#132 The demise of Vancouver

2050: A Post-Apocalyptic Murder Mystery by Michael Kluckner Vancouver: Midtown Press, 2016 $19.95  /  9781988242187 Reviewed by Mark James Dunn First published May 30, 2017 * Vancouver historian, artist and illustrator Michael Kluckner has turned his eclectic talents in recent years to graphic novels, starting in 2015 with Toshiko, a remaking of Romeo and Juliet…
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#131 The last great centennial

The Year Canadians Lost Their Minds and Found Their Country: The Centennial of 1967 by Tom Hawthorn Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2017 $26.95  /  9781771621502 Reviewed by Forrest D. Pass First published May 27, 2017 * Tom Hawthorn collects groovy images of 1967 and recreates Canada’s centennial zeitgeist in The Year Canadians Lost Their…
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#130 The making of Making Room

Making Room: Forty Years of Room Magazine by Meghan Bell (editor) and curated by the Growing Room Collective: Meghan Bell, Terri Brandmueller, Candace Fertile, Taryn Hubbard, Chelene Knight, Lindsay Glauser Kwan, Cara Lang, Alissa McArthur, Navneet Nagra, Bonnie Nish, Rachel Thompson, Kayi Wong, and Lisa Xing Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2017 $24.95  /  9781987915402 Reviewed…
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#129 Hornby haven for herd of steel

The Art of Jeffrey Rubinoff by James Fox (editor) Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2016 $36.95  / 9781771621298 Reviewed by Catherine Nutting First published May 22, 2017 * The Art of Jeffrey Rubinoff concerns Rubinoff’s sculpture, the park on Hornby Island he shaped as a permanent sculptural exhibit and his conviction that the process of…
Read more #129 Hornby haven for herd of steel

#128 Fred Herzog’s genius

Fred Herzog: Modern Color texts by David Campany, Hans-Michael Koetzle, Jeff Wall Berlin: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2016 €38.00  /  9783775741811 Reviewed by Bill Jeffries First published May 22, 2017 * Fred Herzog, who is 87 years old in 2017, had to wait until 2011 for a substantial book (Fred Herzog Photographs, Douglas & McIntyre) illustrating…
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#127 Postcards from unknown soldier

Postcards from unknown soldier by Sandi Ratch First published May 2, 2017 * Faced with a handful of family postcards signed only by “Dick,” Sandi Ratch gave herself a detective quest: to identify the messenger who had gone to continental Europe to fight in World War I. In this Ormsby exclusive, Sandi Ratch relates the…
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#126 Marine birds

At Sea with the Marine Birds of the Raincoast by Caroline Fox Victoria: Rocky Mountain books, 2016 $25.00  /  9781771601627 Reviewed by Sean MacPherson First published April 28, 2017 * In At Sea with the Marine Birds of the Raincoast, conservation biologist Caroline Fox crosses thousands of kilometres of open ocean to chart the distribution…
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#125 To the end of Ron Brown’s line

Rails Over the Mountains: Exploring the Railway Heritage of Canada’s Western Mountains by Ron Brown Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2016. $29.99  /  978145973359 Reviewed by Les Kozma First published April 26, 2017 * Over the past twenty years or so Brown has authored a plethora of books about railways and railroading in Canada. Rails Over the…
Read more #125 To the end of Ron Brown’s line

Edward Sapir's photo of the "Delegation of Indian Chiefs from Western Canada sent to Ottawa, 1916" shows John Tetlenitsa four months before his fruit was seized in Merritt and, further, that three Indigenous leaders of the land-and-rights agitations in the first years of the previous century lived in, or in the vicinity of, the Nicola Valley. Tetllenitsa is standing second from left, James Teit to his left. John Chelahitsa, a Syilx leader from Douglas Lake country, is seated immediately below Tetlenitsa

#124 Banning Indigenous apples, 1916

ESSAY: Chief Tetlenitsa’s Apples: Commercializing Indigenous Horticulture in British Columbia, 1907-1916 by Michael Sasges First published April 25, 2017 * In 1916, orchardist Chief John Tetlenitsa of  Spences Bridge took a wagon of 40 boxes of apples into Merritt, the new town in the Nicola Valley, only to have the Chief Constable seize the apples…
Read more #124 Banning Indigenous apples, 1916

#122 River-as-machine vs ecosytem

A River Captured: The Columbia River Treaty and Catastrophic Change by Eileen Delehanty Pearkes Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2016 $20  /  9781771601788 Reviewed by John Gellard First published April 20, 2017 * Previously, in her Harnessing The Power: Voices from Two Rivers of the Peace and Columbia (Douglas & McIntyre, 2012), Meg Stanley assessed the…
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#121 A 100-mile crime novel

First published April 17, 2017 REVIEW: Speakeasy by Alisa Smith Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2017. $22.95. 978-1-77162-066-6 Reviewed John Douglas Belshaw With her partner and co-writer James MacKinnon, Alisa Smith recounted their year-long attempt to eat only foods grown and produced within a 100-mile radius of their Vancouver apartment. Their collaboration, The 100-Mile Diet: A…
Read more #121 A 100-mile crime novel

#120 Looking up from Down Under

Munro vs. The Coyote by Darren Groth Victoria: Orca Books, 2017 $19.95 / 9781459814097 Reviewed by Carol Anne Shaw First published April 14, 2017 * Since the sudden death of his sister, sixteen-year old Munro Maddux has been angry, depressed, and confused. Even worse, he can’t get rid of a horrible voice in his head…
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St. James Anglican Church, 1936. Print by Mathieu Persan

#119 Bike ride & Art Deco

REVIEW: Lost Vancouver: an Unexpected Art Deco Tour An exhibit at Space Gallery at 552 Clark Drive, Vancouver Reviewed by Michael Kluckner * Between April 11 and April 23 2018, Space Gallery hosts an exhibit, Lost Vancouver: an Unexpected Art Deco Tour. Michael Kluckner, who visited the exhibit for The Ormsby Review, appraises the work of…
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#118 Grubstake angel

Gold Rush Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Nellie Cashman by Thora Kerr Illing Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2016 $18.95  /  9781771511599 Reviewed by Charlene Porsild First published April 11, 2017 * Thora Illing’s Gold Rush Queen retells the life and times of Nellie Cashman, a beautiful, Irish-American businesswoman, entrepreneur, philanthropist, champion dog musher and lifelong spinster…
Read more #118 Grubstake angel

#116 Wakeland in the DES

Invisible Dead by Sam Wiebe Toronto: Penguin Random House 2016 $22 / 9780345816276 Reviewed by Maansi Pandya First published April 5, 2017 * Soon to be released in the United States, Sam Wiebe’s Invisible Dead is a gritty journey into Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside crime world of biker gangs, drugs and suspicious characters against a backdrop…
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#115 Alas, poor Comox

First Published April 5, 2017 During a speech in 2017, Richard Mackie lamented the loss of historical buildings on Vancouver Island for a NIC Elder College lecture entitled “Dead Dog or Land of Plenty? Creating and Effacing History in the Comox Valley.” by George Le Masurier | Apr 4, 2017 *** Fresh out of university…
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#114 From apartheid to resurgence

Medicine Unbundled: A Journey Through the Minefields of Indigenous Health Care by Gary Geddes Victoria: Heritage House, 2017 $22.95  /  9781772031645 Reviewed by Mary-Ellen Kelm First published April 4, 2017 * Harold Cardinal’s assessment of Canada’s Indigenous policy in 1969 as “a thinly disguised programme of extermination” in The Unjust Society is born out almost…
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#113 Why we need estuaries

Ecology of Salmonids in Estuaries Around the World: Adaptations, Habitats, and Conservation by Colin D. Levings Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016 $75.00  /  9780774831734 Reviewed by Bert Ionson First Published April 4, 2017 * Colin Levings’ encyclopedic treatment of how sea going salmon, trout and char make their transition from fresh to salt water (and the…
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