Around the World in a Dugout Canoe by John M. MacFarlane and Lynn J. Salmon Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $29.95 / 9781550178791 Reviewed by Mark Forsythe * There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea — Joseph Conrad The Tilikum is legendary in B.C.’s maritime history, and her captain…
Read more #667 Canoeing to London
The Survival Guide to British Columbia by Ian Ferguson Victoria: Heritage House, 2019 $19.95 / 9781772032840 Reviewed by Patricia E. Roy * The Survival Guide to British Columbia offers some useful information about the province but it is unlike a Boy Scout handbook or a Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture publication. Ian Ferguson seeks…
Read more #664 Bring cash and raincoat
In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch by John Zada Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2019 $32.95 / 9781771645188 Reviewed by John Gellard * John Zada’s “Noble Beyond” is the Great Bear Rainforest, “the largest tract of intact coastal temperate rain forest in the world — one so rich and prolific that…
Read more #637 Coastal ranges & riddles
Adventures on the West Coast of Vancouver Island by Peter Vassilopoulos Delta: Pacific Marine Publishing, 2018 $39.95 / 9780919317512 Reviewed by John Hutchings * In this new book by Peter Vassilopoulos — the well-known, prolific, South African-born author of numerous books on boating in the coastal waters of British Columbia – we are taken to…
Read more #631 Vassilopoulos goes west
Lines on a Map: Unparalleled Adventures in Modern Exploration by Frank Wolf, with a foreword by John Vaillant Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2018 $25.00 / 9781771602891 Reviewed by John Gellard * On September 6, 2019, Frank Wolf’s Lines on a Map was one of five books shortlisted for the Banff Mountain Book Competition in the…
Read more #621 A new David Thompson
Island Home: Out and About on Vancouver Island by Anny Scoones Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2019 $20.00 / 9781771512589 Reviewed by Heather Graham * With five titles already to her credit before the publication of Island Home: Out and About on Vancouver Island, Anny Scoones has established herself as a certain kind of writer with a…
Read more #607 Anny’s island
Jim Christy: A Vagabond Life by Ian Cutler, with a foreword by Luis E. Navia Port Angeles, WA: Feral House, 2019 $17.95 (U.S.) / 9781627310741 Reviewed by John Moore * Literary biography is a problematic genre. Ostensibly, its purpose is to illuminate the author’s work, but writing about an author inevitably means competing with a…
Read more #596 Escape from the fish farm
Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada’s Chinese Restaurants by Ann Hui Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2019 $24.95 / 9781771622226 Reviewed by Imogene Lim * In March 2019, B.C. Bestseller Chop Suey Nation, by Ann Hui, was awarded the 2019 Dr. Edgar Wickberg Book Prize by the Chinese Canadian Historical…
Read more #592 Ginger beef and fried macaroni
Complicated Simplicity: Island Life in the Pacific Northwest by Joy Davis Victoria: Heritage House, 2019 $22.95 / 9781772032703 Reviewed by Howard Macdonald Stewart * Joy Davis’s book, she writes, “…focuses on the perspectives and experiences of people who live on Pacific Northwest islands, particularly those not served by ferries…” Life on these islands, she tells…
Read more #587 Islands and ingenuity
All the Oceans: Designing by the Seat of My Pants by Ron Holland, with a foreword by Rupert Murdoch Vancouver: Ron Holland Design 2018, distributed in Canada by Georgetown Publications $45.00 / 9781775096801 Reviewed by Marianne Scott First published Apr. 6, 2019 * Eminent yacht designer Ron Holland, born in Aukland, New Zealand, in 1947,…
Read more #525 Ron Holland makes a splash
Sea Trial: Sailing After My Father by Brian Harvey Toronto: ECW Press, 2019 $21.95 / 9781770414778 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * On October 2, 2019, Brian Harvey’s Sea Trial was announced as one of five finalists for the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Awards for nonfiction. The winner will be announced in Ottawa on October 19th…
Read more #503 Brain surgery at Zero Rock
On The Rocks with Jack Knox: Islanders I will Never Forget by Jack Knox Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772032666 Reviewed by Keith Norbury First published Feb. 8, 2019 * It’s often said that journalism represents the first rough draft of history. As a reporter, editor, and columnist with the Victoria Times Colonist daily…
Read more #481 Island characters
The Splendour & The Suffering/El Esplendor y el Sufrimiento: Poems and Travels in Mexico by Doug Beardsley, translated by Celso Cambiazo Victoria: Island Blue Book Printing, Arcos Spanish Translations, 2018. Available from Amazon.ca $19.95 / 9781999442200 Reviewed by Ron Dart First published Jan. 13, 2019 * A turbulent yet alluring place, Mexico has a long…
Read more #464 A turbulent, alluring place
Rowing the Northwest Passage: Adventure, Fear, and Awe in a Rising Sea by Kevin Vallely Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2017 $24.95 / 9781771641340 * Canada’s Arctic: A Guide to Adventure Through the Northwest Passage by Ken Burton Delta: Pacific Marine Publishing, 2018 $49.95 / 9780919317581 * A joint review by Christopher Wright First published Nov. 30,…
Read more #435 Northwest Passage for mariners
MEMOIR: The Spider Hunters by Lee Reid First published Nov. 23, 2018 * We are pleased to present The Spider Hunters, a coming-of-age memoir by Lee Reid (née Batchelor) of her early life in England (1946-1952), and then on densely-forested and thinly-populated Curteis Point near Sidney, Vancouver Island, between 1952 and 1964. The Spider Hunters…
Read more #431 The Spider Hunters
Iron Road West: An Illustrated History of British Columbia’s Railways by Derek Hayes Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2018 $44.95 / 9781550178388 Reviewed by Walter Volovsek First published Nov. 17, 2018 * Derek Hayes’ latest venture into railway history is focused entirely on British Columbia. Although thus limited geographically, Hayes spins a very rich and comprehensive…
Read more #426 Moving amid the mountains
Wild Fierce Life: Dangerous Moments on the Outer Coast by Joanna Streetly Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2018 $22.95 / 9781987915655 Reviewed by Lauren Harding First published November 8, 2018 * This book moved me in unexpected ways. Having spent a good deal of 2013 and 2014 living and working on the west coast of Vancouver…
Read more #417 Living wild in Clayoquot Sound
Klee Wyck Journal: The Making of a Wilderness Retreat by Lou McKee Fairbanks, Alaska: Epicenter Press, 2017 9781935347750 Reviewed by Grahame Ware First published November 07th, 2018 * Pantheism has a long and storied history. Nature exalts in a way that is simultaneously nameless and named; unconditional and conditional; joyous and painful. But many people…
Read more #416 Nootka Sound Nirvana
Angela of the Stones by Amanda Hale Saskatoon: Thistledown Press, 2018 $19.95 / 9781771871655 Reviewed by Linda Rogers First published November 3, 2018 * Appropriately, “La Huelga,” The Strike, the first story in the collection Angela of the Stones, begins with a raised fist, the collective slogan SEREMOS COMO EL CHE now applied to transforming…
Read more #413 Cuban saints and stones
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