Exculpatory Lilies By Susan Musgrave Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2023 $22.95 / 9780771099007 Reviewed by Christopher Levenson * How do we convert the pain of loss into poetry? Grief over the death of a friend or lover or a family member is a common enough theme throughout poetry of every era and has often, in Lycidas or In Memoriam, produced elegiac masterpieces. In one…
Read more 1840 ‘Provocatively brilliant for the right reader’
Gold, Grit, Guns: Miners on BC’s Fraser River in 1858 by Alexander Globe Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2022 $26.95 / 9781553805847 Reviewed by Matthew Downey * The ironic fact at the heart of British Columbia’s genesis is that its colonial foundation was not rooted in an influx of British settlers, but rather the uneasy invasion of…
Read more 1839 Gold Rush ‘surgical social analysis’
Emily Carr: Life & Work by Lisa Baldissera, with an introduction by Sara Angel Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2021 $40.00 / 9781487102326 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Most people in Victoria, throughout British Columbia and across Canada are of course familiar with the works of artist/writer Emily Carr. Her artwork is acclaimed both nationally and…
Read more 1838 ‘The woman behind the art’
The Power of Dreams: 27 Years Off-grid in a Wilderness Valley by Dave and Rosemary Neads Surrey: Hancock House Publishers, 2022 $24.95 / 9780888397188 Review by Phyllis Reeve * A couple built a house in the wilderness of Precipice Valley, on the ancient trade route linking BC’s Interior Plateau with the coast, and stayed for…
Read more 1837 A dose of planetary reality
the trick of staying and leaving by David Zieroth Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2023 $22.95 / 9781990776021 watching for life by David Zieroth Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022 $19.95 / 9780228014744 Reviewed by Heidi Greco * I can’t help but think that in a past life David Zieroth may well have been an…
Read more 1836 Tender poetic ruminations
The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2023 $32.99 / 9781487009915 Reviewed by Bill Paul * In the novel, The Librarianist, characters have names like Mr. Baker-Bailey, Chance and Chicky Bitsch, and the one-armed Mr. More. Patrick’s deWitt’s fifth novel is set in Portland, Oregon and follows Bob Comet as he grows…
Read more 1835 A simple twist of fate
Cooking Tips for Desperate Fishwives: An Island Memoir by Margot Fedoruk Victoria: Heritage House, 2022 $22.95 / 9781772033953 Reviewed by Susan Sanford Blades * Cooking Tips for Desperate Fishwives, Margot Fedoruk’s island memoir, instantly captures her reader’s attention by beginning right in the thick of things: “The night I ran over Rick with my car,…
Read more 1834 Stuck in the middle of nowhere with you
Baybrook: Life’s Best Adventure by Hamilton Mack Laing, edited by Barbara Elaine Price Comox: Comox Archives and Museum Society, 2005, 2022 $20.00 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater * Hamilton Mack Laing’s memoir, Baybrook: Life’s Best Adventure, is perhaps best viewed through the lens of a love story. Laing had a deep love affair for the place…
Read more 1833 Mack Laing at home
To Track a Traitor: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2023 $18.95 / 9781771513876 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Iona Whishaw doesn’t allow her heroine much time for grass growing underfoot in this, the tenth in the Lane Winslow Mystery series. It is spring 1948, and fast on the heels of…
Read more 1832 ‘Rife with suspects and motives’
Room at the Inn: Historic Hotels of British Columbia’s Southern Interior by Glen A. Mofford Victoria: Heritage House Publishing, 2023 $26.95 / 9781772034233 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Remember staying at that cozy little hotel on your honeymoon, that summer vacation spot by the lake or that mountain resort? Well, now you can vicariously enjoy…
Read more 1831 Bordellos and a dog named Dinty
KWANDUR by Cole Pauls Wolfville, NS: Conundrum Press, 2022 $25.00 / 9781772620771 Reviewed by Jeff Stychin * KWANDUR is one of the truest forms of expression and stylistic artwork portrayal that I’ve come across since reading his comic Pizza Punks, which is also a must-read. Cole Pauls is a Champagne and Aishihik citizen and Tahltan…
Read more 1829 Tundra Wizard’s personal stories
Trickster Trilogy by Eden Robinson Son of a Trickster Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2017. $21.00 / 9780345810793 Trickster Drift Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2018. $21.00 / 9780735273443 Return of the Trickster Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2021. $21.00 / 9780735273474 Reviewed by Daniel Gawthrop * I’ve never been a big fan of magical realism in fiction. While I get…
Read more 1828 A Trickster for our times
Art + DIY Electronics by Garnet Hertz Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, May 30, 2023 $45.00 / 9780262044936 (paperback) Reviewed by Thomas Girard * Dr. Garnet Hertz new book on DIY culture – Art + DIY Electronics – is a refreshing change from typical academic texts. It has the heft, but without the intimidation of…
Read more 1827 Sold on the human text
Frances Barkley: Eighteenth-century Seafarer by Cathy Converse Victoria: Heritage House, 2023 $12.95 / 9781772034417 Reviewed by Dave Flawse * Frances and Captain Charles Barkley navigated the Imperial Eagle into Nootka Sound in June 1787. The wife, husband, and crew sailed across the globe through storms and pirate-infested waters to procure a seemingly humble item—sea otter…
Read more 1826 An adventurous couple
This Place Is Who We Are: Stories of Indigenous Leadership, Resilience, and Connection to Homelands by Katherine Palmer Gordon with a foreword by Dallas Smith Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2023 $39.95 / 9781990776137 Reviewed by Mary Ann Moore * “The central north coast of what settlers refer to as British Columbia in Canada, [is] a…
Read more 1825 A ‘cornerstone of cultural strength’
British Columbiana: A Millennial in a Gold Rush Town by Josie Teed Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2023 $22.99 / 9781459750210 Reviewed by Forrest Pass * The summer that I was eight, my parents bought me a red Walkman in hopes that it would keep me entertained during the long drive up to Barkerville, the reconstructed Cariboo…
Read more 1824 Hello, Wells
RUBYMUSIC: A popular history of women’s music and culture by Connie Kuhns Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, March 2023 $26.00 / 9781773861012 Reviewed by Catherine Owen As a “female bassist” myself at one time in my history and as a woman raised in a climate of continual music, whether from good ol’ CBC piped out of…
Read more 1823 Triumphant and melancholic
Sixty-Seven Ontological Studies: 49 Poems & 18 Photographs by Jan Zwicky & Robert V. Moody Calgary: Freehand Books, 2022 $24.95 / 9781990601095 Reviewed by Ron Dart * Poetry and photography, when at their compressed, suggestive and congealed best, speak a speech that evokes and summons forth depths within the longing soul. Such is the poetry…
Read more 1822 The mixing of textual & visual
Other People’s Secrets by Meredith Hambrock Toronto: Crooked Lane Books, 2022 $37.99 / 9781639100989 Reviewed by Caileigh Broatch Oakwood Hills is a lakeside resort—a place for summer vacationers to escape from the city and flock to blueish waters. It’s surrounded by beaches, cabins, and sunshine. For the characters of Other People’s Secrets, Oakwood Hills is…
Read more 1821 Treasure maps, hangovers, inner turmoil
A Sentimental Education by Hannah McGregor Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University, 2022 $24.95 / 9781771125574 Reviewed by Suzanne James * In her introductory “Author’s Note,” Hannah McGregor half-apologizes/half-explains this work, a collection of essays which blends memoir, “collective feminist meaning-making” and – most significantly – a discourse on what it means to care “deeply” and “ferociously.”…
Read more 1820 Caring ferociously