In “Poets’ Pastime Paradise,” an “essay in play format about poetry” that’s set in a cemetery at midnight, author Sarah Freel corrals modernist poets, an American rapper, and a poetess named Reiko to versify while they debate over literary politics.
“Not one single gravestone stands to mark my family. It is as though they didn’t exist.” —In “The Blood in the Stone” Deborah Lane excavates family history and imagines life as it might have been.
Probing account of representational ethics “is elucidating without ever being didactic and genuinely enjoyable to read,” yet prompts “more hope than outrage.”—Jessica Poon reviews Under the White Gaze: Solving the Problem of Race and Representation in Canadian Journalism, by Christopher Cheung (Vancouver: UBC Press/Purich Books, 2024) $24.95 / 9780774881111
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
Essay collection relates the “great pleasure of strolling in great cities” and offers an appealing and illuminating “window into a wider world.” —Bill Paul reviews The Coincidence Problem: Selected Dispatches 1999-2022, by Stephen Osborne (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781551529653
Terrific essay collection covers agri-business, beans on toast, a century-old family recipe for trifle, gender politics, potatoes, and a whole lot more.
—Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Hearty: On Cooking, Eating, and Growing Food for Pleasure and Subsistence, by Andrea Bennett (Toronto: ECW Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781770411
Warland is convinced that as writers, “we must learn to live with profound vulnerability.” In doing this, we are filling in the lack of stories that others have been too afraid to tell. We become more resilient in ourselves as we learn from ourselves—our fears and identities—and we can start to tell authentic narratives that our world, culturally and socially, so desperately needs.” —Natalie Virginia Lang reviews Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing, by Betsy Warland (Toronto: Cormorant Books, 2023) $24.95 / 9781770867031
By turns funny and incisive, a debut essayist is a connoisseur of everyday absurdities. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Laser Quit Smoking Massage: Essays, by Cole Nowicki (Edmonton: Newest Press, 2024) $21.95 / 9781774390917
Captivating essays trace authors’ careers from childhood onward…
Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Off the Record, by John Metcalf (editor) (Windsor: Biblioasis, 2023) $26.95 / 9781771965453
Ranch in the Slocan: A Biography of a Kootenay Farm, 1896-2017 by Cole Harris Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2018 $24.95 / 9781550178234 Reviewed by Daniel Clayton * The Bosun Ranch, in reality a farm just south of New Denver on Slocan Lake, has been in the Harris family since 1896. “The ranch has always been… Read more #400 The useful people’s ranch
First published October 14, 2018. Rick Hansen’s Man in Motion World Tour: 30 Years Later – A Celebration of Courage, Strength, and the Power of Community by Jake MacDonald, foreword by Rick Hansen Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2017 $34.95 / 9781771643443 Reviewed by Brian Fraser * The adventure thrilled the world. A man in a wheelchair… Read more #399 Highways of courage
Oldness; or, the Last-Ditch Efforts of Marcus O by Brett Josef Grubisic Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2018 $19.95 / 9781988098630 Reviewed by Dustin Cole First published October 13, 2018 * I am 37. When I think about being 65, different things come to mind. There is hope for both artistic fulfillment and recognition. There are… Read more #398 Boldness about oldness
Rebel Muse: My Life With Peter Paul Ochs by Monika Ullmann Victoria: ProWord Publishing, 2018 $25.00 / 9780992144937 Reviewed by Grahame Ware First published October 12, 2018 * Editor’s note: In an email to the Ormsby Review, freelance writer and journalist Monika Ullmann recalled that when the new Provincial Museum of British Columbia (now the Royal… Read more #397 B.C. sculptor lost and found
First published Oct. 10, 2018. Dead Reckoning: How I Came to Meet the Man Who Murdered my father. by Carys Cragg Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017. $19.95 / 9781551526973 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * It has been a good year for Carys Cragg of Port Coquitlam. Her Dead Reckoning, published by Arsenal Pulp Press, was announced… Read more #396 Letters to Drumheller
Archaeology of the Lower Fraser River Region by Mike K. Rousseau, editor Burnaby: Archaeology Press of Simon Fraser University, 2017 $30.00 / 9781772870121 Reviewed by Robert (Bob) Muckle Also open access. Free download: http://archpress.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/archpress/catalog/book/72 First published Oct. 8, 2018 * In 2011, Mike Rousseau recruited 33 active archaeologists and scholars in related disciplines to contribute… Read more #395 Meanwhile, 5,000 years ago
Out of Concealment: Female Supernatural Beings of Haida Gwaii by gid7ahl-gudsllaay lalaxaaygans (Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson), with forewords by Wade Davis and gwaaganad (Diane Brown) Victoria: Heritage House, 2017 $29.95 / 9781772031607 Reviewed by Gillian Crowther * In Out of Concealment: Female Supernatural Beings of Haida Gwaii, Haida artist and activist Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson encounters 33 supernatural beings of Haida mythology…. Read more #394 Supernatural Haida Columbia
It Begins in Betrayal: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw Victoria: Touchwood, 2018 $16.95 / 9781771512619 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * A Sorrowful Sanctuary: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw Victoria: Touchwood, 2018 $16.95 / 9781771512893 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb First published Oct. 5, 2018 * Former high school principal and social worker… Read more #393 A British, British Columbia
The Tree Trunk Can Be My Pillow: The Biography of an Outstanding Japanese Canadian by Tadashi Jack Kagetsu Victoria: University of Victoria, 2017. $33.95 / 9781550586114 Reviewed by Bob Griffin First published Oct. 4, 2018 * The government of Canada declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, a day after the Japanese attacks on… Read more #392 From boss logger to zero
First published Oct. 3, 2018. 105 Hikes in and around Southwestern British Columbia by Stephen Hui, foreword by Cease Wyss (T’uy’t’tanat) Vancouver: Greystone: 2018 $24.95 / 9781771642866 Reviewed by Glenn Woodsworth * The relative growth of recreational hiking in southwest B.C. has far outpaced the region’s population growth. Fifty years ago, the number of people… Read more #391 In the Macarees’ footsteps