A Hero of Our Time by Naben Ruthnum Toronto: Penguin Random House (McClelland and Stewart), 2022 $22.00 / 9780771096501 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Take a popular poll on who best exemplifies a “hero of our time” and you might expect answers to include a Nobel peace prize laureate or a billionaire philanthropist. Pose the…
Read more 1439 The language of the pitch
Bill Holm (1925-2020) An obituary by Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa * Think of a slow, gentle, deep-water earthquake. You may have missed it, but think how its waves reverberate for a long long time, repeatedly coming ashore and changing entire landscapes over time. That was American art historian Bill Holm. Bill Holm died in December 2020 at…
Read more 1438 Bill Holm (1925-2020)
A Long Way to Paradise: A New History of British Columbia Politics by Robert A.J. McDonald Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021 $39.95 / 9780774864718 Reviewed by Forrest Pass * British Columbia politics is — and has always been — wacky, right? No other province can boast a premier so eccentric that he legally changed his name…
Read more 1437 Liberals & populists in paradise
Lewis & Clark Reframed: Examining Ties to Cook, Vancouver and Mackenzie by David L. Nicandri, with a foreword by Clay S. Jenkinson Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 2020 $32.95 (US) / 9780874223804 Reviewed by Barry M. Gough * Long before the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with all its patronizing by Steven…
Read more 1436 The northern precedent
A Factotum in the Book Trade: A Memoir by Marius Kociejowski Windsor, ON: Biblioasis, 2022 $24.95 / 9781771964562 Reviewed by Michael Turner * Vancouver is a city rich in book stores. Could it be richer? Sure. But if it’s more books you want, or a greater variety of them, I’ve had great luck at the…
Read more 1435 Where the magic happens
Silver Rush: British Columbia’s Silvery Slocan, 1891-1900 by Peter J. Smith Ladysmith: Two Daughters Publications, 2020. Also available at many BC bookstores. $39.95 / 9781999045906 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Kootenay Mother Lode: Mammoth Tome offers Detailed Account of Mining History in BC’s Colourful Slocan District A book the size of the old Eaton’s Catalogue…
Read more 1434 Kootenay mother lode
Social media update by Richard Mackie * As most of you will know, we changed our name to The British Columbia Review from The Ormsby Review less than two months ago, on February 10th, and since then we’ve never been busier: we’ve posted 52 book reviews, two essays, one photo essay, and one docuseries review….
Read more 1433 Social media update
The Baddest Bitch in the Room: A Memoir by Sophia Chang New York: Catapult, 2021 $17.95 (U.S.) / 9781646220816 Reviewed by LiLynn Wan * The essence of autobiography is in creating identity, and Sophia Chang’s memoir, The Baddest Bitch in the Room, does just that. By writing her life story, she asserts: “I am defining…
Read more 1432 Sophia Chang and the Big Apple
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
Mushrooms of British Columbia: Royal BC Museum Handbook by Andy MacKinnon and Kem Luther Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum Press, 2021 $34.95 / 9780772679550 Reviewed by Jocie Brooks * With over ten mushroom books already on my shelf, I hesitated as to whether I needed yet another guide book for fungi, but as soon as…
Read more 1430 A mushroom forager’s bible
Hampton Court: A History by Allen Specht Victoria: Privately Published, 2021 $15.00 / 9781778350450 Available at Books & Shenanigans (347 Cook Street) and Ivy’s Bookshop on Oak Bay Avenue, Victoria, or by contacting the author at <awspecht2@gmail.com> Reviewed by Martin Segger * The domestic arrangements that distinguish a ménage à trois from a ménage à deux…
Read more 1429 A fine Edwardian melodrama
To Share, Not Surrender: Indigenous and Settler Views of Treaty Making in the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia by Peter Cook, Neil Vallance, John Lutz, Graham Brazier, and Hamar Foster (editors) Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021 $37.95 / 9780774863834 Reviewed by Robin Fisher * The Douglas Treaties on Vancouver Island that were “negotiated” in…
Read more 1428 Unfinished treaty business
Luminous: An Artist’s Guide to Radical Creativity by Linda Frimer Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2022 $39.95 / 9781989467220 Reviewed by Michael Kluckner * Linda Frimer’s Luminous is a complex and intriguing work that mixes memoir, spiritualism, and meditations on art and colour with reflections on Judaism and her own family’s roots through generations going back…
Read more 1427 An artistic and spiritual journey
The Atheneum by Trevor Newland Vancouver: Simply Read Books, 2021 $23.95 / 9781772290622 Reviewed by Peter Babiak * Whenever I’ve had the pleasure of teaching Children’s or Young Adult Literature, or even Graphic Novels, I’ve suspected that some students think the readings will be quick and easy, and that the critical thinking they’re called to…
Read more 1426 Farewell to the silent past
ESSAY: Greta, Cassandra, Athena: Visions of Justice by Jennifer Moss * Davos, Switzerland. January 25th, 2019: A small, serious, 16-year-old girl in bright purple pants perches on the edge of her chair at the widely televised World Economic Forum. She shuffles her papers for a moment, looks briefly at the camera, and begins with the…
Read more 1425 Greta, Cassandra, Athena
Disappearing in Reverse by Allie McFarland Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2020 $24.99 / 9781773851433 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * The unnamed protagonist of Allie McFarland’s debut novel, Disappearing in Reverse, is no stranger to death. In fact, as the novel opens on bustling Saanich Road, on the northern edge of Victoria, she is in…
Read more 1424 Till death do us join
Losing Shepherd by Paul Headrick Winnipeg: Signature Editions, 2022 $22.95 / 9781773240961 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * Over summers once upon a time, my sister and I would spend a month of every school break at my grandmother’s home, an alfalfa farm in Oliver, BC. Each vacation started off at the bus stop in…
Read more 1423 Scary stuff of real maturity
Artful Flight by Susan Glickman Erin, Ontario: Porcupine’s Quill, 2022 $24.95 / 9780889848795 Reviewed by Gary Geddes * I’ve been poring over Susan Glickman’s Artful Flight, a series of essays and reviews, with delight and a certain sadness, delight at her intelligence and close attention to the craft and contributions of a wide range of…
Read more 1422 Essays and bootless poetry
Deadly Neighbours: Colonialism, Cattle Feuds, Murder and Vigilantes in a Far West Valley by Chad Reimer Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2022 $26.00 / 9781773860732 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * White settler injustice: racial tensions fuelled by two sets of laws, one white and the other First Nations I’m a sucker for old dusters. The westerns…
Read more 1421 A border outrage, 1884
Sky Wolf’s Call: The Gift of Indigenous Knowledge by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger Toronto: Annick Press, 2022 $24.95 / 9781773216300 Reviewed by Kristina Hannis * We call upon the Federal, provincial, and territorial governments in consultation with Survivors, Aboriginal peoples, and educators to: Make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical…
Read more 1420 Answering the TRC call