“…if you didn’t catch it the first time around, there’s no reason not to own this sweet slice of BC music history now.” Catherine Owen reviews Live at the Commodore: The Story of Vancouver’s Historic Commodore Ballroom (New Updated Edition) by Aaron Chapman (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023) $32.95 / 9781551529370
“…maybe we should live and let live and allow people to do things their own way.” Sheldon Goldfarb reviews Best Canadian Essays 2024, edited by Marcello Di Cintio (Windsor: Biblioasis, 2023) $23.95 / 9781771965644
“…just don’t expect that your food will look like the photos in the book. And that’s okay.” Rebecca Coleman reviews Fraiche Food, Fuller Hearts: Wholesome Everyday Recipes Made With Love (Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2023) $45.00 / 9780735240780
Sophomore novel features a “brash anti-hero moving through an eerie, gothic landscape.” —Bill Paul reviews The Father of Rain, by Martin West (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2023) $22.95 / 9781772142105
Pondering an “innovative homage to other innovators in poetry.”
Peter Babiak reviews Broken Glosa: An Alphabet Book of Post-Avant Glosa, by Stephen Bett (Tucson: Chax Press, 2023) $32.35 / 9781946104427
Praise in a minor key for this year’s ‘best of’ in short fiction.
Jessica Poon reviews Best Canadian Stories 2024 by Lisa Moore (editor)
(Windsor: Biblioasis, 2023) $23.95 / 9781771965668
“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
“Even among the group of young architects who were transforming Victoria’s post-war urban landscape in the 1950s and ’60s with their ambitious Modernist designs, John Di Castri was an outlier.” Architectural historian Martin Segger reviews Wentworth Villa Architectural Heritage Museum’s recent retrospective ‘John Di Castri, Architect.’
“[Henaway] cites many cases where workers have been exploited and then deported using the laws of the land, including Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program.” Ron Verzuh reviews Essential Work, Disposable Workers: Migration, Capitalism and Class by Mostafa Henaway (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2023) $27 / 9781773632254
“In Train Beyond the Mountains: Journeys on the Rocky Mountaineer, Rick Antonson takes us on a trip through time as he recounts a multi-day excursion on historic train, the Rocky Mountaineer.” Natalie Virginia Lang reviews Train Beyond the Mountains: Journeys on the Rocky Mountaineer (Vancouver: Greystone Books, April 2023) $34.95 / 9781771644860
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
“Lisa would deliver fresh food to Ella and her brother Barkley at Wickaninnish Community School. Among the lunch time treats were fish tacos and warm polenta fries.” Mary Ann Moore reviews Together at SoBo: More Recipes and Stories from Tofino’s Beloved Restaurant by Lisa Ahier with Susan Musgrave (Toronto: Appetite by Random House, 2023)
$37.50 / 9780525610632
“British Columbia’s first professional artist – and her life from birth in a far-flung colony to being a senior citizen here active in the arts demonstrates what determination and resiliency can produce.” Christina Johnson-Dean reviews Sophie Pemberton: Life & Work by Kathryn Bridge (Online: Art Institute of Canada, 2023)
“The building of the CPR has been one of the core myths of the country, one of the stories that explain how Canada came about.” Daniel Francis reviews Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada by Stephen R. Bown (Toronto: Penguin Random House, 2023) $39.95 / 9780385698726
Captivating essays trace authors’ careers from childhood onward…
Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Off the Record, by John Metcalf (editor) (Windsor: Biblioasis, 2023) $26.95 / 9781771965453
“…Wosk removes his clothes, sits naked in silence, meditating on the Big Void.” Trevor Carolan reviews Naked In A Pyramid: Travels & Observations by Yosef Wosk (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2023) $22 / 9781772142204
Fraser Valley poet ‘searches for a common spirituality among biblical and sacred writings’…
gillian harding-russell reviews Consider, by Susan McCaslin (Thornhill: Aeolus House, 2023) $20.00 / 9781987872545
Novel recreates life of a rural farm collective circa 1969…
Amy Whitmore reviews Commune, by Des Kennedy (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing 2023) $24.95 / 9781990776519
Here With You: A Memoir of Love, Family, and Addiction by Kathy Wagner Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2023 $26.95 / 9781771623667 Reviewed by Betty Jane Hegerat * Kathy Wagner’s Here With You reads like every parent’s nightmare. But this is not a dream. This is memoir, real life, and Wagner and her son, Tristan,…
Read more Addiction…and choices
Debut novel examines a legacy of hetero-masculine violence…
Trish Bowering reviews She Who Burns, by Myrl Coulter (Altona: Friesen Press, 2023) $21.99 / 9781039166936