“This journal is like having a companion on the trail: someone who points out the pitfalls, loans you a shoulder to lean on in the hard parts, and gently steers you away from the worst of the hazards along the way.” —Carellin Brooks reviews Safekeeping: A Writer’s Guided Journal for Launching a Book with Love, by Chelene Knight (Toronto: House of Anansi, 2025) $34.99 / 9781487013073
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
In book form, a current exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario commands attention, draws the eye, and titillates the mind. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Light Years: The Phil Lind Gift, by Adam Welch (Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions and Art Gallery of Ontario, 2024) $40.00 / 9781773104393
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
BCR asked some of our regular contributors about books they read in the past year that really stuck with them. “Eclectic” is our word of the year.
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
“Here, Haye’s drug of choice is speed, and not the illicit kind, for his clear-eyed aim is to track the fastest trains in history and to look to those that are coming in the future.” —Ron Verzuh reviews Quest for Speed: A History of Trains from Rocket to Bullet and Beyond, by Derek Hayes (Madeira Park, BC: Douglas & McIntyre, 2024) $44.95 / 978177162379
Touching on drinking rates, the booze industry, and the addicted brain, the guide is also a tool for those worried about their own consumption rate (or that of someone close to them). —Daniel Gawthrop reviews You Don’t Have to Quit: 20 Science-Backed Strategies to Help Your Loved One Drink Less, by Maureen Palmer (with Michael Pond) (Vancouver: Page Two, 2024) $21.95 / 9781774584668
“Once again, as with his previous graphic novels, he offers readers a lesson in ‘history from below’ about how ordinary people can rally against tyranny.”—Ron Verzuh reviews Revolution by Fire: New York’s Afro-Irish Uprising of 1741, A Graphic Novel, by David Lester and Marcus Rediker with Paul Buhle (Boston: Beacon Press, 2024) $18.95 / 9780807012550
Debut book, a memoir, chronicles a typical middle-class suburban upbringing that’s followed by years of filling an existential “black hole” with harmful choices. —Carellin Brooks reviews Sunrise Over Half-Built Houses: Love, Longing and Addiction in Suburbia, by Erin Steele (Qualicum Beach: Dagger Editions, 2024) $26.00 / 9781773861500
An “accessible, elucidating book that makes a persuasive plea for us to connect data literacy and human rights.” Plus, “a genuine pleasure to read.” —Jessica Poon reviews We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age, by Wendy H. Wong (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2023) $35/95 / 9780262048576
Picture book for elementary school-age readers teaches “vivid ways to tell us where we live and how the world works.” —Ron Verzuh reviews The Bee Mother, by Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson) (Winnipeg: Highwater Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781774920800
A “lively musical and political education” for readers young and old. —Ron Verzuh reviews Rise Up and Sing!: Power, Protest and Activism in Music, by Andrea Warner (illustrated by Louise Reimer) (Vancouver: Greystone Kids, 2023) $26.95 / 9781771648981
Debut author blends memoir, mall history, and critique with a “self-effacing love letter to her hometown’s most famous institution.” —Logan Macnair reviews Big Mall: Shopping for Meaning, by Kate Black (Toronto: Coach House Books, 2024) $23.95 / 9781552454725
Lawyers’ Empire: Legal Professions and Cultural Authority, 1780-1950 by W. Wesley Pue Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016 $75 / 9780774833097 Reviewed by John McLaren First published Feb. 17, 2017 * In Lawyers’ Empire (UBC Press), legal historian Wesley Pue of the UBC law school traces the lives and struggles of the leaders and rebels of the…
Read more #89 Rebels with legal causes
Inge Bolin Thirst in the Andes: Climate Change and Solutions for Survival First published Feb. 14, 2017 * Inge Bolin’s first novel, When Condors Call (Nanaimo: Chaska Publications, 2010) follows a young physician from the Peruvian Andes in search of a cure for Leishmaniasis, a disfiguring disease. Her 2016 stay in Peru enabled her to…
Read more #87 Peruvian sojourn
The Queen of the North Disaster: The Captain’s Story by Colin Henthorne Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2016 $24.95 / 9781550177619 Reviewed by Jan Drent First published Feb. 8, 2017 * Ten years after the sinking of the Queen of the North in 2006, the vessel’s captain, Colin Henthorne, provides a first-hand account of why the…
Read more #84 The coast was not clear
Wade Davis: Photographs by Wade Davis Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2016 $14.99 / 9781771621243 Reviewed by David Mattison First published Feb. 4, 2017 * To say that Wade Davis has had an extraordinary, brilliant, and in the end very lucky career would be a great understatement. Originally from West Vancouver, he returned to his…
Read more #80 The photography of Wade Davis
Surviving City Hallby Donna Macdonald Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2016$22.95 / 9780889713208 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy First published in Jan. 22, 2017 * In 2010, the small city of Nelson, B.C., attracted the attention of The Guardian for weathering the most recent economic downturn — a feat the esteemed newspaper attributed partly to dollars from marijuana…
Read more #77 Rubber chicken & pot shops
Crocodiles and Iceby Jon Turk Fernie: Oolichan Books, 2016$23.95 / 9780889823235 Reviewed by Jeremy Twigg First published Jan. 12, 2017 * If you’ve ever wondered how to survive a crocodile attack, Jon Turk’s Crocodiles and Ice (Oolichan $23.95) is for you. As described in the recounting of his solo kayak trip in the Solomon Islands, the…
Read more #71 Around the world with Jon Turk