The Fraser: River of Life and Legend by Carol Blacklaws and Rick Blacklaws White Rock: Image West Productions, 2020 $39.95 / 9780994817518 Reviewed by Peter Grant * Of those who raft (and swim) the Mighty Fraser In this album, appealingly balanced between text and pictures, Rick Blacklaws’ photos capture the Fraser River’s fabulous landscapes, especially…
Read more 1027 Tribute to the Fraser River
The Fifth Beethoven by Melanie Jackson Vancouver: Crwth Press, 2020 $10.95 / 9781989724057 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Scottish-born Vancouverite Melanie Jackson is a veteran writer of mysteries for young people, and it shows: she hits the right notes with this mystery for tweens and early teens. Not only does the mystery thread keep you…
Read more 1026 A bevy of Beethovens
The Rise of Real-Life Superheroes, and the Fall of Everything Else by Peter Nowak Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2020 $24.95 / 9781771622509 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Superheroes in Our Midst: Are we ready for some public-minded vigilante crime fighters? The slogan “Defund the Police” became popular in 2020 as thousands of people protested…
Read more 1025 Superheroes in our midst
The Ride Home by Gail Anderson-Dargatz Victoria: Orca Books, 2020 $9.95 / 9781459821422 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Editor’s note: The West Coast Book Prize Society announced on April 8, 2021, that The Ride Home, by Gail Anderson-Dargatz, has been shortlisted for the Sheila A. Egoff Prize in the 2021 BC and Yukon Book Prizes. Winners will…
Read more 1024 A city kid goes rural
Transatlantic Upper Canada: Portraits in Literature, Land, and British-Indigenous Relations by Kevin Hutchings Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020 $37.95 / 9780228001294 Reviewed by Graeme Wynn * Kevin Hutchings, the holder of a University Research Chair in the Department of English at the University of Northern British Columbia, begins this book with a very…
Read more 1023 On the Road to Damascus
Hearts Amok: A Memoir in Verse by Kevin Spenst Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2020 $18.00 / 9781772141498 Reviewed by Christopher Levenson * One of the most basic requirements of any poet is that he or she is addicted to language. Other specialized knowledge and skills can come later, but a burning curiosity about words, their origins, and…
Read more 1022 A poet addicted to language
Stanley’s Dream: The Medical Expedition to Easter Island by Jacalyn Duffin Montréal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019 $39.95 / 9780773557109 Reviewed by Colin Levings * Stanley’s Dream, Jacalyn Duffin’s book on the 1964-65 Medical Expedition to Easter Island (METEI) is an intriguing detailed compendium, retrospective analysis, and overall fascinating story of one of Canada’s…
Read more 1021 Canadian science on Easter Island
The Clean Body: A Modern History by Peter Ward Montréal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019 $37.95 / 9780773559387 Reviewed by John Douglas Belshaw * This review is late. Very late. It took McGill-Queen’s a staggeringly long time to get the book into my sanitized hands — due in part to pandemic understaffing at a…
Read more 1020 Dishing the dirt on soap
Two books reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb: The Girl Who Stole Everything: A Novel by Norman Ravvin Montreal: Linda Leith Éditions, 2019 $21.95 / 9781773900278 * Prisoners of Hope: Rising from the Ashes of the Holocaust: An Eyewitness Account of Life in the Auschwitz Extermination Camp and Two Slave Labour Camps (1944-1945) by George L. Pal…
Read more 1019 Prisoners of hope and memory
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel Toronto: HarperCollins, 2020 $34.99 / 9781443455725 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * Emily St. John Mandel’s The Glass Hotel was one of five books shortlisted for the 2020 Giller Prize. See here for an interview with her by Trevor Corkum on 49thShelf.com, and for an interview on the…
Read more 1018 Sweep us up, Emily
Nothing You Can Carry: Poems by Susan Alexander Saskatoon: Thistledown Press, 2020 $20.00 / 9781771871983 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * The cover of Susan Alexander’s second book of poetry, Nothing You Can Carry, has one of the loveliest covers I’ve seen, a photo by Emmett Sparling, and it wonderfully fits what’s inside. The poems are…
Read more 1017 Flashes of light in darkness
Letters from the Pandemic 19: My Dearest Maddie by Cindy Li * My Dearest Maddie: When your dad and I learned that we were expecting you, I could not in my wildest dreams have guessed what kind of world you would be born into. On February 22, 2020, you were born at BC Women’s Hospital….
Read more 1016 Letters from the Pandemic 19: My Dearest Maddie
ESSAY: Walking in the time of Corona by Nina Watts * It was a Friday morning in May and I had arranged to meet my friend on a street corner close to her home in the Strathcona neighbourhood of Vancouver. We were planning an urban wander with no particular destination. As I walked west from…
Read more 1015 Letters from the Pandemic 18: Walking in the time of Corona
Finding the Daydreamer by Estella Kuchta Laramie, Wyoming: Elm Books, 2020 $14.95 (U.S.) / 9781941614327 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Vancouverite Estella Kuchta’s debut novel incorporates her academic interests in ecocriticism and the Canadian literary love story. Her American publishers call it “A tale of survival, set in the Canadian wilderness” (back cover) thereby placing…
Read more 1014 Cariboo teacher & the cowboy
Railway Nation: Tales of Canadian Pacific, the World’s Greatest Travel System by David Laurence Jones Victoria: Heritage House, 2020 $34.95 / 9781772033496 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Riding the Rails into Canada’s History: Illustrated anecdotes offer famous and lesser-known stories about the CPR. We can still hear the distant call of a diesel engine’s whistle…
Read more 1013 Coast to coast with the CPR
Converging Waters: The Beauty and Challenges of the Broughton Archipelago by Daniel Hillert (photos) and Gwen Curry (text) Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2020 $40.00 / 9781771601658 Reviewed by Alex Zimmerman * There’s something attractive about archipelagos. They are, by definition, surrounded by water and therefore have no hard boundaries. Nonetheless, islands grouped into an archipelago…
Read more 1012 Behold the Broughton Archipelago
Teatime Around the World by Denyse Waissbluth, illustrated by Chelsea O’Byrne Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2020 $22.95 / 9781771646017 Reviewed by Caileigh Broatch * Teatime Around the World invites readers to afternoon tea with an English duchess, to drink green mint tea in Morocco, and buy masala chai from chai wallah vendors in India. Within the…
Read more 1011 No teacup left unstirred
Blood Sport by Tash McAdam Victoria: Orca Books, 2020 $10.95 / 9781459824362 Reviewed by Carol Anne Shaw * Vancouver author Tash McAdam has written a little gem in Blood Sport. Part of the Orca Soundings series — short, high-interest novels targeted at teen readers — this novel is a fast-paced and exciting read. It is…
Read more 1010 A trans tale of triumph
Kwanlin Dün: Dǎ Kwǎndur Ghày Ghàkwadîndur – Our Story in Our Words by Kwanlin Dün First Nation Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2020 $50.00 / 9781773270784 Reviewed by Daniel Sims * Editor’s note: The West Coast Book Prize Society announced on April 8, 2021, that Kwanlin Dün: Dǎ Kwǎndur Ghày Ghàkwadîndur – Our Story in Our Words,…
Read more 1009 Reclaiming Indigenous history
The Diary of Dukesang Wong: A Voice from Gold Mountain by Dukesang Wong, edited by David McIlwraith, translated by Wanda Joy Hoe Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2020 $18.95 / 9781772012583 Reviewed by May Q. Wong * Editor’s note: The West Coast Book Prize Society announced on April 8, 2021, that The Diary of Dukesang Wong: A Voice from…
Read more 1008 Mighty land, small laws