 9780994932938 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb First published Sept. 17, 2018 * People familiar with UBC will know the Walter Gage Towers near the heart of the campus, three 17-storey student…
Read more #378 Love affair with UBC
Obstruction of Justice: The Search for Truth on Canada’s Highway of Tears by Ray Michalko Markham, ON: Red Deer Press, 2016 $19.95 / 9780889955455 Reviewed by Bonnie Reilly Schmidt First published Sept. 17, 2017 * For ten years, ex-Mountie Ray Michalko investigated the fate of the missing or murdered women and girls on B.C.’s infamous…
Read more #377 Truth for the Highway of Tears
Fat Cats by George Mercer North Saanich: George Mercer, 2018 $19.99 / 9780987975461 Reviewed by Ron Dart First published Sept. 17, 2018 * Born in Gander, Newfoundland, George Mercer worked for 35 years as a park warden, starting in 1979 at Newfoundland’s Terra Nova National Park and ending in 2012 as monitoring ecologist at the…
Read more #376 Gulf Islands parks and predators
Deep River Night by Patrick Lane Toronto: Penguin Random House (McClelland & Stewart), 2018 $34.00 / 9780771048173 Reviewed by Dustin Cole First published September 16th, 2018 * Governor General Award-winning poet Patrick Lane (born in Nelson in 1939) returns to fiction with Deep River Night, a novel that reviewer Dustin Cole — in an email to The Ormsby…
Read more #375 The BC industrial pastoral
This Will Be Good by Mallory Tater Toronto: Book*hug, 2018 $18.00 / 9781771663946 Reviewed by Elee Kraljii Gardiner First published September 14th, 2018 * This Will Be Good is the debut book of poetry by Mallory Tater, an Ottawa native who studied writing at the University of Victoria before settling in Vancouver. “Shot through this…
Read more #374 Mallory Tater and the feel of fire
Landscapes and Landforms of Western Canada by Olav Slaymaker (editor) Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2017 $149 (U.S.) / 9783319445953 Reviewed by Syd Cannings First published September 13th, 2018 * Thirty-four leading specialists contribute to Landscapes and Landforms of Western Canada, a collection of essays edited by Olav Slaymaker, professor emeritus of geography at UBC. “Wherever you are in western…
Read more #373 Olav’s love of landscape
The Suitcase and the Jar: Travels with a Daughter’s Ashes by Becky Livingston Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2018 $22.95 / 9781987915747 Reviewed by Carys Cragg First published September 12th, 2018 * After Becky Livingston lost her 23-year old daughter Rachel to a brain tumour, she set off on a global walkabout for 798 days, scattering…
Read more #372 Scattering Rachel’s ashes
Tom Burrows by Scott Watson and Ian Wallace Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2018. Co-published with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery $50.00 / 9781927958889 Reviewed by Robert Amos First published September 11th, 2018 * Born in Ontario in 1940, Tom Burrows moved to Vancouver in 1960 hoping to study medicine, but instead earned a B.A….
Read more #371 Burning down the house
songen: new poems by Patrick Friesen Salt Spring Island: Mother Tongue Publishing, 2018 $19.95 9781896949642 Reviewed by Danny Peart First published September 10th, 2018 * Victoria poet Patrick Friesen (born 1946 in Steinbach, Manitoba) also works with dancers, choreographers, and composers, and writes songs for musicians. Reviewer Danny Peart calls his latest book, songen, “the work…
Read more #370 We were songen and rejoicing
Growing Home: the Legacy of Kootenay Elders by Lee Reid Nelson: Growing Home Elders Press, 2017 $26.95 / 9780995816404 Reviewed by Duff Sutherland First published September 08th, 2018 * In Growing Home: the Legacy of Kootenay Elders, Lee Reid profiles seventeen men and women, born between the 1920s and 1950s, who made their lives in the…
Read more #369 West Kootenay lives and land
Kuei, My Friend: A Conversation on Race and Reconciliation by Deni Ellis Béchard and Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, translated by Deni Ellis Béchard and Howard Scott Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772011951 Reviewed by Dylan Burrows First published September 07th, 2018 * Following the controversial death of 11-year old Ojibwe girl Makayla Sault from leukaemia in…
Read more #368 “Walk like an Indian”
Grizzlies, Gales, and Giant Salmon: Life at a Rivers Inlet Fishing Lodge by Pat Ardley Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2018 $24.95 / 9781550178319 Reviewed by Jeanette Taylor First published September 06th, 2018 * Pat Ardley’s Grizzlies, Gales, and Giant Salmon “tracks an urban couple’s hair-raising adaptation to the coastal wilderness,” notes reviewer Jeanette Taylor. “When something went…
Read more #367 Float camp at Rivers Inlet
Dear Evelyn by Kathy Page Windsor, ON: Biblioasis, 2018 $19.95 / 9781771962094 Reviewed by Paul Headrick * Editor’s note: Dear Evelyn was awarded the 2019 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize, fiction category and won the 2018 Rogers Writers’ Trust fiction prize. It was also a 2018 Kirkus best book of the year; a Globe and…
Read more #366 Evelyn, Harry, and the sick rose