Captured by Fire: Surviving British Columbia’s New Wildfire Reality by Chris Czajkowski and Fred Reid Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $24.95 / 9781550178852 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater * The wildfires of 2017 are still fresh in the minds of the people who experienced them in the Central Interior of British Columbia. Across the broad landscape…
Read more #626 Fire on the Chilcotin Plateau
A Promise on the Horizon by Ann Pearson Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2019 $24.95 / 9781989467022 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Ann Pearson’s work of biographical fiction, A Promise on the Horizon, will be greatly esteemed by historians, academic researchers, and lovers of the Napoleonic era. Pearson takes the reader on a delightful journey of…
Read more #625 To Italy with Stendhal
Trout School: Lessons from a Fly-Fishing Master by Mark Hume with Mo Bradley, illustrated by Nana Cook and with a foreword by Claire Hume Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2019 $22.95 / 9781771644167 Reviewed by Myles Armstead * Most fly-fishing books fall into two categories: those that speak of the natural beauty and the philosophical ponderings of…
Read more #624 Fishing the Kamloops trout
Bina: A Novel in Warnings by Anakana Schofield Toronto: Penguin Random House (Knopf Canada), 2019 $29.95 / 9780735273214 Reviewed by Paul Headrick * The narrator of Anakana Schofield’s Bina, a Novel in Warnings is an elderly woman, more-or-less trapped in her house near Castlebar, Ireland. While awaiting possible trial on an unspecified criminal charge, she…
Read more #623 Leave the man in the ditch
Okanagan Lake: An Illustrated Exploration Above and Below the Waters by Raphael Nowak Kelowna: Institute for Underwater Research, 2018 Distributed by Sandhill Marketing $32.95 / 9781775240501 Reviewed by Harold Rhenisch * Okanagan Lake fills the bottom of the Okanagan Valley between Penticton and Spallumcheen. It is 135 kilometres long and varies in width from one…
Read more #622 The secrets of Okanagan Lake
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
Vancouver Noir by Sam Wiebe (editor) Brooklyn, NY: Akashic Books, 2018 $23.95 / 9781617756597 Reviewed by Paul Falardeau * Vancouver is a beautiful city, one you might expect is a good place to find some world-class, city-adjacent hikes, the best smoked salmon, and some of the finest sinsemilla you could ever hope to smoke. It’s…
Read more #620 Vancouver beyond the postcards
Moved by the State: Forced Relocation and Making a Good Life in Postwar Canada by Tina Loo Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019 $29.95 / 9780774861014 Reviewed by LiLynn Wan * Moved by the State is a comparative history of forced relocation and development in five regions in Canada from the 1950s to the 1970s. In some…
Read more #619 Government knows best
Women’s Writing in Canada by Patricia Demers Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019 $34.95 / 9780802095015 Reviewed by Linda Rogers * They used to throw women artists in mental institutions, our radical behaviour disruptive to the norm. Across the street from my house, there is a half way home for mentally challenged adults, the victims…
Read more #618 The deeper language of women
Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Anchor Canada), 2018 $25.00 / 9780385691147 Reviewed by Angie Tucker * Heart Berries: A Memoir, the first book by Nlaka’pamux writer Terese Marie Mailhot, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Awards, long-listed for the CBC’s Canada Reads (2019), and was a…
Read more #617 Escape from Seabird Island
The Grizzlies of Grouse Mountain: The True Adventures of Coola and Grinder by Shelley Hrdlitschka and Rae Schidlo, illustrated by Linda Sharp Victoria: Heritage House, 2019 $19.95 / 9781772032772 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Grizzly bear! Ursus arctos ! Or is it, more correctly, Ursus arctos horribilis? The first is the species name, the second…
Read more #616 Captive mountain grizzlies
Floating City by Kerri Sakamoto Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2018; Penguin Random House, 2019 $21.00 / 9780345809896 Reviewed by Grahame Ware * “One swallow doth not a summer make” – Shakespeare, from Aristotle Kerri Sakamoto’s flight south to warmer climes after the publication of One Hundred Million Hearts (Penguin, 2005) has been a multi-year migration. And…
Read more #615 A floating city sinks
Photo essay: Revolving W and Flying Pigs: A Neon Journal by Keith McKellar (Laughing Hand), with an introduction by Robert Amos Victoria: BoneYard Ink Books, 2018 $50.00 / 9781775357704 Orders: direct from www.laughinghand.com A photo essay by Keith McKellar and Robert Amos * In December 2018 we published a review (Ormsby Review #449) by Grahame…
Read more #614 Waterfront industry & memory
Green Gold: The Epic True Story of Victorian Plant Hunter John Jeffrey by Gabriel Hemery £15 (U.K.) / 9781789650242 London: Unbound, 2019 Reviewed by Michael Layland * Had I not been familiar with the protagonist, John Jeffrey, I doubt if I would have taken the trouble to acquire and read Green Gold. The artwork of…
Read more #613 The baffling fate of John Jeffrey
The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family by Lindsay Wong Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018 $19.95 / 9781551527369 Reviewed by Imogene Lim First published January 17, 2019 * Editor’s note: this review was first published in The Ormsby Review in January 2019. Somehow it disappeared when material…
Read more #612 Chinese ghosts, Chinese identity
Song Book: 21 Songs From 10 Years (1964-74) by Fiona McQuarrie Walthamstow, UK: New Haven Publishing, 2018 $24.00 / 9781912587155 Reviewed by Randolph Eustace-Walden * It’s been said that if you remember the 1960s you weren’t there. Well, I do, and I was. And like many others of my generation, the music of that time…
Read more #611 A baby boomer’s songbook
Honouring the Strength of Indian Women: Plays, Stories, Poetry by Vera Manuel (author) and Michelle Coupal, Deanna Reder, Joanne Arnott, Emalene A. Manuel (editors) Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2019 $24.95 / 9780887558368 Reviewed by Diana French * Vera Manuel (1949-2010), actor, playwright, poet, drama therapist, and healer has been honoured with an anthology of…
Read more #610 Secwépemc playwright honoured
Mistakes to Run With: A Memoir by Yasuko Thanh Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Hamish Hamilton), 2019 $24.95 / 9780735234413 Reviewed by Paul Falardeau * On March 12, 2020, Yasuko Thanh’s Mistakes to Run With: A Memoir was one of five books shortlisted for the 2020 Jim Deva Prize (for “writing that provokes”) from the…
Read more #609 The pen is mightier than the street
New Ground: A Memoir of Art and Activism in BC’s Interior by Ann Kujundzic, with a foreword by Mary Schendlinger Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2019 $24.95 / 9781773860015 Reviewed by Luanne Armstrong * I love memoirs like this. And really, we need so many more of them. So many stories still remain to be told,…
Read more #608 Kootenay art and activism
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