Excellent addition to the backpack

“On a recent summer hike along Vancouver Island’s Cowichan River, we enjoyed referring to Collin Varner’s flora pocket guide to keystone species, “keystone” being organisms that define and support an entire ecosystem thus filling a vital ecological niche.” Isabel Nanton reviews 50 Keystone Flora Species of Coastal British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest: A Pocket Guide & 50 Keystone Fauna Species of Coastal British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest: A Pocket Guide by Collin Varner (Victoria: Heritage House, 2024) $19.95 / 9781772034776 / 9781772034943

‘We slather on American mayo’

Full of “humorous observation and stylistic verve,” this collection of flash fictions and short stores is “contemporary, exuberant, and zany.” —Jessica Poon reviews The Long Swim, by Terese Svoboda (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781625348074

‘One for sorrow / Two for joy’

A debut story collection set in rural Nova Scotia offers a careful examination of the messiness of family dynamics. —Candace Fertile reviews In the Shadow of Crows, by M.V. Feehan (Montreal: Baraka Books, 2024) $19.95 / 9781771863476

After the incident at Level 72

Veteran mystery writer returns with an intriguing case, a “captivating, enigmatic” style, and a chase for clues across England. —Valerie Green reviews Bad Boy (A Jason Davey Mystery), by Winona Kent (New Westminster: Blue Devil Books, 2024) $19.99 / 97817390418

‘Finding truth for Indigenous people’

“…by the end of Mohawk elder Taiaiake Alfred’s book of talks, speeches, interviews, and podcasts, as a non-native person I understood the meaning of decolonization and what he calls the transformative potential of the ‘Resurgence of Indigenous power’ to revitalize cultures, traditions, laws, and value systems.” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews It’s All About the Land: Collected Talks and Interviews on Indigenous Resurgence by Taiaiake Alfred (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2023) $29.95 / 9781487552831

An exercise in futility

Former government lawyer and author Richard Butler writes that there must be a better way than trying to implement the principles of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) through law reform. He sees it an exercise in futility and potentially risky for reconciliation. Richard Butler presents his essay The Futility of Aboriginal Law Reform.

War experiences, recovery from them

Vancouver Island author’s sophomore novel is “a tightly plotted, ambitious work of historical fiction that has fast-paced thriller elements and, at other times, the makings of a slow burn romance.” —Jessica Poon reviews The Last Secret, by Maia Caron (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2024) $25.00 / 9780385688826

‘Spiritual meaning, form, and function’

“Arnett integrates cultural and technical aspects of rock art and rock art sites from start to finish. He insists the paintings in many settings are an interaction between the rock formation, the setting, the paint, and the artist, including the artist’s songs and stories about the site.” Wendy Burton reviews Signs of the Time: Nłeʔkepmx Resistance through Rock Art by Chris Arnett (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2024) $39.95 / 9780774867962

Nefarious investments, cool drones

“Newland’s talent with the architecture of sentences never detracts from the exhilaration of his plot, with its strange events and estranged sense of time.” —Peter Babiak reviews The Marysburgh Vortex (Volume 1: Jack Wenland, Time Guardian), by Trevor Newland (Vancouver: Simply Read Books, 2024) $22.99 / 9781772291001

Snuggle into the armchair

“…understanding how everything in a way has life. Inanimate objects, human made things, people of course, and everything else as well. This is how Marks extends her ideas. It’s an incremental change of many philosophical ideas.” Thomas Girard reviews The Fold: From Your Body to the Cosmos, by Laura U. Marks (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2024) $29.95 USD / 9781478030119

Living legends

Sisters who happen to be creatures of myth offer wit and wisdom, cynicism and love in a breezily written and beguiling novel. —Jessica Poon reviews Roxy and Coco, by Terese Svoboda (Morgantown: U West Virginia Press, 2024) $29.99 / 9781959000068

‘Mysterious, difficult, and wondrous’

Reissued edition of the acclaimed, award-winning volume also reflects on the pandemic and MAID.—Jodi Lundgren reviews In the Slender Margin: The Intimate Strangeness of Death and Dying, by Eve Joseph (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2023) $22.00 / 9781772142150

Poems ‘about life, death, and between’

A striking pair of “exquisite” chapbooks highlight reflections about enduring relationships and life’s ineffable moments. —Mary Ann Moore reviews Berberitzen, by Susan Alexander (Salt Spring Island: Raven Chapbooks, 2024) $20.00 / 9781778160363 and If I Have Known Beauty: Elegies for Phyllis Webb, by Lorraine Gane (Salt Spring Island: Raven Chapbooks, 2024) $20.00 / 9781778160370

On data’s ‘practical immortality’

An “accessible, elucidating book that makes a persuasive plea for us to connect data literacy and human rights.” Plus, “a genuine pleasure to read.” —Jessica Poon reviews We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age, by Wendy H. Wong (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2023) $35/95 / 9780262048576

Contemplating ‘multiple threads of identity’

“Mahtani is truly aiming to accomplish a lot with May it Have a Happy Ending and the threads of family, illness, work, and other elements take their turns in the spotlight, then drift through the background, reminding us that we are always composed of a range of tales, that nothing is exclusive or simple or from which we are easily healed.” Catherine Owen reviews May it Have a Happy Ending: A Memoir of Finding My Voice as My Mother Lost Hers, by Minelle Mahtani (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2024) $34.95 / 9780385675208

Navigating through life

“Into his own remarkable life story, he manages to also weave world events in history over the past century, including many human conflicts, criminal justice reform and his own personal reflections as he travels the world from Canada to the United Kingdom, Germany, Uganda, and the Middle East.” Valerie Green reviews Boxing The Compass: A Life of Seafaring, Music, and Pilgrimage by Michael L. Hadley (Victoria: Heritage House, 2024) $29.95 / 9781772034738

You want I should feed him some lead?

Infectiously fun, rapid-fire novel recounts tales from the golden age of charismatic criminals, and ushers readers into “into a fictional world of real-life events that is grippingly good reading.” —Ron Verzuh reviews Crooked: A Crime Novel, by Dietrich Kalteis (Toronto: ECW Press, 2024) $22.95 / 9781770417076

‘Redefining the Canadian Mosaic’

“In clearly laid out chapters from Prospect to Policy to Partnership, Schouls describes the steps taken in many negotiations to articulate the positions of numerous peoples, all with different land claims, cultures, languages, and histories.” Linda Rogers reviews The Spaces In Between: Indigenous Sovereignty within the Canadian State by Tim Schouls (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2024) $74.95 / 9781487587406

‘Not quite living, but not quite dying’

Atmospheric and poetic writing supports a striking novel that follows an aunt and niece on a perilous, uncertain journey. —Bill Paul reviews Bad Land, by Corinna Chong (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781551529592

Are we ready for Direct Democracy?

A debut novel, a moderately appealing political satire, explores the notion of radical democracy. —Valerie Green reviews Owls, Doughnuts, and Democracy, by Jason A.N. Taylor (Victoria: independently published) $7.99 (e-book) / 9798333346148 

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