The new British Columbia Review by Richard Mackie * As of today, February 10th 2022, The Ormsby Review will be known as The British Columbia Review. This change comes with the strong endorsement of the two Boards that have guided The Ormsby Review through the last several years. Named after Margaret Anchoretta Ormsby (1909-1996), a…
Read more 1376 The new British Columbia Review
Yearbook by Seth Rogen Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Viking), 2021 $35.00 / 9780735237995 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * So the editor asks me to review Seth Rogen’s book. Seth who? Do you mean Joe Rogan? No, Seth Rogen, the comedian, actor, voicer of Vancouver’s SkyTrain announcements. Oh, that Seth Rogen. And he’s the one…
Read more 1375 SkyTrain, sex shows, $50 jokes
Rez Rules: My Indictment of Canada’s and America’s Systemic Racism Against Indigenous Peoples by Chief Clarence Louie, with a foreword by Paul Martin Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland & Stewart), 2021 $34.95 / 9780771048333 Reviewed by Ken Favrholdt * When I first met Chief Clarence Louie at the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) office in…
Read more 1374 Chief Clarence Louie of Osoyoos
The Ventriloquist: Poems from the Womb of War by Gary Geddes Oakville, ON: Rock’s Mills Press, 2022 $22.00 / 9781772442403 Reviewed by Art (Sean Arthur) Joyce * The Ventriloquist Speaks: Making Meaning as an Act of Cultural Defiance In this post-everything era, for a writer to seek meaning is practically a revolutionary act. Poet Gary…
Read more 1373 The ventriloquist speaks
The Flora and Fauna of Coastal British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, Expanded Edition by Collin Varner Victoria: Heritage House, 2021 $39.95 / 9781772033564 Reviewed by Jocie Brooks * Glossy colour photos of stone sheep, chinook salmon, salal berries and a black-capped chickadee grace the cover of Collin Varner’s The Flora and Fauna of Coastal…
Read more 1372 A riotous mix of species
Pebble Swing by Isabella Wang Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2021 $18.95 / 9780889714069 Reviewed by Grace Lau * The dedication at the beginning of Pebble Swing contains a quote about love, and with every re-read, I still marvel at how love spills so generously from the pages. To be clear, the vessels are sometimes pain and…
Read more 1371 Winter in Gastown
“Opposition on the Coast”: The Hudson’s Bay Company, American Coasters, the Russian-American Company, and Native Traders on the Northwest Coast, 1825-1846 Edited and introduced by James R. Gibson Toronto: The Champlain Society, 2019 $99.00 / 9780772764416 Reviewed by Peter Grant * A game of monopoly: The Bay, of department store fame, was once the terror…
Read more 1370 Documenting monopoly
Boswell Beginnings and Beyond by Tom Wishart, Janice Baker, and Lynn Campbell (editors) Boswell: Boswell Historical Society, 2021 (new edition; first published by the Boswell Ladies’ Club, 1986) $35.00 / 9781771369947 Available at local bookstores or from Lynn Campbell: lynncampbell1508@gmail.com Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Surviving the Ravages of Time: A remote BC town dodges…
Read more 1369 Home & work on Kootenay Lake
Nothing Could Be Further from the Truth by Christopher Evans Toronto: House of Anansi, 2022 $22.99 / 9781487010331 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * Nothing Could Be Further from the Truth manages a neat trick, the kind of move that could inspire many an author to mutter “I’d give my eye teeth for that.” The…
Read more 1368 Across seventeen stories
The Cine Star Salon: a novel by Leah Ranada Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2021 $21.95 / 9781774390320 Reviewed by W.H. New * This first novel by Leah Ranada is a contemporary version of an old trope, the growing-up-and-away novel, where the protagonist has to find out how to be herself, stop depending on others, deal with…
Read more 1367 Philippine style
Imagined Truths: Myths from a Draft-Dodging Poet by Richard Lemm New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2021 $21.95 / 9781990160066 Reviewed by Heidi Greco * Puzzled. That’s the feeling I occasionally had while reading this far-reaching memoir. It’s far-reaching not only in the years it covers — from the 1950s to today — but also in the…
Read more 1366 More than an essay on Canada
Race, Culture, and Politics in Education: A Global Journey From South Africa by Kogila Moodley, with an afterword by Sonia Nieto Columbia University: Teachers College Press, 2020 $34.95 (U.S.) / 9780807764886 Reviewed by Isabel Nanton * A successful blend of personal memoir and insights culled from an extensive academic career, Kogila Moodley’s book, which forms…
Read more 1365 A journey from South Africa
Fake It So Real by Susan Sanford Blades Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2020 $21.95 / 9780889713888 Reviewed by Carol Matthews * “I sometimes call it, like, a punk rock Alice Munro,” Susan Sanford Blades said about her debut novel Fake It So Real in an interview with Capital Daily. While it does focus on some of…
Read more 1364 Vodka, bubble bath, blue lines
Dreamers, Skeptics, and Healers: the Story of BC’s Medical School. The UBC Faculty of Medicine at 70 years by Wendy Cairns, John Cairns, David Ostrow, and Gavin Stuart Vancouver: Page Two Books, 2021 $50.00 / 9781989603895 Reviewed by Jaime Smith * As a graduate of the UBC medical school in 1976 and after training there…
Read more 1363 Beds and infrastructure at UBC
A Liberal-Labour Lady: The Times and Life of Mary Ellen Spear Smith by Veronica Strong-Boag Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021 $89.95 / 9780774867245 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * Who? Mary Ellen Spear Smith (1863-1933) was British Columbia’s first female Member of the Legislative Assembly. She was also the first female cabinet minister and the first female…
Read more 1362 Seamstress to cabinet minister
The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Empire by Stephen R. Bown Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Anchor Canada), 2021 $24.95 / 9780385694094 Reviewed by Daniel Francis * When I finished graduate school in the mid-1970s and rejoined the work force I got a job researching the history of the fur trade…
Read more 1361 A cabal of merchant adventurers
Vile Spirits by John MacLachlan Gray Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2021 $29.95 / 9781771622776 Reviewed by W.H. New * Straight out: I loved this book. It’s lively and fast-paced, it sparkles with satire, and it’s chock full of arresting characters (and a few who get away). Vile Spirits is marketed as a mystery, and…
Read more 1360 Spirited Vancouver
Royally Wronged: The Royal Society of Canada and Indigenous Peoples by Constance Backhouse, Cynthia E. Milton, Margaret Kovach, and Adele Perry (editors) Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021 $39.95 / 9780228009030 Reviewed by J.R. (Jim) Miller Disclosure: the reviewer is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada * In 2016, Dr. Cindy Blackstock…
Read more 1359 A shaky grasp at the Royal Society
Not of Reason: A Recipe for Outrunning Sadness by Rita Moir Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2021 $22.95 / 9781773860633 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Author Rita Moir’s Memoir Not of Reason connected with me on many levels. It is an impeccable combination of sorrow and humour when life is at its lowest. The author relates…
Read more 1358 Dying in the natural order
Editor’s note: in January 2022, the University of British Columbia announced the acquisition of a rare copy of the first edition of the collected plays of William Shakespeare, known to scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623. One of 235 copies in existence, UBC’s copy is only the second in Canada, the other being…
Read more 1357 My kingdom for a … First Folio