“Considering author and journalist Craig Taylor has had such cosmopolitan addresses as London and New York, and such impressive credentials, such as writing for The Guardian, finding him on the quiet shores of Protection Island just off of Nanaimo is surprising.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment with author Craig Taylor, filmed on Protection Island.
“Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa is a co-author, along with many Coast Salish people who added illustrations, writing, and oral history to do with the Coast Salish woolly dog Mutton. The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog is the result, and it has been a very successful book, selling well for weeks at BC bookstores.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment with author Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa, filmed on Protection Island.
“While Robson’s personality is overshadowed by the unilateral authority of Sir James Douglas, or the eccentric intensity of Amor De Cosmos, Antak posits that he was just as formative in the shaping of BC. Indeed, as a social and political reformer, Robson played a driving role in the establishment of a distinctly Canadian brand of liberalism on the Pacific coast. While Antak never makes the comparison, his portrayal of Robson paints a picture of something like a Gladstone of the Pacific.” Matthew Downey reviews John Robson: British Columbian, by Ivan E. Antak (Victoria: Tellwell Talent, 2025) $25 / 9781834184142
“The title of the book, Reconciling, demonstrates the ongoing process of reconciliation and meaning of Larry’s journey through life. The book opens with a description by co-author Scott Steedman of Larry Grant, ‘…a short, weathered man of eighty-five years… an Elder of both the Vancouver Chinese community and the Musqueam Indian Band.’ Steedman asked Larry if he was interested in writing his life story one day. It took eight years, starting in 2017.” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews Reconciling: A Lifelong Struggle to Belong, by Larry Grant, in conversation with Scott Steedman (Toronto: ECW Press, 2025) $26.95 / 9781770417984
“There are more than 240 life histories of all the fishes calling the strait home for all or part of the year. Dick Beamish and Jeff Marliave are well-known scientists who have put this book together for you.” DC Reid reviews Fishes of the Strait of Georgia: More than 240 Life Stories, by Dick Beamish & Jeff Marliave (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $80 / 9781990776830
“Victoria’s urban landscape is littered with these remnants or references, in this case, to the golden age of Victoria’s great garden estates. They are a part of a legacy of similar markers, such as iron curbs that once protected sidewalks from steel-rimmed carriage wheels, hitching posts for horses stabled in the Rockland and Fernwood neighbourhoods, or small pockets of Garry Oaks that survived from a pre-settlement habitat that nurtured the Lekwungen people. These touchstones of community memory lend richness and meaning to the built heritage that tells Victoria’s story.” Martin Segger contributes the article Silent Sentinels, adapted from his upcoming book Tending Eden: A garden history of Victoria.
“Nancy J. Turner has spent a career working with Indigenous teachers who have shared their traditional knowledge with her, but as she tells The British Columbia Review, not all is shared, some is private, but one thing is clear: that she is grateful for the teachings.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment with ethnobotanist and author Nancy J. Turner.
“In BC, cartoonists like Len Norris, Roy Peterson, Bob Krieger, Dan Murphy, Raeside, and (more lately) Pia Guerra have demonstrated what a sharp wit can do with a sharp pencil. Nurtured for decades by daily spots on the local newspaper’s editorial/opinion page, these giants of jest created lasting and recognizable characters, styles, voices, values, and understandings of who we are.” John Belshaw reviews The Canada Handbook, by Adrian Raeside (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $22.95 / 9781550179538
An intriguing, alchemical novel “that blends the real and the unreal into something more myth than fable, more real than magic, for all its occasionally fantastical elements,” has a “dreamy quality that is enhanced by the understated prose.” —Ryan Frawley reviews The Unfinished World, by Marilyn Bowering (Montreal: Linda Leith Publishing, 2025) $26.95 / 9781773901800
Acknowledging that “life’s mid-point [is] now far behind,” a writer’s volume of poems meditates on the past, family, nature, faith, love, and, generally (says our reviewer), “the latter part of life, with all of its disappointments and consolations.” —Carellin Brooks reviews The Time of Falling Apart, by Wendy Donawa (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $22.95 / 9781998526307
Stylish novel that’s funny without trying, where “characters bleed into a procession reminiscent of reality show fuelled by primitive desires”: “Pools has no shortage of sex, drugs, and bored rich people. Forget about sentiment or ayahuasca-induced epiphanies. Prepare for a good time, follow up with a shot of Nietzsche.” —Jessica Poon reviews Pools, by Martin West (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2025) $22.00 / 9781772142440
“[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
“The gift of a small community is that everyone knows everyone; it’s also a bit of a curse. In Gaston’s hands, it’s mostly a gift as closeness seems to create a sense of balance.” —Candace Fertile reviews Tunnel Island, by Bill Gaston (Saskatoon: Thistledown Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781771872683
Shot through with brooding darkness and gothic motifs, a volume features stories that “leave the sense that people’s lives, ordinary people’s lives, can have troubling undercurrents weaving through their very humanity.” —Theo Dombrowski reviews Graveyard Shift at the Lemonade Stand, by Tim Bowling (Calgary: Freehand Press, 2025) $22.95 / 9781990601866
A missing father sparks a discomfiting family reunion in a novel that presents “an authentic, timely, and moving account of the Asian immigrant experience through a distinctly British Columbian lens—one that should resonate long after reading it.” —Daniel Gawthrop reviews The Tiger and the Cosmonaut, by Eddy Boudel Tan (Toronto: Viking Canada, 2025) $26.95 / 9780735248557
Debut novel traces the personal evolution of a young woman who has moved from Alberta to Haida Gwaii. Buoyed by some intriguing characters and vivid descriptions of nature, the plot is thwarted by a complicated busyness.
—Candace Fertile reviews A Room in the Forest, by Heather Ramsay (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2025) $25.00 / 9781773861678
Set on Haida Gwaii during WW1, a novel’s teenage narrator, “a curious mixture of innocence and experience,” stands out among other characters that are “ciphers for the social problems the author illuminates.” —Candace Fertile reviews Sisters of the Spruce, by Leslie Shimotakahara (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2024) $26.00 / 9781773861371
Elegant, careful, sparse, and yet complex verse that is “a dense, rich reflection on the natural world and the human impact” presents a poet who is “a walker, a watcher, a muser, a recorder.” —Steven Ross Smith reviews The Middle, by Stephen Collis (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2024) $18.95 / 9781772016420
A poignant and intricate collection of evocative poems “demonstrates a virtuoso poetic sensibility.” —gillian harding-russell reviews Nucleus: A Poet’s Lyrical Journey from Ukraine to Canada, by Svetlana Ischenko (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2024) $18.95 / 9781553807070
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