They Call Me George: The Untold Story of Black Train Porters and the Birth of Modern Canada by Cecil Foster Windsor, ON: Biblioasis, 2019 $22.95 / 9781771962612 Reviewed by John Douglas Belshaw * For Black History Month Canada (February 1- 20, 2020) we present John Belshaw’s review of Cecil Foster’s They Call Me George: The…
Read more #732 Race and rails
A Bed of Half Full: A Landscape by Judith Penner Vancouver: Nomados Press, 2018 $10.00 / 9781927751084 Reviewed by Paul Falardeau * A casual search for the definition of a landscape brings this up from the databanks of the internet: “all the visible features of an area … often considered in terms of their aesthetic…
Read more #731 Chestnuts and wild city animals
Surveying the 120th Meridian and the Great Divide: The Alberta-BC Boundary Survey, 1918-1924 by Jay Sherwood Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2019 $29.95 / 9781773860091 Reviewed by Keith Regular * Editor’s note: see also Robert Allen’s review of this book’s predecessor, Surveying the Great Divide: The Alberta/BC Boundary Survey, 1913-1917 (Caitlin Press, 2017) in The Ormsby…
Read more #730 Marking the Great Divide
Return to Spinners Inlet by Don Hunter Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2019 $22.00 / 9781771513081 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Although this collection of linked short stories is set in 2019, it evoked nostalgia in this reader. I was not surprised that its prequel, Spinner’s Inlet, was published in 1989 — which at once seems like…
Read more #729 When an inlet is an island
The Flora and Fauna of Coastal British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest by Collin Varner Victoria: Heritage House Publishing, 2018 $39.95 / 9781772030914 Reviewed by Loys Maingon * As many professional biologists involved in communicating the urgency of our environmental crisis are in the habit of pointing out, possibly the best thing that one can…
Read more #728 West coast natural history tally
Against Death: 35 Essays on Living by Elee Kraljii Gardiner (editor) Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2019 $22.00 / 9781772141276 Reviewed by Sally Campbell * This book intrigued me with its title. What does it mean, “Against Death?” I am not against death, it’s the one event post-birth that all creatures share. Then I got the double…
Read more #727 Death by a thousand words
Jacintha by Lorraine Davies Toronto: Dundurn, 2019 $21.99 / 9781459744554 Reviewed by Moira Laidlaw with Ginny Ratsoy * Lorraine Davies’ Jacintha is a novel of secrets, mistakes, and forgiveness. It tells the story of Richard Wilson, a professor of English Literature at the University of British Columbia. After a traumatic landslide destroys his house and…
Read more #726 Beware the Shakespeare seminar
Every Shameless Ray by Leslie Timmins Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2018 $18.95 / 9781771335775 Reviewed by P.W. Bridgman * As can be gathered from its enigmatic title, Vancouver poet Leslie Timmins’ first collection, Every Shameless Ray, is much concerned with matters of darkness, shadows and light. Oftentimes these conceits are introduced metaphorically in her poetry; at…
Read more #725 Tenebrous and illuminating
The Vegetable Museum by Michelle Mulder Victoria: Orca Books, 2019 $10.95 / 9781459816794 Reviewed by George M. Johnson * Michelle Mulder cultivates rich soil (sorry I couldn’t resist that) in her middle-grade novel about 13 year-old Chloë Becher, forced to move from Montreal to Victoria with her Dad when her parents separate. Initially she finds…
Read more #724 Postwar gardening therapy
Three books reviewed by Graeme Wynn: The Anthropocene Disruption by Robert William Sandford Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2019 $20.00 / 9781771603195 Anthropocene by Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal, and Nicholas de Pencier; and co-edited by Sophie Hackett, Andrea Kunard, and Urs Stahel Fredericton and Toronto: Goose Lane Editions and Art Gallery of Ontario, 2018 $35.00 / 9781773100975…
Read more #723 Appraising the Anthropocene
Shut Up You’re Pretty by Téa Mutonji Vancouver: VS. Books, an imprint of Arsenal Pulp Press, 2019 $17.95 / 9781551527550 Reviewed by Jenna Butler * Téa Mutonji’s 2019 short story collection Shut Up You’re Pretty is the first book to be released under Arsenal Pulp Press’s VS. Books, a new imprint publishing work by young…
Read more #722 A punchy and brilliant debut
The Empire on the Western Front: The British 62nd and Canadian 4th Divisions in Battle by Geoffrey Jackson Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019 $34.95 / 9780774860154 Reviewed by James D. Barrett * Geoffrey Jackson’s readable study of the performance of the 62nd Division British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the 4th Canadian Division (CEF) hits the mark…
Read more #721 Five British Columbia battalions
The Ventriloquist’s Dummy Tells All: A Politically Incorrect Novel by Ernest Hekkanen Nelson: New Orphic Publishers, 2019 $20 / 9781894842273 Reviewed by Sean Arthur (Art) Joyce The Ventriloquist’s Dummy can be purchased directly from New Orphic Publishers at 706 Mill Street, Nelson, B.C. V1L 4S5. The cost is $25, which includes postage — Ed. *…
Read more #720 Masks, midgets, and junk culture
Land of Destiny: A History of Vancouver Real Estate by Jesse Donaldson Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2019 $20.00 / 9781772141443 Reviewed by Patricia E. Roy * Donaldson’s thesis is simple: “The history of Vancouver is the history of real estate” (p. 5). He persuasively argues that Vancouver has had housing crises almost continuously since its founding…
Read more #719 Perpetual real estate fizz
Major Misconduct: The Human Cost of Fighting in Hockey by Jeremy Allingham, with a foreword by Daniel Carcillo Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2019 $22.95 / 9781551527710 Reviewed by Timothy Lewis * If you’re an ardent supporter of Canada’s recently deposed elder statesman of hockey commentary — Don Cherry — and his championing of fighting in…
Read more #718 Bare-knuckle boxing on ice
Pensive & beyond by Joanne Arnott Vancouver: Nomados, 2019 $10.00 / 9781927751107 Reviewed by Paul Falardeau * Joanne Arnott’s voice is, figuratively and literally, one of Canadian poetry’s strongest. A captivating and intimate writer since her first book of poetry, Wiles of Girlhood (1991), Arnott is also a consummate performer. Yet her influence on Canadian…
Read more #717 A celebration of friendships
Fatherless: A Memoir by Keith Maillard Morgantown, VA: West Virginia University Press, 2019; distributed in Canada by UBC Press $27.95 Cdn / 9781949199130 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * The first half of this book is magical. Not magical like a Disney movie, full of charm and delight. Much darker than that, a story of Jungian…
Read more #716 Your daughter should know
Voices from Hornby & Denman Island Home Support, 1979-2019 by Megan J. Davies and Rachel Barken (editors) Hornby and Denman Community Health Care Society, 2019 $10.00 / 978199278403 Available from Abraxas Books, Denman Island Reviewed by Lee Reid * “Will there be help for me when I am old and in need?” is the enduring…
Read more #715 Growing old on Hornby and Denman
John Scouler (c. 1804-1871) Scottish Naturalist: A Life, with Two Voyages by E. Charles Nelson Glasgow: Glasgow Natural History Society, 2014 £11.00 (U.K.) / 9780956529510 Reviewed by Robert M. Galois * Naturalists’ Networks and the Northwest Coast in the Early Nineteenth Century On 25 July, 1824, John Scouler, a young Scottish naturalist, boarded the Hudson’s…
Read more #714 A naturalist on the North Pacific
10 Sure-fire Ways to NAIL Your First Draft by Carol Anne Shaw * After several years of reading, scribbling, blogging, Facebooking, and trying to look serious on LinkedIn, I’ve come to realize that this writing-a-novel thing is actually a no-brainer. Because there are only ten necessary rules for success. I’m not lying. (I’ll get to…
Read more #713 Writing tips from Cowichan