Patrick Lane: stark, bleak, brilliant
In Deep River Night, for 416 pages, we are immersed in an unnamed sawmill village along the North Thompson River… FULL STORY
The suitcase and the jar
Reviewer Carys Cragg calls Livingston’s journey, told in The Suitcase and the Jar, “masterfully overwhelming and at once heartbreaking and stunningly… FULL STORY
Burning down the house
In 1971, the local government burned down the squatters’ ramshackle huts and cabins that were perched on a tidal plain… FULL STORY
Empathetic profiles of Kootenay lives
Seventeen people profiled in Lee Reid’s Growing Home: The Legacy of Kootenay Elders include author Tom Wayman, plus Doukhobors Ellie… FULL STORY
Living the dream at Rivers Inlet
George had a youthful dream to become a lighthouse keeper, and Pat was up for adventure. Grizzlies, Gales, and Giant… FULL STORY
Wry and fiercely beautiful
“These women and situations ring familiar, and then hit you with subversive notes.” Don’t Tell Me What to Do by… FULL STORY
From Punjab to Williams Lake
His memoir describes how Sikhs must build bridges with Indigenous peoples, Christians, Jews, Muslims and LGBT groups. An Uncommon Road:… FULL STORY
Another Peace offering
Peace River farmer Arlene Boon reminds us that “We have until the water rises to stop the dam.” Damming the… FULL STORY
Twisting, turning, teasing
“The only part that surprises me is that it didn’t win… Maybe it was deemed too ‘regional’ to win a… FULL STORY
The Sea Lord vs. Winnie
Writing in the Times Literary Supplement, Jan Morris has described Gough’s dual biography as “enthralling” and “a work of profound… FULL STORY
He built stories and they came
Reviewer Sheldon Goldfarb would have liked a more critical perspective to prevail; Steele instead supplies the life story as W.P…. FULL STORY
First Comings
According to reviewer Becki L. Ross, “Lori Brotto’s Better Sex not only inoculates the reader against the scourge of sexual… FULL STORY
Build it and they will chum
More than a decade later, their communal practice of women helping women has maintained its radically egalitarian ethic. Mudgirls Manifesto: … FULL STORY
A Polish mountain climber for the ages
Reviewer Ron Dart praises a new biography of Voytek Kurtyka for opening a door into the “mountaineering lore and legend”… FULL STORY
Missiles, murder and emasculation
Buday’s new comedy-thriller is, “probably about painting, too,” says reviewer Dustin Cole. And, like all good novels, the story proposes… FULL STORY
Julia, graphically yours
Michael Kluckner admires Henshaw’s talents but acknowledges his dismay at her anti-suffrage sentiments, British imperialism and racism. He counters with… FULL STORY
True tales of Camelsfoot
The failed dream is a common trope in back-to-the-land memoirs — but Culture Gap shows that much can be learned… FULL STORY
The tribulations of Brenda Joe
Reviewer Paul Headrick says this debut novel is in the tradition of stories that are set in small rural settlements… FULL STORY
Zappa from A to Z
Buying “The Big Note: A Guide to the Recordings of Frank Zappa” for a collector would be akin to gifting… FULL STORY
Gathering Gathie
Robin Laurence has traced Falk’s productivity from a Mennonite upbringing to Western Front frontierism in Apples, etc.: An Artist’s Memoir…. FULL STORY
