Category: Book Reviews

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Gumboots in the Straits

 

Gumboots in the Straits, Nautical Adventures from Sointula to the Salish Sea is hil­ari­ous, in­sight­ful and totally can­did. Each chapter chron­icles the es­capades of young men drawn to British Columbia’s West Coast and the in­side wa­ters of Vancouver Island in the 1970s.

This dec­ade was a time of up­heav­al cre­at­ing a ma­jor shift in so­cial norms. Countless young people were seek­ing a bet­ter life, anchored on the con­cepts of peace, love and free­dom. The ac­cess­ib­il­ity of the birth con­trol pill, the in­creas­ing pop­ular­ity of marijuana and grow­ing con­flict over the Vietnam War all con­trib­uted to the changes that took place.

A lot of people were on the move res­ult­ing in an in­triguing cul­tur­al stew of hip­pies, back to the landers and Vietnam war res­isters find­ing their way to re­mote areas of the BC coast. They came from the US, oth­er parts of Canada and sub­urb­an areas of the province.

Many shared a cer­tain in­no­cence, even na­iv­ety, about what life in less in­hab­ited areas would be like. But there was also op­tim­ism and a will­ing­ness to take on the chal­lenges in­volved in learn­ing new ways of liv­ing and earn­ing an income.

Most of the men be­came com­mer­cial fish­er­men for at least part of their work­ing lives. And most had no ex­per­i­ence when it came to trolling, gill­net­ting or sein­ing. Some learned un­der the guid­ance of men (be­ne­vol­ent or oth­er­wise) who had been earn­ing in­come from fish since they were teen­agers. Others figured things out through mul­tiple ex­per­i­ences of tri­al and error.

Skippers yelled, boats sank, people fell over­board, days off were of­ten spent at the nearest pub and big crew shares were cel­eb­rated. For the most part, fish were plen­ti­ful and if you were will­ing to work hard, the money was good.

I ini­tially bought this book as I know half of the twenty-sev­en con­trib­ut­ors. Learning the back­story of these men was in­triguing but I was equally en­grossed in the stor­ies by people I’ve nev­er met. I par­tic­u­larly en­joyed the chapters ac­know­ledging the sup­port of their fe­male companions/​spouses.

Kudos to Jane Wilde and Lou Allison for doc­u­ment­ing this unique era in Gumboot Guys, Gumboot Girls, Dancing in Gumboots, and now Gumboots in the Straits, all pub­lished by Caitlin Press.

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Have You Ever Heard A Whale Exhale?

I have, in fact, many times. And even though I was awed at each oc­cur­rence, none made me smile quite the way this new pic­ture book does.

The rol­lick­ing and lushly il­lus­trated tale leads read­ers on an amus­ing jour­ney into the quirky won­ders of the sea, sky and stars. Sea lions stir up a stink, seagulls shriek and wary sea anemones clench their tentacles tightly.

The clev­er rhymes are the work of Caroline Woodward, au­thor of nu­mer­ous fic­tion and non­fic­tion books for chil­dren, teens and adults. For this story, Woodward draws on her af­fin­ity for nature, es­pe­cially the thir­teen years she spent as a light­house keep­er on the West Coast of Vancouver Island.

Claire Watson’s blend of vi­brant col­or and vivid, fun-filled scenes cre­ate en­chant­ing im­ages. The artist, il­lus­trat­or and graph­ic de­sign­er has spent most of her life on the west coast and her know­ledge and pas­sion for the land, sea, and creatures that in­hab­it these spaces is on full display.

Readers of all ages will chuckle at the antics por­trayed in this light-hearted story. A per­fect read be­fore – or after — a beach or woods out­ing  and even on a rainy day while stuck inside.

For dates and times of read­ings and events vis­it: https://​www​.car​oline​wood​ward​.ca/​n​e​w​s​_​e​v​e​n​t​s​.​htm

Images cour­tesy of Pownal Street Press.

 

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All the Bears Sing

Harold Macy is an elo­quent and gif­ted writer who cap­tures the soul of a per­son, an­im­al or the land­scape in a sen­tence or two or even less.

His most re­cent book, a col­lec­tion of short stor­ies titled All the Bears Sing, is in­hab­ited by a range of coastal char­ac­ters ran­ging from gentle souls to those who find them­selves stand­ing on the out­skirts of main­stream so­ci­ety either by choice or circumstance.

And, no mat­ter which lens the au­thor is look­ing through, each per­son­al­ity is ex­plored from the in­side out, be­com­ing as real as your next-door neighbour.

I met Harold 36 years ago at a writ­ing con­fer­ence at Strathcona Park Lodge. We were wanna be writers thrilled to be shar­ing meals and con­ver­sa­tion with real au­thors and even a pub­lish­er. I re­mem­ber sit­ting on the floor of Harold’s cab­in one af­ter­noon read­ing pages from his ma­nu­script while he poun­ded away on an old elec­tric typewriter.

San Josef, the nov­el he was work­ing on, re­mains close to my heart, both for the in­trigue and in­sight into the story of Danes at­tempt­ing to settle the north­ern tip of Vancouver Island, as well as the be­gin­ning of a friend­ship that has las­ted decades.

Like most writers, work­ing and rais­ing a fam­ily meant Harold juggled com­mit­ments with writ­ing time. Now he bal­ances the chal­lenges of Parkinson’s with words on the page.

But writ­ing has re­mained a steady com­pan­ion. Over the years, a series of note­books have resided in Harold’s pock­et and on his bed­side table ready to cap­ture ran­dom thoughts. When words co­alesce into a story, he turns them over to Judy, his wife and trus­ted first reader.

Harold’s award-win­ning short stor­ies have ap­peared in Prism International, Malahat Review, Orion and oth­er lit­er­ary pub­lic­a­tions. His first book, The Four Storey Forest, As Grow the Trees, So Too the Heart, was pub­lished in 2011. 

All the Bears Sing is the cul­min­a­tion of a life­time of liv­ing and work­ing in the woods on the BC coast, of­ten with a big dog by his side. Harold is an as­tute ob­serv­er of people, an­im­als and the nat­ur­al world. His words come from a deep place; his stor­ies are evoc­at­ive and thought-provoking.

 

 

 

 

www​.har​old​macy​.ca

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Rides That Way by Susan Ketchen

Sylvia is gal­lop­ing through life as only a four­teen year old can do. At school there are friends, bul­lies and worse. Dinner with her par­ents is like sid­ling through a field of land mines. And all of a sud­den she’s Keeper of the Secrets: her own, her grandpa’s and her rid­ing coach’s.

Then there’s the whole hor­mone thing. Those mys­ter­i­ous en­tit­ies that surge through a teen’s body mak­ing them emo­tion­al and af­fect­ing their bod­ies in very no­tice­able ways. Only Sylvia isn’t hav­ing that prob­lem. She has Turner Syndrome, which means she’ll al­ways be short and have to wear kids’ clothes the rest of her life be­cause her body will nev­er de­vel­op. Unless she wears es­tro­gen patches and she’s not sure about that.

In fact, the only thing Sylvia’s sure about is that she loves hanging out in the barn, lu­cid dream­ing and do­ing the for­bid­den — gal­lop­ing her horse, Brooklyn. Well, Logan Losino, the cute guy at school, is pretty dis­tract­ing too.

Rides That Way is funny, warm and per­cept­ive. An un­pre­dict­able plot keeps the read­er turn­ing pages as Sylvia struggles to come to terms with be­ing a teen and hav­ing Turner Syndrome. No mat­ter what, she’s de­term­ined to be her true self and find ac­cept­ance on her own terms.

Rides That Way is the fourth book in Susan Ketchen’s Born That Way series. Each book delves into the life of Sylvia as she nav­ig­ates the chal­lenges that re­la­tion­ships with people and an­im­als present. And, al­though the books are stand-alone reads, once you’ve sampled one, you’ll be eager to ex­plore more of Sylvia’s world.

Although typ­ic­ally classed as young adult nov­els, Ketchen’s char­ac­ters gen­er­ate fan mail from read­ers age 12 to 82 cre­at­ing their own niche as fam­ily fic­tion. Gently pok­ing fun at the quirky thoughts and ac­tions of people at every age is one of the things Ketchen does best.

Ketchen, a former mar­riage and fam­ily coun­sel­lor, lives in Courtenay, BC on a river­side farm along with her hus­band, two cats, a multi-trick pony and a flock of geri­at­ric chickens.

For more in­form­a­tion vis­it www​.susanketchen​.ca.

       Ketchen will be sign­ing books at Laughing Oyster Bookshop in down­town Courtenay on Saturday, September 30 from 1:00 – 3:00 pm. 

Ketchen and her horse, Lolli, who knows more tricks than most dogs.