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
The Governor General’s Literary Awards of Canada: A Bibliography by Andrew David Irvine with the assistance of Edmond Rivère and Stephanie Tolman Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2018 $79.95 / 9780776627397 Les Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général du Canada: Une bibliographie by Andrew David Irvine, with the assistance of Edmond Rivère and Stephanie Tolman Ottawa:…
Read more #430 Looking back at the GGs
Codename Project 9: How a Small British Columbia City Helped Create the Atomic Bomb by Ron Verzuh CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018 $13.08 / 9781720820703 Reviewed by Michael Sasges First published Nov. 22, 2018 * Codename Project 9 is a small book that engenders reflections on some big history. Since 1945, journalists and scholars…
Read more #429 Trail, the bomb, and Blaylock
Island Forest Embers: The Japanese Canadian Charcoal Kilns of the Southern Gulf Islands by Rumiko Kanesaka and Brian Smallshaw (editors) Ganges: Japanese Garden Society of Salt Spring Island, 2018 $8.00 / 9780973781410 Reviewed by Bob Muckle First published Nov. 20, 2018 * While walking in the forest on his home island of Galiano one day…
Read more #428 Gulf Islands charcoal burners
Thumbing a Ride: Hitchhikers, Hostels, and Counterculture in Canada by Linda Mahood Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018 $32.95 / 9780774837347 Reviewed by Lauren Harding First published November 19, 2018 * In this fascinating history, Linda Mahood takes a look at changing views of youth mobility in twentieth century Canada, from the early days of automobile travel…
Read more #427 Counterculture wanderlust
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
Spaces and Places for Art: Making Art Institutions in Western Canada 1912-1990 by Anne Whitelaw Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017 $39.95 / 9780773550322 Reviewed by Martin Segger First published Nov. 16, 2018. * Geography challenges power. Anne Whitelaw has written an impressive geopolitical history of art institutions in western Canada. She demonstrates how…
Read more #425 Let them have art galleries
The Last Suffragist Standing: The Life and Times of Laura Marshall Jamieson by Veronica Strong-Boag Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018 $32.95 / 9780774838696 Reviewed by Patricia Roy First published Nov. 15, 2018. * The Life and Times is an old-fashioned title, but nothing is old-fashioned about this book. The sub-title is especially appropriate for a biography…
Read more #424 In search of Laura Jamieson
Nicholas Bradley reviews two books: Intertidal: The Collected Earlier Poems, 1968–2008 by Daphne Marlatt, edited by Susan Holbrook Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2017 $49.95 / 9781772011784 * Scree: The Collected Earlier Poems, 1962–1991 by Fred Wah, edited by Jeff Derksen Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2015 $49.95 / 9780889229471 First published Nov. 14, 2018 * * Landslip and Delta: A…
Read more #423 Landslip and delta
Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age by Darrel J. McLeod Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2018 $29.95 / 9781771622004 Reviewed by David Milward * Darrel McLeod’s Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age has won the 2018 Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction. From Treaty Eight territory at Smith, Alberta, McLeod studied French literature and education at…
Read more #422 A tale of trauma and achievement
One Hundred Years of Struggle: The History of Women and the Vote in Canada by Joan Sangster Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018 $27.95 / 9780774835336 Reviewed by Barbara Messamore First published Nov. 12, 2018 * Joan Sangster’s clear, concise, and lively treatment of the women’s suffrage movement in Canada provides a broad historical survey while presenting…
Read more #421 Suffragist city
ESSAY: A century since Vimy and Passchendaele: Two wars, two families, one message by Howard Macdonald Stewart First published Nov. 11, 2018 * For Remembrance Day 2018 we offer a moving reflection by Howard Stewart — reprinted from Ormsby no. 195 (November 11, 2017) on this centenary of 11.11.18 — on war’s impact on his…
Read more #420 Why the red poppies matter
Talking Past Each Other: Quebec and the Federal Dialogue in Canada, 1867-2017 by Hamish Telford New York and Bern: Peter Lang, 2018 $99.95 (U.S.) / 9781433150487 Reviewed by Nelson Wiseman First published Nov. 10, 2018 * Hamish Telford, professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley, media commentator and frequent Ormsby reviewer, is…
Read more #419 Talking federal politics
A Bright and Steady Flame: The Story of an Enduring Friendship by Luanne Armstrong Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Books, 2018 $22.95 / 9781987915822 Reviewed by Lee Reid First published Nov. 9, 2018 * I first came across the Buddhist term Kalyana-mitra in the 1980s when, as a struggling single parent, I was desperate for creative stimulation….
Read more #418 Boswell’s woman of words
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
Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and a Charismatic Killer by Eve Lazarus Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018 $21.95 / 9781551527468 Reviewed by Larry Hannant First published November 6, 2018 * True crime “may be the dominant genre of our time,” according to Globe and Mail media writer Simon Houpt. And…
Read more #415 Murder by Milkshake
Ken Foster’s Vancouver: Life, Art and Alleyways by Sean Nosek and Ken Foster Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2018 $49.95 / 9781926991917 Reviewed by Robert Amos First published November 05, 2018 * I like this book. I like the energetic paintings, I like the way the writer presents the artist’s unique life story, and I admire…
Read more #414 Good art & bad habits
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
Live at the Cellar: Vancouver’s Iconic Jazz Cub and the Canadian Co-operative Jazz Scene in the 1950s and ‘60s by Marian Jago, foreword by Don Thompson Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018 $29.95 / 9780774837699 Reviewed by Brian Fraser First published November 02, 2018 * Good books on jazz are filled with intriguing stories about the relationships…
Read more #412 Vancouver jazz scene