To Share, Not Surrender: Indigenous and Settler Views of Treaty Making in the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia by Peter Cook, Neil Vallance, John Lutz, Graham Brazier, and Hamar Foster (editors) Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021 $37.95 / 9780774863834 Reviewed by Robin Fisher * The Douglas Treaties on Vancouver Island that were “negotiated” in…
Read more 1428 Unfinished treaty business
Luminous: An Artist’s Guide to Radical Creativity by Linda Frimer Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2022 $39.95 / 9781989467220 Reviewed by Michael Kluckner * Linda Frimer’s Luminous is a complex and intriguing work that mixes memoir, spiritualism, and meditations on art and colour with reflections on Judaism and her own family’s roots through generations going back…
Read more 1427 An artistic and spiritual journey
The Atheneum by Trevor Newland Vancouver: Simply Read Books, 2021 $23.95 / 9781772290622 Reviewed by Peter Babiak * Whenever I’ve had the pleasure of teaching Children’s or Young Adult Literature, or even Graphic Novels, I’ve suspected that some students think the readings will be quick and easy, and that the critical thinking they’re called to…
Read more 1426 Farewell to the silent past
ESSAY: Greta, Cassandra, Athena: Visions of Justice by Jennifer Moss * Davos, Switzerland. January 25th, 2019: A small, serious, 16-year-old girl in bright purple pants perches on the edge of her chair at the widely televised World Economic Forum. She shuffles her papers for a moment, looks briefly at the camera, and begins with the…
Read more 1425 Greta, Cassandra, Athena
Disappearing in Reverse by Allie McFarland Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2020 $24.99 / 9781773851433 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * The unnamed protagonist of Allie McFarland’s debut novel, Disappearing in Reverse, is no stranger to death. In fact, as the novel opens on bustling Saanich Road, on the northern edge of Victoria, she is in…
Read more 1424 Till death do us join
Losing Shepherd by Paul Headrick Winnipeg: Signature Editions, 2022 $22.95 / 9781773240961 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * Over summers once upon a time, my sister and I would spend a month of every school break at my grandmother’s home, an alfalfa farm in Oliver, BC. Each vacation started off at the bus stop in…
Read more 1423 Scary stuff of real maturity
Artful Flight by Susan Glickman Erin, Ontario: Porcupine’s Quill, 2022 $24.95 / 9780889848795 Reviewed by Gary Geddes * I’ve been poring over Susan Glickman’s Artful Flight, a series of essays and reviews, with delight and a certain sadness, delight at her intelligence and close attention to the craft and contributions of a wide range of…
Read more 1422 Essays and bootless poetry
Deadly Neighbours: Colonialism, Cattle Feuds, Murder and Vigilantes in a Far West Valley by Chad Reimer Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2022 $26.00 / 9781773860732 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * White settler injustice: racial tensions fuelled by two sets of laws, one white and the other First Nations I’m a sucker for old dusters. The westerns…
Read more 1421 A border outrage, 1884
Sky Wolf’s Call: The Gift of Indigenous Knowledge by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger Toronto: Annick Press, 2022 $24.95 / 9781773216300 Reviewed by Kristina Hannis * We call upon the Federal, provincial, and territorial governments in consultation with Survivors, Aboriginal peoples, and educators to: Make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical…
Read more 1420 Answering the TRC call
ESSAY: Letter from Victoria by Larry Hannant * If I were a baseball player, I’d be rated as a respectable batter if I had an average equal to the percentage of my letters to the Times Colonist in Victoria that get printed. About one in three bypasses the editor’s bullshit filter and appears in the…
Read more 1419 Letter from Victoria
Smelter Wars: A Rebellious Trade Union Fights for Its Life in Wartime Western Canada by Ron Verzuh Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022 $34.95 / 9781487541125 Reviewed by Bryan D. Palmer * Old Time Labour History; or About Underwear as the Subject of Working-Class Politics Labour history was once all the rage. Less so now….
Read more 1418 Old time labour history
Cambium Blue by Maureen Brownlee Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2022 $22.95 / 9781550179309 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * It is 1995, and Beauty Creek is celebrating its 60th year amidst climate change and hydra-headed Neo-liberalism. Like most BC Interior towns, the hamlet (somewhere north of Clearwater and resembling Valemount) is in transition, its defining pillars…
Read more 1417 Small town transition
Spectres of Fascism: Historical, Theoretical, and International Perspectives by Samir Gandesha (editor) Toronto: Between the Lines Books, 2020 $34.95 / 9781771135016 Reviewed by Stan Markotich * Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini … and Steve Bannon? When I was starting my undergraduate career at Simon Fraser University some 40 years ago, I often heard a joke that…
Read more 1416 Fascism now and then
Resonance: Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing by Andrew Chesham and Laura Farina (editors) Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2022 $22.00 / 9781772141849 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * I love reading the interviews with writers in the Paris Review, the ones where the writers let you into their workshop and talk about the surprises that…
Read more 1415 Boot camp or religious retreat?
Saving Seeds: A Home Gardener’s Guide to Preserving Plant Biodiversity by Dan Jason Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2020 $14.95 / 9781550179002 Reviewed by Luanne Armstrong * This small book packs a lot of punch, much like a seed itself. I am a life long gardener, but, for various reasons, I have never been a seed…
Read more 1414 A seed saver’s companion
Upstream, Downstream: Exploring Watershed Connections by Rowena Rae Victoria: Orca Books, 2021 $19.95 / 9781459823921 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * A children’s book that is also a call to arms? Without so much as a single sabre rattle, a new book by biologist and writer Rowena Rae, titled, disarmingly, Upstream, Downstream, and subtitled Exploring Watershed…
Read more 1413 Teaching watershed warriors
PHOTO ESSAY: Trevor Martin: Vancouver photographer by Bill Paul * Originally from Cornwall, England, Trevor Martin started taking photographs there in 1960 before coming to Canada in 1969. He is known for his images of Vancouver, the Canadian Prairies, the American Southwest, England, Paris, Rome, and Sicily. Here, Bill Paul shares a small sample of…
Read more 1412 Trevor Martin’s Vancouver
Vancouver’s Women in Blue: Trailblazers of the Vancouver Police Department, 1904-1975 by Carolyn J. Daley, with a foreword by Bev Busson Maple Bay: Ruddy Duck Press, 2020 $49.95 / 9781999279202 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * “I don’t remember the first time I drew my gun.” That’s one way to grab the reader’s attention. It’s the…
Read more 1411 A constabulary of women
All the Broken Things by Geoff Inverarity Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2021 $18.00 / 9781772141757 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * A sense of playfulness is immediately established in Geoff Inverarity’s debut poetry collection with an Author’s Preface in the form of a letter to his publisher in which he includes diary entries. The time is June…
Read more 1410 Breaking, haunting, mending
Tales of B.C.: 50 Years of Wacky, Wild, & Thought-provoking Adventures by Daniel Wood Vancouver: OP Media Group, 2021 $24.95 / 9781777876401 Reviewed by Bill Engleson * I was delighted when Richard Mackie offered me the opportunity to write a review of the late Daniel Wood’s last book, an anthology of essays that captures several…
Read more 1409 Fifty years of Daniel Wood