Fishes of the Salish Sea (3 volumes) by Theodore Wells Pietsch and James Wilder Orr, illustrated by Joseph R. Tomelleri Victoria: Heritage House, 2019; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019 $179.00 / 9781772032932 Reviewed by Colin Levings * This book is an extraordinary addition to the natural history of the Salish Sea. Authors Theodore…
Read more #692 Fishes of the Salish Sea
Here I Am! by Pauline Holdstock Windsor, Ontario: Biblioasis, 2019 $21.95 / 9781771963091 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Rarely does a book draw me in from page one, but such was the case with Here I Am! by Pauline Holdstock. The protagonist is a delightful six year-old boy, Frankie West, and the reader soon learns…
Read more #691 Frankie goes to New York
Essential Fly Patterns for Lakes and Streams: Tips for Tying Your Own Flies by Brian Smith Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2019 $24.95 / 9781773860008 Reviewed by Myles Armstead * When you Google “fly tying recipes,” you will discover website after website devoted to every aspect of the art of tying flies, from tube flies to…
Read more #690 A master’s fly patterns
Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante Montreal: Metonymy Press, 2019 $18.95 / 9780994047199 Reviewed by Paul Headrick * Are there popular reference works about successful TV shows? The Encyclopedia of Breaking Bad or A Viewer’s Guide to The Brady Bunch certainly wouldn’t have universal appeal, though perhaps there’d be a guaranteed readership…
Read more #689 Little Blue Island almanac
What is Long Past Occurs in Full Light by Marilyn Bowering Salt Spring Island: Mother Tongue Publishing, 2019 $21.00 / 9781896949727 Reviewed by P.W. Bridgman * Near the end of her new collection, What is Long Past Occurs in Full Light, Marilyn Bowering concludes a poem entitled “The Consolation of Philosophy” with these words: What…
Read more #688 How must it feel to write this way?
The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store by Cait Flanders Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2018 $25.99 (U.S.) / 9781401954871 Reviewed by Natalie Lang * We live in a world where the culture of buying cheap and…
Read more #687 Less shopping, more clarity
Little Fortress by Laisha Rosnau Hamilton, Ontario: Wolsak & Wynn, 2019 $22.00 / 9781928088998 Reviewed by Mary-Ann and David Stouck * What fascinated me as a novelist was how did these women who led these really large lives — these lives that took place all over the world — come to then seclude themselves in…
Read more #686 Exile on Pleasant Valley Road
Voices of Komagata Maru: Imperial Surveillance and Workers from Punjab in Bengal by Suchetana Chattopadhyay New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2018; New York: Columbia University Press, 2019 $35.00 (U.S.) / 9788193401583 Reviewed by Larry Hannant * Many Canadians became aware of the name Komagata Maru only in 2016, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, still in his…
Read more #685 Tracking the Komagata Maru
Rail by Miranda Pearson Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2019 $17.95 / 9780773558946 Reviewed by Christopher Levenson * If surprise is a necessary ingredient of good poetry, Miranda Pearson’s fifth volume, Rail, will not disappoint. Those who know her four previous volumes — Prime, The Aviary, Harbour, and The Fire Extinguisher — will recognize…
Read more #684 English views & melting glaciers
Advocates and activists by Graeme Wynn, with Jennifer Bonnell An extract from The Nature of Canada, edited by Colin M. Coates and Graeme Wynn (Vancouver: On Point Press, an imprint of UBC Press, 2019) * Jenny Clayton has reviewed The Nature of Canada for the Ormsby Review — see #603, Deep time to time slipping…
Read more #683 Nature’s advocates and activists
The Hidden Life of Trees: The Illustrated Edition by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jill Billinghurst, with a foreword by Tim Flannery Vancouver: Greystone Books/ David Suzuki Institute, 2018 $45.00 / 9781771643481 Reviewed by Loys Maingon * At the dawn of the twentieth century, the Scottish-American naturalist John Muir prophetically summarized modern man’s dysfunctional relation to…
Read more #682 Nature as superorganism
Magical Beings of Haida Gwaii by Gid7ahl-Gudsllaay Lalaxaaygans (Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson) and SGaan Jaadgu San Glans (Sara Florence Davidson), illustrated by Judy Hilgemann and Alyssa Koski Victoria: Heritage House, 2019 $22.95 / 9781772032963 Reviewed by Molly Clarkson * This review contains words in the Haida Language. Both Gaw Tlagee Xaad Kil (Haida Northern Dialect, which brings…
Read more #681 Haida matrilineal magic
Mad Hatter by Amanda Hale Montreal: Guernica Editions, 2019 $29.95 / 9781771833905 See here for the audiobook Reviewed by Linda Rogers * Don’t judge a book by its cover … at your peril. That’s a song worth listening to but sometimes, and in this case, it is all there, the rabbit’s final bone crushing scream….
Read more #680 All hat and no soapbox
E.J. Hughes Paints British Columbia by Robert Amos Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2019 $35.00 / 9781771513104 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * How can I “review” a book that renders me breathless even before I open it? It takes a while to get past the cover, vibrating as it does with colour. This is the Fraser Valley…
Read more #679 E.J. Hughes crosses the Strait
Asa Johal and Terminal Forest Products: How a Sikh Immigrant Created BC’s Largest Independent Lumber Company by Jinder Oujla-Chalmers Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $28.95 / 9781550178890 Reviewed by Gurpreet Singh * Asa Johal and Terminal Forest Products is a special interest book for those who wish to learn more about British Columbia’s forest industry,…
Read more #678 A life of lumber and sawmills
Searching for Pitt Lake Gold: Facts and Fantasy in the Legend of Slumach by Fred Braches Victoria: Heritage House, 2019 $9.95 / 9781772032765 Reviewed by Harold Rhenisch * Searching for Pitt Lake Gold stands in a long series of popular adventure books that celebrate gold, wilderness, and British Columbia’s adventurous colonial past. This is one…
Read more #677 The lurid lure of lucre
Memory by Philippe Tortell, Mark Turin, and Margot Young (editors) Vancouver: UBC Press (Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies), 2018 $24.95 / 9781775276609 Reviewed by Forrest Pass * Historians think we know memory. “Social memory” — how communities, governments, and private interests understand and give the past meaning — is a well-established focus in my…
Read more #676 A trip down memory lane
The Last Whistle: Hillcrest Lumber Company Ltd. 1917-2018 by Cecil Ashley Self-published, 2018 $29.95 / 9780228500735 Available from Cecil Ashley email address: cecil.ashley@gmail.com and at Volume 1 Bookstore, Duncan Reviewed by Robert Griffin * Cecil Ashley has produced an amazing book that is clearly a labour of love. The Hillcrest Lumber Company represents a major…
Read more #675 Stump to dump at Mesachie Lake
Emily Carr. Fresh Seeing: French Modernism and the West Coast by Kiriko Watanabe, Kathryn Bridge, Robin Laurence, and Michael Polay Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2019, in collaboration with the Audain Art Museum $40.00 / 9781773270913 Reviewed by Robert Amos * Many people have a prejudice about Emily Carr. Crazy lady with a monkey, they say,…
Read more #674 Emily Carr in France
Susan Benson: Art, Design and Craft on Stage by Patricia Flood Richmond Hill, ON: Firefly Books, 2019 $35.00 / 9780228101772 Reviewed by Celia Duthie * Susan Benson has had a charmed career. For over forty years, as a theatre designer and costumer for stage productions in England and North America, she has been a mistress…
Read more #673 Catalyst of creative fantasy