Ron Verzuh reviews two books: Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe: Four Weeks that Shaped a Pandemic by Bonnie Henry and Lynn Henry Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Allen Lane), 2021 $26.95 / 9780735241855 * Soap and Water and Common Sense: The Definitive Guide to Viruses, Bacteria, Parasites, and Disease by Bonnie Henry Toronto: House…
Read more 1303 Bonnie Henry: writer
Linda Rogers reviews two books: Indian in the Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power by Jody Wilson-Raybould Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2021 $34.99 / 9781443465366 * From Where I Stand: Rebuilding Indigenous Nations for a Stronger Canada by Jody Wilson-Raybould Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019 $24.95 / 9780774880534 * CHARACTER, a drama with some bad actors and some…
Read more 1302 Lessons from the Big House
Erebus: One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time by Michael Palin Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Vintage Canada), 2019 $23.00 / 9780735274297 Reviewed by Walter Volovsek * Editor’s note. A vigilant reader of The Ormsby Review might be startled to see Michael Palin’s Erebus: One Ship, Two Epic Voyages,…
Read more 1301 Goosebumps & unbroken ice
Thank you, everyone, for your generous support of The Ormsby Review. We launched our 2021 fundraiser on July 15th. Between then and October we sent out batches of emails to supporters and friends of The Ormsby Review. I am delighted to report that exactly 100 donors contributed a grand total of $18,700. In our 2020…
Read more 1300 Thanks for your support
The Endless Garment by Marguerite Pigeon Hamilton, ON: Wolsak & Wynn, 2021 $18.00 / 9781989496374 Reviewed by Heidi Greco * Admiration. That’s the feeling I get when I think of authors who are able to envision a big picture for their manuscript, who can write to a unified subject or theme. Poet Marguerite Pigeon is…
Read more 1299 Cut from a cloth of desire
Richard Wagamese Selected: What Comes from Spirit by Richard Wagamese, with an introduction by Drew Hayden Taylor Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2021 $24.95 / 9781771622752 Reviewed by Paul Falardeau * When he died at 61, Richard Wagamese still had a lot to say, though he had already said so much. The Ojibwe author was…
Read more 1298 A tribute to Richard Wagamese
A Sure Connection by W.M Herring Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2021 $19.95 / 9781989689288 Reviewed by Danny Peart * In A Sure Connection, a first collection of 69 poems on a number of themes, W.M. (Wendy) Herring shows that she is fully prepared to do the work of a poet. Born in Quebec, Herring…
Read more 1297 Here to celebrate the moon
The Rebellious Tide by Eddy Boudel Tan Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2021 $21.99 / 9781459746879 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * In his sophomore novel, The Rebellious Tide, Eddy Boudel Tan immerses the reader into the complexities of the human condition evidenced through the characters’ interpersonal relationships as well as their struggles with identity, discrimination, and social…
Read more 1296 The father he had never met
Vancouver Vice: Crime and Spectacle in the City’s West End by Aaron Chapman Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021 $27.95 / 9781551528694 Reviewed by Grahame Ware * Aaron Chapman begins Vancouver Vice by using the West End Sex Workers Memorial (dedicated in 2016) as a point of reference and meditation regarding the whole dynamics of sexual…
Read more 1295 Chapman’s high-rise history
Erase and Rewind by Meghan Bell Toronto: Book*hug Press, 2021 $20.00 / 9781771666787 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * The debut short story collection from Vancouver-based writer Meghan Bell, Erase and Rewind, asks its women characters, and readers alike: what is “a narrative you can live with?” While Erase and Rewind is Bell’s first published collection,…
Read more 1294 Stories of purposeful ambiguity
Stung by William Deverell Toronto: ECW Press, 2021 $32.95 / 9781770415959 Reviewed by Alma Lee * A new book by William Deverell is always something to look forward to. One only needs to read the back cover blurbs of Stung to know it’s going to be a page-turner. The list of people who have given…
Read more 1293 The good cop of Garibaldi Island
Word Problems: Poems by Ian Williams Toronto: Coach House Press, 2020 $21.95 / 9781552454145 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * The title of Ian Williams’ latest poetry may be Word Problems, but it could just as easily have been World Problems. The poems tend to explore how language both prevents and allows communication and how difficult…
Read more 1292 Circling lines & opening spaces
INTERVIEW: Ellie Sawatzky with The Ormsby Review Ellie Sawatzky is a writer originally from Kenora, ON. A finalist for the 2019 Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, and the recipient of CV2’s 2017 Foster Poetry Prize, her work has been published widely in literary journals and anthologies such as Grain, The Fiddlehead, PRISM International, Best Canadian…
Read more 1291 Interview with Ellie Sawatzky
The Day She Died by S.M Freedman Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2021 $18.99 / 9781459747401 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * The Day She Died tells Eve’s story through the broken pieces of her life as she attempts to rebuild after a terrible head injury. The story weaves through amnesia, a strange marriage, and a terrible shift…
Read more 1290 It pays to pay attention
Satellite Love by Genki Ferguson Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland and Stewart), 2021 $24.95 / 9780771049873 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Lou Reed’s well-known rock song of 1972, “Satellite of love,” a deliciously oddball piece, contains as one of its very few lines, “Things like that drive me out of my mind.” Those familiar…
Read more 1289 Margins, outskirts, outliers
Design Like Nature: Biomimicry for a Healthy Planet by Megan Clendenan and Kim Ryall Woolcock Victoria: Orca Books, 2021 $19.95 / 9781459824645 Reviewed by Jocie Brooks * I opened this book while sitting at the kitchen table beside the head of a giant sunflower cut from my garden, full of seeds ready for harvest. The…
Read more 1288 Burrs and bullet trains
Just One More Drive: The true story of a stuttering homosexual and his race car by Robert James O’Brien New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2021 (2nd edition, first published 2017) $21.95 / 9781990160028 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * The “True Story of a Stuttering Homosexual and His Race Car,” Just One More Drive is Robert…
Read more 1287 Sure was gonna be rough
Island Eats: Signature Chefs’ Recipes from Vancouver Island and the Salish Sea by Dawn Postnikoff and Joanne Sasvari Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2021 $38.99 / 9781773271675 Reviewed by Margot Fedoruk * For those of you who share Federico Fellini’s sentiment that “life is a combination of magic and pasta” then this may be the book…
Read more 1286 They had me at gnocchi
Pandemic Spotlight: Canadian Doctors at the Front of the Covid-19 Fight by Ian Hanomansing Madeira Park: Douglas and McIntyre, 2021 $22.95 / 9781771622929 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * For nearly two years we have existed in a time warp. When I see a reference to something which happened in April, and now it is October,…
Read more 1285 From anonymity to spotlight
Mute Swan: Poems for Maria Queen of the World by Lesley-Anne Evans Toronto: The St. Thomas Poetry Series, 2021 $20.00 / 9781928095071 Reviewed by Cole Klassen * Mary and the swan: feminine symbols too often detached from reality 34 years ago, Lesley-Anne Evans was excommunicated from her fundamentalist evangelical church for being engaged to a…
Read more 1284 A voice for the mute swan