“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
“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
“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
Probing account of representational ethics “is elucidating without ever being didactic and genuinely enjoyable to read,” yet prompts “more hope than outrage.”—Jessica Poon reviews Under the White Gaze: Solving the Problem of Race and Representation in Canadian Journalism, by Christopher Cheung (Vancouver: UBC Press/Purich Books, 2024) $24.95 / 9780774881111
Debut novel immerses readers “in the infested Gothic stream of the American South” and portrays memorably obsessive characters “nurtured on beer and cigarettes.” —Michael Greenstein reviews After We Drowned, by Jill Yonit Goldberg (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2024) $22.00 / 9781772142273
“So perhaps it’s not surprising that there is no chapter on the Pacific Province. Oh, there is plenty here on the ‘West,’ but in Globe geography the West stopped at the Rockies.” Ron Verzuh reviews A Nation’s Paper: The Globe and Mail in the Life of Canada, by John Ibbitson [ed.] (Toronto: Penguin Random House [Signal], 2024) $34 / 9780771006289
“At first, I questioned the notion that we could rely on technology to solve the problems caused by technology. It seemed a slippery slope. But McDonald explores ways that using current technology could lead us out of the impending darkness.” Ron Verzuh reviews The Future is Now: Solving the Climate Crisis with Today’s Technologies, by Bob McDonald (Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2022) $23 / 9780735241961
“The enduring image provided by Manthorpe – one that bookends On Canadian Democracy – is the comparison of the state of Canada to that of the official home of its Prime Minister. The reader is brought to ponder the neglected crumbling façade of 24 Sussex, overgrown by weeds, infused with mould, and seemingly abandoned by its caretakers.” Matthew Downey reviews On Canadian Democracy by Jonathan Manthorpe (Toronto: Cormorant Press, 2024) $19.95 / 9781770867543
“I felt, sometimes, as if I had agreed to listen to a storyteller and was met with impatience and anger, as if I, this white woman here reading, had disappointed him or frustrated him. I don’t even know if he would want my review of his memoir. Here it is, anyway.” Wendy Burton reviews Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir, by Danny Ramadan (Toronto: Penguin Canada [Viking], 2024) $26.95 / 9780735242210
“This tightly-written, 131-page extended essay contains 11 pages of references well-mined from film theory and queer theory in both English and German. Its three chapters cover the film’s production, including the melodrama between genre cinema and public health discourse…” Daniel Gawthrop reviews Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others) by Ervin Malakaj (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023) $19.95 / 9780228018681
“Wind sets out the many ways that Israeli institutions of higher education are enlisted in Israel’s settler-colonial project. Some are strategically situated to anchor Israeli territorial expansion, often standing literally on the sites of razed Palestinian villages.” Larry Hannant reviews Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom, by Maya Wind (London: Verso, 2024) $39.95 / 9781804291740
“Vahabzadeh, an urban Iranian until his emigration to the West Coast of Canada, where he teaches at the University of Victoria, is clear from the beginning. His perspective is scholarly and humane. He is sympathetic to the concept of universal human rights and the maintenance of particular cultures…” Linda Rogers reviews For Land and Culture: The Grassroots Council Movement of Turkmens in Iran, 1979-1980 by Peyman Vahabzadeh (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2024) $32 / 9781773636658
“He met high-level influencers like former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, British travel writer Jan Morris, novelist Mordecai Richler, and up-and-coming political analyst Andrew Cohen among others. He recounts a lunch with future Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood wherein she tells a series of dirty lawyer jokes. His path had taken him to the high-water mark of Canada’s literati.” Ron Verzuh reviews Line Breaks: A Writing Life by George Galt (Montreal: Linda Leith Publishing, 2024) $24.95 / 9781773901565
“Once again, as with his previous graphic novels, he offers readers a lesson in ‘history from below’ about how ordinary people can rally against tyranny.”—Ron Verzuh reviews Revolution by Fire: New York’s Afro-Irish Uprising of 1741, A Graphic Novel, by David Lester and Marcus Rediker with Paul Buhle (Boston: Beacon Press, 2024) $18.95 / 9780807012550
“Voicing Identity is about avoiding cultural appropriation in the re-telling of Indigenous Peoples’ stories—purporting to take something of cultural worth, tangible or often intangible, without permission, and make it in some way one’s own.” Richard Butler reviews Voicing Identity: Cultural Appropriation and Indigenous Issues by John Borrows and Kent McNeil (eds.)(Toronto: University of Toronto, 2022) $36.95 / 9781487544690
“Brode has produced a remarkable account of Inouye’s controversial life using a vast range of documents and news accounts. The thirteen chapters head towards a climatic end. ‘What was Inouye’s allegiance?’ Brode states.” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews Traitor by Default: The Trials of Kanao Inouye, the Kamloops Kid by Patrick Brode (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2024) $26.99 / 9781459753693
“Nurses don’t get to make mistakes. This book is written as carefully as Crook navigated intransigent bureaucracy, patients, and children.” Linda Rogers reviews Always on Call: Adventures in Nursing, Ranching, and Rural Living by Marion McKinnon Crook (Victoria: Heritage House, 2024) $26.95 / 9781772034691
“Going to Seed is prefaced with an introduction that effectively situates the reader around Neville’s central thesis— consider what ‘being constantly occupied’ does to both an individual’s quality of life and the collective health of a community, society, and natural environment.” Natalie Virginia Lang reviews Going to Seed: Essays on Idleness, Nature, & Sustainable Work, by Kate J. Neville (Regina: University of Regina Press, 2024) $30.95 / 9781779400000
“Remembering, as British writer George Orwell showed in his Homage to Catalonia, brings bloody thoughts to the surface and can unearth opposing memories. Spaner does not shy from including such moments and these add a tough realism to the novel.” —Ron Verzuh reviews Keefer Street, by David Spaner (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781553807209
