The Drifting Archipelago: The Middle Years by Mike Doyle Victoria: Ekstasis Editions, 2017 $25.95 / 9781771712354 Reviewed by Ron Dart First published Dec. 27, 2018 * Mike Doyle (1928-2016) is with us no more, but his three-storied autobiography tells much about his layered and all too human journey. Floating Islands: A Writer’s Early Life (Ekstasis,…
Read more #455 A Victoria literary memoir
Marjorie: Too Afraid To Cry. A Home Child Experience by Patricia Skidmore Toronto: Dundurn, 2012 $30.00 / 9781459703391 * Marjorie: Her War Years. A British Home Child in Canada by Patricia Skidmore Toronto: Dundurn, 2018 $30.00 / 9781459741669 * Both books reviewed by Sylvia Crooks First published December 26, 2018 * …
Read more #454 The home children of Cowichan
Quenching the Dragon: The Canada-China Water Crisis by Robert William Sandford Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2018 $16.00 / 9781771602938 Reviewed by Rosie Simms First published Dec. 23, 2018 * What can Canada learn from the water crisis emerging in China? Why should we care about far-flung water issues on the other side of the globe?…
Read more #453 The river sings the blues
Seeking the Fabled City: The Canadian Jewish Experience by Allan Levine Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland & Stewart), 2018 $45.00 / 9780771048050 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb First published Dec. 21, 2018 * Have you heard the one about the Winnipeg paper that tried to explain the ways of this strange new people, the Jews,…
Read more #452 Jewish arrival and survival
Just Let Me Look at You: On Fatherhood by Bill Gaston Toronto: Penguin Random House (Hamish Hamilton), 2018 $19.95 / 9780735234062 Reviewed by Howard Macdonald Stewart First published Dec. 19, 2018 * The subtitle of Bill Gaston’s new book declares it is “on fatherhood.” The publisher had to narrow it down, I suppose, to keep…
Read more #451 Fathers & sons on the Salish Sea
The Collectors: A History of the Royal British Columbia Museum and Archives by Patricia E. Roy Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum Press, 2018 $39.95 / 9780772672001 Reviewed by Chad Reimer First published Dec. 18, 2018 * In The Collectors: A History of the Royal British Columbia Museum and Archives, Patricia Roy sets herself a daunting…
Read more #450 Classifying British Columbia
Revolving W and Flying Pigs: A Neon Journal of Vancouver Vintage Cafes and Theatres by Keith McKellar/ Laughing Hand Victoria: BoneYard Ink Books, 2018 $50 / 9781775357704 Orders: direct from author at www.laughinghand.com Reviewed by Grahame Ware First published Dec. 16, 2018 * This publication is an exciting and colourful recasting of Keith McKellar out-of-print,…
Read more #449 Keith McKellar’s Vancouver
Raven Walks Around the World: Life of a Wandering Activist by Thom Henley Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2017 $32.95 / 9781550178074 Reviewed by Philip Van Huizen First published Dec. 15, 2018 * Autobiographies by environmentalists are nothing new, especially in BC. Greenpeace alone is its own cottage industry, with practically all of its founders producing…
Read more #448 South Moresby activist memoir
A Mill Behind Every Stump by Marianne Van Osch Victoria: Heritage House, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772031164 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater * Sage Birchwater reviews Marianne Van Osch’s A Mill Behind Every Stump, the story of the life and family of 94-year old Louis Judson, son of versatile American homesteaders and longtime operator of portable and…
Read more #447 The Judsons of South Cariboo
Dancing in Gumboots: Adventure, Love and Resilience. Women of the Comox Valley Lou Allison with Jane Wilde (editors) Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2018 $24.05 / 9781987915761 Reviewed by Susan Mayse First published Dec. 13, 2018 * Mountains and glaciers glittered under a deep blue sky, fields and forests rolled all the way down to tidewater…
Read more #446 Comox Valley counterculture
Dreamers and Designers: The Shaping of West Vancouver by Francis Mansbridge, with photographs by John Moir Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2018 $29.95 / 9781550178517 Reviewed by Trevor Carolan First published December 12, 2018 * Illustrating Irving Layton’s maxim that “Geography is fate,” this newest exploration of West Vancouver’s development as a civic and cultural polity…
Read more #445 Sitting pretty on Burrard Inlet
Ron Verzuh reviews two books: A Carpenter’s Tale: Ian Ridgway, A Life by Ian Ridgway with Jim Brown and Pat Ridgway Elphinstone: Gypsy Deluxe Books, 2017 $30.00 / 9781775008309 Orders: patridg201@gmail.com * Mudflat Dreaming: Waterfront Battles in 1970s Vancouver and the Squatters who Fought Them by Jean Walton Vancouver: New Star Books, 2018 $24.00 /…
Read more #444 Carpenters and vagabonds
Awesome Ancient Grains and Seeds: A Garden-to-Kitchen Guide. Includes 50 Vegetarian Recipes by Dan Jason and Michele Genest Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2018 $24.95 / 9781771621779 Reviewed by Grahame Ware * It’s always hard to review a publication whose identity and structure has a turbid editorial focus. There are many literate types who would…
Read more #443 Grains of yore to the fore
Salish Blankets: Robes of Protection and Transformation, Symbols of Wealth by Leslie H. Tepper, Janice George, and Willard Joseph Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2017 $40.00 (U.S.) / 9780803296923 Reviewed by Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa First published Dec. 8, 2018 * Imagine a blanket spread out on a table. It is a Salish blanket, over a hundred years old, humble,…
Read more #442 Honouring Salish blankets
The Small Way by Onjana Yawnghwe Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2018 $18.00 / 9781987915778 Reviewed by Renée Saklikar First published December 6, 2018 * We were speaking then of necessary journeys, of the way the reading of a book might become a crossing-over into other people’s territory, for instance into those migrations that are within…
Read more #441 Small journeys, big change
Shared Histories: Witsuwit’en-Settler Relations in Smithers, British Columbia, 1913-1973 by Tyler McCreary Smithers: Creekstone Press, 2018 $24.95 / 9781928195047 Reviewed by Keith D. Smith First published Dec. 5, 2018 * Long before the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report in 2015, many observers struggled to figure out how we got to a…
Read more #440 The future is settler-Witsuwit’en
Duets: Sonnets of Louise Labé and Guido Cavalcanti by Edward Byrne Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $16.95 / 9781772011999 Reviewed by Andrew Parkin * Canadian poet Edward Byrne’s book is described as “a translation” of sonnets of Louise Labé (1522-1566) and Guido Cavalcanti (circa 1255-1300). The poems published in this book are not sonnets in terms of the…
Read more #439 Kissing through a handkerchief
Claiming the Land: British Columbia and the Making of a New Eldorado by Daniel Marshall Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2018 $24.95 / 9781553805021 Reviewed by Mark Forsythe First published Dec. 3, 2018 * We are pleased to reprint Mark Forsythe’s review of Daniel Marshall’s Claiming the Land: British Columbia and the Making of a New Eldorado, a…
Read more #438 The Americans are coming
Otter’s Journey Through Indigenous Language and Law by Lindsay Borrows Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018 $32.95 / 9780774836586 Reviewed by Hadley Friedland First published Dec. 3, 2018 * Lindsay Borrows is both a gifted story-teller and a meticulous researcher. In her first book, Otter’s Journey Through Indigenous Language and Law, readers benefit from both strengths. Borrows’…
Read more #437 Otter goes global
Freshly Picked: A Locavore’s Love Affair with BC’s Bounty by Jane Reid Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Books, 2018 $26.00 / 9781987915792 Reviewed by Claire Mulligan First published Dec. 1, 2018 * Now that I have savoured the lustrous pages of Jane Reid’s warm-hearted and witty book Freshly Picked, A Locavore’s Love Affair with BC’s Bounty, I…
Read more #436 Calling all locavores