“Two Pigs did make me smile, I noticed; while reading the slim volume, I guffawed at least once. In contrast, ‘The Three Pigs’ is sturdy and practically-minded. It sharpens my awareness of brick as an advantageous building material.” —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Two Pigs, by David Bouchard (illustrated by Christine Battuz) (Vancouver, Midtown Press, 2025) $21.95 / 9781988242606
In a warm, captivating tale, campaigning politicians, lovestruck Cranbrookers, and the Sells-Floto Circus turn 1920s small town BC into the proverbial three-ringer. —Ron Verzuh reviews Frank and the Elephants: A Romance of the Rockies, by R.D. Rowberry (Nelson: Nelson History Theatre Society, 2024) $18.95 / 9781738218004
“[T]his is exactly what I want from a Helen Thorpe mystery: wonderful characters both old and new; a crime that’s solved with a combination of mindfulness and smarts; and a beneficial dose of equanimity.” —Trish Bowering reviews Contemplation of a Crime, by Susan Juby (Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2025) $24.99 / 9781443469715
This memoir, a “whimsical look at the fall of the British Empire,” features anecdotes about the author’s assorted encounters with celebrities over the decades. —Valerie Green reviews Celebrities Who Have Met Me: A Child of the Lost Empire, by John D’Eathe (Vancouver: Adagio Media, 2024) $21.99 9781999433925
Full of “humorous observation and stylistic verve,” this collection of flash fictions and short stores is “contemporary, exuberant, and zany.” —Jessica Poon reviews The Long Swim, by Terese Svoboda (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781625348074
A debut collection of occasional verse reveals a “happy fool” who takes “the wind out of Death’s sails.” —Harold Rhenisch reviews Blowing Up Growing Up, by John Givins (Cambridge: Askance Publishing, 2024) $25.00 / 9781778225062
Debut story collection balances “visually rich absurdity … and the general malaise of youth with admirable, poetic flair.” —Jessica Poon reviews Hello, Horse: Stories, by Richard Kelly Kemick (Windsor: Biblioasis, 2024) $22.95 / 9781771966078
Hard Knox: Musings from the Edge of Canada by Jack Knox, foreword by Ian Ferguson Victoria: Heritage House, 2016 $19.95 / 9781772031508 Reviewed by Bill Engleson First published Jan. 25th, 2017 * I cracked open Jack Knox’s Hard Knox: Musings from the Edge of Canada on the coldest day of 2016 on Denman Island, alarmed…
Read more #78 Godiva, Zulu, and Nanaimo bars
ESSAY: A Denman Island Porch Song by Bill Engleson First published Dec. 27, 2016 * Once a week, every Wednesday from 1-4 in the afternoon, I volunteer in the Dora Drinkwater Library on Denman Island. Such a reputedly literate island spawns more sluggish times than one might hanker for. If the season is clement and…
Read more #67 Denman Island porch song