Kiss the Red Stairs: The Holocaust, Once Removed by Marsha Lederman Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland & Stewart), 2022 $35.00 / 9780771049378 Reviewed by Charlotte Schallié * “Kiss the Red Stairs. The Holocaust, Once Removed” is a deeply resonant memoir exploring the interconnectedness of history, memory and lived experience in the aftermath of the…
Read more 1703 The Holocaust past and present
Holden After and Before: Love Letter for a Son Lost to Overdose by Tara McGuire Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022 $24.95 / 9781551528939 Reviewed by Colin James Sanders * Human beings, not unlike other creatures, contend with the death of loved ones, navigating grief and mourning in varying ways. Tara McGuire of Vancouver channeled her…
Read more 1702 Fragments of grief & mourning
Random Walks: New West from the Street by Alan Haig-Brown White Rock: Image West Productions, 2022 $36.95 / 9780994817525 Reviewed by Daniel Gawthrop * When I first saw this book available for review, I snapped it up right away. I love going for walks in New Westminster, where I live, and was eager to compare notes…
Read more 1701 Wandering the haunted city
An essay by Brian Smallshaw: Out of Options with the Freedom Convoy? * Whatever you think about the Freedom Convoy’s occupation of Ottawa and the blocking of border crossings in Windsor and Coutts, the Canadian government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to shut down a protest should be of concern to every Canadian who…
Read more 1700 Freedom Convoy: out of options?
Rescue Me: Behind the Scenes of Search and Rescue by Cathalynn Labonté-Smith Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2022 $26.00 / 9781773860947 Reviewed by Mike Starr * “Behind the Scenes of Search and Rescue” is what the subtitle promises and is exactly what you’ll get with Rescue Me. Author Cathalynn Labonté-Smith did over 60 interviews with Search…
Read more 1699 Many a life line
Imminent Domains: Reckoning with the Anthropocene by Alessandra Naccarato Toronto: Book*hug Press, 2022 $23.00 / 9781771667753 Reviewed by Graeme Wynn * In the 1870s, John Ruskin, Slade Professor of Fine Art in the University of Oxford, initiated a scheme to improve the rough and muddy path into the village of North Hinksey on the outskirts…
Read more 1698 On Ruskin’s road
Ordinary Monsters: A Novel by J.M. Miro Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland & Stewart), 2022 $39.95 / 9780771000027 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * I have absolutely no talent for world-building; most of the stories I write involve no more than three people and find themselves in situations that could be described as a poor…
Read more 1697 Words and world-building
Converging Empires: Citizens and Subjects in the North Pacific Borderlands, 1867-1945 by Andrea Geiger Vancouver: UBC Press, 2022 $35.95 / 9780774867993 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * When Empires Collide: How the Pacific Northwest was won, lost and sold Andrea Geiger takes readers to an early moment in Pacific Northwest history, one that sheds much light…
Read more 1696 When empires collide
Following the Telegraph Trail: A Trek of a Lifetime by Irene J. Huntley Victoria: FriesenPress, 2021 $14.99 / 9781039110441 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Irene J. Huntley has written a worthy little book — Following the Telegraph Trail — which documents the adventurous trek taken by her father, Don Huntley, and his friend, Gunnar Nillson,…
Read more 1695 South to British Columbia
Michael Turner reviews In My Day by Rick Waines Produced by Norman Armour, Rick Waines and Zee Zee Theatre presented by The Cultch Theatre, Vancouver December 02-11, 2022 * As a late-born North American Baby Boomer, I am not old enough to remember all the defining moments assigned to my generation. I was barely fifteen…
Read more 1694 A history play for the ages
Blue Communion by Sean Arthur Joyce Victoria: Ekstasis Editions, 2023 $23.95 / 9781771714884 Reviewed by Gary Geddes * In “Words on the Wing,” Sean Arthur Joyce elegantly poses the question many poets face when they decide to sit down to write something: “How light must my touch be / not to snap bone, lose an…
Read more 1693 A poet’s light touch
Gilly the Ghillie: More Chronicles of a West Coast Fishing Guide by David Giblin Victoria: Heritage House, 2020 $19.95 / 9781772033359 Reviewed by Matthew Downey * The treacherous rapids and whirlpools of the many labyrinthine waterways that wind through the islands off Vancouver Island’s northeast coastal stretch may often seem out of time in their…
Read more 1692 Fisherman’s return
Garden of Words by Pnina Granirer Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2022 $24.95 / 9781989467640 Reviewed by Diana Hayes * Pnina Granirer is an internationally respected artist and writer, living in Vancouver. Born in Romania in 1935, she later moved with her family to Israel where she studied at the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem. She…
Read more 1691 Poppies and sandstone
Out of Hiding: Holocaust Literature of British Columbia by Alan Twigg (editor) Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2022 $24.95 / 9781553806622 Reviewed by Norman Ravvin * Historiographic, creative and commemorative responses to the Holocaust continue to appear in impressive and challenging ways some 75 years after the end of the Second World War. Alan Twigg’s Out of…
Read more 1690 Refuge in British Columbia
Evergreen Kitchen: Weeknight Vegetarian Dinners for Everyone by Bri Beaudoin with photos by Anguel Dimov Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Penguin Canada), 2022 $27.00 / 9780735241923 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * I used to work with a woman who claimed not to enjoy eating food, with the rather amusing exception of popcorn; that she was…
Read more 1689 No-pressure vegetarian
The Ramen by Sheldon Goldfarb * Editor’s note: as a Holiday and post-Christmas answer to that leftover turkey or that ham, lamb, or duck roast, we present Sheldon Goldfarb’s solution — The Ramen! Sheldon adds that the poem was inspired by the cartoon below, courtesy Janet Rudolph’s Mystery Fanfare — Richard Mackie * Once upon…
Read more 1688 The Ramen
Mayne Queen: The Passing of a Ferry by John Wiznuk Saturna Island: Cliffside Publishing, 2022 $20.00 / 9781777544225 Reviewed by Robert D. Turner * Ferries can be long-lived creatures, and they also have a way of becoming more than just a conveyance, especially after the passage of many years. The Mayne Queen has been with…
Read more 1687 Queen of the Gulf Islands
This is Assisted Dying: A Doctor’s Story of Empowering Patients at the End of Life by Stefanie Green Toronto: Simon and Schuster Canada (Scribner), 2022 $24.99 / 9781668004784 Reviewed by Lee Reid * MAiD. Medical Assistance in Dying. I don’t see assisted dying as ending someone’s life; the underlying illness and suffering are doing that….
Read more 1686 Options at the end of life
Two books reviewed by Harper Campbell: Standoff: Why Reconciliation Fails Indigenous People and How to Fix It by Bruce McIvor Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2021 $21.95 / 9780889714205 * Reconciliation and Indigenous Justice: A Search for Ways Forward by David Milward Black Point, NS, and Winnipeg, MB: Fernwood Publishing, 2022 $32.00 / 9781773635194 * This is…
Read more 1685 Vexation and reconciliation
Water Proof by Aaron Bushkowsky Toronto: Cormorant Books, 2021 $24.95 / 9781770866362 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * When Shakespeare created a pair of hapless sidekicks called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he little knew how similar pairs would proliferate through the following centuries. Samuel Beckett’s Gogo and Didi, like Hollywood’s Laurel and Hardy are amongst the best…
Read more 1684 Gore-Tex and infidelity