The Codfish Dream: Chronicles of a West Coast Fishing Guide by David Giblin Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772032420 Reviewed by Kenneth Campbell * In The Codfish Dream: Chronicles of a West Coast Fishing Guide, David Giblin compresses fifteen years of experience as a sports fishing guide into one remarkable summer, resulting in an…
Read more #641 Big Bay fishing stories
11 Weeks: The Real-Time Chronicling of a Breakup. A True Story by Roo Phelps Independently Published (Amazon Digital Services), 2018 $23.15 / 9781791550363 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn with Ginny Ratsoy * A fourth-generation Canadian broadcaster with family roots in Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Courtenay, Roo Phelps has self-published her memoir 11 Weeks: The Real-Time Chronicling of a…
Read more #640 Heartbreak in the Okanagan
I Saw Three Ships: West End Stories by Bill Richardson Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2019 $16.95 / 9781772012330 Reviewed by Harvey De Roo * In his introduction to this delightful book, Bill Richardson assures us in a Wildean mot that “The past is far too precious to waste on something as cheap as nostalgia.” But I Saw…
Read more #639 The characters of English Bay
The Horse of The River: A Camp Canyon Falls Adventure by Sari Cooper Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $12.95 / 9781550178777 Reviewed by Margot Fedoruk * “Riding is where your heart is. Go. Commune with the horses and live in the woods,” says Gillian’s mother as she encourages her daughter to enjoy a month-long trip…
Read more #638 Adventures at Canyon Camp
In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch by John Zada Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2019 $32.95 / 9781771645188 Reviewed by John Gellard * John Zada’s “Noble Beyond” is the Great Bear Rainforest, “the largest tract of intact coastal temperate rain forest in the world — one so rich and prolific that…
Read more #637 Coastal ranges & riddles
Captain Cook’s Final Voyage: The Untold Story from the Journals of James Burney and Henry Roberts by James K. Barnett (editor), with a foreword by Richard Neville and an introduction by Glyn Williams Pullman, WA: Washington University Press, 2017 $34.95 (U.S.) / 9780874223576 Reviewed by Robin Inglis * This handsome volume is a welcome addition…
Read more #636 Stopover at Nootka Sound
A Voluntary Crucifixion by David J. MacKinnon Montréal: Guernica Editions, 2019 $25.00 / 9781771832724 Reviewed by Jim Christy * If you’ve ever heard of David MacKinnon, where have you been? Certainly not around the literary scene anywhere in Canada, including his native British Columbia, even though he is arguably one of the best writers in the…
Read more #635 Go east, young man
Picking up the Pieces: Residential School Memories and the Making of the Witness Blanket by Carey Newman and Kirstie Hudson Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 2019 $39.95 / 9781459819955 Reviewed by Sharon Fortney * Picking up the Pieces is a beautiful catalogue documenting the process behind the making of the Witness Blanket, an art installation created…
Read more #634 Fragments of sorrow
Meteorites: Stories by Julie Paul Victoria: Brindle & Glass, an imprint of TouchWood Editions, 2019 $22.00 / 9781927366820 Reviewed by William New * In a much quoted phrase, the Nigerian writer Ben Okri observes that the “fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection, there is…
Read more #633 Uneasy stories, imperfect lives
Tiny House, Big Fix Victoria: Orca Books, 2019 $9.95 / 9781459821200 by Gail Anderson-Dargatz Reviewed by Valerie Green * This small book by novelist Gail Anderson-Dargatz is a delightfully quick read for young adults. The story is told in just 136 pages. In the book, the author describes many aspects of rural life while at…
Read more #632 Living small on a tired planet
Adventures on the West Coast of Vancouver Island by Peter Vassilopoulos Delta: Pacific Marine Publishing, 2018 $39.95 / 9780919317512 Reviewed by John Hutchings * In this new book by Peter Vassilopoulos — the well-known, prolific, South African-born author of numerous books on boating in the coastal waters of British Columbia – we are taken to…
Read more #631 Vassilopoulos goes west
Mad Hatter by Amanda Hale Montreal: Guernica Editions, 2019 $29.95 / 9781771833905 See here for the audiobook Reviewed by Sally Campbell * Some books are simply better than others. This fictionalized memoir, set in Britain during the Second World War, takes on big questions — mental fragility, emotional resilience, demonization of dissenters, tribalism, family secrets…
Read more #630 Breaking with the Tribe
Song of the Earth: The Life of Alfred Joseph by Ross Hoffman with Alfred Joseph Smithers: Creekstone Press, 2019 $21.95 / 9781928195054 Reviewed by Diana French * Song of the Earth is the story of Alfred Joseph, a long time Wet’suwet’en hereditary chief, a respected “knowledge holder” of the Nation’s history, an artist, teacher, and…
Read more #629 Wet’suwet’en land & revival
Sam Steele: A Biography by Rod Macleod Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2018 $35.99 / 9781772123791 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * There’s a CBC Heritage Minute about Sam Steele. You may have seen it. A stern, moustachioed Mountie sits at his rough wooden desk, staring down an excitable American prospector who wants to wear pistols…
Read more #628 Myths, Mounties, and Métis
Feast of Fields by Sean Karemaker Wolfville, NS: Conundrum Press, 2018 $18.00 / 9781772620252 Reviewed by Chris Fink-Jensen * Feast of Fields, by Vancouver artist Sean Karemaker, is a graphic biography that tells the story of his mother’s childhood experiences living in an orphanage in Denmark. The book begins from Karemaker’s own perspective, recounting a…
Read more #627 Out of a Danish orphanage
Captured by Fire: Surviving British Columbia’s New Wildfire Reality by Chris Czajkowski and Fred Reid Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $24.95 / 9781550178852 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater * The wildfires of 2017 are still fresh in the minds of the people who experienced them in the Central Interior of British Columbia. Across the broad landscape…
Read more #626 Fire on the Chilcotin Plateau
A Promise on the Horizon by Ann Pearson Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2019 $24.95 / 9781989467022 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Ann Pearson’s work of biographical fiction, A Promise on the Horizon, will be greatly esteemed by historians, academic researchers, and lovers of the Napoleonic era. Pearson takes the reader on a delightful journey of…
Read more #625 To Italy with Stendhal
Trout School: Lessons from a Fly-Fishing Master by Mark Hume with Mo Bradley, illustrated by Nana Cook and with a foreword by Claire Hume Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2019 $22.95 / 9781771644167 Reviewed by Myles Armstead * Most fly-fishing books fall into two categories: those that speak of the natural beauty and the philosophical ponderings of…
Read more #624 Fishing the Kamloops trout
Bina: A Novel in Warnings by Anakana Schofield Toronto: Penguin Random House (Knopf Canada), 2019 $29.95 / 9780735273214 Reviewed by Paul Headrick * The narrator of Anakana Schofield’s Bina, a Novel in Warnings is an elderly woman, more-or-less trapped in her house near Castlebar, Ireland. While awaiting possible trial on an unspecified criminal charge, she…
Read more #623 Leave the man in the ditch
Okanagan Lake: An Illustrated Exploration Above and Below the Waters by Raphael Nowak Kelowna: Institute for Underwater Research, 2018 Distributed by Sandhill Marketing $32.95 / 9781775240501 Reviewed by Harold Rhenisch * Okanagan Lake fills the bottom of the Okanagan Valley between Penticton and Spallumcheen. It is 135 kilometres long and varies in width from one…
Read more #622 The secrets of Okanagan Lake