Ruby Red Skies by Taslim Burkowicz Halifax and Winnipeg: Roseway Publishing an imprint of Fernwood Publishing, 2022 $24.00 / 9781773635606 Reviewed by Steven Brown * Ruby is not happy. She feels taken for granted by both husband and daughter. Her opinions don’t matter. Her husband talks down to her, openly mocks her, is oblivious to…
Read more 1810 Intrigue, then and now
Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers [Dey Street Books], 2023 $30.00 / 9780063226562 Reviewed by Susan Sanford Blades * The 1990s were not kind to their female icons. Female stars were instantly worshipped and just as quickly scorned for the very attributes that led to their fame. Kate Moss for her gamine thinness,…
Read more 1809 Beyond the red swimsuit
Patterson House by Jane Cawthorne Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2022 $22.95 / 9781771339391 Reviewed by Valerie Green * In her novel Patterson House, Jane Cawthorne has produced a warm yet tragic story of a once-wealthy Toronto family who still own a stately mansion known as Patterson House. Cawthorne begins in 1873 with the ghostly voice of…
Read more 1808 The rich and the desperate
Well Aged: Making the Most of Your Platinum Years by Ralph Milton Madeira Park: Douglas and McIntyre, 2021 $24.95 / 9781771623100 Reviewed by Lee Reid * “Why did I wait until age eighty before I grew up?” quips author and retired publisher of Kelowna’s Wood Lake Books Ralph Milton, now aged 89. Growing old means…
Read more 1807 A worthwhile anecdotage
Workboats for the World: The Robert Allan Story by Robert G. Allan, with Peter A. Robson, and with a foreword by Peter G. Noble Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2022 $99.95 / 9781550179873 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * The ferry George Black has plied the waters of the Yukon River between Dawson City and Alaska since…
Read more 1806 All the world’s a harbour
Indigiqueerness: A Conversation About Storytelling by Joshua Whitehead, in dialogue with Angie Abdou Athabasca, Alberta: Athabasca University Press, 2023 $19.99 / 9781771993913 Reviewed by Mary Ann Moore * Joshua Whitehead doesn’t feel ashamed writing about sex he says. When he went home to “the rez,” he’d prefer helping the women in the kitchen where all…
Read more 1805 Nêhiyawêwin: being Cree
Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy by Zazie Todd, with a foreword by Pam Johnson-Bennett Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2022 $32.95 / 9781771648141 Reviewed by Kirsten Bell * Mark Twain once said that ‘If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat’. This quote highlights…
Read more 1804 A purrfectly useful guide
The Vicar’s Knickers: The Mildly Catastrophic Misadventures of Tony Vicar, Book 2 by Vince R. Ditrich Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2022 $19.99 / 9781459747289 Reviewed by Caileigh Broatch * The Liquor Vicar, the first of Vince R. Ditrich’s three book series, introduces wannabe musician Tony Vicar. He’s missed his big break by a couple of years…
Read more 1803 The locals of Tyee Lagoon
Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story by Kim Senklip Harvey with the Fire Company Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2020 $16.95 / 9781772012422 Reviewed by Amanda Wandler * This story, this ceremony is for our Indigenous Peoples, it is to give voice and illuminate the power of Indigenous womxn. It is about our unwielded power and unsuppressed Settler supremacy…
Read more 1802 Return of the matriarchs
Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell, illustrations by William Kurelek, 75th anniversary edition Calgary: Freehand Books, 2022 (first published by Macmillan of Canada, 1947) $44.95 / 9781990601125 Reviewed by Amy Whitmore * A pre-schooler knocks on a minister’s door in search of God’s help in seeking revenge. Another pre-schooler navigates town with his…
Read more 1801 It’s what boys do
Min Hayati by Rayya Liebich Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2021 $18.95 / 9781771338714 Reviewed by Harold Rhenisch * In Arabic, Rayya Liebich explains, Hayat means life, Hayati playfully means “my beloved” or “darling,” and Min Hayati means “Who is my life?” and “Who is my darling?” With these two words, we are introduced into the love and…
Read more 1800 A mother’s love
Forgotten Things: The Story of the Seymour Valley Archaeology Project by Robert J. Muckle Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022 $24.95 / 9781487588526 Reviewed by Daniel Francis * During the decades between the two world wars a small number of Nikkei (i.e. Japanese-Canadian) loggers lived with their families deep in the woods on the North…
Read more 1799 Secret of the North Shore woods
Canadian Pacific Railway on the Revelstoke Division. Volume Six. The Connaught Tunnel — 106 Years of Service by Douglas R. Mayer Revelstoke: Revelstoke Heritage Railway Society, 2022 $40.00 / 9781999416850 Reviewed by Robert D. Turner Available from the Revelstoke Railway Museum, P.O. Box 3018, 719 Track Street West, Revelstoke, BC, V0E 2S0 (railwaymuseum.com) for $40.00…
Read more 1798 Under Mount Macdonald
Last Winter by Carrie Mac Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Random House), 2023 $24.95 / 9781039005198 Reviewed by W.H. New * Readers who finish Carrie Mac’s Last Winter and then turn to her biographical note will recognize that many of the themes of her novel arise from lived experience: a declared identity as queer and…
Read more 1797 Choosing to speak
Any Other City by Hazel Jane Plante Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023 $22.95 / 9781551529110 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * Whenever film critics gripe about pop music biopics, “cliché-ridden” is standard fare. Considering a pop star’s ready-made chapters — juvenile precocity, discovery, rise and fall, triumphs and tragedies, and so on — over-reliance on…
Read more 1796 Rock ’n’ roll trans recall
Crime Wave: Women of a Certain Age. A Canada West Anthology by Elizabeth Bass, Karen L. Abrahamson, and J.E. Barnard (editors), with a foreword by Gail Bowen Vancouver: Sisters in Crime (Canada West Chapter), 2022 $24.27 / 9781777246655 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Stories are not chapters of novels. They should not be read one…
Read more 1795 Move over, Miss Marple
Remnants: Reveries of a Mountain Dweller by Natalie Lang Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2023 $26.00 / 9781773861043 Reviewed by Paul Falardeau * Natalie Virginia Lang is a promising new writer from British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, where she lives in a reclaimed loft on her family’s property on Sumas Mountain. It is from this home base…
Read more 1794 Sense of place and self
Poetry omnibus: Linda Rogers reviews ten new books by BC poets: * When archetypes have flesh by Linda Rogers Every Chinese Emperor/ Empress chose a note to indicate the tone of his or her time. The sound of now would seem to be rust or dislocation, the squeaking doors signified by books in this omnibus…
Read more 1793 When archetypes have flesh
Dig Deep: Connecting Archaeology, Oceans and Us by Nicole F. Smith, with photographs by Alexander Mackie and others Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 2023 $21.95 / 9781459826083 Reviewed by Grant Keddie * Over my 50 years as a curator in Archaeology at the British Columbia Provincial Museum-Royal British Columbia Museum I received numerous requests from teachers…
Read more 1792 The 164,000-year classroom
Looking Back, Moving Forward: 160 Years of Jewish Life in BC by Michael Schwartz (editor) Vancouver: Jewish Museum and Archives of BC, [2020] $50.00 / 9780969126881 Reviewed by Richard Kool To place an order, contact the museum at (604) 257-5199 or email at info@jewishmuseum.ca * The urge to establish formal organizations, clubs, societies, buildings, cemeteries…
Read more 1791 Honey, you forgot the Island