“Stunningly and dismayingly, for a village that revels in the memory of Ginger Goodwin and its progressive values, Cumberland has never developed a co-housing project. It now struggles with social housing, and has instead enabled the sprawl of energy inefficient big-pipe developments of big ‘little boxes’ that are locally unaffectionately known as ‘Little Alberta.'” Loÿs Maingon reviews A Place Called Cumberland, by Rhonda Bailey (ed.) and The Cumberland Museum and Archives (Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2024) $25 / 9781773272511
“Mynett has dug deeply into HBC logs and personal journals to bring us this story of harsh competition and survival in a land of often unbearable cold and danger.” Ron Verzuh reviews A Gentlemen of Considerable Talent: William Brown and the Fur Trade, 1811-1827, by Geoff Mynett (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2024) $26 / 9781773861524
“McAlpine’s memoir is a cogent, salubrious reminder that our accolades and impressive achievements are, more often than not, seldom the reason why anyone likes or trusts us. Initially, McAlpine keeps his recovery and his doctorly life neatly compartmentalized.” Jessica Poon reviews Prescription: Ice Cream: A Doctor’s Journey to Discover What Matters, by Alastair McAlpine (Johannesburg: Pan MacMillan South Africa, 2024) $37.50 / 9781770108042
“Their book, a collection of case studies, reveals the parallel experience of Indigenous women living on the Canadian prairie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the ‘nuance and diversity in their everyday lives, in how they responded to, resisted, and refused settler colonial intrusion, and in the ways they persisted in the face of the many transitions that infringed on their traditional ways of life.'” Linda Rogers reviews Métis Matriarchs: Agents of Transition by Cheryl Troupe and Doris Jeanne MacKinnon (eds.) (Regina: University of Regina Press, 2024) $34.95 / 9781779400116
“After cooking and baking Chef Bruno’s recipes from The Bacon, Butter, Bourbon & Chocolate Cookbook, I can confidently say that my initial instincts were right: I so enjoyed spending time with this book and making the recipes.” Trish Bowering reviews The Bacon, Butter, Bourbon & Chocolate Cookbook: Chef Bruno’s Favourite Ingredients, by Bruno Feldeisen (Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 2024) $34.95 / 9781770503335
“Long before this uncertain time of looming tariffs, which would include Canadian books, I felt deeply that it was important to support and promote British Columbia authors. As a nonfiction author, my dream was to create a book contest open to BC authors both traditionally and self-published.” Cathalynn Labonté-Smith writes about the 2025 Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society Awards being hosted in Gibsons this coming August.
“At 60 years old, the Comox Valley Writers Society (CVWS) might just be the oldest writing society in the province. To celebrate the milestone, Terrance James decided to document this niche history…before memory of the early days was lost forever.” Dave Flawse interviews author Terrance James, author of History of the Comox Valley Writers Society: 60th Anniversary 1964-2024
“This important book spans five decades and a global geography. In its ten chapters, historical geographer and professor emeritus at York University, James R. Gibson weaves together the complex economic and transportation history of the maritime fur trade along the northwest coast of North America in a remarkable study.” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews the revised edition of Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: Voices of the Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785-1841, by James R. Gibson (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024) $47.95 / 9780228007319
“Whether illustrating the unique contents or uniform structure of carts, the carefully pruned or overgrown hedges guarding homes, or the materiality of prefabricated elements such as iron, brick, or stone, Yamamoto’s drawings encourage us to take a closer look at the structures which surround our daily environment…” Stella Gatto reviews Carts, Hedges, Lions by Taizo Yamamoto (with essays by Kevin Chong, Aaron Peck and Jackie Wong), (Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2024), $40 / 9781773272429
“The absence of further information is both liberating and frustrating at the same time. On the liberating side of that coin, it is a pleasure to flip through the book wondering what the next page will bring. The purely visual experience allows me to focus on personal familiar favourites, unburdened by any knowledge or misconceptions (apart from my own).” Wayne Norton reviews Classic Photographs of Song and Dance and British Columbia, by Bradford Critchley (Vancouver: South Blossom Books, 2024) $18.49 / 9798326042392
“Michael Prokopow, former curator of the Design Exchange, is a cultural historian with a distinguished academic career investigating the varied international streams influencing Western Canadian architects and designers…He is particularly sensitive to the fact that no self-declared Indigenous architects, or clients, are represented in these pages.” Martin Segger reviews Reside: Contemporary West Coast Houses by Michael Prokopow (Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2024) $55 / 9781773272634
“Of course, throughout the book Butler wrestles with the degree of knowledge a non-Indigenous person requires to have a truly culturally informed appreciation of Coastal Peoples’ artwork. As a reader, I was somewhat enmeshed in this wrestle at first, then found a kind of community in Butler’s struggle in the knowledge that I was not alone in my wish to be respectful and culturally informed.” Trevor Marc Hughes reviews What Is This? Who Am I? Culturally Informed Appreciation of Coastal Peoples’ Artworks by Richard Butler (Victoria: A&R Publishing, 2024) $12.65 / 9798339967507
“It’s all BC coastal lore – this is Harbour Publishing and Howard White after all. Yet each volume is very different from the other. And the many authors involved amount to a virtual who’s who of the coast’s contemporary non-fiction writers.” Howard Macdonald Stewart reviews Raincoast Chronicle: Fifth Five, by Howard White [ed.] (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2024) $60 / 9781990776939
In “Poets’ Pastime Paradise,” an “essay in play format about poetry” that’s set in a cemetery at midnight, author Sarah Freel corrals modernist poets, an American rapper, and a poetess named Reiko to versify while they debate over literary politics.
“The absence of major nuclear reactors in British Columbia may lead British Columbians to believe that nuclear energy is not an immediate concern. Not so. It is important to remember that, from its inception in 1961, BC Hydro has repeatedly proposed building reactors in the earthquake-prone Lower Mainland.” Dr. Loys Maingon reviews Nuclear Is Not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change by M.V. Ramana (Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 2024) $39.95 / 9781804290002
“What Todd has written and photographed is a riveting, honest book which Bruce Kirkby aptly states in his introduction – examines ‘mortality, meaning and connection’ with a ‘ruthless honesty (which) reminds me at times of Anthony Bourdain on two wheels.'” Isabel Nanton reviews Inside the Belly of an Elephant: A Motorcycle Journey of Loss, Legacy and Ultimate Freedom by Todd Lawson (Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2023) $30 / 9781771605755
“At first, I was intimidated by the complexity and scope of the book. Especially with so many voices involved. But very quickly Wake provides a conduit into Berger’s story that makes it reader-friendly.” Sage Birchwater reviews Against The Odds: The Indigenous Rights Cases of Thomas R. Berger by Drew Ann Wake (Calgary: Durvile & Uproute Books, 2024)
$37.50 / 9781990735486
“Not one single gravestone stands to mark my family. It is as though they didn’t exist.” —In “The Blood in the Stone” Deborah Lane excavates family history and imagines life as it might have been.
“This is a fun and informative cookbook that will connect camp cooks to the land. Its compact size encourages novice or experienced adventurers to carry it along on their backcountry trips.” Paul Geddes reviews The Well-Fed Backcountry Adventurer: Easy Trail-tested Campfire Recipes Inspired by 1920s Mountaineers by Bryan Thompson (Toronto: Canadian Expedition Heritage Society, 2024) $7.99 / 9781068946202
“Langford is a retired scholar who knows the communities and has a special knowledge of towns like Fernie, Sparwood, and others in the East Kootenay district…He also knows his mining labour history and he helpfully supplies short sidebars of specific mine leaders.” Ron Verzuh reviews The Lights on the Tipple Are Going Out: Fighting Economic Ruin in a Canadian Coalfield Community by Tom Langford (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2024) $39.95 / 9780774869294
