Ormsby #79: In praise of grass
His new book recalls tramping 1,000 kilometres through the grasslands of southern B.C. from the border to the Cariboo and… FULL STORY
Ormsby #77: Rubber chicken & sexism
Ginny Ratsoy reviews a surprisingly engaging account of smalltown politics and one woman’s unsuccessful bid for the job of mayor…. FULL STORY
Ormsby #75: Before the flood
Through the eyes of mail-order bride Else Seel, who arrived in the community of Wistaria from Berlin in 1927, Sherwood… FULL STORY
Ormsby #74: Street views pre-Google
Nick Russell celebrates 147 of the City of Victoria’s most noteworthy residences in Glorious Victorian Homes, reviewed by Larry McCann…. FULL STORY
Ormsby #72: Reservations on reserves
Although she was illiterate, her activism and distrust of the male hierarchy resulted in her Squamish people rejecting self-government to… FULL STORY
Ormsby #70: Booze once ruled Victoria
Refused, she took the case to the B.C. Supreme court and won the right for women to drink in public… FULL STORY
Ormsby #66: Scorn for media moguls
“I feel like we are being robbed blind, mugged by the oligarchs, and fed a diet of content you wouldn’t… FULL STORY
Oxymoronic sustainable development
The Sustainability Dilemma recounts the B.C. Forest Service’s efforts to manage the forests before “sustainability” began to trip lightly off the… FULL STORY
From Irish Sea to Salish Sea
A sublime casting director gathers sixty years of fish lit with conservation concerns always on his mind. “How fortunate we… FULL STORY
A fox behind a smile
Her biographer Judi Tyabji believes Clark is much more than “a heartless, arrogant, corporate sellout.” REVIEW: Christy Clark: Behind the Smile… FULL STORY
The true north origins of B.C.
Anthony Kenyon’s The Recorded History of the Liard Basin 1790-1910: Where British Columbia Joins the Yukon and N.W.T. is a… FULL STORY
Weller turns up the heat
At the front of it is Duncan Weller. Dimiter Savoff operates Simply Read Books. Duncan Weller is a writer and… FULL STORY
Coming out as Métis
Indebted to Brian Mulroney and Stephen Harper, Gerry St. Germain owed much of his integrity as a Senator to his… FULL STORY
Civil Gothic to West Coast Modern
Architectural historian Harold Kalman reviews two books about architects who made major contributions to B.C.’s built environment. REVIEW: Thomas Fuller: Architect… FULL STORY
Rock art before Led Zeppelin
Chris Arnett says First Signs by Genevieve von Petzinger is, “a ‘go-to’ book for the initiate looking for a sense… FULL STORY
Vaqueros south and north
Luis Fabini’s photos and Wade Davis’ text celebrate ‘centaurs’ who share a powerful bond with the land and with their… FULL STORY
Stroke and distance
Using the index finger of his left hand, he began typing The Defiant Mind eight months after a massive ischemic… FULL STORY
Seeing Red
Steven Ferguson responds to Robin Brunet’s, Red Robinson: The Last Deejay. Usually cited as Vancouver’s first rock ‘n’ roll deejay,… FULL STORY
15 stories, 94 calls to action
Decolonization in Canada gives rise to In This Together, published from Victoria. REVIEW: In This Together: Fifteen Stories of Truth &… FULL STORY
Fernie fiasco results in book and opera
Prejudice led to the hanging, in 1923, of Fernie-based bootlegger Emilio Picariello and Filumena Lassandro. REVIEW: The Rise and Fall… FULL STORY
