your guide to books & authors FREE BC Also inside BOOKWORLD VOL. 28 • NO. 2 • SUMMER 2014 Secrets of the Olive Julie Angus, P.5 Gender Failure Ivan E. Coyote, Rae Spoon, P.7 Compassionate Hunting Miles Olson, P.9 fictionfiction issueissue Debut novelist DOGGED Maureen Brownlee’s deeply-felt Loggers’ Daughters is one of 50 new works PHOTO KEIL of B.C. fiction. PUBLICATION MAIL AGREEMENT #40010086 SEE PAGES 13-33 LAURA Life & death at William Head Station P. 11 • BC Book Prizes P. 20 2 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2014 NEWS BCTOP* SELLERS The Market Gardener (New Society Publishers $24.95) by Jean-Martin Fortier • A Timeless Place: The Ontario Cottage (UBC Press $32.95) by Julia Harrison • Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking (Sandhill Book Marketing $19.95) by Allen Carr • This Day in Vancouver (Anvil Press $38) by Jesse Donaldson SUN VANCOUVER / REEFER MADNESS PHOTO PERRIN IS GOVERNMENTAL WARD EN YEARS AGO, CANADA’S PUBLIC SAFETY Marijuana plants marijuana grow ops that challenges claims made by the RCMP in East Vancouver, minister Anne McLellan an and media regarding organized crime, violence and public safety. from Killer Weed: That justice department report is corroborated by scholarly nounced that the federal government was Marijuana Grow Ops, research — but the justice department study was never re- T Media and Justice committed to eradi-cating marijuana growing op- leased. Boyd and Carter obtained a copy of the unreleased study from a reporter who received it following a Freedom of Infor- erations and that people who smoke marijuana are stupid. mation request. The Angelic Occurrence (Red Tuque Books $21.95) “I see grow-ops as one of the single biggest problems we face in our “The second important finding,” says Boyd, “concerns civil initiatives by Henry Ripplinger communities,” Anne McLellan declared. and by-laws, municipal multi-partner initiatives that have sprung up all That’s hogwash, says Susan Boyd, a UVic academic, one of two over B.C. and elsewhere since 2004. There is little oversight of these initia- Love You More researchers who have collected and analysed more than 2500 newspaper tives as they are outside criminal justice. (Orca Books $9.95) articles related to marijuana published in national, provincial and local news- by Susan Musgrave & “BC Hydro, the city government, police, RCMP, firefighters and electri- illustrated by Esperança Melo papers in B.C. from 1995 to 2009 and she’s concluded the widespread scare cal inspectors all work to identify high electrical usage, and then enter homes • tactics are a government smokescreen for unwarranted invasions of civil without a warrant, and there is an assumption of guilt rather than innocence. Sabotage (Sono Nis $10.95) liberties. These homeowners are fined regardless of whether or not evidence of mari- by Karen Autio Co-written by Boyd and , a senior policy analyst for • Connie Carter juana growing is found.” Camping B.C. and Yukon: the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, Killer Weed: Marijuana Grow Ops, According to the authors of Killer Weed, a fifteen-year drug scare about The Complete Guide to Media, and Justice (University of Toronto $28.95) documents fifteen marijuana grow ops has helped to facilitate changes in federal law, manda- National, Provincial, and years of exaggeration and scare tactics about marijuana growing fueled by a tory minimum sentencing for some drug offences, including growing more Territorial Parks, Expanded 7th Edition few vocal spokespeople, the RCMP and media. than five plants (resulting in six-month jail sentences), as well as changes in (Heritage House $19.95) Specifically, on page 146, Killer Weed discusses the so-called smart me- the medical marijuana program (eliminating personal growing and designated by Jayne Seagrave ters that have been forced upon BC Hydro customers. growers), and changes to provincial legislation. • Boyd and Carter conclude in their final chapter that the public is being “We question these changes,” says Boyd, “and the turn to law and order Seize the Time: Vancouver Photographed duped into compliance with draconian, anti-marijuana policies. They cite responses, many that contravene charter rights, and the impact on vulner- 1967-1974 the findings of the federal government’s justice department’s own study on able populations such as youth, aboriginal people and the poor.” 9781442612143 (New Star Books $24) by Vladimir Keremidschieff • Vancouver Is Ashes: The Great Fire of 1886 (Ronsdale Press $21.95) HELL NO, WE WILL GROW IN BC by Lisa Anne Smith • “A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is ary intimidation, the Castlegar-based paper The Arrow The Book of Kale better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please or, worse, and the Goat Mountain School (the first alternative school to avoid trouble.” & Friends – Mahatma Gandhi to emerge within the West Kootenay counter-culture). (D&M $26.95) AVING INTERVIEWED FIFTY-TWO PEOPLE IN THE KOOTENAYS Interviewees include American-born NDP cabinet minis- by Sharon Hanna & Carol Pope over the course of three summers for her aca- • H ter Corky Evans, long-serving New Denver Mayor Poachers, Polluters demic study, Welcome to Resisterville: American Gary Wright and American-born authors Ross & Politics Dissidents in British Columbia (UBC $95), Kathleen Klatte, Irene Mock and Herb Hammond. (Harbour $24.95) Rodgers has documented the motives of American From Rodgers’ sociological approach we learn: by Randy Nelson refuseniks who entered Canada between 1965 and 1975 • Conscription during the Vietnam War may have • in response to the Vietnam War. driven 100,000 young Americans to leave their country. Go Barley (Touchwood Editions $29.95) “By believing in peace, justice and meaningful ways • Up to 14,000 Americans during the Vietnam War by Linda Whitworth & Pat Inglis of living,” she writes, “they showed subsequent genera- could have taken the ‘underground railroad’ to the • tions that protest is not only waving a placard; it includes Kootenays. The World Afloat: refusing to take part in something you don’t believe in.” • Fifty thousand Americans chose to stay in Canada Miniatures American-born resister Bob The subtitle is a tad misleading: Rodgers has studied after the U.S. government offered amnesty to draft re- (Talonbooks $12.95) Winegar was tree planting a specific group in a specific place at a specific time. sisters in 1976, and forty percent settled in B.C. by M.A.C. Farrant near Golden in 1975 when he PHOTO “This book is about the endurance of idealism,” she returned from a burned-out • In 2006, American-born immigrants accounted * The current topselling titles writes. Subjects includes Argenta Quakers, New Denver, PLOSS for 25% of the foreign-born population of the from major BC publishing area covered in soot. companies, in no particular order. Doukhobors, tree planting, environmentalism, reaction- BOB West Kootenays. 9780774827331 Publisher/ Writer: Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 Advertising & editorial: Contributors: Beverly Cramp, John Moore, Joan Givner, Sage Birchwater, All BC BookWorld reviews Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Shane McCune, Mark Forsythe, Louise Donnelly, Cherie Thiessen, are posted online at Alan Twigg BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 Vancouver, B.C., V6R 2S3. Carolne Woodward. Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. www.abcbookworld.com • Tel/Fax: 604-736-4011 Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics Produced with the sponsorship of Pacific BookWorld News Email: [email protected]. Consultants: Christine Rondeau, Sharon Jackson, Angela Caravan In-Kind Supporters: Editor/Production: Society. Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. BC Photographers: Barry Peterson, Laura Sawchuk Simon Fraser University Library; BC David Lester BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 Annual subscription: $25 Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, Tara Twigg • Deliveries: Ken Reid, Acculogix Vancouver Public Library. BOOKLOOK For this issue, we gratefully acknowledge the SUMMER 2014 A DAILY NEWS SERVICE unobtrusive assistance of Canada Council, a Vol. 28 • No. 2 continuous partner since 1988. 3 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2014 4 BC BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2014 review NON-FICTION OLIVE LOVE: Julie Angus with her child Leif, alongside— reputedly—the oldest olive tree on the planet, on the island of Corsica. ALL YOU NEED IS HAVING CROSSED THE ATLANTIC castles to scald unwelcome invad- Ocean in a rowboat for her first ers. At the Trevi olive museum in book, Rowboat in a Hurricane Umbria, she finds a bizarre list of — earning herself the distinction folk remedies that include boiling of being National Geographic Ex- a lizard in oil to reduce baldness plorer of the Year — Julie Angus and ringworm and boiling rusty gained the support of National nails in it to cure eye pain. Geographic for Olive Odyssey: The travelogue part of the Searching for the Secrets of the book is no less engaging than the Fruit that Seduced the World, scientific research. The couple this time exploring the Mediterra- weathers storms and mechanical nean by sailboat. “I have to say,” OLIVEJulie Angus weathers storms, civil war and a difficulties with the boat, and the says Joan Givner, who reviewed fact that they bring along their Angus’ first book for BCBW, colicky baby in search of the origins of the olive. 10-month-old son adds to the per- “this is one of the most interesting sonal side of the story. Angus is books I have read in a long time.” the sailboat. From there they fly to selling thousands of litres of olive falls short, it drops to the next still breastfeeding Leif, who turns Greece, explore Crete and finally oil that was mostly sunflower oil. category—“virgin” olive oil, with out to be colicky baby, causing BY JOAN GIVNER end their journey in the Middle Others were arrested for selling a an acidity level of up to 1.5%. Oil his mother many disturbed nights. Olive Odyssey: Searching for the Secrets East.