“For me, that is the greatest inspiration the book offers. It affirms that outdoor adventure is not always about reaching the highest peak or covering the longest trail. Sometimes, it’s about sitting quietly on a shoreline, watching a seal bobbing in the current. Sometimes, it is about recognizing the return of a bird whose call you first heard as a child. Sometimes, it is about returning to a place you thought you knew—and seeing it again, this time with attention.” Amy Tucker reviews Wildlife Weekends in Southern British Columbia: Day and Multi-day Trips from Vancouver for Wildlife Viewing, by Roy Jantzen (Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2024) $45 / 9781771604604
“Jesse Winter, based in Vancouver, has covered wildfires and other climate-related disasters since 2018 for a variety of media. His first experience was that year at Peachland in the Okanagan Valley. He was then a ‘wildfire neophyte’ who had no knowledge of what he was getting into. ‘The sheer volume of what I didn’t know has filled this book.'” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews Wild Fire: Dispatches from a Country Ablaze, by Jesse Winter (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2026) $36.99 / 9781443475822
“Elizabeth May said that COPs are important gatherings because they keep climate change on the map. She entered the forum in 1992 as the executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada and attended many COPs. One of her functions was to keep an eye on politicians sent to COPs and then report to environmental activists what she learned.” DC Reid reviews 30 Climate COPs Later: Stories from Canadian Participants, by Thomas Burelli, Alexandre Lillo, Lauren Touchant, Lynda Hubert Ta, and Elie Klee (eds.) (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9780776645575
“Much of this restoration work laid out in Nature-First Cities, is happening in real-time with municipalities creating sustainability master plans, and nature-based development in partnerships with residential developers among others. The final chapters of the book detail the process for bottom-up land stewardship, joining individuals, neighbours, and community groups.” Ryan Mitchell reviews Nature-First Cities: Restoring Relationships with Ecosystems and with Each Other, by Cam Brewer, Herb Hammond, and Sean Markey (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2024) $39.95 / 9780774868648
Debut novel by a Vancouver Island author splices together parody, satire, and an urgent environmental message. Some parts play out far better than others, our reviewer notes. —Kenna Clifford reviews Rise of The Jellies, by Brian Wilford (Altona: Friesen Press, 2025) $28.49 / 9781038322364
In collection of poetry where nature takes pride of place, a writer “shows a strong understanding of poetic craft,” relating lyrical tales that are “personal, observant, moving, and expansive” and “made potent through a distinctive working of language and image.” —Steven Ross Smith reviews All of Us Hidden, by Joanna Streetly (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press: 2025) $20.00 / 9781773861722
Ruminative and speculative, a debut story collection is diverse in subject, time, and character as it ponders “the limits of personal agency to reconcile with landscapes that are altered or altering beyond the capacity of any individual to influence.” —Dana McFarland reviews The Other Shore, by Rebecca Campbell (Hamilton: Stelliform Press, 2025) $21.00 / 9781998466016
Breakage-and-mending is a theme in an adroit and accomplished volume of poetry that delves into family history and unsettles romantic notions of settlement. —Harold Rhenisch reviews What is Broken Binds Us, by Lorne Daniel (Calgary: U Calgary Press, 2025) $18.99 / 9781773856391
With glimpses of “one of the greatest spectacles / the city ever sees / twice daily most seasons / dawn to dusk,” a poetry collection draws an array of meanings from urban crows. —Heather Ramsay reviews Crowd Source, by Cecily Nicholson (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2025) $19.95 / 9781772016581
A striking, immersive sophomore collection of poems: “The end result is an impressive, well-considered, coherent, and powerful book whose emotional and linguistic subtleties reward frequent re-reading.” —Christopher Levenson reviews Water Quality, by Cynthia Woodman Kerkham (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024) $19.95 / 9780228022978
An “honourable and compassionate compendium of heartfelt statements from people who were willing to go to jail for their beliefs.” Sadly, it’s “over-long and at times tediously repetitive” too. —Ron Verzuh reviews Standing on High Ground: Civil Disobedience on Burnaby Mountain, edited by Rosemary Cornell, Adrienne Drobnies, and Tim Bray (Toronto: Between the Lines Books, 2024) $29.95 / 9781771136631
Debut volume of poetry exhibits “a clarity of intent and style fully mature and confident in its own power.” —Cathy Ford reviews Boundary Territory, by Renée Harper (Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2024) $19.95 / 9781989689776
“Rhenisch jam-packs his songs with ideas, zooming and spanning, yet with the grace of a skilled composer; a song might jar and rattle while at the same time carry a croon that compels. A reader cannot help but be swept and stilled simultaneously in the lyric experience.” —Steven Ross Smith reviews The Salmon Shanties: A Cascadian Cycle, by Harold Rhenisch (Regina: U Regina Press, 2024) $19.95 / 978177940154
“[F]orested with a wide variety of poems, or rather, communities of poems, both in style and subject matter,” the volume’s meditations startle and surprise. —Al Rempel reviews Cathedral/Grove, by Susan Glickman (Montréal: Véhicule Press, 2023) $19.95 / 9781550656350
In an illustrated history of the Pacific Northwest, the venerable Columbia River recalls the ups and downs of its 20-million-year lifespan. —Ron Verzuh reviews The Heart of a River, by Eileen Delehanty Pearkes (illustrated by Nichola Lytle) (Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2024) $25.00 / 9781771606998
In a pair of picture books, a young audience can learn about the wonders of the sea… and even a back yard. —Ginny Ratsoy reviews Have You Ever Heard a Whale Exhale?, by Caroline Woodward (illustrated by Claire Victoria Watson) (Charlottetown: Pownall Street Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781998129072 and Bompa’s Insect Expedition, by David Suzuki with Tanya Lloyd Kyi (illustrated by Qin Leng) (Vancouver: Greystone Kids, 2023) $23.95 / 9781771648820
With sculpted sound and rhythmic exuberance a delightful and pensive volume of poems examines the living and the lived. —Michael Greenstein reviews Talking to Strangers, by Rhea Tregebov (Montreal: Signal Editions, 2024) $13.99 / 9781550656602
“In putting together pain, loss, and good feeling, the poems articulate a human capacity for gear shifting amidst dissonance—however imperfect.” —Marguerite Pigeon reviews Fine, by Matt Rader (Madeira Park: Nightwood Editions, 2024) $19.95 / 9780889714663
The Green Horse: My Early Years in the Canadian Rockies — A Park Warden’s Story by Dale Portman Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2017 $25.00 / 9781771602266 Reviewed by Michelle Murphy First published May 7, 2018 * Like many, I am captivated by the beauty and vastness of the Canadian Rockies – and curious about the… Read more #301 Glory days of Park Wardens
Summer of the Horse: A Memoir by Donna Kane Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2017 $19.95. 9781550178197 Reviewed by Heather Longworth Sjoblom First published May 7, 2018 * “Wilderness… is a place that retains its beauty because it escapes us.” — Donna Kane In her literary memoir, Summer of the Horse, Donna Kane explores the wilderness… Read more #300 By horse to the Muskwa-Kechika
