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#464 A turbulent, alluring place

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…
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#463 Escape from the Nechako Valley

Starlight: An Unfinished Novel by Richard Wagamese Toronto: Penguin Random House (McClelland & Stewart), 2018 $19.95 / 9780771070877 Reviewed by Eldon Yellowhorn * Wagamese divides his straightforward narrative into a prologue and three sections, though the last is truncated by his death. The publisher then provides a note explaining the decision to release Starlight as…
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#462 Baskets across the border

Re-awakening Ancient Salish Sea Basketry: Fifty Years of Basketry Studies in Culture and Science by Ed Carriere and Dale R. Croes Richland, WA: Journal of Northwest Anthropology (JONA), Memoir Number 15, January 2018 $54.95 (U.S.) / 9781973968221 Available from Amazon.com through CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform Reviewed by Andrea Laforet First published Jan. 8, 2019 * In this…
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#460 An island without Velcro

Shoelaces are Hard & Other Thoughtful Scribbles by Mike McCardell Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2018 $29.95  /  9781550178487 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb First published Jan. 5, 2019 * Mike McCardell likes editors. Oh, not the sort of editor who tells you what you mustn’t end a sentence with. No, he likes editors who give him…
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#459 Skylark: old friend in a new land

ESSAY: Old Friend in a New Land: English Songbirds in British Columbia by Richard Somerset Mackie * Because the road is rough and long Shall we despise the skylark’s song? — Charlotte Bronte[1] * Introduced from England in 1903 and 1913, Eurasian skylarks took hold in Vancouver Island’s older agricultural districts, to which they were…
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#458 From Powell Street to Tashme

Powell Street Diary: A Remembrance of Life before Internment by Jesse Nishihata, foreword by Junji Nishihata Montreal: Tombo Communications, 2017 $20.00 / 9781387054060 Reviewed by Patricia E. Roy First published Jan. 1, 2019 * In the foreword to this fascinating little book, Junji Nishihata explains that it began when his late father, the award-winning documentary film-maker…
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#457 Long live West Coast Modern

Harold Kalman reviews three books: Copp House by Adele Weder, with photography by Michael Perlmutter Novato, California: ORO Editions, 2017 $24.95 (U.S.)  / 9781939621887 * Downs House II by Christopher Macdonald, with photography by Michael Perlmutter Novato, California: ORO Editions, 2016 $24.95 (U.S.)  / 9781935935285 * Merrick House by Anthony Robins, with photography by Michael…
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#456 Japanese interns and seafarers

Patricia E. Roy reviews two books: Departures: Chronicling the Expulsion of the Japanese Canadians from the West Coast, 1942-1949 by Linda Kawamoto Reid, John Endo Greenaway, and Fumiko Greenaway Burnaby: Nikkei National Museum, 2017 $24.95  / 9780995032835 * Changing Tides: Vanishing Voices of Nikkei Fishermen and Their Families by Kotaro Hayashi, Fumio “Frank” Kanno, Henry…
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#455 A Victoria literary memoir

The Drifting Archipelago: The Middle Years by Mike Doyle Victoria: Ekstasis Editions, 2017 $25.95 / 9781771712354 Reviewed by Ron Dart First published Dec. 27, 2018 * Mike Doyle (1928-2016) is with us no more, but his three-storied autobiography tells much about his layered and all too human journey. Floating Islands: A Writer’s Early Life (Ekstasis,…
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#454 The home children of Cowichan

Marjorie: Too Afraid To Cry. A Home Child Experience by Patricia Skidmore Toronto: Dundurn, 2012 $30.00 / 9781459703391 * Marjorie: Her War Years. A British Home Child in Canada by Patricia Skidmore Toronto: Dundurn, 2018 $30.00 / 9781459741669 * Both books reviewed by Sylvia Crooks First published December 26, 2018 *        …
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#453 The river sings the blues

Quenching the Dragon: The Canada-China Water Crisis by Robert William Sandford Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2018 $16.00 / 9781771602938 Reviewed by Rosie Simms First published Dec. 23, 2018 * What can Canada learn from the water crisis emerging in China? Why should we care about far-flung water issues on the other side of the globe?…
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#452 Jewish arrival and survival

Seeking the Fabled City: The Canadian Jewish Experience by Allan Levine Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland & Stewart), 2018 $45.00  /  9780771048050 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb First published Dec. 21, 2018 * Have you heard the one about the Winnipeg paper that tried to explain the ways of this strange new people, the Jews,…
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#451 Fathers & sons on the Salish Sea

Just Let Me Look at You: On Fatherhood by Bill Gaston Toronto: Penguin Random House (Hamish Hamilton), 2018 $19.95 / 9780735234062 Reviewed by Howard Macdonald Stewart First published Dec. 19, 2018 * The subtitle of Bill Gaston’s new book declares it is “on fatherhood.” The publisher had to narrow it down, I suppose, to keep…
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#450 Classifying British Columbia

The Collectors: A History of the Royal British Columbia Museum and Archives by Patricia E. Roy Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum Press, 2018 $39.95 / 9780772672001 Reviewed by Chad Reimer First published Dec. 18, 2018 * In The Collectors: A History of the Royal British Columbia Museum and Archives, Patricia Roy sets herself a daunting…
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#449 Keith McKellar’s Vancouver

Revolving W and Flying Pigs: A Neon Journal of Vancouver Vintage Cafes and Theatres by Keith McKellar/ Laughing Hand Victoria: BoneYard Ink Books, 2018 $50 / 9781775357704 Orders: direct from author at www.laughinghand.com Reviewed by Grahame Ware First published Dec. 16, 2018 * This publication is an exciting and colourful recasting of Keith McKellar out-of-print,…
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#448 South Moresby activist memoir

Raven Walks Around the World: Life of a Wandering Activist by Thom Henley Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2017 $32.95 / 9781550178074 Reviewed by Philip Van Huizen First published Dec. 15, 2018 * Autobiographies by environmentalists are nothing new, especially in BC. Greenpeace alone is its own cottage industry, with practically all of its founders producing…
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#447 The Judsons of South Cariboo

A Mill Behind Every Stump by Marianne Van Osch Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772031164 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater * Sage Birchwater reviews Marianne Van Osch’s A Mill Behind Every Stump, the story of the life and family of 94-year old Louis Judson, son of versatile American homesteaders and longtime operator of portable and…
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#446 Comox Valley counterculture

Dancing in Gumboots: Adventure, Love and Resilience. Women of the Comox Valley Lou Allison with Jane Wilde (editors) Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2018 $24.05 / 9781987915761 Reviewed by Susan Mayse First published Dec. 13, 2018 * Mountains and glaciers glittered under a deep blue sky, fields and forests rolled all the way down to tidewater…
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#445 Sitting pretty on Burrard Inlet

Dreamers and Designers: The Shaping of West Vancouver by Francis Mansbridge, with photographs by John Moir Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2018 $29.95 / 9781550178517 Reviewed by Trevor Carolan First published December 12, 2018 * Illustrating Irving Layton’s maxim that “Geography is fate,” this newest exploration of West Vancouver’s development as a civic and cultural polity…
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#444 Carpenters and vagabonds

Ron Verzuh reviews two books: A Carpenter’s Tale: Ian Ridgway, A Life by Ian Ridgway with Jim Brown and Pat Ridgway Elphinstone: Gypsy Deluxe Books, 2017 $30.00  /  9781775008309 Orders: patridg201@gmail.com * Mudflat Dreaming: Waterfront Battles in 1970s Vancouver and the Squatters who Fought Them by Jean Walton Vancouver: New Star Books, 2018 $24.00 /…
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