“This expertly curated and well-composed book intends to rectify Wakayama’s relative obscurity. He is both the subject of Enemy Alien and, to a large extent, its author.” Philip Huynh reviews Enemy Alien: Tamio Wakayama, by Paul Wong (ed.) (Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2025) $40 / 9781773272801
Accompanied by vibrant illustrations, an early chapter book tells of new girl Feebee as she joins a figure skating club. It’s a sweet, well-told tale. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Feebee’s Magical Figure Skaters’ Tea, by Cathalynn Cindy Labonté-Smith (illustrated by Serena J. Trinder) (Gibsons: independently published, 2026) $15.00 / 9798257852671
“The title of the book, Reconciling, demonstrates the ongoing process of reconciliation and meaning of Larry’s journey through life. The book opens with a description by co-author Scott Steedman of Larry Grant, ‘…a short, weathered man of eighty-five years… an Elder of both the Vancouver Chinese community and the Musqueam Indian Band.’ Steedman asked Larry if he was interested in writing his life story one day. It took eight years, starting in 2017.” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews Reconciling: A Lifelong Struggle to Belong, by Larry Grant, in conversation with Scott Steedman (Toronto: ECW Press, 2025) $26.95 / 9781770417984
Whether “stuck in a forever summer” in the city or mentally revisiting a “home landscape of spruce and willow, rabbit and moose, blueberry and fireweed” (as well as “taps that don’t bring water”), a writer showcases a craving for comfort and certainty in a debut book of poems. —Joanna Streetly reviews Spruce to Cedar, by Lasänmą (Picton: Brick Books, 2026) $23.95 / 9781771316705
“This is on the order of Monty Python with its delicious absurdity. Nawrocki is at his best when he spins these deadpan, Buster Keatonesque scenes— moments of truthful memory specific to ‘50s Vancouver. This is what makes the book work. The historical details are unvarnished yet amped up with his telling. But as we go along in Joey’s story, the memoir suffers from editorializing of a predictable nature that gets in the way of the stories despite moments of excellent scenarios.” Grahame Ware reviews The East End Rules: An East Van Memoir, by Norman Nawrocki (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 2026) $24.99 / 9781551648347
“Seto, mourning the past and given time to resurrect her creativity, recreated the buildings of memory and left them empty so that memory and desire could replace the ghosts inhabiting them with real lives configured with real information, the sensory details, smells and sounds that gave them life.” Linda Rogers reviews Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History, by Donna Seto (Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2025) $29.99 / 9781487011970
“The strength of West Coast Mission is the way that Lockhart has sensitively and wisely heeded and attempted to bring the best out of the varied communities he has focussed on. The weakness of the book is the vast variety of other forms of Christianity he has simply not sat with or listened to in the Vancouver area and they are many.” Ron Dart reviews West Coast Mission: The Changing Nature of Christianity in Vancouver, by Ross A. Lockhart (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024) $34.95 / 9780228022862
“Baxter had achieved years of international success for volleyball and women’s sports in general, and was celebrated around the world for her success, but at the young age of twenty-nine had been tossed aside simply because of her sexual orientation. Her internal rage at this unfairness inspired her to become an activist and expose the inequalities and flaws in elite Canadian sports. This book strongly brings out her message of hope for all men and women in sports to strive for success despite the cost.” Valerie Green reviews Outspoken: A Journey from Olympic Athlete to Activist by Betty Baxter (Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2026) $23.95 / 9780889715066
“If the first part of the book hooked me with these bargain bites, the middle sections settled into a focus on some meatier topics. While remaining agnostic about parenting and pet ownership (he is neither a parent nor a current pet owner), there is a chapter on the costs of each, which provided fascinating reading. Always, he brings in the human element, relating conversations from folks he interviews.” Trish Bowering reviews Cheapskate in Lotusland: The Philosophy and Practice of Living Well on a Small Budget, by Steve Burgess (Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2026) $26.95 / 9781771624633
“A Perfect Day for a Walk by the Water is an excellent example of the mix of observation, reflection, interpretation, and rich language that brings Bill’s books onto the bestseller list time after time.” Marianne Scott reviews A Perfect Day for a Walk by the Water: Exploring Vancouver’s Shores, by Bill Arnott (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781834050201
“This book offers expression and relief from the wounded land of immobilisation, where people must shrink their lives and selves to fit into hell. Redemption appears in unusual ways. The stories are not completely mired in torture or isolation. Overall, the atmosphere emanates a compassionate moonscape, revealing people trapped in numbing routines or chaos, getting through each day with no hope, yet most keep going.” Lee Reid reviews Off the Map: Vancouver writers with lived experiences of mental health issues by Betsy Warland, Seema Shah, and Kate Bird (eds.) (Vancouver: Bell Press, 2025) $22 / 9781738716784
“With the School Board now onside, the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts began classes in September 1925, squeezed into two rooms on the top floor of the Board office, a three-storey stone building at the corner of Dunsmuir and Hamilton streets. It operated as part of the city’s school system, though unlike regular public schools it charged an annual tuition of $50.” Daniel Francis contributes an essay about the series of historical events that took place in order to create what we now know as Emily Carr University, which had its centenary last year.
“Our interviewees have been many and varied: from seasoned poet George Bowering to newcomer, Giller Prize-shortlisted author, Eddy Boudel Tan, from bestselling history author Nancy Marguerite Anderson, to acclaimed memoirist Marion McKinnon Crook. It has been a privilege for me to shake the hands of all of the interviewees of 2025, sometimes in their own homes and workspaces, and ask them about their creative process.” Interview segment producer Trevor Marc Hughes looks back on a year of The British Columbia Review Interview Series.
“Fox is a writer whose sense of humour translates well to the page, and who draws the reader in with his authenticity, a genuine approach that is satisfying to note given how much Hollywood glamour and publicity that has surrounded him in his adult life. His humour can also have a sardonic and even self-deprecating twist to it, and it’s clear that some of his rebellious nature came from his upbringing in British Columbia…” Trevor Marc Hughes reviews Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum, by Michael J. Fox and Nelle Fortenberry (New York: Flatiron Books, 2025) $26.99 / 9781250866783
“A musician, or any artist, can have an infinite variety of origin stories, yet I cannot help but feel that it largely comes down to this line from Case: ‘The ways to be unwanted were inexhaustible, it seemed, and as a child I still had no clue how to claim a spot for myself in the world.’ I’m sure there are exceptions, but feeling bereft of security and belonging often becomes a natural prerequisite to longing for artistic autonomy—to be and embody the thing you admire.” Jessica Poon reviews The Harder I Fight the More I Love You, by Neko Case (Toronto: Hachette Book Group, 2025) $30 / 9781538710500
“What will also appeal to British Columbians is the passionate defense of his Vancouver home from all those who criticize it from ‘Back East.’ He credits the ‘Terminal City’ with inventing the California Roll, calls Canadian Tire ‘Crappy Tire’ (‘Canadian Tire has more actual real money than God’) and celebrates Tim Horton’s ‘Double-double’ (‘the salt-of-the-earth-and-the-winter-driveway coffee’). Ron Verzuh reviews The Eh Team: A Celebration of Canadianisms from Elbows Up to Poutine, by Charles Demers (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2025) $26.95 / 9781778403743
“Kean’s Canada Films was becoming a familiar brand to Vancouver moviegoers. A. D. responded to a limited market by diversifying his subject matter: local industries, the war effort, civic celebrations, and soft news items.” Dennis J. Duffy contributes the essay “The Famous Cowboy Artist”: A. D. Kean in Vancouver, 1913–1916
“Gino presents a nuanced, heartwarming, and unsettling portrait of a man who was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame two years before his death and honoured in 2015 with an Indspire Award for his work educating Indigenous youth. Odjick comes off as a complex individual, a cultural bridge builder whose positive influence was far reaching despite his many challenges.” Daniel Gawthrop reviews Gino: The Fighting Spirit of Gino Odjick, by Patrick Johnston and Peter Leech (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2025)
$44.95 / 9781778402708
“Surviving Vancouver…is a reckoning with that lost history. The word in the title divides the book into two parts. Surviving as an adjective refers to the buildings and cityscapes that somehow managed to survive the past century of booms and depressions, immigrations, and globalization; whereas surviving as a verb deals with the social divides in a city – and province – where sheer survival is a daily challenge for far too many people.” Peter Hay reviews Surviving Vancouver by Michael Kluckner (Vancouver: Midtown Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781988242545
“With posters of British Columbia adorning the walls of a Terminal City Club meeting room, lunch guests assembled wearing name tags, and introduced themselves over soup and sandwiches. On closer inspection, the posters are titled ‘Chinook Jargon Place Names in British Columbia.'” Trevor Marc Hughes reports on a meeting of individuals, hosted by former Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan, wishing to revitalize the Chinook jargon.