Then Now by Daphne Marlatt Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2021 $16.95 / 9781772012873 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * The generation of Marlatt’s parents, and of my own, took the British Empire for granted. Government agencies were as feckless then as now (note the book’s title), but one got on with one’s job in business or the civil service…
Read more 1153 Home on leave from Penang
Improbable Journeys: From Crossing the Himalayas on Horseback to a Career in Obstetrics and Gynaecology by Dr. Bernard A.O. Binns and Ron Smith Oakville, ON: Rock’s Mills Press, 2020 $29.95 / 9781772441932 Reviewed by John Kenwright * Editor’s note: Occasionally we run two reviews of the same book at The British Columbia Review. May Q….
Read more 1152 A career in postwar medicine
Prologue to Love by Martha Ostenso, with an introduction by Hannah McGregor Picton, ON: Invisible Publishing, 2020 (first published in New York by Dodd, Mead & Co., 1932) $23.95 / 9781988784595 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * The thing about novels being situated in an actual, geographic place is how those depictions then resonate with readers…
Read more 1151 A Kamloops classic
Heard Amid the Guns: True Stories from the Western Front, 1914-1918 by Jacqueline Larson Carmichael Victoria: Heritage House, 2020 $26.95 / 9781772033373 Reviewed by Alan Livingstone MacLeod * Jacqueline Larson Carmichael’s Heard Amid the Guns is a book inspired by her two granddads, each a soldier of the First World War who survived. The author…
Read more 1150 Personalities of the Western Front
Victoria Sees It by Carrie Jenkins Toronto: Penguin Random House (Strange Light), 2021 $24.95 / 9780771049279 Reviewed by Kathy Mezei * Victoria sees it, perhaps. And so perhaps will the reader, who is handed one of many clues to the novel’s mysteries on the very first page: “Seeing the world as it really is makes…
Read more 1149 Looking in the wrong place
The Trial of Jeanne Catherine: Infanticide in Early Modern Geneva by Sara Beam Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021 $24.95 / 9781487587673 Reviewed by John Lepage * Historians are usually careful to establish the relevance of their publications. It is part of the ongoing program of history’s defence of itself as a field of study…
Read more 1148 Morality, poison & infanticide
A Lethal Lesson: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2021 $16.95 / 9781771513531 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * From Agatha Christie to Louise Penny, writers of mystery series have known the value of a village to ground their plots: establish winning recurring main and secondary characters, imagine quotidian landmarks in extraordinary…
Read more 1147 Kootenay schoolhouse sleuthing
Leading at the Edge: True Tales From Canadian Police in Peacebuilding and Peacekeeping Missions Around the World by Ben J.S. Maure Vancouver: Ben Maure, 2020 $29.95 / 9780995034303 Reviewed by May Q. Wong * The Canadian military has, since 1954, participated in missions that support peace and stability around the world. In fact, it has…
Read more 1146 Mission to Quetzaltenango
Heart of the Coast: Biodiversity and Resilience on the Pacific Edge by Tyee Bridge, with a foreword by Nancy Knowlton Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2020 $37.99 / 9781773271156 Reviewed by John Gellard * Tyee Bridge’s Heart of the Coast, Biodiversity and Resilience on the Pacific Edge is a magnificent book — robust hard cover, excellent…
Read more 1145 Great Bear diversity & antiquity
A History of My Brief Body: A Memoir by Billy-Ray Belcourt Toronto: Penguin Random House (Hamish Hamilton), 2020 $25.00 / 9780735237780 Reviewed by David Milward * The term Two-Spirit is used in many contemporary Indigenous communities to describe Indigenous persons whose personalities and spirits may have both feminine and masculine aspects. Many Indigenous people suggest…
Read more 1144 Belcourt’s Two-Spirit journey
Big Reader; Essays by Susan Olding Calgary: Freehand Books, 2021 $22.95 / 9781988298818 Reviewed by Heather Graham * “When things go right, I read; when things go wrong, I read more.” Thus wrote Sara Nelson in So Many Books, So Little Time, published in 2004. Nelson’s witty observation about her own reading habits may not…
Read more 1143 Essays personal and impersonal
Glorious Birds: A Celebratory Homage to Harold and Maude by Heidi Greco Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2021 $18.00 / 9781772141719 Reviewed by Linda Rogers * The shadowy figures on the cover of this slight but not inconsequential book by Heidi Greco could be sitting in a movie theatre or on the roof of the world with…
Read more 1142 Harold & Maude: curiosity & desire
Trappings by Vanessa Winn Victoria: Oakheart Press, 2020 $24.95 / 9781777040802 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Trappings takes place in the early colonial days of British Columbia and excellently portrays those challenging times — most especially for women. For those not familiar with Victoria’s history and the many intertwining fur-trading families connected to the Hudson’s…
Read more 1141 Kate Work of Point Ellice
The Bushman’s Lair: On the Trail of the Fugitive of the Shuswap by Paul McKendrick Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2021 $22.95 / 9781550179224 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater * In the early 2000s the Bushman of the Shuswap was on the national news. More of a nuisance than a menace perhaps. He lived off the avails…
Read more 1140 Bushman Bjornstrom of Shuswap
Stories from the Magic Canoe of Wa’xaid by Cecil Paul as told to Briony Penn Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2019 $30.00 / 9781771602952 * Following the Good River: The Life and Times of Wa’xaid by Briony Penn with Cecil Paul Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2020 $38.00 / 9781771603218 Both books reviewed by hagwil hayetsk Charles…
Read more 1139 The late Wa’xaid: Cecil Paul
Astra by Cedar Bowers Toronto: Penguin Random House (McClelland & Stewart), 2021 $24.95 / 9780771012891 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * As a spectral visitor to western Canada in the 1970s, Karl Marx would have rolled his eyes at Celestial Farm. Or, more likely, he would have written an article denouncing it — barely a…
Read more 1138 Cariboo counterculture
Resilience Through Writing: A Bibliographic Guide to Indigenous-Authored Publications in the Pacific Northwest before 1960 by Robert E. Walls, edited by Darby C. Stapp Richland, WA: Journal of Northwestern Anthropology, Memoir 20, January 2021 $34.95 (U.S.) / 9798566579900 Reviewed by John Lutz * The very quotable English essayist Charles Lamb wrote that bibliographies are “books…
Read more 1137 Resurrecting Indigenous voices
Food Floor: My Woodward’s Days by Margaret Cadwaladr Langley: Madrona Books & Publishing, 2020 $15.95 / 9871999546519 Reviewed by Mary Gale Smith * Margaret Cadwaladr has created a little book of stories that will be of interest to anyone who worked at Woodward’s or in a grocery store, or who buys groceries. It is a…
Read more 1136 Dollar 49 day, Woodward’s
The Colour of God by Ayesha S. Chaudhry Toronto: Simon and Schuster Canada (Oneworld Publications), 2021 $30.00 / 9781786079251 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * Sibghatullah, “the colour of God” in Qur’anic Arabic, is the name of the author’s little nephew, whose sudden death at the age of 4 provides a frame for Ayesha Chaudhry’s narrative….
Read more 1135 An Islamic-Canadian journey
The Reporter and the Winnipeg General Strike by Michael Dupuis (text) and Michael Kluckner (illustrations) Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2020 $24.95 / 9781989467282 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Winnipeg 1919: A unique retelling of the historical general strike may reach new and younger audiences We’ve heard many versions of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike story….
Read more 1134 Winnipeg’s historic moment