October 18, 2024 The Wild North Land: A winter journey by dogsled across Canada to British Columbia, Oregon, and the Pacific by William Francis Butler Edmonton: M. G. Hurtig Ltd., 1968 (orig. published 1873) * I know what you’re thinking: another historical, ruminating, British colonialist travelogue, espousing the wonders…
September 27, 2024 Those Earlier Hills: Reminiscences 1928 to 1961 by R. M. Patterson When Richard Mackie recommended I read Patterson, I wasn’t sure what to expect from his writing. Once I tucked into this book by Raymond…
May 13, 2024 Bergerac’s Jersey by John Nettles Before he starred in the television series Midsomer Murders, actor John Nettles had a great run on a BBC-TV series called Bergerac. Set on…
March 6, 2024 Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss “Sticklers Unite!” -backcover matter, Eats, Shoots & Leaves My recent experience as non-fiction editor for The British Columbia Review had me pick this book…
February 1, 2024 Jan Wong’s China: Reports from a Not-So-Foreign Correspondent by Jan Wong Jan Wong’s China: Reports from a Not-So-Foreign Correspondent by Jan Wong Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1999 * In the late 1990s there was a palpable…
January 21, 2024 Painting in Canada: a history (2nd edition) by J. Russell Harper “Since its first appearance in 1967, Russell Harper’s classic study of Canadian painting has been recognized as the outstanding authority on the subject. This…
November 8, 2023 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley “…if I were free – not enslaved by my conditioning.” -Bernard Marx This title is by far the best-known of British-born Aldous Huxley, first…
November 5, 2023 The Sea by John Banville The Sea by John Banville New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005 * Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman No, I’m not leaving my senses. This…
September 13, 2023 Down the Road: journeys through small-town British Columbia by Rosemary Neering “Making a living, dealing with isolation: constants of a small-town life.” -Rosemary Neering When I rode my KLR 650 up to Loon Lake in…
June 14, 2023 The Northwood novels The Honourable Schoolboy June 13, 2023 Soon, books began to appear. Published in 1991 by Greey de Pencier Books in Toronto, novels…
June 6, 2023 A Reporter’s Life by Walter Cronkite New York: Ballantine Books, 1997 For the amusement and inspiration of the two reporters in the family. This was what my aunt wrote at…
May 29, 2023 Recollections about writing Capturing the Summit during the pandemic: watching the hockey practice The snow fell lightly onto my car’s windshield. Before me was the vast, dark expanse of Connaught Park. It was early morning. My son…
April 27, 2023 Under Asian Skies by Sam Manicom Before giving a presentation at Horizons Unlimited CanWest a few years ago on the subject of motorcycling and anxiety, I asked author Sam Manicom…
April 6, 2023 The North Arm (Director: Trevor Marc Hughes) Documentary/ 2023 Format: Digital Continuing my explorations of the North Arm of the Fraser River, where my grandfather operated a…
March 15, 2023 A Ride in the Sun or Gasoline Gypsy by Peggy Iris Thomas Long before Lois Pryce rode (and wrote about her travels) solo in Iran, there was Peggy Iris Thomas who, in the early 1950s, rode…
