A Not-so-Savage Land: The Art and Times of Frederick Whymper, 1838-1901 by Peter Johnson, foreword by Robert Amos Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $24.95 / 9781772032208 Reviewed by Michael Layland First published October 29th, 2018 * The English artist Frederick Whymper (1838-1901) spent the years 1862-66 in colonial Vancouver Island and British Columbia, producing technical and…
Read more #409 With Whymper to the Pacific
Gracie by Joan MacLeod Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $16.95 / 9781772012026 * Thanks for Giving by Kevin Loring Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772012187 Both books reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy First published October 26, 2018 * Editor’s note: Ginny Ratsoy reviews the latest work of two of B.C.’s top playwrights, Joan MacLeod (born 1954) and Kevin…
Read more #408 Grizzly twins & latter-day saints
The Aging of Aquarius: Igniting Passion and Purpose as an Elder by Helen Wilkes Gabriola Island: New Society, 2018 $17.99 / 9780865718944 Reviewed by Alan Belk First published October 26th, 2018 * “Elderhood is not conferred by virtue of age; there is no greeting card, no welcoming party,” muses Ormsby reviewer Alan Belk after reading Helen…
Read more #407 Celebrating age and wisdom
Not Extinct: Keeping the Sinixt Way by Marilyn James and Taress Alexis Nelson: Maa Press, 2018 $30.00 / 9780968530283 Reviewed by Paula Pryce First published October 24, 2018 * Editor’s note: Anthropologist Paula Pryce, author of the pathbreaking Keeping the Lakes’ Way (1999), revisits the Sinixt people, previously known as the Lakes people, whose traditional territory comprised…
Read more #406 The Sinixt are not extinct
Crow Jazz by Linda Rogers, illustrated by Rick Van Krugel Salt Spring Island: Mother Tongue Publishing, 2018 $23.95 / 9781896949659 Reviewed by Paul Headrick First published October 22nd, 2018 * Linda Rogers’s Crow Jazz is a challenging, perplexing, and glorious collection of stories, perhaps just what we would expect from a poet whose startling juxtapositions…
Read more #405 Crows and crime scenes
Some End / West Broadway by George Bowering and George Stanley Vancouver: New Star Books, 2018 $18.00 / 9781554201457 Reviewed by Danny Peart First published October 21st, 2018 * Two of BC’s senior poets, George Stanley (born 1934) and George Bowering (born 1935) contribute opposite halves to a flip or tumble book from New Star…
Read more #404 A tumble with George
First published October 19th, 2018. All Together Healthy: A Canadian Wellness Revolution by Andrew MacLeod Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2018 $22.95 / 9781771621885 Reviewed by Trevor Hancock * Governments in Canada, argues Andrew MacLeod, choose to prioritize spending on medical care, which is akin to treating the symptom and not the disease. Ormsby reviewer…
Read more #403 Health before healthcare
Gypsy Fugue: An Archetypal Memoir by Marlene Schiwy Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2018 $24.95 / 9781987915594 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve First published October 18, 2018 * Readers might recall The Manticore (1972), the second in Robertson Davies’ Deptford Trilogy, in which David Staunton dreams of a gypsy the night before starting Jungian therapy in Zurich….
Read more #402 Roma and other Gypsies
First published October 16, 2018 Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on Bering’s Great Voyage to Alaska by Stephen R. Bown Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2017 $34.95 / 9781771621618 Reviewed by Robin Inglis * The Great Northern Expedition of 1733-1743, initiated by Emperor Peter the Great, extended Russian influence to the Aleutian Islands…
Read more #401 Legacy of Vitus Bering
Ranch in the Slocan: A Biography of a Kootenay Farm, 1896-2017 by Cole Harris Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2018 $24.95 / 9781550178234 Reviewed by Daniel Clayton * The Bosun Ranch, in reality a farm just south of New Denver on Slocan Lake, has been in the Harris family since 1896. “The ranch has always been…
Read more #400 The useful people’s ranch
First published October 14, 2018. Rick Hansen’s Man in Motion World Tour: 30 Years Later – A Celebration of Courage, Strength, and the Power of Community by Jake MacDonald, foreword by Rick Hansen Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2017 $34.95 / 9781771643443 Reviewed by Brian Fraser * The adventure thrilled the world. A man in a wheelchair…
Read more #399 Highways of courage
Oldness; or, the Last-Ditch Efforts of Marcus O by Brett Josef Grubisic Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2018 $19.95 / 9781988098630 Reviewed by Dustin Cole First published October 13, 2018 * I am 37. When I think about being 65, different things come to mind. There is hope for both artistic fulfillment and recognition. There are…
Read more #398 Boldness about oldness
Rebel Muse: My Life With Peter Paul Ochs by Monika Ullmann Victoria: ProWord Publishing, 2018 $25.00 / 9780992144937 Reviewed by Grahame Ware First published October 12, 2018 * Editor’s note: In an email to the Ormsby Review, freelance writer and journalist Monika Ullmann recalled that when the new Provincial Museum of British Columbia (now the Royal…
Read more #397 B.C. sculptor lost and found
First published Oct. 10, 2018. Dead Reckoning: How I Came to Meet the Man Who Murdered my father. by Carys Cragg Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017. $19.95 / 9781551526973 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * It has been a good year for Carys Cragg of Port Coquitlam. Her Dead Reckoning, published by Arsenal Pulp Press, was announced…
Read more #396 Letters to Drumheller
First published Oct. 8, 2018. Archaeology of the Lower Fraser River Region by Mike K. Rousseau, editor Burnaby: Archaeology Press of Simon Fraser University, 2017 $30.00 / 9781772870121 Reviewed by Robert (Bob) Muckle Also open access. Free download: http://archpress.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/archpress/catalog/book/72 * In 2011, Mike Rousseau recruited 33 active archaeologists and scholars in related disciplines to contribute…
Read more #395 Meanwhile, 5,000 years ago
Out of Concealment: Female Supernatural Beings of Haida Gwaii by gid7ahl-gudsllaay lalaxaaygans (Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson), with forewords by Wade Davis and gwaaganad (Diane Brown) Victoria: Heritage House, 2017 $29.95 / 9781772031607 Reviewed by Gillian Crowther * In Out of Concealment: Female Supernatural Beings of Haida Gwaii, Haida artist and activist Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson encounters 33 supernatural beings of Haida mythology….
Read more #394 Supernatural Haida Columbia
It Begins in Betrayal: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw Victoria: Touchwood, 2018 $16.95 / 9781771512619 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * A Sorrowful Sanctuary: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw Victoria: Touchwood, 2018 $16.95 / 9781771512893 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb First published Oct. 5, 2018 * Former high school principal and social worker…
Read more #393 A British, British Columbia
The Tree Trunk Can Be My Pillow: The Biography of an Outstanding Japanese Canadian by Tadashi Jack Kagetsu Victoria: University of Victoria, 2017. $33.95 / 9781550586114 Reviewed by Bob Griffin First published Oct. 4, 2018 * The government of Canada declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, a day after the Japanese attacks on…
Read more #392 From boss logger to zero
First published Oct. 3, 2018. 105 Hikes in and around Southwestern British Columbia by Stephen Hui, foreword by Cease Wyss (T’uy’t’tanat) Vancouver: Greystone: 2018 $24.95 / 9781771642866 Reviewed by Glenn Woodsworth * The relative growth of recreational hiking in southwest B.C. has far outpaced the region’s population growth. Fifty years ago, the number of people…
Read more #391 In the Macarees’ footsteps
From Wah Lee to Chew Keen: The Story of a Pioneer Chinese Family in North Cariboo by Liping Wong Yip Victoria: FriesenPress Publishers, 2017 $17.49 / 9781460294307 Reviewed by Tzu-I Chung * In 1917, Wah Lee and his third wife, Mon Ho, boarded the Empress of Russia in Hong Kong, bound for British Columbia. They…
Read more #390 From Xinhuixian to Quesnel